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SE releases Arkanoid vs Space Invaders on iOS/Android

duckroll

Member
From lvl60 onward I definitely feel the challenge in the game picked up a lot. I'm finding that I can't brute force my way through stuff anymore, I have to consider more carefully not just what character I use but also the control scheme and what other options I have to deal with the individual challenge in a stage. Good stuff.
 
From lvl60 onward I definitely feel the challenge in the game picked up a lot. I'm finding that I can't brute force my way through stuff anymore, I have to consider more carefully not just what character I use but also the control scheme and what other options I have to deal with the individual challenge in a stage. Good stuff.

I just made it back to stage 60 onward in hard mode and, yeah, the same thing is happening again.

Your solutions from normal mode start to get invalidated because if you needed two Attack Mode shots before, now they make you do it with one. And cheesing your way through with Great Thing starts to become ineffective.
 

Zonic

Gives all the fucks
Made it to stage 96. The fact each world introduces a new mechanic really helps keep things fresh.

Also unlocked Proco from Darius, C-Mond from Puchi Carat, & Riga Pratica from Dariusburst. It's fun learning about some obscure games that these characters come from. One of these days, I should get those Taito Legends compilations that were released on PS2.
 
Made it to stage 96. The fact each world introduces a new mechanic really helps keep things fresh.

Also unlocked Proco from Darius, C-Mond from Puchi Carat, & Riga Pratica from Dariusburst. It's fun learning about some obscure games that these characters come from. One of these days, I should get those Taito Legends compilations that were released on PS2.

I bought Taito Legends 2 for the shmups, but I ended up playing the hell out of Puchi Carat. Ironically, it was the closest thing to this game in both collections... since Arkanoid wasn't actually included.

There are weirdly fewer Taito Legends games represented in this game than you would expect. Like, nobody from Arabian Magic or Dungeon Magic? Nobody from Elevator Action II?

But they have four characters from Psychic Force for some reason.
 
Wow, the stage 75 boss on hard was the hardest stage in the game by far.

The boss attacks are extremely hard to counter, but if you equip a defensive skill then you are dead because you won't be able to deal enough damage in time. So you must play offense and defense perfectly, and get a little bit lucky.

- You must smash as many bullets into the boss as possible before your first Attack Mode.
- You must get two skill drops before your first Attack Mode, and hit him as many times as possible up close with Ball Booster + on continuously (assuming you don't get extremely lucky and trap the ball between him and the walls).
- You must let no more than two shots past you, even through the second boss phase where things just get stupid. Hope that no paralysis debuffs get mixed in among the bullets. You need to survive long enough to charge up a second Attack Mode.
- Forget about hitting the switches.
 
Man, stage 104 was a nightmare on hard. Same challenge as on normal - you have one chance to smash two bullets on opposite sides of the field in rapid succession into switches above. But now you have to survive until you get that chance.

So many ways to fail this one:
- Fail to defend well enough and time runs out.
- Defend too well and you get carried away and forget what you're supposed to do.
- Survive until your opening and you might fail one of the smashes because you're too excited.
- Hit both switches and you might still die before you get your Attack Mode.
- Get your Attack Mode and you might still miss because of the placement of blocks, etc.
 
Awesome!

I'm starting to get stumped on some of the post-100 stages on hard. Any stage from here on could take as long as it took to finish 5 stages before, it feels like.

Still, I'm starting to realize most of the seemingly undodgeable waves of bullets are manageable. You just need a steady eye and hand... a very steady hand.
 

duckroll

Member
My annoyance with Hard Mode is not missing bullets, but trying to avoid the stupid power downs. I feel they went a bit overboard with that.
 
Avoiding the debuffs is a little luck-based, but I've found that you can almost always recover from one unless it's paralysis. They really don't last very long at all.
 

dock

Member
Just downloaded this and I get no audio at all. I've redownloaded twice and rebooted my iPhone 7 but nothing. Anyone know what's up?
 
Some levels past 120 on hard are getting hard as hell! I'm having to skip whole stretches of levels at a time. 123 is still my nemesis, just like on normal.

And there are now levels where you're obviously not meant to be able to survive once the later attack patterns kick in. You have to make as much progress as possible during Attack Mode - so Linka is now MVP for most levels (sometimes Ti2) and Great Thing does almost nothing anymore.
 
I'm down to five last levels on hard mode. I think I can safely say these are the asshole levels.

107: They take away more than half your time compared to on normal, and you still have to break through a thick wall with nothing nearby to bounce the ball off of.
122: This level's stinginess with skill drops makes doing everything in under 25 seconds up to pure luck. And if you bounce the ball wrong, it gets stuck in front of the switch doing a figure eight forever.
123: 90% of the time the ball just doesn't want to go up to the switches. And when it does, there's not enough time left to charge up another Attack Mode.
137: Have fun defending against the widest attack pattern in the game, with completely random timing!
150: It's the final boss, sure, but I think this was actually intended to be unbeatable if your luck goes bad and paralysis items get mixed among the boss bullets.
 
Beating all 150 levels on hard does, in fact, unlock the secret menu option. It's the true ending!

Now time to try the leaderboards for real...
 
OMG congrats. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to do that, but glad to know something unlocks as a reward. :D

Thanks!

It turns out the secret to level 150 on hard was the Magnet skill. You just deal massive damage without having to hit the switches at all.

In the end I only managed to use a powerup to cheat past one level successfully - 137, with the long paddle. It felt good.
 
So, I'm finally in the 60s. It's not so, so bad, since I've been playing the hard mode stages as I clear each zone, but I can totally see the ramp up in difficulty.

Definitely the transition from trying to kill everything to actually having to target specific things makes things much tougher.
 

ffvorax

Member
Looks nice, but 5.45€???

Maybe with a discount... I have no problem to pay for Android games, but I actually don't play much with my phone (only Dragonball Dokkan), so that's too pricey in my case... I already have enough backlog on consoles and pc... lol
 

Shaneus

Member
Looks nice, but 5.45€???

Maybe with a discount... I have no problem to pay for Android games, but I actually don't play much with my phone (only Dragonball Dokkan), so that's too pricey in my case... I already have enough backlog on consoles and pc... lol
I just don't know how this thread survived for so long without your insightful input.
 
75/75 in gold medals! For some of those levels, Hard Mode isn't really harder anymore. It's the stupid gold block placement that's killer.

A lot of the levels actually become easier once you've mastered aimed bounces, and triple ball splitter trivializes a lot more levels.

But there are a handful of levels to watch out for where the time limit or bullet waves get very tight.
 
90/90 now. Stage 83 on Hard is bullshit, though. If you don't get lucky with power-ups, it's literally impossible. That's stupid.

I think I did get lucky on that one, so I went back and tried to find a consistent strategy.

You're not supposed to have enough time anymore on hard to break through the shield with skills (because I assume we all used Gather Shot on normal). The stage is timed so that you can just barely get a single Attack Mode off (and yes, you might need to get an attack powerup to make it happen).

The trick is that you can trap the ball behind the enemies' shield as it moves backwards, and it can pretty consistently break through the weaker back shield. Equip Lock-On + as insurance for getting all the enemies.
 
I think I did get lucky on that one, so I went back and tried to find a consistent strategy.

You're not supposed to have enough time anymore on hard to break through the shield with skills (because I assume we all used Gather Shot on normal). The stage is timed so that you can just barely get a single Attack Mode off (and yes, you might need to get an attack powerup to make it happen).

The trick is that you can trap the ball behind the enemies' shield as it moves backwards, and it can pretty consistently break through the weaker back shield. Equip Lock-On + as insurance for getting all the enemies.
Unfortunately, the way I'm going through, I don't have access to Lock-On+ (or even regular Lock-On) yet, so I had to just rely on aiming carefully and being lucky.

That particular stage, though, I think is crap not because it took me the most tries or is the hardest, but that one is designed so that you don't have enough time if you don't get an Attack Up or Time Increase. Like, if those don't come, you can reflect every shot and never get into Attack Mode, which is stupid.
 
Yeah, so this is not the game to play after having a few drinks.

This set of levels (106-120) is interesting, though. It's really easy on Normal, since there aren't many gimmicks, but it's really hard on Hard because of the insane shot volume.

I'm at a sobriety level where I'm kind of "hyper focused," but that just means I'm catching everything, including all the power downs. Whoops.

EDIT: 120/120. Turns out only 114 had the massive volleys.
 

Kinan

Member
So, 5" Android phone or iPad Mini 4 - what is better suited for this game? Tempted to buy, but need to decide on the platform.
 
So, 5" Android phone or iPad Mini 4 - what is better suited for this game? Tempted to buy, but need to decide on the platform.

I'm playing on my iPhone. It is the perfect game for those times when you need something to do just for a few minutes. And I have had no problems with screen readability or anything of that nature.

That being said, it would be nice to play on my iPad when I'm at home. Unless I'm missing something, there's no cloud save feature is there? Anyhoo I like the game in short bursts, so I recommend the phone.
 
150/150! Whew, that was crazy. 137 was the worst. I had to use items.

True ending spoiler:

Screenshot_20170612-015531.png

Now, then, what are Nadia icons? It doesn't look like I've found even a single one.
 
150/150! Whew, that was crazy. 137 was the worst. I had to use items.

True ending spoiler:

Screenshot_20170612-015531.png

Now, then, what are Nadia icons? It doesn't look like I've found even a single one.

Hey, I used an item on 137 too and it was also my last level. With those wide spreads at the end, the long paddle meant the difference between hoping for luck and consistent finishes.

The thing about Nadia icons is a mistranslation. There's only one Nadia icon (in the menu), and you have to tap it 10 times.
 
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