march 2007

argh... been busy and lazy so there was no update on this particular page but i've written another newsletter and been collecting material for another one.
some changes have recently materialized too.
my time in japan is coming to an end - i will go back to switzerland at the end of march. i got a promising job and a flat, too. no sleeping outside. internet connection is also ordered so i should be settled in nicely.

here's what i spent a lot of time on recently: kobo deluxe.

the game's all (mostly) fun until level 33 which is a f***ing pain in the bottocks. it's just an extraordinary collection of unfairness. probably caused me an ulcer or two. after a lot of raging, screaming and doubting the world in general here's how to beat level 33:

the level is quite big so take it easy.

as an assumption, the designer of level 33 probably hates humanity so he made it extra-hard. 10 seconds after the start, the flying boomerangs take up all your attention bombarding you with metal scraps. you'll probably die because they just seem to get more and more.

after you die and respawn or if you manage to survive el bumerango and destroy a core, the next pain in the ass shows up - the blue balls that explode if you get too close. they always explode sending two pieces of metal into your direction, no matter what direction they came from and where they were heading too. the guy who invented this crap probably hated everyone and their brother. you'll probably die at this stage too.

after you die and respawn or if you manage to survive el ballo bluo and destroy a core, the level gets aggressive and attacks with you with same spaceships that the joints spit out. except that those spaceships are slightly green-bluish and shoot out metal scraps. not to let things get boring, once in a while you'll be visited by some kind of uber-mothership who spits out them shooting spaceships. very likely you're gonna die.

after you die and respawn or if you manage to survive el shippe del spaco and destroy a core, mother nature takes revenge on you and sends you its version of an asteroid shower. unnaturally many, in fact. i don't want to repeat myself but the probability of an untimely demise is high. and guess what? just in case you annihilate a core, the boomerangs will be back. did i mention that the asteroids are still around? happy dying!

so, how can you possibly survive this onslaught? the best shot you will have at it is during the shooting spaceship phase. this is actually feasible, even if you're playing on a 1024x768 resolution screen on a laptop. now here's what matters: once the shooting spaceships stop coming you'll be left alone for a while. destroy as many joints as possible, ONE BY ONE, and WITHOUT DESTROYING A CORE. every 2000 points you will get another life, every joint counts for 10 points. as long as you don't destroy a core, you won't slide into the next phase even you get another life.

ideally, in the end you'll be left with just five cores. let the cherry-picking begin! pick the shortest itinerary, wasting as little time as possible, and blow them up. that was level 33 for you. (even if happen to die at this stage, you are very likely to make it through - after all there are just cores left)

HTH
mindfall903