Game mechanics
ESP:
All abilities have 5 power levels. Power up by collecting more symbols. The four at the corners cost ESP juice; the others are shooting weapons and cost nothing. Selecting ESP will stop you unless airborne, so I do it in the air if possible.
Notable ESP powers:
red cross: This gives invincibility, but you still get pushed. Besides the demo in stage 1, this is used only to avoid imminent death.
spikeball: This screen crash hits everything onscreen. Used extensively to kill and weaken enemies and bosses from a distance. It is costly to use and has to be rationed.
up arrows: Fly by holding jump. This is a timesaver in many places, such as when going up ladders.
spark shot: This freezes enemies without hurting them. You can pass through stunned enemies, but there will still be lag if there are too many of them.
Taking hits:
Whenever you touch an enemy, you just get pushed along, so you cannot blunder through them and there is no damage boost. No invulnerability time either.
Running:
Basically, to run, keep walking. If you let go of left or right, or touch a wall or enemy, you stop running. It is often faster to build speed in a flat area before proceeding, or to pace around and wait for the path to clear rather than be forced to stop running.
Scoring:
Every 10000 pts, the ESP bar refills. So I have to manage the score properly to ensure there is enough juice.
Explanations
- In stage 1, I go off course to get a weapon powerup. The rose miniboss may now be beaten in only one attack cycle.
- After the ice miniboss, I shoot one extra enemy to ensure a timely ESP refill later.
- Same deal with the squid.
- You will get stuck on the last level unless the wave shot is at max level.
Question: Why do you stop running at (some point)?
Answer: The character's hitbox takes the full 2x3 blocks and she only responds to input once every 4 frames. So it's not possible to avoid brushing a wall whenever there's an obstacle that requires more than one jump to clear, or going through a passage with narrow clearance.
Data dump
Character responds once per 4 frames.
ESP selector responds once per frame.
Max rate of fire is once per 8 frames.
Screen crash makes the action freeze for 10 frames.
Some enemies have 16 frames of invulnerability but some don't, including bosses.
Memory addresses that would have been more useful if dega had memory watch:
(numbers are in decimal)
C930 boss HP
DE02 walking/running flag
DE03 standing/jumping flag
DE07 walk till this reaches 0xb to start running
DF10 your HP (max=80)
DF12 your ESP (max=80)
Small health or ESP refills 4/16 bar.
ESP power levels (max=5)
DF14 Restarter (cost=2/16)
DF15 Ice shot
DF16 Flight (cost=1/16)
DF17 Wave shot
DF18 Regular shot
DF19 Flame shot
DF1A Screen crash (cost=3/16)
DF1B Spark shot
DF1C Shield (cost=3/16)
| Stage | Enemy | HP |
|---|
| 1 | boss | 200 |
| 2 | boss | 160 |
| 3 | boss | 80 |
| 4 | minibosses | 50 |
| 4 | boss | 80 |
| 5 | mecha-snowglobe | 200 |
| 5 | red blobs | 128 |
Truncated: I accept this movie because it has good response, good action, and a nifty tab in the submission text.
