Cheers for the podacst, chaps.
8 million episodes in, and you guys still got it!
First
up, gotta say, I'm lovin' the look of the joysticks rolling off the
Marland production line. I thought the Vectrex models were snazzy, but that
Robotron stick is absolutely gorgeous.
Talking
of things of beauty, I'm still stoked that you chose Black Tiger for next
episode's game. If that isn't a vision of arcade loveliness, I don't
know what is! It's got bright, vibrant and solid graphics; brilliant
sprites; excellent tunes and sound effects - and epic game play.
Literally epic gameplay. It goes on and on forever!
I've
been playing this for near on 35 years now, and have always liked it.
But this pick gave me the excuse I needed to really get stuck into it.
The key is to level up your weapon as quickly as you can. That means only
upgrading your armour as much as you need to, until you save up enough money. To do this properly, you
need to memorise which Zenny-men run the shops, and on later levels, keep one in reserve for the home stretch - so you can armour up for the boss fight.
If
you want a top score, the secrets are important too. Learn where they
are, and you'll find points, zenny-coins, armour and extra lives.
If
I'm honest, I sunk way too much time into this - but to get to the end,
you have to. It takes about an hour to work through all 8 levels.
There's a really tricky jump about 45 minutes in - just before you get
to the level 7 boss. Cycling back through to that point until I got it
down, was a bit of a chore - but also an experience of mixed emotions. Obviously, it was pretty exciting feeling that I was developing the chops I needed to get through to the end of the game. But it was also a bit sad. It meant my own epic journey was coming to an end - one I've been on for 30+ years!
I've put my score on Arcade
Side-kick. Interestingly, the top score is more than double mine. Now, there's nothing new there, and I'm certainly no expert.
But I did complete the game, having collected (almost) all of the
secrets, and completed all the dungeons. I'm sure I could have rinsed
another couple of hundred thousand points out of grinding skelingtons in the
dungeons - but not a million more. So I'm guessing, that the 1,700,000
score was achieved on the 'Black Dragon' variant of the game. Coz when you beat the
final boss on that, you get a million point bonus. But if thats not the
case, I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO IT! LOL!
Anyway, Black Tiger - as great as it is - is clearly a spiritual successor to Ghosts n' Goblins. You've got to put that on the list now.
