Super League 2021: Round 3 - Switchblade II

[Biscuit]

Despite getting a fair few votes in the past it's the first time we've played this in the league. Time to see how high that score goes and discover what we can.

Switchblade II [lemon] [hol]
Welcome to Cyberworld and your quest, as Hiro, to defend the peace loving people from the return of Havoc. An evil being who uses the power of a nearby volcano to threaten the world with destruction. You can switch to a variety of weapons using shops. Your credits max out at $99. Ammo is finite. To do a high jump push down then up. There are secret areas on certain levels. And I have no idea what the fire blade is or does.


Round Ends: 23:59 (UK Time) on Saturday 13th March 2021

Rules:
Get the best score you can, during this round.
Post screenshots of your score in this thread, and write the score nearby.
Scores to be achieved without save-states, trainers, passwords, and cheats.
No continues or infinite score leeching.
Finish the game and post a screenshot of the end for the completion star.
Full rules and info are HERE.

Get the Game:
ADF
WHDLoad (direct link)



Extras:
EAB's Round 3 thread is HERE.
Super League Live Ladder.
Super League updates available via Twitter.
Check out the C64 Games Competition at our sister site Lemon64.

Live League Table:

All new players are welcome at any time. Join us!

[john4p]

In my youth I couldn't get past this because I didn't know how to high jump:



What have I missed. Great game.



269,325

[Mitch J. Frenzal]

I shall get to this shortly, I remember this to be one of those where I have to remember bloody random spikes coming out of the floor without warning. :/ Given I'm not famed for my memory, This could be a trouble.

Anyway. Current rankings on RCS : https://cbm8bit.com/highscores/game/ami ... tchblade+2

I was scoring about 60-70k in practice, So let's see what happens later.

[LinesMachine]

What have I missed. Great game.

Absolutely agree, I've booted this up a few times over the last few weeks and I've really come to like it. Really nice colour scheme and decent animation and got a great faux Japan arcade feel to it. Feels a bit like it should have come from the (S)NES stable.

Looking forward to some competition on this one as I'd love to get a completion.

[Mitch J. Frenzal]

Core Design did some really good stuff around then, And some total crap (cough, cough, Impossimole!) Was it them who did that helicopter sim, I remember being blown away by that when it came out.

[Per-Ola Eriksson]

Finally something I can play , I'll be back.

[Graham Humphrey]

I'll be playing this over on my Twitch channel this evening if anyone fancies dropping in to point and laugh (8:30pm UK time).

https://twitch.tv/nag_graham

[aca0808_belgrade]

Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to play this game when I was younger ... It seems like a very good game and I will definitely play it, when I achieve a solid result I will send a screenshot of the score ...

[aca0808_belgrade]

My first couple of attempts..



71,625

[lifeschool]

I've had my first couple of experimentation runs. With mixed results.

Blaster Gun - you start with this and cant upgrade it. Seems useless in the shop.

Blades - they are powerful and seem to do the job, but they use ammo quicker than the normal gun.

Laser - a powerful weapon but the reload is painfully SLOW! If can get a shot on target then thats fine, but otherwise it leaves you as a sitting duck until it reloads.

Napalm - very powerful but uses ammo quickest. It has a limited range so must be used near to the enemy.

'P' - Powerups - I bought x2 of these in the first shop but I didnt notice the blade was any stronger.

'S' - shield - lasts maybe 10 to 15 seconds; so is pretty useless.

ED-209 Enemy - These appear on the first three levels, most notably as the end of level bosses on level 1 and level 3. The rockets are heat seeking, so its best to crouch and then jump up. But it takes a lot of firepower and time to do it this way. Is there a better way?

Gun Nest - End of level 2 boss. This reminded me so much of Midnight Resistance, but unlike that game, you cant just shoot upwards to take out the enemies. You need a powerful weapon, as those tracking guns are very tough.


Score: 181,400

[Mitch J. Frenzal]

Setting new standards in dead average, 136800

As if random spikes from nowhere wasn't enough, Leaps of faith into fires I can't see, Now that's not fair!








Edit : The WHDLoad version has been updated so the two-button controls actually work. Worst case, I'll put the pre-install up on my RCS webdrive.

[LinesMachine]

Core Design did some really good stuff around then,

I didn't think Core had any involvement in the second Switchblade? There's no Phipps or anything by this point, or am I wrong?

[Mitch J. Frenzal]

It looks like Venus : The Flytrap, I assume it's the same team, I just thought Gremlin employed Core to do both.

After looking at the Core website, They did neither Venus or Switchblade 2. They did do Switchblade 1 though.

[RuySan]

Edit : The WHDLoad version has been updated so the two-button controls actually work. Worst case, I'll put the pre-install up on my RCS webdrive.

Is this any different than remapping buttons on the emulator? Does "up" only works for ladders and not for jumping?

[MikeyG]

Can I just check, are we allowed to use maps in this one or does this spoil it too much and give an unfair advantage?

This is another new game for me and had a couple of goes and so far enjoying. Nice platformer.
Know what you mean Mitch about those random spikes and they only trigger when your a certain distance away so I feel there going to be alot of creeping about learning the spikes.