Agreed (with meh), puzzling positive critical reception for it. Iconoclasts is much better if you want a pseudo 32-bit Metroidvania lite.

I finished Owlboy. It was pretty average aye but not total pish.

It definitely did not spark joy when I played it. Beautiful, but soporific pacing.

Jet Lancers. It's a 2D shooty thing like Luftrausers. I thought it was OK for a while, but it has the oddest difficulty spike at stage 15 and I just can't do it.

Score 60000 points in 3 minutes. That's it. None of the other missions work like this - usually you just shoot all enemies or specific targets. This is the first one to introduce scoring and a time limit. So I shoot things non-stop for 3 minutes, barely making a mistake, and I've got about 30000 points. Do it again. Same. There's no obvious way to increase score quicker. Then I manage 40000, but I don't know how. Next time it's back down again. After hours of this, I once managed 59000 - I don't know how, but just short. So tough.

This game has accessibility options. You can make yourself invincible. Makes no difference here. You don't score the points, you don't win. And you have to finish this level to move on to the next.

Maybe it's just a really challenging game? Nope. Not until this point anyway. I did the first 14 levels and level 16 (which is also open at this stage) with few problems. I've even got the best rank on some of them. Nothing has been particularly taxing so far.

I watched a Youtube vid of someone doing stage 15. It was a Japanese one so I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I could maybe pick up some strategies that I'd missed. They were doing exactly what I was. There's no trick, no combo system I've missed. Just shoot an absolute shit load of planes solidly for 3 minutes.

Except even that might not work. A couple of times whnen I've been doing quite well, suddenly there's a gap between waves, and by the time the next lot arrives you're behind again. It's a nightmare. The game isn't even particularly good.

I'm going to bed. Just needed to vent a little first.

JonB wrote:

Jet Lancers. It's a 2D shooty thing like Luftrausers. I thought it was OK for a while, but it has the oddest difficulty spike at stage 15 and I just can't do it.

Score 60000 points in 3 minutes. That's it. None of the other missions work like this - usually you just shoot all enemies or specific targets. This is the first one to introduce scoring and a time limit. So I shoot things non-stop for 3 minutes, barely making a mistake, and I've got about 30000 points. Do it again. Same. There's no obvious way to increase score quicker. Then I manage 40000, but I don't know how. Next time it's back down again. After hours of this, I once managed 59000 - I don't know how, but just short. So tough.

This game has accessibility options. You can make yourself invincible. Makes no difference here. You don't score the points, you don't win. And you have to finish this level to move on to the next.

Maybe it's just a really challenging game? Nope. Not until this point anyway. I did the first 14 levels and level 16 (which is also open at this stage) with few problems. I've even got the best rank on some of them. Nothing has been particularly taxing so far.

I watched a Youtube vid of someone doing stage 15. It was a Japanese one so I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I could maybe pick up some strategies that I'd missed. They were doing exactly what I was. There's no trick, no combo system I've missed. Just shoot an absolute shit load of planes solidly for 3 minutes.

Except even that might not work. A couple of times whnen I've been doing quite well, suddenly there's a gap between waves, and by the time the next lot arrives you're behind again. It's a nightmare. The game isn't even particularly good.

I'm going to bed. Just needed to vent a little first.

Bob wrote:

this sounds cool

https://kotaku.com/jet-lancer-is-a-stylish-fighter-pilot-game-with-great-b-1843540367

JonB wrote:

Jet Lancers. It's a 2D shooty thing like Luftrausers. I thought it was OK for a while, but it has the oddest difficulty spike at stage 15 and I just can't do it. Score 60000 points in 3 minutes. That's it. None of the other missions work like this - usually you just shoot all enemies or specific targets. This is the first one to introduce scoring and a time limit. So I shoot things non-stop for 3 minutes, barely making a mistake, and I've got about 30000 points. Do it again. Same. There's no obvious way to increase score quicker. Then I manage 40000, but I don't know how. Next time it's back down again. After hours of this, I once managed 59000 - I don't know how, but just short. So tough. This game has accessibility options. You can make yourself invincible. Makes no difference here. You don't score the points, you don't win. And you have to finish this level to move on to the next. Maybe it's just a really challenging game? Nope. Not until this point anyway. I did the first 14 levels and level 16 (which is also open at this stage) with few problems. I've even got the best rank on some of them. Nothing has been particularly taxing so far. I watched a Youtube vid of someone doing stage 15. It was a Japanese one so I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I could maybe pick up some strategies that I'd missed. They were doing exactly what I was. There's no trick, no combo system I've missed. Just shoot an absolute shit load of planes solidly for 3 minutes. Except even that might not work. A couple of times whnen I've been doing quite well, suddenly there's a gap between waves, and by the time the next lot arrives you're behind again. It's a nightmare. The game isn't even particularly good. I'm going to bed. Just needed to vent a little first.

OK, I did fuck up. A bit. It turns out there are two different secondary weapons - special and charge - mapped to the same button, both with separate cooldown timers. I was only using the big charge weapon, which takes longer to cool down, but in between you can also fire off homing missiles by tapping the same button. That obviously helps in taking out targets quicker. I guess this was explained at the beginning, but not in a clear way and I still think it's a confusing way of doing things.

But, with all my previous practice it was enough to get me through mission 15 after a number of tries. It's still a terrible difficulty spike - by contrast I then did mission 17 on my first try in under a minute - and a shitty kind of challenge. It's not good design - someone just decided to go too big on an arbitrary number. But it's not quite as ridiculous as I thought before, and fuck me I've wasted a lot of time on it.

Edit: I suppose the amazing thing is that I almost did it without missiles.

Hahaha. Brilliant.

Or the tertiary reserve first choice secondary one.

Luigis masion 3

King boo can go fuck himself along with the shanky controls

Shes a squirter

Patios. Stick astro turf on them. Vacuum to clean and a lovely feeling underfoot.

stonechalice wrote:

How did the patio come up? I've been tempted to get my washer out...

Really nice, pressure washers do make a difference. Gotta use it on driveway as well to see if that makes a difference. Also plan is to use it to wash the cars as well. Got a snow lance attachment and snow foam is on order.

N'wah!

Pretty much agree with all that. I found it very overrated. It's a decent game but the puzzling and exploration was painful after a while.

There are some good moments that are probably worth seeing I suppose.

If you’re not enjoying it, it won’t get better for you. Pack it in. Personally, I loved almost every minute of it. The world/level design and progression is great and the combat is decent enough. I loved what they bad did with the lore, and the different encounters and hidden enemies are just my kind of thing. Easy GotY for me, that was.