Due to flash player soon to be biting the dust, I decided to give this game a try after coming across it once again. The most experience I had back then was up to the first boss before I clicked around for other games. Going through the game again I soon found why it seemed a little difficult at first glance. I do intend to give comments of the problems I've experience with my 3 playthroughts of the game so except everything to be laid out.
- First Area
Playing through the first parts of the game were pretty fun outside of a particular enemy that taught me the importance of jumping and swinging with the whip. When you swing on the ground you're locked in place, but you can mitigate it by jumping before each swing. This is especially useful for the gator enemies as they're able to tank an attack and hit you thanks to their speed. Jumping out of the way of the attack and getting the necessary hit to kill them with the next strike is helpful.
- First Boss
Upon entering the arena for the first boss it seems quite promising with the health and armor they give you before the fight. However, the amount of HP and Armor you regain from these pickups can only really help with 2 hits if the player had trouble before entering. I am glad these items were placed where they were as even if the player respawns due to dying to the boss, the items will be there right as the battle picks up the net time. But as mentioned the lack of recovery from the items are only a slight help.
My biggest problem with the first boss is an extreme focus on aggression as being the bosses's weakness. The boss has 3 particular attacks with a fast poke that leads to a grab with no armor, an axe swing that will leave the boss vulnerable after he does it, and a breath attack that disables attacks for a few seconds. The axe swing and poke are fine for the boss to do when you get close, but the breath attack is rather annoying and is most likely a game over seeing as how easy the boss can pin lock you once he begins spamming the axe poke.. One thing I recommend doing when fighting the boss is intentionally dying to ensure a full health bar coming into the fight. Dying to the first boss isn't so bad either as sub weapons are weak against bosses outside of one case and your basic whip can do fine.
- Second Area & Platforming Trouble
The second area happens to be heavily platforming based near the beginning of it with pits that wrap around to the top screen and take a bit of health or armor away when you fall. This isn't exactly a problem until the medusa heads come into play during jumps. Should you go through the area without armor, as one would likely when dealing with the enemies, the medusa heads will cause you to move back during the pin animation which leads to taking a damage from the pin and from the pit. If you barely make it past it all, you will most likely die to one of the various enemies blocking your path to the next check point and have to try again from the start of the second area.
Most of the platforming trouble feels alleviated when playing as Bunker while female as the speed makes platforming a breeze. During my replays of the itch.io download of this game I found myself running through areas with the female form and avoiding damage. Though the platforming is still rather annoying thanks to the falling platforms which combined with the medusa head's pin can lead to lots of damage.
- Rest of the bosses & Whip Distance
Most of the bosses in the game are pretty easy so long as you have either a decently long whip, jump before each and every attack, and can avoid some of the more annoying quirks the boss might have. The only bosses I particularly dislike are the first one and the final boss. Though all the bosses outside of the first one share one issue, a lack of item drops before or during the fight. This is mostly an issue as when you die you respawn inside the boss room with all your upgrades and sub weapons gone. Since losing your upgrades means your whip deals little damage and has a small range and the fight can often times become harder.
An example I like to point to is the dragon boss which has a Molotov sub weapon before the room you fight her in. If you bring this sub weapon into the fight it can be beaten in less than a minute, but can take more without it. Considering the longer a fight goes the more difficult it is to avoid getting hit means fights should have some leeway with the basic weapon.
The final boss also makes this re spawning with no items part rather difficult. The boss fight revolves around dodging attacks, swinging your whip at a specific hitbox, and trying to defeat the boss before she defeats you. With a max upgraded whip and a sub weapon the boss is rather easy and makes the more annoying aspects like the un-telegraphed attacks manageable, but without it the boss can become a nightmare that takes many hits and requires almost flawless play. It took me close to an hour to properly fight the boss and understand her attacks. I also had instances where I made it to the second phase with half armor to spare only for the projectile and the ridiculous attacks to melt the rest.
The problem that I feel makes a number of bosses, and enemies for that matter, more difficult than necessary is the lack of range you have with the basic whip. When there are fast close range attacks that can pin you and are often spammed by the enemy or boss it can make getting close a choice in throwing yourself at the obstacle hoping to best it before you die or trying hard not to get hit and ending up getting hit in the end. This is one of the reasons why the final boss is one I have very strong opinions of and had take me only a few minutes on my 2nd and 3rd run with my 1st reaching close to an hour.
- Other Aspects & Closing Thoughs
While I have been quite critical of the gameplay in some areas, the game is pretty fun to play once you have mastery over the mechanics. I'm sure playing through the game again as Toon Pimp would be quite interesting to consider when it's possible to understand their mechanics. Though I do somewhat wish there was a reward for reaching the end such as a gallery to view the various animations as viewing them through gameplay can somewhat be rather tedious. Reaching the end leads to a continue screen with the continue option respawning you in front of the final boss as if you died which definitely felt sad my first time defeating the final boss.
After having found the itch.io listing of the game sometime after my victory with the game I decided to play the itch.io listing to see if there were any changes. I can't say for certain, but I definitely say playing the Shockwave Flash file is the better option as the optimization for the exe is a little wonky. You can find some shockwave flash players which I do encourage grabbing if at all possible, Just remember that the lowest settings are the most important ones.
If I am to play this game again I would probably play up to the second to last boss as the difficulty being based on whether or not you keep your upgrades can be a little tricky for me. It is also nice seeing some of the animations when the focus is just watching them.