Painfully difficult retro gaming time!!! Three platform games on this edition of Weekend Download, each one doing its part to remind you just how bad you are at playing games. Until you play the same part a dozen times, then you're awesomely talented!
Holdover (Windows, 700KB, free) - From Japanese studio Foxeye, Holdover features a Metroidvania-esque design and a punishing level of difficulty. You play Marie, a young girl with a seemingly an incurable disease. A treatment is developed, but it's so slow, she'll die before it works. So, Marie is cryogenically frozen until the day she will be healed. She wakes early to find the lab void of life and mysterious messages scattered throughout the rooms. Instead of gaining new weapons at every turn, Holdover is about increasing Marie's strength so she can hold her breath for longer underwater. Simple, but effective, and the result is a game that's so retro I couldn't stop playing it, despite its cheap deaths. The English translation can be tough to understand at times, and some of the cutscenes are risque, so you might want to wait until the kids are in bed before trying this one. Cheers to D for sending this one in!
Ninja Robot Winning Gameshow (Windows, 20MB, free) - Oh, hey, look! It's a robot and a ninja... combined! There's something you wouldn't want to come across in a dark futuristic backalley set in medieval Japan. Ninja Robot Winning Gameshow is another rough platformer that demands precise movement on your behalf. Shift your character's gravity by nudging an adjacent wall, a move that's key in avoiding the spikes and making it to the exit. Expect to die many, many times. At least the game entertains you with ninja robot wisdom when you take a hit. There's even a commercial break!
Gray & Green (Windows, 5MB, free) - A charming puzzle platformer starring Mubly, a blobbly little character who is trying to add color to the world after a wizard turned everything gray. Collect a red potion, for example, to activate red things in the stage, many of which are purely decorative, but some are necessary to solve the level. Once you nab all the potions the world is restored and you can hit the exit door for another stage!
Note: All games have been confirmed to run under Windows Vista and are virus-free. Mac users should try Boot Camp, Parallels, or CrossOver Games to play Windows titles, Linux users can use Wine. If you know of a great game we should feature, use the Submit link above to send it in!
Gray and Green is a pretty terrible game. Maybe with some work it could be salvaged, but it never should have been released the way it is now.
[Edit: We generally spam comments like this that don't give any constructive criticism. As it stands, it's a pretty worthless comment. Please consider giving some details backing up why you think a game falls short. Developers need to hear what you think beyond a petty "this game sucks." Thanks. -Jay]
I recommend cheating if you're going to play Holdover. That game has a frustration level higher than Mount Everest. It sucks the fun out of it.
Gray and green NEEDS A MUTE BUTTON! Seriously, who makes a game with such a loud and really rather irritating soundtrack and doesn't offer a way to turn it off? Aaargh!
Anyway, I played through the first few levels which held no puzzles at all, just jump-around-pick-up-all-potions-go-through-a-door. Then I reached level 5 or so and there was a button which opened a passage but which wouldn't stay open so I couldn't get the last potion. A puzzle? A bug? I begin experimenting what the deal is, but after a few minutes the soundtrack started REALLY REALLY getting on my nerves so I exited the game for good.
But the soundtrack is still stuck in my head. The horror. THE HORROR! Why, Jay, why?
I don't know why.
But that's a heck of a lot more information than Brandon offered up. :)
I'm actually having quite a lot of fun with holdover. Okay, so I've been playing a lot of platformers lately, so I'm already tuned up, and it's been an otherwise horrendous 4th of July weekend (one of the littluns is sick, and I just ate up half a day at the car dealership for scheduled maintenance that they ended up screwing up).
But I think the frustration level is tempered by the pacing. It might be hard, but it's at least paced slow and you can save at just about any point so that you can really take your time with it.
Grey & Green doesn't seem to work in XP. Just a black window with a blue mouse cursor.
Gray & Green isn't that bad, though the first island's music is cribbed shamelessly from the grasslands theme from Heroes of Might and Magic II (burned indelibly into my brain from many hours spent on that game).
Word of warning: Anywhere there's a wand item that magically creates some platforms, *don't* move or jump or anything until they totally appear. It's possible to get stuck in the middle of one as it's being drawn in, and the only way out I could find is to press Escape and go back to the main menu... and none of your progress is saved.
Start over?!? I got to the third island before it happened, and didn't have the energy.
Also, jumping off the *top* of the screen makes you restart the level. Odd.
All levels I found were completable, some are more puzzling than others.
I downloaded holdover but can't get it to work, does it need a specific player or program?
I hate for this to be my first post, but I think I found a typo in the "Holdover" description:
"Simple, but effective, and the result is a game that's so retro I couldn't stop playing it, despite its and cheap deaths."
Just pointing it out. Awesome choices anyway, though I agree that Gray & Green should have a mute button, but for the time being I will just turn off my speakers, which will always work :D
Gray and Green. The 5th level there is a secret route on the right hand side.
Also a hint for all d/l games in windows. Go to Volume Control then Mixer. You can select the annoying program and mute it there, a hassle I know but useful if you wish to listen to music instead of the cheerful music of a game
The lack of a save though is very annoying. The cheat system could have easily been able to do this if needed.
Hmm... why does Marie from Holdover get nekkid when she's dying? What happens to that ultra-tight breast-revealing leotard - it disappears? Flies off? Desintegrates?
I can't understand this. I'm so solitary and depress now.. :(
Pretty much what baba said. The music is a war crime and the bugs are inexcusable. And yeah, no saving.
The color mechanics is a graphical gimmick. It would be more immersive if the player were required to actually paint the platforms, sort of like in de Blob. Some sort of mechanic other than "get all the colors and find the door."
The gameplay needs more variety. Perhaps upgradable power-ups and non-linear levels. Actually, a massive world which you have to explore and paint would be fun. But by this point we're getting into an entirely different game.
DD:
For god's sake.
Holdover has a learning curve of a flying monkey.
It's so hard, and so... revealing :3
Anyway, i am stuck
It's completely underwater, except for a little square on the right side you can use to recharge O2. And there is this platform going in circles just above me DD: and i can't get to it. I barely miss it everytime, i can't jump that high!
Help, please :(
Holdover confuse me. I am solitary!
Heh. Does anyone have a better msglist.txt they'd be willing to share? I like the game, but I hate the butchered, murdered, destroyed, messed up language they call English that they use.
Ok I'm stuck in holdover.
I went down to a place where I can't go back up. There is water below (a lot of passages, but I can't reach much because I run out of oxygen). I have level 2 oxygen. There are three rooms with light-sensors that kill you if you go below them, but I can't get past any of them (I know i can go underwater to go below them, but in one of the rooms it's too long, in the other i reach a place where i need an impossible jump to get out, and in the other one i end up back in the water).
Any ideas?
HoldOver is hard >.
They need a walkthrough for this. Only thing I learned so far is the dev likes lolicon.
Got it...
Jump on top of the light-laser thing and then again to the other side.
As someone who can have little pretense of being a power-gamer, I found holdover to be not altogether that hard, actually. Don't know why, other than using quicksave a lot, but the enjoyment for me comes from figuring out the underlying puzzles, not manifesting pixel-perfect timing.
A good bit of the difficulty stems from figuring out how the game is programmed to use oxygen underwater (expectable stuff, like not jumping too much, but I also got the sense that if you held down a key you didn't mean to, like holding the crouch button down after you'd already gotten underneath something, would drain your oxygen faster too.) In any case a soft touch was required. But the progression was logical, and I enjoyed it. Kind of random shift at the end, though. Programmer just trying to challenge him/herself with something else?
The health mechanic did actually work for the game (though you might never notice that you can get hit slightly and not die immediately. Seemed almost frivolous.). But I'd still put my money on the mechanic being designed to support the cutscenes and not the other way around. Especially when you factor in that .jpeg the program comes with....
Beat Gray and Green.
Downloaded Holdover, started it up, and it gave me an error message.
"Runtime Error!
Program: [yadda yadda]
This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information."
So I can't play it. Anyone?
gray and green: can't beat level 5, the one with
the switch
To pass some of the lasers, you may need the infamous スクール・みず, or school swimsuit. Generally black or dark blue, this serves as body armor to an extent.
I enjoyed Holdover more than I expected to.
However,
the random shift of the game into a top down shooter is a bit strange imo. Not to mention the ridiculous amount of enemies you had to destroy to continue with the story wasn't really motivating me either, but I made it.
I'm just curious now if there are any alternative endings depending on the amount of clothing you're wearing. =p
Gray & Green: Seriously needs a save function. And the ending text needs to be proofread. I also didn't really like how the cannons behaved one way sometimes, and another way sometimes. I didn't see any graphical distinction between the two kinds. Cute idea, though.
I beat Grey and Green. I thought it was enjoyable, but I like really easy games. A little long but still fun, and I liked the music. Just know if you are playing that game that some blocks you can actually walk through, and that a few levels have one-of tricks that only apply to that level.
i found Gray & Green amusing enough for the time it took me to beat it, but calling it a "puzzle platformer" is kind of silly. There are no real puzzles to speak of. And some elements of the game (most notably the skull mouths) were stupidly frustrating.
need help for gray and green, level 5,
there is a switch but no other blue guy to hold it down
I'm not sure what .lzh is, but I can't open it. Any help?
Yay for Ninja Robot Winning Gameshow! This is the developer, in case you couldn't tell.
So, does the fact that no one has commented on NRWG yet mean that no one has played it or that those who have played it have been sucked in by its awesomeness and haven't yet been able to stop playing it? I'm guessing the former, but hoping for the latter. If anyone does play it, I'd be interested in hearing any feedback you have. Too hard? Too easy? Does it need more levels? I've had a couple people tell me the collision detection needs to be more forgiving.
I'm thinking of doing a version 1.1 with more music, more levels and a few other tweaks. If you have any suggestions I'd be interested in hearing them.
@Neko - .lzh is a type of archive. Assuming you're using a PC, try WinRAR.
Holdover help needed!
I'm stuck in the same area koro is in (with the new suit). I think I've gotten as many hearts as possible, but I'm still eight shy away from Level 3. The upper left moving security part has four hearts out of reach, the upper right security part has twenty out of reach, at the very top that connects to an earlier part of the map, there are three hears out of reach there. Those are all the hearts I know.
Where can I go to get to level 3 breathing? I restarted the game and didn't see any extra hearts along the way I missed the first time.
For those that are having trouble on Gray and Green level 5, there's a secret way to the green bottle:
walk through the wall to the left of the bouncer
@fnord3125- Ahh I got it, thanks!
It's not too bad so far. The English is a little hard to comprehend, but otherwise I think it's a fine challenging platformer. It just requires several do-overs. ;)
Sometimes I think the Japanese actually can't go over a certain amount of time without seeing a naked girl.
Holdover is really needlessly hard, but doable for the most part... up to now. I am now totally stuck and am hoping that someone knows a trick to get past this bit:
Shmup mini-game sequence where you have to kill 70 targets. I'm sure I could eventually get lucky and pass it somehow, but it's basically just a big wedge of suck. If anyone knows a trick to getting through (or a way to cheat it, even), please let me know.
I thought Gray & Green was mildly interesting, but the fact that it doesn't save your progress is a game-killer for me. Ah well.
Neko: I had the same problem. WINZIP didn't work for me. You can open it using a free trial version of RARLAB. I don't think it's permissible to include outside links here but you can google it.
@Jayce:
In the upper-right security part, have you gone all the way to the right? If you go underwater (breathing as much as possible between "lights") you will reach a place where you can go down and deactivate the security for 60 seconds. Then you rush back to the other "security parts" and there's plenty to do (for example going back to the room where you found the blue clothes, you can find 9 hearts, etc). You will be able to get to level 3. Then go underwater and you will find a lot of hearts, up to level 4. Then... ok, I don't know what, then :)
I don't know what the big thing about these games being "painfully hard" is about. Not to beat on Gray and Green anymore, but that game was really too simple to even be called hard. I mean, the controls worked well, and the game was . . . functionally accomplished, but there wasn't anything tough or fun about it, except for a few invisible block areas (though, I'll admit I got bored and quit halfway through).
I will say, Holdover was awesome. Sure, you needed to make sure to save all the time, you had to make sure to keep armored up in case there were security devices that couldn't be avoided in any way, there were hearts that you just couldn't get until much later, and it helped if
you knew all the different ways you lost air faster underwater: jumping, crawling (but not crouching), taking damage (I think, it might just slow you down), landing from a jump, turning around while walking.
Once I had all those in my head, I could find ways to push my air time just far enough every time; if I couldn't do it, there had to be more hearts, and there always was. Good news is, if you want to be as quick crouching as possible, once you're crouched under something, you can let go of down (even under spikes).
If people are looking for a walkthrough of Holdover, there are maps, showing where all the hearts and items are (in Japanese, though the hearts are just blue circles), if you go to the site, and click "Capture" (the second to last button on the bottom right). All in all, though, the game isn't too bad as long as you keep saving, and play conservatively. Especially with the crouch-climb thing she can do.
But why hasn't anyone mentioned Robot Ninja Winning Gameshow?! That's the real challenging one (because even Holdover isn't really "retro-hard", unlike other games JIG's mentioned recently), and it's absolutely hilarious, with quirky music and controls that are just as slick. I'd die just to hear the commercials all the time, if I didn't die a lot anyway. ^^;
Gray and Green is evil! I couldn't close it so I had to restart my computer!
Just finished Holdover. Yeah, sometimes it can be tricky. Yeah, sometimes the translation is "all your base are belong to us" bad, but it was interesting. I finished fully clothed. Am interested to know if there are endings for various other stages of undress. I don't feel like going through all the dialog again since I'm on a slower computer. That actually does help though since my brother's computer is faster and he's still stuck on the fighter section.
I don't care what anyone says. Holdover is hard, man.
Unfortunately, there *is* one area (at least) in Holdover that you can get into, but cannot get out of without a specific ability.
It's a very tall room underwater filled with hearts. On the top left and bottom right are small pockets of air, and a platform is rotating around. If you enter this room without the high jump ability (it's the room above and right of the entrance to this one), you're stuck without an exit. Thankfully you can't save underwater, so all you have to do is go back to your last save.
Hmmm... For some reason the Holdover site is saying ages 15 and up, but I don't think that's the same limit in America, they may want to correct that :P
Ok, the only thing that having more or less clothes does is change the picture when Marie opens the door. The dialogue is exactly the same. My brother just finished Holdover fully nude.
It may seem impossible, but playing on a 500 MHz or slower computer really helps in the fighter section.
I need help very early!
I can't seem to get past this area without running out of air http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v461/LinkX-00/holdover1.png
There really needs to be some sort of walkthrough for this....
Gabe, this may be what you need:
After you get past that screen, don't keep going and try to get up the ramp. You'll never make it. Instead, as soon as you can stand, keep jumping up until you get a decent amount of air. Then duck and continue on your way.
I've tried that. Jumping always takes the air I get
@theparticleman,
I think noone is playing ninja robot because it is overshadowed by the other games, screenshot-wise. In one you have a girl of dubious age and perky breasts (and the promise that during the game she actually gets nekkid), and on the other a cutesy character which promises a cutesy and fun puzzle platformer (just promises, though). Pixelated blocks just don't draw attention to themselves, especially when the title is "Ninja robot" and you don't see an obvious resemblance to neither.
But I guess eventually people will get down to it. I know I will, just as long as I finish Holdover thingie... DARN! She's nekkid again!
I've given up Holdover. It's not hard, it's sloppy. First of all - addition of quicksave is a cop-out: the designer knew he made a lousy unforgiving platformer so he let you save whenever and wherever you want. I'll take balanced challanges and checkpoints over that any time.
Furthermore, I was never sure where I should go, whether I got myself in a dead end and/or whether I missed something on the way which would make further progress impossible. And since 30 minutes into the game my biggest challenge was "do not press down too much while underwater" I decided to call it quits. Pixelated breasts just aren't worth the frustration.
Oh, and Ninja Robot seems cute. But unforgiving collision detection coupled with 10-second pauses between deaths and "commercials" that REALLY get old after you've seen them for the 17th time are just too irritating.
Well, that being this for weekend downloading. Now I spending the rest on weekends depress and solitary.
Watch out in Holdover! If you use the Save feature (not Q-Save, but probably that too) and close the program to go do something else, it doesn't save your game!
I just lost an hour of playing that game. Grr.
I wanted to love Gray And Green (partly because I have previously had some game ideas sort of like it), but it is just a little too frustrating. The main problem is that I have no idea how to use the cheats once you get them -- they just look like silly useless helmets to me. I played with key-combos and didn't find anything interesting. So I played up to the level with the long tunnel under the water, and couldn't get past that one because of course I could not get across the big lake (I did get the bottles at the right-hand end, but they didn't seem to help any). Plus, it really really needs to save your level and allow you to restart there. Going back and replaying the whole thing again in one session is just annoying. But I really want to love it, and if somebody can please tell me how to use the cheats once I have the silly hats on, I will probably go back and play through it again.
Developers, ignore the previous poster! I had a lot more fun in Holdover than in almost any other such platformer. And not even because of the naked girl!
Just because of quicksave. More platformers need quicksave. Oh yes. The silly shootemup section probably needed quicksave as well. But well, whatever. Quicksaves > Checkpoint saves any day. ANY DAY.
Those lost would do well to look at the walkthrough/map on the maker's website. It'll at least tell you where to go.
@JIGuest,
quicksaves are for lazy developers and lazy gamers. Games need challenge to be interesting and fun.
The problem with modern gamers is that they need immediate gratification with minimal effort. And that's quite sad.
I'm stuck in Holdover. I've studied the map and gone as far as I can. I know I'm asking a lot and no one is obligated, but can someone please offer help on what to do next? Here's a map of my progress.
My Progress
@Bad Dog
The "Cannot make this jump" part is possible
You have to go around (go to the right, then up, through the lasers (hiding below the blocks). When you reach the jump, quick save and try several times. It's possible. After that you'll get the suit which will help you for the other difficulties.
THANK YOU, KORO! Now that I know it's possible without any enhanced abilities, I can keep trying until I get it. THANK YOU for taking the time to look and respond. You ROCK!
But now I'm stuck too.
Please someone who finished the game, halp!
After going to network room B (after getting the "wall-grab" power-up, I'm told that i need to turn off something underground. I know where it is, but when I go back there underwater i reach a room with a little square to breath, and then two lasers below that I must go through. One room below there is a terminal that allows to turn off the security for a while, but if I go there and turn it off by the time I get back to the passage with the two lasers I'm out of oxygen. I'm level 5, and I don't think I can get to level 6 before doing this (need + 40 hearts).
Please!!! what's the secret?
koro:
Turn off the security, get some air (from the start of this section, then go past the two lasers (you should have time before the security switches on again) and go down through the breakable blocks. Grab a few hearts, reset security again, get some air, grab more hearts.... Continue this cycle, until you reach level 6. If you've collected every heart until now, there should be enough. Once you get to level 6, take a deep breath, and go through to the bottom.
Be warned, the breakable blocks reset when you reload a quicksave. So it is possible to be forced to reload a manual save here.
Okay, now I got it. Two spoilers:
As far as I can tell, the cheats are just cute hats. Nothing more.
This cannon is not like the other cannons. It doesn't have any cannon balls. After you retrieve the green, red, and black bottles, you load yourself into the cannon by standing next to it and pressing Ctrl. Some of the other cannons later in the game behave this way too, and beware with at least one of them because it will land you on a platform with a pirate running around on it, you have to look sharp and dodge it shortly after landing.
Anyway, I finally did finish the game. It is cute, but I do wish it saved your progress because doing it all in one go is kind of tedious.
baba44713:
I think you'll find that a lot (a majority of?) of classic PC games implemented save-anywhere. The main reason it hasn't been implemented is technical difficulties, especially in consoles. To risk a flame war, I'd say the problem with many platformers and platformer players is that they falsely associate challenge with being forced to tediously replay entire sections on failure, and do not realise that us mere mortals actually have trouble getting timings and keypresses precisely and reliably right all the time.
As a placating gesture though, wouldn't it be great if platformers *at least* offered quicksaves as an 'easy mode'? You are free to not use it if you don't want to.
Leeksoup:
It does actually save your game... just not obviously.
Load a normal savegame, and then do a quickload. That'll hopefully get you back to where you were. If it isn't too late.
@Bad Dog: I used winRAR and it worked. I believe it's free, too. For some reason it just wasn't defaulting to open with winRAR.
@baba44713: That's not just a modern gamer thing. I've been gaming since gaming was a thing and I've always demanded instant gratification. If you want the challenge of no quick saves, don't use that option. Some of us don't like that kind of challenge. I'm a little obsessive and I like to have full health and complete all the "secrets" or whatnot by the end of a level, and I don't want to have to replay the whole level to do that. It's not a laziness issue, it's just a gaming preference.
I must be much worse at platformers then i originally thought. I'm stuck on the second body of water you encounter in holdover, the one wher you go right then double back, I never have enough air to swim to the surface. is there a trick or something i missed?
@ziggaman:
If you mean the one with the two platforms under the water, I q-saved at the left side, then jumped straight down from there, avoiding the platform. If you run into anything that slows you down even a little, you'll run out of air. Immediately hit the down arrow and crawl to the right, then at the next screen I jumped in the first air hole repeatedly until I had around 60 air, then I continued up and out. I found there was just barely enough air if you do it that way.
That's just how I did it, I don't know if there's an easier way.
FhnuZoag:
The problem is, there is no way I can go past the lasers before I run out of oxygen. I have to go down to turn off the security, and I have to jump a few times to reach the passage beyond the lasers, and that sucks a lot of oxygen.
Just to know we're talking about the same thing, the switch to turn off security I'm talking about is the one marked with "star 1" in
http://www.foxeye.squares.net/product/holdover/big/p10.jpg
(and the passage is near the top, to the left)
For those who are having troubles running/extracting Holdover, I'd suggest downloading 7Zip from http://www.7-zip.org - it opens most kinds of archives you'll find (including LZH - if not by default then after installing 7-zip right click on the file, and do "7-Zip --> Open as Archive", or open 7-zip and set it as default in its options menu)
It's very useful - I seem to remember Cave Story used a similar format. LZH is pretty big in Japan it would seem?
Holdover itself is okay, but a bit too punishing I find.
Gray&Green - I got about halfway through this, but then the skulls just got irritating (It just got to a point where it was an exasperated sigh and "Oh, is he going to make me go back through those to get to the door? Yeah, he's gonna make me go back through those to get to the door."
Ninja robots - surprisingly haven't played yet. May try it tomorrow.
Koro:
I managed to get past that part at level 5 oxygen. What you need to do is, from 100 O2, go down and turn off the security. Quickly backtrack and recharge your oxygen at the top, then jump to the left past the deactivated lasers, then break through all the blocks. This is finicky, but as fast as you can go to the right and down, and back to the security. Deactivate it once more, then ASAP get more air. (I could just barely make it with 1 or 2 O2 left most of the time.)
Now just go to the cleared passage you made and go down, down, down. Try not to get hit, but if getting hit will make you go faster be prepared to go topless for a little bit. You don't want to spend any time at all waiting. You should be able to make it down to the next screen, barely, and air is just a few steps away from there.
Hope that helps!
By the way, I finished the game completely clothed. What happens in the various stages of undress? I'd just reload my savegame and find out, but sadly the game refuses to keep my save if I close out the window (which I had to- the "The End" screen wouldn't go away).
I've made quite a bit of progress since my last post. I'm in Network Room B now trying to make it up the platforms. The yellow lines and circle in the green "D" box in this pic:
More Progress
My question is this: I'm nude with very little HP. Would being fully loaded to sustain damage here help? Or is it just one of those live or die scenarios where it doesn't matter? If I cannot survive any damage, then I'll just tough it out and keep trying. But I hate to keep trying if it's easier by visiting the revitalizing capsule first. Anyone?
FhnuZoag and Leeksoup: thanks a lot for the help! I managed to finish it now. I was stuck in that part because
I didn't notice I could go back up to recover oxygen after turning off the security :P
I see many people didn't like Holdover, but I found it very well done and entertaining, and quite playable! And the poor english gives it some charm, very appropriate for a japanese game :)
Oh, and any idea how do you get in the little room to the lower right? The little room with the door below the green star in the pic above.
Lower right, I mean. The little room with the door below the green star in the pic above.
Bad dog:
You can't go in there yet, but it might be a good idea to remember where it is.
As for HP, it's pretty much only spikes from here, so probably 'armour' is of little use. There's a healing capsule right at the end.
Holdover; I am finding it impossible to download
Ninja Robot; the collision detection too over sensitive and the controls too obtuse
Grey and Green; having got my first 'cheat' i tried to find the button to enter it, clicked 'escape' found myself outside of the game, found out I should have clicked 'enter', went back in the game and had to start from scratch.
Unfortunately for me, englander, this weekend download is over.
It seems stupid to ask for help on a matter of pure execution. If one has to jump, then one has to jump. Plain and simple. There's nothing to "figure out," right?
Yet I have been stuck here and have tried hundreds of times for hours. I understand the layout: you're standing on an elevating platform. There's two retracting platforms to the right with a circling one overhead. The solution seems straightforward: at your apex, jump right to the lower platform, then quickly above, then onto the circling one. Timing is important. But whenever I make it to the upper platform, the circling one is too far away. I seem to count a repeating pattern of four elevations and the second time seems perfect for the position of the circling platform. But at that moment, the right platforms are retracting and unreachable.
I would be very, very grateful for any tip or technique to get past this. I'm desperate.
Impossible
Link didn't work. Here it is: http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/outerspaceturtle/Impossible1.jpg
Holdover was surprisingly fun. I managed to beat it without a walkthrough, although I did get stuck at a couple parts. I didn't run into any problems my second play though the game. The level design is really nice, since it's not linear. Here's hoping for more games like this from Foxeye.
Quick secret:
If you collect all 450 hearts and go back to the room you start at, you can get to a secret room. The actual reward for this can be accessed at the end.
Oh, and Bad Dog: If it's any help, you can actually stay standing on the upper platform moving in and out for a little bit longer. You'll take the damage, but you won't get pushed off. It is possible to complete this part without taking damage, but it's easier to just take the damage and get the extra time. There's a healing point not far ahead.
Sorry for the double post, but there is a correction for the secret.
When I said 'at the end', I meant the secret is accessed outside the game in the same directory.
@bluemoose19: Thanks for the tip. As you can see from the pic, I'm in no shape to sustain any damage without dying. I guess the only thing to to is save this game in case, then start a new game. Because it's impossible to backtrack to a capsule at this point.
I've literally spent a cumulative 5 to 7 hours trying to get this particular point. *SIGH*
I'm totally stuck on Holdover:
I'm in the area with the 2-second security disable, but I'm trying to get through from the left side, so there's no way to disable the laser. Does anyone know how to get past this part?
@bluemoose19: I wish I could buy you a beer. It was worth all the time it took to replay to get back to that point in full health. I'm finally past it. Thank you very kindly.
@Ryunosuke:
Since you cannot turn them off on your way back down, you need to be fully armored at that point. Then just run through the one on the left. You sustain damage but can continue topless and evade the rest of the lasers.
Finished it. But at the end:
Someone switched my game to Galaga. Oh, and finishing it naked is nothing you can't see in other parts of the game.
I didn't finish with all 450 hearts, I was like, 8 short. I'll do it some other time because I have save versions very late in the game after all the really hard stuff is done. But just to spare me the trouble, what's the "secret reward" bluemoose?
All in all, a good platformer in my opinion. Reminded me of Pieces. Hard, but enjoyable.
I'm in the water, where to go for the double jump before I get stuck at the bottom just watching the rotating platform just out of my reach? O2 level 3, 180 stars, but can't seem to find this double jump and there's only one way to go that doesn't involve being fried by lasers.
Is armor different from my regular health bar? If it is, I'm probably gonna have to restart...
I'm actually at a point in Holdover where I am stuck. I'm at this location in the game: http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/3223/holdoverstuck.jpg
I am completely unable to get back up without losing any oxygen, and due to where my saves are, i can't back out and get the hearts before I go down there. Is there anything I'm missing or do I truly have to start all over again?
@Ryunosuke:
I assume you're talking about the same point in the game as you mentioned above. Your health bar doesn't apply here. By "armor," I just mean clothed in the blue power suit. You can make it across fully dressed or also bottomless. But you cannot make it across topless. If you are naked or topless, you must restart. I'm sorry if that's the case, but at least you know now.
@Username:
Look at the map below. I am correct, you are stuck at D. You get double-jump at C. But it's locked by impassable yellow bulb lasers. You unlock those at B. You cannot take the lower red path shown. You need cling/climb ability to pass both the left chasm as well as the right underwater section. That ability comes much later. So you must take the higher green path shown. That is blocked by a yellow bulb laser on the left and floor lasers on the right. You must temporarily stop security to disable them. You do that (for 60 seconds) at A. Yes, it is possible to run from A to B in that time. Hope that helps.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s233/outerspaceturtle/Userstuck.jpg
@Spazzbite:
Although Leeksoup did it, I'm surprised you got that far down at level 5. Anyway, while I don't know how many hearts are still available to you down in that area, did you try to get back up using the elevator at the left? It gets you up pretty fast. Stop the security at the terminal in your pic. Go up the passage of that room and go left. There's an elevator that'll take you up. Go right, break the blocks, right again then up to the breathing space.
For anyone interested in the secret reward for getting all hearts:
It's a JPEG of a hand drawn comic style "storyboard." Though not at all titillating like the JPEG you get for completing the game, actually posting it here just didn't seem right. After all, it is a "secret." LOL.
@Ryunosuke CLARIFICATION:
I shouldn't say you MUST restart. While it IS impossible to go right and down from this point if you are topless, you don't have to restart if you are able to make it back up to the revitalizing capsule. For me, it's easier to restart because I cannot make it up the elevator and the circling platform without being fully clothed. But it technically can be done.
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