Sort of a shooterey, retroish, trance music-like Link Dump Friday theme this week. Or is it an old-school-style trancey shooter musical theme? Either way, most of these games kinda sorta lean against one or more of those concepts. I guess. Right? Well... hmm. Aah forget it, I'm going back to making music with Tone Matrix.
Hero's Arms - Run around the overworld defeating monsters to earn gold and level up your character, then dive into the dungeons to hunt for better items and take down big bosses. The game plays very well for a Zelda "clone", but the most surprising part is the game's reported length: 10-15 hours for a straight run through, 20-25 hours to full completion. Inspired by overhead adventure games such as the classic Legend of Zelda series, and a great deal of attention went into restoring that retro look and feel.
Tone Matrix - Nothing much to see here. Plenty to hear, here. A simple but smart music-based web toy where you fill in squares on the grid to make a short loop of chiptune-style music. The higher the square, the higher the pitch. String together soothing sounds, or just draw funny pictures and see what they sound like.
Pwong - If Pong were made by a techno club junkie, this is what it would be. Slide the paddle back and forth to knock the ball to your opponent at the top of the screen. Now do that ten times per second for twice as many balls. Power-ups give you a little help, but other than that, it's just you, the music, and an ever-shifting haze of colors.
Retroshoot - A game that inspires "oohs" from its neon visuals, Retroshoot is exactly what the title implies: a retro shooter. Your ship fires on its own (and makes a pew pew noise), all you have to do is move the mouse, collect power-ups, and don't die.
The Par Box - A webtoy with tons of visual effects you can play around with. Interact with the eye candy by moving your mouse, and scroll through different visuals with the left and right [arrow] keys, 50 to see in all. Hit the right arrow key eleven times to see the best one ever!!!
Yeah, #12 in The Par Box is okay, but my favorites are 18, 21, 27, and 37.
My favourite would have to be #44.
Tone Matrix = magic. Nuff said.
Pwong = Psychedelic. Nuff said.
Actually not nuff said. Pwong = Freaking Awesome. There, nuff said.
I agree with ThemePark. Pwong is great. I love the music.
ThemePark, I think you may have and a mistake in your calculations. The correct equation is:
Pwong + latex body paint + glowsticks = Totally Rad!
Pwong is so cool! I love that techno trance music and the awesome colours.
I also love the fact that you don't die if you miss.
Dr.Worm! You just reminded me of the Dr.Worm song. Haha, love it!
"....my name is Doctor worm, I'm not a real doctor but I am a real worm, yes I'm a real worm."
I'm pretty sure Hero's Arms is an exaggeration.
I'm maybe 4~5 hours into the game, and I just reached the final castle for the second time - that, plus I've already got the best sword, almost have enough money for the best armor, and don't really see merit in farming money for the best shield. The only "secret" I haven't done is the Colosseum, a supposed series of waves against enemies. Maybe I'm just too much of a die-hard Zelda fan to get the full alleged hours out of the game...
debaser80, I think that combination would make any game Totally Rad. XD
Funny thing about the music for Pwong is that I've heard it so many times over the years, and I always connect it with a Danish quiz show that aired when I was a child. It took me long enough to find out that it was actually a piece of music from an album instead of being especially made for that quiz show. However I still think of that quiz show whenever I hear the melody. XD
nothing to see in tone matrix? It's making my eyes kinda burn actually.
I can't stop playing Tone Matrix. So much fun.
for some reason, i can't hear anything in tone matrix.
I can't hear anything in Tone Matrix, for whatever reason. Sucky, too, because it looks fun.
I can't hear anything either. Anybody have a fix? Am I missing an add-on?
...Is your computer on mute?
So, UmbrellaExile - That Boss in the top-right dungeon:
does he just inherently take an idiotic number of hits or is there a trick? It doesn't look like there's a trick, but I've been just mindlessly hacking at this guy for ages now..
I like Heros Arms, 'cause I liked zelda (one of them) too. The story is nice, you are not a super hero but a stupid kid. And the enemies blinking always give you a fair chance.
Hero's Arms was fun, and long for a flash game, but barely quite as long as they said - I got everything and max levels in about 10 hours.
A few things were not explained
Raising Life reduces the damage you take
Raising Magic reduces the cost of casting
A band-aid automatically and completely refills your health if it runs out
Magic soda does the same for mana
The level-up mechanic was interesting. You have to buy one attribute with your XP when you level up, and level up as soon as you have enough XP for your cheapest attribute, unless you get a ton of XP at once (from a boss or elixir).
Unlike in the overworld, if you die in a dungeon you just go back to the entrance.
You have a limit of 9999 gold.
About purchases
There are some dungeons with shops, where you can buy an extra slot on your health bar and magic bar. You can only buy one point of each in each world. They cost 500 each.
The 5000 cash items are the best of their kind, but you find better armour than the cheap suit about two-thirds of the way through the first map.
Buying XP is totally not worth it. I had 55 levels by the time I had made 17,000 cash. (and the spacing between levels goes up from 500 as you go on).
The frost sword seems to triple or quadruple your damage. It's super useful, get it first. The thunder shield is better than it sounds - the description doesn't mention it, but it also reflects projectiles. It gives a respectable 25 MP per block.
If you're not taking too much damage I'd get this second. I was planning on armour second, and I take more damage when I try to use magic, but I wasn't having any trouble when I reached my 5k a second time (after buying the sword and the four bar upgrades - I wasn't casting much, though), and by the time I was having trouble I had made another 5k.
About the secret place.
The Colosseum has 30 waves. Playing it through is worth about 72,500 xp. The final boss has 40,000 hp, so stock up on band-aids and drinks lest he wear you down rather than vice versa.
Once you win you get a choice of health or mana elixir, which make your health or mana regenerate pretty quickly (a few points a second). If you win again you can take the other, but the first treasure chest is still open. After you both you instead get a little chest with 500 coins each time. Woo!
The max levels are fun, and put a new spin on the ending.
One of the satisfying things about the postgame of an RPG is going around stomping on everything that frustrated me the first time through. The max levels make for some good overpowered stomping. They had better be, at 100k XP each.
Max damage shoots a bolt of lightning straight ahead and 45 degrees to either side when you swing a sword, doing 999 damage to everything it goes through.
Max health reduces all damage to 1 pt (even the final boss). You are invulnerable if you got the health regen - the point is back while you blink.
Max magic reduces all casting costs to 1 mana. Making a snowstorm with the heavy sceptre is especially fun. It's unlimited if you have mana regen
(if you press the key very quickly your mana might drop by 1 point in ten seconds).
Normal levels go up 20 on each attribute (costing 30k, 19 was 25k, 18 20k, 17 15k, 16 10k), the max level costs 99999xp and is listed as 21 on the inventory screen. Once you have all max levels the experience counter goes away.
Once you have the max levels you can get into the bar in town. It's a shop that sells the drink for half the price of the other shop, and food and everything else for a bit more.
In the ending, the hero sells his weapons and armour for a pogo ball and leaves the town again. Without getting the max levels it seems like he's just being stupid. With the max levels, he's beyond the need for gear, and trading it for something he can actually use. No need for the frost sword when he can shoot lightning with a stick. No need for the fire armour when he's invulnerable in the tunic. No need for a magic absorbing shield when he has inexhaustible mana.
Being a huge Zelda fanm, I'm enjoying Hero's Arms very much. But now I'm stuck, can't get into the castle for the second time. I have:
the mustache
but what else am I missing? I've searched all castles and dungeons... Help!
Makrone:
There's a castle in the lower-left of the map, one square from the right and four squares from the top. You need the item won from beating that boss.
(It's
The Security Guard Hat)
Thanks Neddo! I had actually beaten the monster, but not opened the chest... for some reason.
My tone matrix beat:
8194,4,4,12,152,0,516,0,64,0,260,2,66,4,72,10
Copy, paste, enjoy.
16912,12684,68706,33296,16648,16648,8324,16648,16648,33296,68706,4228,25368,33824,67648,33824
A funny little random thing I did here, saved for posterity....
Did anyone complete the Bestiary? I have 2 remaining on the first page. Drat
I just started Heroes Arms, and the amount of fake difficulty really bugged me. Specifically, the scarcity of xp, gold, and healing. Does this pick up later on or is the whole game like the first dungeon?
Also, is there any real penalty to dying, other than restarting the dungeon?
Great LDF, JohnB! I really liked every link here.
Hero's Arms was a lot of fun. I beat it and really got my dungeon-crawlin' fix on. More developers should work on the genre. I always like innovation. Maybe it deserves a full review?
Retroshoot is pretty, but very tough. It could maybe use a better variety of powerups to counteract the hoards of monsters and whatnot.
Tone Matrix is glorious. I will throw my hat in the ring of attempts:
#1
69636,110728,127236,110728,69700,24712,25868,51712,50444,49792,25868,49820,50496,49824,24912,25248
#2
66064,81920,70816,73984,67600,99328,67664,66592,65552,65568,65872,66176,66832,68096,70912,68224
So no one has figured out the sound problem with Tone Matrix? I would really like to play that game :(
Unless it's all trickery, and there isn't any sound.
"The level-up mechanic was interesting. You have to buy one attribute with your XP when you level up, and level up as soon as you have enough XP for your cheapest attribute, unless you get a ton of XP at once (from a boss or elixir)."
That's not really correct. When the Level Up screen appears, you can hit "Cancel" at the bottom and wait to get more XP.
ToneMatrix was pretty neat... I wasted entirely too much time on it lol. It would be a bit better if you could have timed removal/addition of notes as I found the prettiest sounds (to me) were as I was slowly altering patterns.
anyway here's some samples i made, hopefully my formatting it to fit won't cause them not to work
70704,91670,102560,114976,70400,91674,99392,116808, 65672,90300,102664,114952,69632,91738,103488,114688
68614,90208,33544,45104,82018,88088,74112,76860,
86016,87750,34816,35610,86016,87522,41984,42700
98688,1536,24600,49248,98692,12,6168,24576,1584
,3096,6156,0,384,1536,96,192
On Hero's Arms, I got everything, did everything, or so I thought. Then I realized I was missing a slot in between weapon 2 (regular sword) and weapon 4 (frost sword). What goes there?
otherwise, cute game. Like that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It does seem like the mainstream manufacturers think people play games so as to experience the MOST GRANDIOSE STORY POSSIBLE!!!! Instead, the payoff here:
Heck yeah, a pogo ball.
Never could use one of those well.
HELP!
Heros Arm - I have the first sword, shield, axe, spear, badge and basket. What do I do now! I cant seem to get past the lava after the graveyard.
orange,
use the ice wand on the lava
To the person with the missing slot,
There is a third non-buyable sword that is gold in colour that is obtainable from one of the later dungeons. However, it is not as strong as the Frost Sword so you will never have cause to actually use it.
This might be a dumb question, but I'm having trouble with the
northeast dungeon in the dark world. Is there a special trick to getting past the room with four switches that don't seem to do anything when you trip them? Hints please!!
Never mind, got it!! If anybody else is stuck on this...
experiment with the boomeraxe magic. There was something I didn't notice about the way that attack behaves.
Tone Matrix really freaks out dogs for some reason.
I love Tone Matrix.
This is definitely the coolest webtoy i've seen in a while.
so, here's mine. Though i've made better songs, I lost them.
66064,81920,70816,73984,67600,99328,67664,66592,65552,65568,65872,66176,66832,68096,70912,68224
How do you get into the last Castle on World One, in Hero's Arms. I can't figure it out..
A simple techno beat:
0,0,100360,0,4,33792,65544,0,33824,0,65544,33792,67588,0,82440,0
Cloud:
You need the items from the previous two castles
8194,4,4,12,65688,0,8740,0,64,0,4372,2,1090,4100,1096,4106
Remix'd, your ears can thank me later.
Ha! Sound Wall:
126976,123396,114688,99584,65544,98304,68480,98324,65536,105824,65544,114136,65536,128876,65536,122870
Hero's Arms gold farming...
Gold comes in different denominations 3, 10 and 20 from killed monsters or cutting bushes/breaking pots.
Some chests contain bags of 50 or 200 gold, but these are rare.
Bushes seem to have the highest chance of giving you 20 gold coins. You need a bladed weapon to cut bushes.
Bushes also drop chicken legs (refill health and magic) fairly often, so feel free to use your magic attach to help cut down the bushes.
There are 15 bushes on the top-center screen (the one with the witch's cave where she sells you the Magic +1 bottle).
Leaving a screen and returning refreshes all monsters and bushes. Cut, rinse, repeat.
Any other suggestions?
Tone Matrix won't load for me for some reason. Any ideas?
I've tried running tone matrix on two different computers and on multiple occasions during the weekend and have never gotten sound out of it, HELP!!!!!
Does anyone no why it isn't working for some people?
If you're having trouble with Tone Matrix, try updating your Flash Player.
Here's one I did:
0,512,0,8,16,32,576,128,0,144,0,2048,0,128,16384,0
Just finished. Its not that hard to beat the coliseum just max your band aids and soda and save them for the end and then just magic attack the boss until all his health goes. I did that for most bosses and was cool. If you do finish you get either a magic elixer or heath elixer which regenerate your health or magic.
I just updated my flash player to the latest vertion and I still don't have sound on tone matrix. Does anybody have any other Ideas, I am desperate this game looks awsome.
Thanks,
Rex Mario
Hero's Arms Tips:
For the final boss:
Remember the way he moves before doing each attack. Then, with ice sword equipped, use the special attack on his head over and over. With attack at I think level 18 or 19, it did around 500 damage with each special attack. He should die pretty soon - he only had 15000 HP.
For finding the last two enemies on the first page of the bestiary:
In the dark world, there are two bushes that weren't in the light world. If you slash them open, a special enemy will appear. Be careful, because they are quite hard, especially Cutybunny. However, they do give a ridiculous amount of XP. Note that they only appear once, so you can't repeatedly kill them for XP.
For Brutus (the gladiator thing at the end of the Coliseum):
He is just like the abobination, but with more health (and possibly higher attack). Your attacks ARE in fact doing damage, he just has a lot of HP. In fact, more HP than the final boss. More than twice as much. Final boss has 15000 HP, Brutus has 40000. I hope you have a lot of patience...
I need help in Hero's Arms. The room in the second castle in world 2, that has the shuriken floor design, is giving me trouble. I absolutely need help.
Because I like this so much!
69650,69636,65608,65540,69666,36864,16404,8192,69704,69664,65554,65568,69700,36864,16424,8192
2,32,1024,8192,0,66048,80,8192,512,0,8192,0,320,0,2048,81920
A simple one.
In Hero's Arms, once you max out all three abilities, you are like unto a god. Your attack is laser blasts that do 999 damage, every attack even from bosses only does one point of damage, and even bosses fall to you in seconds. You can clear whole screens of enemies faster than it takes to pick up the coins from it after. It's an enormous rush of power, worth playing just to get that level and just shred everything for a bit until you get bored with it. Great game.
8328,0,0,33792,8192,0,64,0,4096,32800,0,2080,64,8192,80,48
65540,10,65540,32,65616,32,65792,640,65792,2048,70656,2048,81920,40960,81920,0
0,0,4128,0,24552,4128,4128,4896,4896,4128,4128,24552,0,4128,0,0
1920,2880,5280,10320,20520,40980,81930,131070,131070,81930,40980,20520,10320,5280,2880,1920
62336,92416,66560,67346,92928,61440,640,62208,92160,67346,67072,92160,62336,768,129024,129042
I played around with ToneMatrix for a while and I came up with these songs.
Update