Hey, you! Girly-man! (Or, uh, girl.) Are you a 98 pound weakling? Are you sick of people kicking sand in your face at the beach and other such typical 1950's bullying techniques? Then maybe you need to let Boss Rush! from Paper Dino Software PUMP YOU UP. It's a clever twist on the classic arcade space shooter that puts you in control of the screen-dominating, unreasonably laser-charged boss ship for a change. After completing a few missions, nobody will ever accuse you of being a weakling again. *flexes* NNNNGH!oh, ow, ow, charley horse!!
The game is played out across multiple stages and different ships, each with their own set of challenging missions to play. Once you learn the ropes of flying your massive Death Star wannabe, you'll be given objectives such as shooting down rebel forces within a time limit, or surviving an onslaught long enough for your forces to escape. Move with [WASD] and use the left mouse button to fire, tapping [1], [2], [3], or [4] to ready one of your special attacks. Too easy? Well, then, try the level on another difficulty such as hard. Or, if you think you're boss enough... Sparta difficulty. (Giant elephants and unreasonable body jewelry not included.) The game also offers a versus mode, where you can rope your favourite schlub into playing the tiny hero fighter... provided you have someone on hand to sit at the same keyboard, since the game unfortunately lacks multiplayer.
Boss Rush! is a clever concept, and loads of fun; don't deny that you've always secretly wanted to be behind the controls of something that vomits a ridiculous amount of fire across a large area at the touch of a button. While the controls themselves feel a little awkward, you are in control of one of the big baddies, which are kind of notoriously unwieldy. A fair number of the missions are challenging, but none of them are terribly inspired, with the requirements typically being merely to survive or blow something up within a given time frame. The ultra simple graphics get the job done, but are also a bit bland. With a complete retro paintjob, full of tiny detailed pixel explosions, Boss Rush! would have been a joy to behold. As it stands, the game is new and fun in that cackling madman sort of way. Which, I think we can all agree, is the best way.
Awesome! Very difficult, it would be nice if there was some sort of system to skip ahead, if you've done well enough with different ships.
When I saw the title, I immediately thought of Warning Forever.
Having read the review, I'm pleasantly surprised and looking forward to trying it out later.
Hey, so this is nice.
Not only are the enemies jinky enough to avoid 99.99999% of your fire, but the 0.000001% that does hit them, just passes right through them thanks to poor collision detection.
I've always wanted a game where I could get shot and die, EXTRA SLOWLY, no matter what I do. Heck, it plays itself! No need to touch the keyboard!
How in the world do I ram them???? They run away too quickly!!!!
Having trouble ramming as well. Help!
Well, if you've played up to that stage, you should have already realized that the aircraft only goes up to your half only if a) it is forced there by your shots, or b) there is a powerup there that they think they could get. Since option B is out of the picture here, you have to use A: force them into your half by the use of guns. Best weapon to do this is weapon 2, the giant laser.
Even with that it only goes into the little gap. Having a really hard time coaxing him up.
*snicker*
Yay! Power of posting.
Thanks!
i loled when I learned some bosses have 2nd forms. It would be great if I could play the fighter and fight these guys.
The mystery boss was great (and also one of the more fun to play as). That's the point I went from merely enjoying this game, to absolutely loving it!
No chance to survive ???
No chance to escape ???
For it is the end of the line
For you have been marked
So there I was, playing this awesome game, (I actually donated to get the final boss.) and all of the sudden, seemingly randomly, it wont let me hit the play button anymore! I refreshed, restarted firefox, and nothing works. I can still do survival or versus, but hitting play does nothing now.
...
help?
"The game also offers a versus mode, where you can rope your favourite schlub into playing the tiny hero fighter... provided you have someone on hand to sit at the same keyboard, since the game unfortunately lacks multiplayer."
In my opinion it is unfortunate when a game lacks real multiplayer. Playing with someone else, who you can see, talk to, and overall are able to verify that they are indeed human, is much more gratifying. When playing "multiplayer" online you may as well be playing against a super-intelligent (or sometimes less than super) computer.
Remember back in the day of the N64? Now THAT was multiplayer. Even to some extent the SNES, and some DOS games before that, were great. These days games are far too impersonal in their attempts to get us to communicate, and thus I laud any game which gives two or more people the chance to actually spend some time together. This game, to me, has real multiplayer.
The N64 is still around, on college campuses everywhere. Or at least on mine. It's cheap, fun, and effective multiplayer for 20-year-old gamers in the know.
My opinion on the bosses:
Tonbogiri:
This guy is pretty good, and has some neat attacks. He can last for a decent amount of time, despite his low agility. My opinion on his weapons:
Primary: Pretty good, spread is nice.
1: Almost completely useless, as it is slow and easy to dodge.
2: Big lasers, great stuff. Great at herding enemies.
3: One of the best weapons in the game. I love this thing, because it's almost impossible to miss with it.
4: It looks pretty neat, but is actually not that useful except if you've got 'em in tight corners.
1 (last resort): Not really that great, but kinda handy if you know how to use it.
3 (last resort): I seriously am in love with this weapon. This thing swats enemies like flies. The bullets launched by the beam are an awesome afterthought.
Antonius:
This guy is pretty fun to play as, and his drone abilities can kill enemies pretty well. It's not as long lived as I'd like, but you have to have a trade off for the firepower. Note that I have not actually gotten to use this guy's last resort weapons.
Primary: This thing is really useful when used in quick succession with drone abilities. Slow acceleration, incredible accuracy.
1: Not reviewing.
2: The bullet spread on this weapon is very useful, and the drone ability follow-up works well with it. Pretty decent weapon.
3: This thing is very useful until you've been hit. Four rotating laser beams + 8 drone shots is a very nice drone ability too.
4: This thing FILLS THE SCREEN with bullets. I love it. Almost impossible to miss with.
Nidhoggr:
This fellow is very maneuverable and still very strong, and my personal favorite. The spread on its weapons is incredible. Weapons:
Primary: Probably the most useful primary weapon in the game. The spine spread isn't very good, but it is still quite useful.
1: Not very good, but I do use it occasionally. The spine spread isn't exactly the best, but it's kinda useful for herding enemies.
2: I love this weapon SO much. The spine spread is INSANE, so if you're close to an enemy it WILL die. Very useful for stopping enemies from getting powerups too.
3: A healing ability is very fun to have. I don't think I really have to say anything else.
4: For a 4 weapon it's not very useful, but it is kinda nifty. The nidhoggrlings don't have any seeking (or if they do it's not very good), so they're not really that useful except for scaring away enemies.
Genesis Ark 1:
The Genesis Ark form 1 (the one you start as) was my least favorite ship, though probably just because I hated the controls. It was also relatively low in firepower and had bad aiming. Weapons:
Primary: Not reviewing.
1: The only weapon you can actually aim with, so it was my personal favorite. Still had a hard time killing enemies with it though.
2: It seemed nice at first, but the gaps in the spread made it really easy to dodge. Not very good.
3: Basically a Tonbogiri 3 wannabe. Interesting but not particularly useful, and hard to hit enemies with.
4: Kinda neat, but the spread is pathetic. If you want to hit an enemy with this, you really have to hit it with the actual bomb.
Genesis Ark 2:
Ah, here we go. the Genesis Ark actually has some firepower after all. This guy was pretty long-lived, and could really pump the screen full of bullets. Weapons:
Primary: Kinda clunky and slow moving, but still somewhat useful.
1: Basically the same as the primary. Didn't like.
2: Now take this thing's primary and give it a nifty spread. I found this weapon to be pretty useful, despite its short spread range.
3: Probably the best weapon for herding enemies in the game. While not too useful on its own, using it with the 2 or 4 was a great combo.
4: You can't aim with this. It doesn't matter. If you want the enemies to die, you're in luck now.
???:
I loved this guy, despite his low maneuverability and his relatively inaccurate firepower. Maybe because he is long-lived. Maybe because of his hilarious speech pattern. I dunno. Weapons:
Primary: This thing was accurate, reasonably fast moving, and BIG. Great when you've herded an enemy.
1: Despite its low range, I love this thing through and through. There's nothing like a rapid-fire cloud of death for ruining a brave fighter's day.
2: Pretty neat, and very useful for herding enemies. The falling projectiles are a nice touch too.
3: This one is not very useful, really. It looks cool, but it actually almost never hits, and actually didn't work very well for herding enemies.
4: This thing is just plain ridiculous. It's so slow that even when enemies are HERDED they can dodge it. Absolutely pathetic.
4 (last resort): I didn't like it as much as the normal 1, but it still worked about the same way.
Cloud Nine: I actually don't have this thing, but if you have to pay for it it must be pretty friggin' good.
Hey Kegan04!
This is Montoli from Paper Dino Software - can you tell us more about the problem you're having? ([email protected], if you don't want to spam the threads) We'd love to figure out what's going wrong - this is the first we've heard of this problem, but we'd just as soon fix it, and make sure that it's the last time we've heard about it, if you know what I mean. :D
I like the idea, playing as one of the bosses instead of the spunky little hero.
I would have liked it better if the game weren't so insanely difficult, I can't even beat one enemy.
Nice idea, terrible execution.
The game claims failure when i've done what it wants, nevermind the really unfun challenges mixed in.
Thanks for the response, Montoli. I've sent an email with the details. :)
Could someone please explain to me how I'm supposed to ram my ship into an enemy at the bottom of the screen when my ship can't move past the top half of it?
To ram the enemy, you first need to get them on your side of the field. I like to use #3 to force them to one side of the battlefield, then fire #2 just below them and sweep upward to force them towards me. Keep sweeping them up with #2 until they're in one of the top corners. This corner is disappointingly big enough for them to hide in, so move your ship down as far as it will go and use #2 to sweep them sideways. Once they're directly above you, move up and you should crush them before they can escape. I had a slow computer, so it was easier for me.
the first ship
classic:a 5-shot spray that is 170 degrees good for support when firing a long lasting blast
1: a set of machine guns they just suck peroid
(try to get them blown up to use the other more
2:LAZOR BEAM a giant aimed laser for creating a wall great for combos with both 3 and 4
3: a set of blast from the spikes in the front
in the trail are bullets that fire in all dierections
4: not to good a inferno of dogeable rounds that trape units for teh 2
(near death)
1 a set of 2 expolsive rounds
2: the orginal 4
3: YAMMATO CANNON this is a huge unaimabe 2
that leaves fragments at the tip
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