A masterpiece, simply put. I'm gonna have to cut this into 2 or 3 sections just to cover all I have to say about this, honestly.
Review:
Bosses forever 2.bro is an arcade style SHMUP/platformer experience. It combines increasingly difficulty, adaptive mechanics, and a wonderfully funny and polished world into one wonderful product. Players can enjoy pushing themselves to new heights, experimenting with tactics, and generally have a blitz-loaded good time. My only complaint is that there is no option to skip the tutorial, which is incredibly disappointing because it does get annoying very fast. For a game that utilizes some cookies, saving whether or not you've done the tutorial is painfully un-thought of, especially because dying makes you restart from the beginning and run into it again.
I've enjoyed playing this for hours on end and now have got to stop because my tendons are thrashed and now aggravated, but that was originally because of airsoft, this is just an addiction fighting my recovery.
Wonderful, and I love the floppy afro physics, casings, and generally interesting design on this.
10/10, 5/5 ~WCCC
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Gameplay analysis, strategy, and breakdown:
The player: Although I haven't tested bro-op mode (and probably can't because my keyboard refuses to handle that much input at once), the player is definitely an amusing character. Choosing from either bro, they run around with floppy afros, guns cocked, and lead flying in a humorous manner. Utilizing jumps is very key and definitely combines to very important combinations. I haven't personally gotten into dash too much except for emergency huge jumps over mines/lasers and the occasional outrunning of homing shells. Shoot is very important, but you should remember the boss has an aegis period where, after being hit, he can no longer take damage for a short period. Know this, use it, and try to conserve your shots and finger-stamina accordingly. Only spam shots when you think or know he's firing lots of projectiles or mines, the mines will block shots meant to hit him and projectiles of course block and can hit you to do damage. I highly recommend revamping your controls to a more spaced-out layout and playing in fullscreen. My combat performance went up several fold after going fullscreen and even more after reconfigging my controls. Also make great use of wall jumps and directional shooting to maximize your agility and damage opportunities/output.
Recommended controls:
A - dash, S - shoot, Space - Jump, Arrow keys - Move
Remember to rebind player 2's controls to free up arrow keys, i usually bind them to IJKL setup, but play with what works for you the best, you'll need every ounce of help you can get to throw down at the brobot brodown.
The upgrades:
You are given 3 upgrades: upgrade your max health by 25 units (1 bar), heal your current health 33% of your max health (to stay ahead of the curve it's very important you balance upgrades to boost heal amount and actual healing to stay alive/in good condition) and damage. Damage is VERY important to get early game, while you can dodge the enemy's attacks and not have to worry about health. The round where I take my 2nd hit ever in that playthrough (whether it be 1 hit on round X and the 2nd hit on round Y or simply getting hit 2x the same round, X) I tend to start investing in max health upgrades. You can maximize your leniency to prevent health-based upgrades by practice and playing patiently/smart. After you start taking hits routinely enough, I recommend upgrading max health so your healing can be amplified for relatively early rounds and you can invest in upgrades and waste time healing minimally. Upgrading max health does not heal you, that first health bar you have can be layered upon multiple times, JUST like the boss you fight. Damage is very important later game to shorten the fight, but health is important both for surviving/healing as well as learning new attack patterns and mastering your counter for them for later battles/playthroughs.
The (b)robot:
The robot is an interesting foe. He will visually use the same archetype every time, and although his coloration/art is unrelated to his behaviors, his movements very much are. But first, it's important to note that he gains 50 XP or so every round, but his exact amount is variable. If you take more damage (relative to that rounds start, not your max health across multiple) he will gain less XP because he is "doing his job fine", but finishing with higher amounts of health (relative to max and what you started out that round, so more max HP does not equal more XP) and to some degree healing can up the amount of XP he gains, sometimes reaching a bit over 50. Each 1% of health you take takes of 0.5 XP, but it is always displayed or rounded as whole numbers. More XP installs new attacks, upgrades, and increases damage/health, so keep your eyes peeled on that XP boost to judge what level of fighting he's at. Generally, if you get your ass kicked in a round, he won't change much the next round, sometimes being as low as 8XP or so per next round, so that would usually indicate very little advancement in his routines. For some attacks, he starts looking around, left/right back and forth. This indicates a fistful of moves, including teleportation, firing bombs, shooting laser boomerangs, and sine others. If he has energy flash around his eyes, he's charging up a large laser blast, and if he starts flashing colors he's about to clone himself. Although you can hit and kill the clones, hitting the original does much more damage and is a much better fighting tactic, especially because he sacrifices health multiplier to spawn clones. It makes hammering the original a must faster kill, exploiting his weakness of "offense for defense". If he starts shaking a lot, he's going to start doing dash attacks and moving faster, I dub this "twitchy mode"
The attacks:
Components:
Lasers - They move in various directions and cannot be destroyed except by colliding against geometry. Dodging them is usually easy, as they are small and slow.
Mines - Various types, they can explode in lasers, bomblets, or just plain explosion, they can be shot or collided to release their payload. Shooting releases them from a safe(r) distance and is preferable if they're blocking main areas of movement for you.
Boomerangs - Sticking, ricocheting, and wavering through the air, these things are a tad crazy, but still moderately predictable if you think a bit about it, which can be done quickly. Cannot be shot.
Pipe Bombs/Bomblets - These little guys can be shot to detonate at safe(r) distances, and bounce around a bit before exploding.
Homing shells - These guys lock onto you. They can detonate on contact with geometry, but it has to be either a prolonged collision or the head itself has to hit within about 90 degrees of sensitivity. Additionally, they can be shot out of the air, and are tricky to get the hang of and come in many types. I usually use a tactic where I jump off of a wall and fire backwards into the wall, hitting the shell as it follows my path and "skeet-shooting" it out of its path.
Laser waves - large waves of energy, will destroy bullets as they engulf them and are very hard to dodge, but a good jump or wall jump usually dodges. They can be fired in several patterns later game, and can be devastating.
Charge lasers - Giant walls of laser beam, engulf bullets. If the robot isn't moving he'll fire 2 short pulses during firing, same spot; don't be fooled by it. If he's moving a bit, he'll fire a short burst in the direction of choice, and if he's in "twitchy" mode he'll likely sweep all the way or most of the way across the screen with a continuous laser beam. If you can shoot around the laser, the robot can still take fire in this mode.
Teleportation - Robot teleports to a new location. This is usually followed up with a considerable array of firepower and weaponry, and if you're not careful he can teleport where you're moving and do melee damage. My advice: move where he just teleported out of, since he'll prettymuch never teleport to the same spot he came from. If he's areal afterwards, start firing a barrage of rounds upwards to hit him, stop any incoming fire, and generally keep his movement suppressed with fire.
Shield - the robot maintains a barrier, can change direction later game, and it CAN be shot through but also hurts to get hit by, keep an eye out.
Laser sweep - robot fires an up/down "scan" of lasers in front of himself, very easy to dodge, remember to keep your distance and let the bullets sort him out.
More about colors: Almost all attacks will reskin to indicate a higher level of damage, proectiles, and so forth. This happens as the robot levels up and is to take note of.
More about mines: Mines come in 3 main types.
Pipe bomb mines, which are purple/shiny and explode in mini pipebombs, higher color quality means more pipebombs.
Laser mines, can explode in various numbers, directions, and colors. Higher color means more damage and more spread.
"Tri flux capacitor mines", they look like it, let's face it. Usually a purple-y color or blue and very weird shaped, they just explode, and explode immediately. Although some mines can be bumped into and dodged if their projectiles don't spawn on top of you, these mines will not be so forgiving. However, shooting them is a very easy method to take care of them, no after-debris or anything to clean up.
More about homing shells: Homing shells come in a few varieties, just like mine counterparts. Keep note of a little beep-y tone made as shells are fired. This is a key signal to head off the rounds with some well-placed bullets.
Pipe bomb shells, they're very fat and shiny/purple once again. They explode in a fistful of pipe bomblets and although easy to shoot, are messy to clean up. Deadly en masse, and higher color = more bomblets.
Laser shells, small and agile, these guys will chase you around quite well, and after being broken explode in a small spread of lasers, similar to their mine counterparts. Important to keep your eye on and keep managing the mini lasers spawned on detonation.
Shell shells, very small like their laser counterparts and purple like their fat counterparts, these shells are like the tri-flux mine versions, where they explode on contact. These are both one of the most common homing shell designs and one of the deadliest, if not the. Being fast and agile, they are hard to head off if you're inexperienced, and much like their mine versions are VERY unforgiving if you get hit by one. Remember to combine fast-thinking parkour, great timing, and well placed shots to head these guys off. They turn well and usually follow your exact route, meaning it's hard to rely on geometry-based detonation, your best bet is a good shot. Their turning, however, is also their downfall. Since they pursue you so well, firing backwards to where you just were is a great way to shatter their plan of attack... besides, who knows where you've been better than yourself?
This is my general strategy and breakdown, and I love this damn game... a real masterpiece. You may find things that work better or tricks I missed, so do some thinking for yourself as well. Good luck, have fun, and kill damn brobots with broads of lead with your bro when you bro-down in this Brah-drenaline loaded shoot em up!
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Bro pun.
Laser shells, usually a pink color and