This submission is for the GBC game Pong: The Next Level. It features 4 different variants of Pong, with the first being vanilla and the other 3 having variations of the formula such as power ups and different level layouts.
We run the "tournament" mode as this takes us through all 4 Pong variants. The goal in each stage is to score 11 points, and for speed purposes we want to score on the first volley as often as possible.
The first stage is vanilla pong. No frills, no power ups, just hitting high angled shots that the opponent can't get to in time. Pretty straightforward.
Stage 2 introduces the powerup mechanic, wherein hitting the spinning diamond looking thing grants you a temporary powerup; either a "bat" paddle to shoot harder than normal or a "catch" paddle which lets you catch and release the ball wherever you'd like. This stage also features rolling logs in the middle of the screen. When you have a powerup activated, the logs roll to the right toward your opponent, and hitting them from your side will speed the ball up a bit. The drawback is if the opponent hits it toward you the logs end up slowing it down slightly but it's a net gain overall. The powerups last for about 2 points each and it's granted to whomever hit the ball last before touching the diamond.
Stage 3 has a new mechanic: multiball. When you have a powerup enabled, hitting a penguin will cause them to release an extra ball on the playfield, but only to a maximum of 2. A ball needs to be scored before the penguins will drop a new one.
Stage 4 is Soccer Pong. This mode puts a paddle right next to the opponent's goalkeeper and allows us to volley the serve back very quickly. There are powerups but the ball never goes behind our "attacker" so we don't bother to grab any because it would just be a needless time loss.
slamo: Claiming for judging.
slamo: Replaced movie with a 1286 frame improvement.
For difficulty choice, our general rule of thumb is to go with either the fastest or the hardest. It's unusual that a middle difficulty would be the fastest, but this is one of those rare cases. It makes perfect sense to use Medium because the ball speed increases but the opponent speed stays the same as the easiest difficulty. Thanks for revisiting this, it looks good now. Accepting!
