"Get your fingers broken by mashing arrow keys: The Game".
Seriously talking though, this game is one of the best you have made, it´s simple but fun and challenging, which is a must for short games like this. Design wise the game is great, shot-em up and kill the boss, that´s the goal. Nice controls. I loved the artstyle, it´s kinda easy to make, but the artstyle alone made the game look interesting. The music choices fit perfectly with the theme of the game. And feels satisfying to beat.
The game is far from perfect though:
My main complain about the game it´s the fact that you can get physically hurt with it, and that´s not a joke, the game forces you to mash the arrow keys constantly if you want to beat it, and the game is hard enough to keep you busy for quite some time if you are not good enough. The solution is simple: "Hold an arrow key to shoot" and as long as you are pressing it your character shots. It´s such a small thing that would make the game way less tiresome, something you absolutely want to do, because you want players to beat the challenge you have designed without having finger-ache.
Also, the hitboxes are wonky as fuck (explained later) which can frustrate tons of players and the bullets your character shots are kinda slow (but this is opinion based though, you can get used to it no problem).
Some tips for beating the game:
1.) Mash the arrow keys, for real, they are is little to no reason not to do it because otherwise the hordes on screen will kill you. //Main reason why the change from "mash" key to shot "hold" key to shot would be nice//.
2.) Your character is a bit slower than anything else on screen, keep that in mind.
3.) As a consequence of 2.), kill everything that it´s closer first, particularly in the Watermelon and Clown bosses.
4.) Play safely and don´t overextend on your movement, because 1 hit and you are dead.
5.) The hitbox in everything is a bit bigger than you think, so be careful and space yourself properly from danger.
A WALKTHROUGH/GUIDE for every section of the game:
1.) Clock Crew: Try to keep yourself at the center stage, getting close to the walls can mean instakill if a Fruit decides to appear in that position. The Fruits follow your movement and do nothing else, so shot your way through them, and don´t let them chase you because they are faster and don´t try to get between two of them because they´ll sandwich you. Just keep shooting and you should beat it it´s not hard.
2.) Watermelon Clock: The big mean green Watermelon Clock follows a pattern of bouncing in the walls diagonally, so don´t worry about him, he´s no threat, prioritize anything that is close to you and only shot him when is safe to do so. With patience this boss is ezpz.
3.) Horde of Madness: The Zombies (green guys) behave pretty much like the fruits but they thinner, they are not difficult to deal with unless you are not mashing the arrow keys enough, the problem are the Grunts (grey guys) with pistols, you have to try and kill them as soon as they appear or you´ll see yourself avoiding a lot of shots in screen. Thankfully the Grunts only shot horizontally so shot them from above or below.
4.) The Clown: Here the hitbox problems shine, if a single pixel of your shoes or your pointy hair hits the lasers you are dead period, so stay away from them at a nice distance, and never go to the lowest part of the stage because if you are there and a laser appears at your head level there is no way you can avoid it. Kill the Grunts as fast as you can because avoiding the lasers and the pistol shots at the same time is pretty much impossible. When the clown starts moving left-right keep calm and DO NOT follow him, it´s easier to spam your shots and wait for him to walk into them while you avoid the lasers, it takes longer sure, but it´s a far more reliable way to beat it, remember that a single hit means starting the boss all over again.
5.) Pico and friends: After the Clown, this one is relatively easy. Never get close to Darnell because the fireballs are huge, and be really careful with them because the hitbox is bigger than you think, you may accidentally touch a fireball from behind without wanting to. Darnell works this way: he´ll go up and down and if he is in front of you he´ll shot, if you follow him he´ll shot an overwhelming barrage of fireballs so don´t do that. Darnell is easy.
After Darnell comes Nene, her patern is erratic and she will basically follow you in a straight line, stop, then throw knives up-down-left-right, DO NOT STOP MOVING AWAY FROM HER or Nene will chop your head off. Shot diagonally because that´s her blind spot. Nene dead means you face against Pico, and he is easy, he´ll move left-right and ocasionally double shot at you, simply keep the distance from him and avoid everything, little trick: your character fits between the double shots, it´s a risky but effective way to avoid his attacks. Btw, if you die at any point you start back at Darnell.
6.) Bloody Hell: Okay, at first this may seem impossible to beat, I mean: Darnell, Pico, Nene at the same time plus a Sheriff and Strawberry clock. Not gonna lie, it´s quite hard, but not impossible let´s see:
-Pico is always at the top screen shooting double shots moving left-right.
-Darnell is always in the right spaming fireballs whether you are in front of his view moving up-down.
-Nene moves with freedom chasing you and using her knife 4-direction pattern.
-The Sheriff is always at the left following you moving up-down and spaming shots.
-Strawberry Clock is always at the bottom following your moves very fast moving left-right but doesn´t shot.
As you can see, Nene is the only one without a predictable moving pattern, KILL HER FIRST FOR GOD´S SHAKE, she is your number threat in this battle, get rid of her as soon as you can while avoiding everything else.
PROTIP: Never get close to either Pico or Darnell, double shots are hard to avoid at close range and the fireball hitobox is huge.
Next in the list should be The Sheriff, because he follows you and is overall more annoying than Pico, Darnell or the Clock.
After the Sheriff It´s preferably to kill the Clock, because you want the space he is ocuppying to avoid Pico.
Now kill Pico, Darnell is easy to avoid if you keep yourself on the bottom of the screen that´s why you want to kill the Clock first (he´ll shot only once at you, then go up and he won´t shot untill he goes down again facing you) and I find easier to kill Pico while avoiding Darnell than vice-versa.
Then finally Darnell alone is easy.
Nene => Sheriff => Clock => Pico => Darnell
And remember, one hit and you have to start the whole battle again, so play safe and the remember the PROTIP and to kill Nene first.
Overall, for me this game deserves a 3.5/5, it has flaws (mainly excess of button mashing and stupid hitboxes) but its good and challenging to keep you entertained for a while.
Things to improve the game, if you decide to make a sequel (PLEASE THIS A SERIES, IT´S WAY BETTER THAN THE QUICKDRAW AND EVERYTHING ELSE):
-Make the character hitbox smaller, and fix some other hitbox stuff (ex: the tail of the fireball shouldn´t kill you if a pixel of your character touches it).
-Have easy and hell mode: One for casuals, the character has 5 lives or something like that. And then the 1 hit kill mode.
-Have a level selection screen after you have beated the game at least once.
-More characters/levels: Salad Fingers, Hominid, Dad n´ Me, Castle Crasher, Tankman, Bitey, Badly Drawn Dog and more.
-Make bullets faster and less painful controls.
This little game has potential to be a big game with tons of stuff. Hope you make more like this.
Congrats.
.-Lopez