congrats on the win skinny
I also had this game growing up I didn't really like it much but it's far easier than I remember. I never knew anybody else that had this game so it's interesting you guys did also

550k is all the bosses. Then there's the minimum 100 points per level completion from remaining hearts (if you can manage to finish every single boss with just a single heart). There are 11 times your remains are counted, so 1100, making the ABSOLUTE minimum 561,000. Every heart/mana remaining beyond that will be an additional 100 points, and will likely be the bulk of extra points you get in general due to not wanting to get down to a single heart on most bosses, as it's incredibly risky - you'll lose your entire run if you die on a main boss.

A couple hundred points per level will also come from pikcups - you'll need health boosts, mana refills, at least the first weapon upgrade (to spear), and one stamina upgrade per level until it's capped (lest you go into 7-1 handicapped). Another 1000 or so (estimated) for each of those, call it around 565,000 as a minimum score by endgame, playing basically perfectly.

The biggest pain would be the risk from getting yourself to 1 heart and 0 mana. Basically if you figure out how many fire spells each boss takes, you can manipulate it so you enter each boss with the requisite mana to do exactly that many fire attacks, and just finish each that way. You all know that's not entirely easy to do though as there's also mini bosses to contend with, and they're not all pushovers.
 

I used to rent it as a kid. I really liked it and was impressed with the huge sprites.

I'm not sure that the game has aged that well. I can forgive your guy moving so slow because that reminds me of Castlevania but not the colossal amount of slowdown. The slowness of your attack also takes some getting used to, and some enemies such as the jellyfish are annoying to hit. I like the huge bosses, but there could have been a better variety of regular enemies.

I'd never used bind before the contest and abusing it makes the stages that are full of pits such as Marshy so much easier.

It's an okay game. But playing it makes me appreciate far superior action platformers such as the Ninja Gaidens, Batman the Video Game and Castlevania even more.
 

Astyanax kids!! Hell ya! I always thought the game was pretty bad. Even as a kid. But there is just something about it that makes it ok to play. Idk lol. The music is decent. The graphics are good. The gameplay is where the game takes a fall. Like mbd said the slow attacks and the hit detection is weird. It’s almost like you have to hold the attack button down through the entire strike or it doesn’t register as a hits.

thanks for the congrats everyone! It was a nice win and good competitive fun! Thanks! 
 

Are you picking up the arrow pickup? It speeds up your attack.
 

I didn’t pick up all the stamina upgrades. Is that the hand? Because I skipped everyone of them. The only thing I picked up was the spear and I finish the game with the sword, picking it up on 3-1. I pick up a cutie once per stage and a heart refill every once in a while (maybe three all game). I even skipped some of te little totum pole things so that I get a cutie on the last one before boss battles. And just tried to purge as much hearts/magic as possible. I think I said fuck it on the dragon but every boss I bet I was below 5 hearts/magic for every other boss .
 

I never picked up the arrow or the hand. I thought they were worth points so If I broke one open I would just jump over them.

I think the hand increases your weapon's attack meter so that you can do more damage. You don't need it, but it's worth picking up. It's not that many more points. The other item increases your weapon's speed so that is also worth picking up.



 

Does Astyanax have the worst slowdown on the system? I know that 1943 gets pretty bad as well.

I was conscious about not picking up the hand or arrow lol. I did notice my power up meter thing for attack was very weak and never filled up. 

 

Yeah the hand is stamina - the more full it is the more damage your physical attack will do. The arrow is attack speed, and makes you swing faster (not very useful for a low score run, all things considered).
 

Lol Astyanax is pretty bad but it works like the matrix when I was just taking damage trying to power through the second half of later levels lol

 

Yeah I dunno that the devs ever anticipated jerk like us actively trying to break the game by not attacking enemies at all lol.

Yeah, the slowdown is a lot worse when playing pacifist, but it's still pretty bad even when you're playing normally as soon as the screen fills up with enemies.

 

I was swamped yesterday, but your tips were very helpful mbd39! I not only finished 3-2, I beat the entire game. Its kind of funny how imbalanced the bosses were in this game. For instance, I felt the final boss was very easy. I just casted bind strategically and defeated him easily, despite him casting bind too on occasion. By far the worst level was Marshy. It went on and on, but the bind spell helped out there too.

I recall Marshy being the run killer for me as a kid. Very long, and plenty of "gotcha" moments with falling into holes.

I can see why. Those swamp creatures knocking you into a hole sucks. At least the knockback in this game is not as bad as castlevania or ninja gaiden.
 

If you have 25 min of your life to waste watching  a knuckle head play Astyanax badly and listen to him talk nonsense then here you go.

i think I filmed this on Wednesday or Thursday I can’t remember.