It is in fact harder to beat the game than just point pressing, so special kuddos to you for getting a highscore while beating it

That's basically making my point. I guess it's up to Bimmy, but that's exactly what I was thinking based on the way the rules were written.

When the progression into the game is taken into consideration, Bimmy usually put 'Furthest progression in the game takes precedence' in the rules. Also, it seems that you're the only one that read the rules that way Doug

Maybe, but I took "Play as far into your last life as possible" to mean the same thing since it also says "If you beat the game, take your picture on the end screen where Billy Lee rescues Marian". I'd consider beating the game with the highest score a tougher challenge than just getting the highest score via point racking, but if misunderstood the rules, I guess that's on me.

i consider this tougher too

which is why i wanted to beat the game...but...i also knew going into it, if i scored more points on level 3 and died, then when i beat the game, taht the level 3 score would take precident

either way, great job doug

i only got to give this one two trys myself this week (still beat it

wish i had more time too

I didn't know if I was going to get around to playing at all and because I didn't give it a shot until Sunday evening, I wanted to make sure that I beat the game just in case progression did count. It's my mistake since I could've asked for clarification earlier in the week.

"play as far into your last life as possible" is to distinguish it from "DO NOT PLAY on your last life at all" (which has been the case, many weeks of the contest)

Presumably, the "take your picture" after the win had to do with not just having your high score show up as if it were a "game over"

1) +11 -- Balloon_Kid -- 339,210
2) +10 -- guillavoie -- 309,910
3) +9 -- arch_8ngel -- 259,530
4) +8 -- bearcat-doug -- 222,690
5) +7 -- gutsman004 -- 207,850
6) +6 -- arnpoly -- 195,700
7) +5 -- BriGuy82 -- 129,910
8) +4 -- fatalfuryspecial -- 106,440
9) +3 -- Vectrex280996 -- 88,660
10)+2 -- EgasKrad -- 65,800
====================================
Velinos -- 52,160
BilltownSparty -- 44,360
Thundercat08 -- 35,120
jump_man95 -- 31,820
treismac -- 30,370
pats1717 -- 30,240

Just getting back from vacation, so way behind on posts.

Great job everyone with this game.  You all made a lot of progress with the point racking strats in just a short amount of time. Only question I have: Where did you see 330k as the TG record?  I thought I had set that score at around 470k.  Is the updated TG site not showing this?

It wasn't actually 330, I misremembered.  The specific number I saw quoted somewhere was 303k. (it was from some other forum's high score thread, used as a benchmark, and was probably a few years old)

I haven't looked at the actual TG site in awhile since it was broken for so long.
Figured it was still a piece of shit and not working.
(just checked TG... have to log in to see anything... guess it's not "broken" anymore but in modern web-design, I feel like that still makes it a crappy site)


470k is definitely a monster score.  

Were you able to get more than 2 loops out of each cave section? (also, did you choose to somehow loop the first stage of Mission 4?  I didn't think there was enough time for that)

Also, where did you choose to strategically die to maximize scoring potential? (since I can see how 400k is pretty straightforward, but 470k is hard to picture)

Gotcha. No worries about the 330k. Was just curious.

I can't quite remember all the details of the 470k run, since I didn't save my video, but I think the biggest thing I did was I looped the forest in Mission 3. If you really book it, you can get all the way through it twice without dying, while still laying headbutts on all the Chintai and maybe some Abobos.

I think I got at least 3 loops in the first cave, but maybe not the second. I definitely did not try looping Mission 4. Too risky going past that blasted trick wall.

Only other thought was I had was that if you get to Willy with a life in the bank, it's better to die there (running the clock out), so you can re-fight the Abobos and Chintai. You can get roughly 50-60 headbutts against Jimmy (64 minus punching him to avoid the hundreds digit glitch), but it's hard and you'll usually kill him with time to spare, if you started your life on him. Better to start a life on the Abobos.

I think that 500k is possible, but it would take a lot of speed and skill. Not sure when I would be up for that much point racking again, but maybe sometime.

I wouldn't think looping the forest was possible, at least not in combination with all of the head butting.

Maybe if you managed to exclusively elbow the weaker enemies to save time...

Yup, for this to work, you need to kill the Williams and Lopars as fast as possible.  Hair pulls are ideal, since they're quick, easy, and worth a decent chunk of points.  Jump kicks followed by pin attacks also work.

The key to remember is that even if you die from running out of time, you're still scoring a lot of points.  Best case scenario is for the clock to run out just as you're about to finish off a Chintai or Abobo group.  You can then get in some extra headbutts on your next life.

I, too, decided to loop in the forest to spend my extra lives

Yeah, I guess I should have looked at my own detailed analysis and realized Stage 1 of Mission 3 is worth 50k per loop.

So possibly 50k+ per life, whereas the other loop locations are worth at least 10k less per life.