So I was REALLY wrong in my assumptions about the point-pressing in Stage 3... (foolishly assumed that 590k we saw from the other poster was a max...silly, I know)

So I got there after a couple of good levels, no deaths, milked a couple of spots I noticed in stages 1 and 2, as well...
well I am at 570k pts and I still have 2 lives left. At 80k per life it would go:
570k lives:2
650k lives:2 (one-up for 100k)
730k lives:2 (one-up for 100k)
810k lives:2 (one-up for 100k)
890k lives:1
970k lives:1 (one-up for 100k)
1060k lives:1 (one-up for 100k)
1140k lives:1 (one-up for 100k)
1120k lives:1 (one-up for 100k)
1200k lives:1 (one-up for 100k)
1280k lives:0
1360k lives:0 (one-up for 100k)
1440k lives:0 (one-up for 100k)
1420k lives:0 (one-up for 100k)
1500k lives:0 (one-up for 100k)

And then you could probably go on to beat the game for another 150k - 200k in final score...



In conclusion... I will leave it to the judges, but "point-pressing" in this game, in lucrative spots, is almost a 1-up farm.
And for all I know, there might be a better spot that actually IS a 1-up farm.


PS - perfected my farming method and it is actually more like 86k per life.

(this probably would have been more robust as a 1-life challenge since then milking could be allowed and there would be no worries)

63670

Played the game yesterday and we definitely need to adjust something to avoid the almost infinite 1-up generations from pressing points. Naturally, 1-life rule could completely get rid of the problem. We could consider only using our first 3 lives as well, anything over (based on score) would be forbidden to play on.

Thoughts?

1-life rule is easier to enforce (and I get to keep my 275k )

"First 3 lives" would be easy to lose track in the point-pressing zone, since you regenerate 1-ups so quickly.


But with 1-life... rack away at your own peril. (though there are still a few zones where it is a worthwhile trade in time if you are careful and can still finish the level)

I'm cool with whatever and just try to do the best I can. Side note: is bimmy okay? Haven't heard much from him lately.

Personally, I think 1-life will be a better differentiator of skill (and won't turn the game into a 3-4 hour time-suck for people who want to post a competitive score)


(also, a 1-life rule is probably easier to prove, since we know where the 1-ups are, and we know the score-to-life conversion rate for generating extra lives... snap your last-boss pic before and after the lives tally)

1-life would be my personal choice for sure, I only proposed 3-lives to have an alternative that is less 'hardcore'. Either ways are the same to track giving that we know how much extra lives one earns through 100k points + 1up items through the game.

Bimmy should decide for us.

well my 2 cents would be no intentional respawn enemy killing. I mean if you fall down and have to rekill a foe thats one thing but waiting to kill time and again is lameooooo!

It would be pretty easy to tell if someone was doing this. Like arch said there is a pretty narrow window of points you could get based on what level you ended up on. really a clean run i think is about 280,000 max with no deaths and minimum hits. anyhoo i dont really care im just having fun with this

For these kind of games with a timer, the best solution is usually to allow point pressing cause the game impose a limit. Asking no intentional respawn and things like that creates too much grey area. Also, it is much more challenging to execute a run where you point press and get your way through the game. Skills are involved in being quick in every phase of the game. But I get what you menan, it sounds real boring at first, but if you're good to beat the game without focusing on points, than it gets more interesting to add the point pressing strategy to boost your score.

The other good option when we want to forbid point pressing is to go for a furthest progression and low score rules, but when there's a timer, it is rarely a good option.

^ There are many areas where you don't get a lot of time to complete the area,much less point press.

Indeed, I haven't verified every sections of the game so far, but it doesn't seem that point pressing would not be that awful to perform in a complete run.

Since there is a time limit, I believe point racking should not be prohibited

EDIT: Oops, I didn't know about the extra lives thingy... Maybe it should be prohibited after all

EDIT: Removed old score of 282,110 (no point farming, no death)

There might be some tiny room for improvement, but this is about as good as it gets playing it straight.

Did you manage to kill the 4th and last bosses without quantum bombs?

In retrospect I didn't think I left this many points on the table since I killed everything, but I guess being low on life or chips at a couple of stage/boss endings cost me more than I thought.

If we do a 1-life rule, then point-press away, since the most lucrative location will only get 86k for you if you play it nearly perfectly and that involves dying.

So NOT dying, and milking the handful of vulnerable locations is still a demonstration of skill and not just a time-suck.

(NOTE: the statue-head in Stage 5 that generates a 1-up should be banned from pressing, at least in terms of picking up the 1-up more than once)

The 4th boss I killed only the pea-shooters with quantum bombs.  The last boss I killed with quantum bombs ... I was taking waaay too much damage without so it was a good trade off.  The rest of the run, with one or two exceptions, I did with just hair.

Yeah, that is my strategy, as well, since the robot itself is pretty easy, and I have no idea how you'd do enough damage to the final form of the last boss without quantum bombs.  (though I'm sure there is some way to dodge the lasers consistently)

I guess I gave up 5k points in chip/life losses, then.

My first time through I was able to beat the last boss hair only, but that's really a terrible way to do it!  I could only get one hit in at a time if I was lucky and it just takes too long.  A good safe spot for dodging the lasers is directly underneath the head and a little to the right.  It's not foolproof though ... I had to sometimes jiggle around a little bit to make sure I didn't get hit.

Of course all of that is moot if you stand all the way to the left and use bombs.  =)

Also I'm pretty anal about killing every enemy I see if I can get to it.  I am guessing that makes up more of the gap in our scores than just life/chips.

231820
After all this time, I actually managed to beat this on my first go. Stages 3 and 5 can go fuck themselves
Sorry for the blurry pic I have the pic before adding up the score if you want

No, I definitely killed everything.  100% certain.

Since there have been some more posts to the thread that appear to have not been 1-life play-throughs, we REALLY need to clarify the rules  

If we are doing 1-life, no holds barred (other than 1-up spamming, of course...which IS possible at the Stage 5 heads):


Score updated w/pic in earlier post (497,350)

Couldn't quite break 500k

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE FOR THE JUDGES:

If we do a 1-life rule, "1-up farming" is actually pretty harmless as a strategy, since it only gains 1 extra life over what you'll already have in a really good run (bumps you to 9 lives instead of 8).
So for the best scores it will only be worth 10k.
Though for a non-grind 1-life beat, it would be worth 30k, I think.

If you farm for 1-ups it will appear to go to "A" after "9", but by the next level it bumps back down to 9.
AND score thresholds of 100k do NOT exceed 9.


So the most lives you can possibly finish the final battle with is "9".

updated my single life run with no repeat grinding of enemies, there is room for a few more points as i used chips on last boss and lost some life throughout.

281,110 i posted 3 pics on first page of this thread in case rules change as i have no spare time this week to play

It's getting close to the point to where there's no turning back in terms of the rules,so I would say start practicing your point pressing runs.

We need to clarify the 1-life versus as-many-as-you-can-tolerate, since the former takes around 30 minutes (even with point-pressing) and the latter is an all day affair...