A Guide to Winning Trophies by solidus_snake |  |
GAMES ROOM - This week’s article will be on Deckswabber and Grundo Snowthrow.
Winning trophies requires a few things. You need skill, patience, luck and a lot
of practice.
Deckswabber
Ah, an old classic. Some people may recognize this game as a modified version
of Q-Bert. This is an action game that requires a bit of skill and a bit of
thinking. You have to move your character along the squares. Each time you step
on a square, it changes colour. The object of the game is to make all of the
squares on the level the same colour as the goal colour. The goal colour can
be seen at the bottom of the screen. There are a few different items and enemies
in the game.
First, there is the pirate Mynci. This fellow will lower your health if you
are on the same square and it will follow you around if you are very near. If
you are far enough, it will just wander around aimlessly. The next enemy is
the pirate Techo. This nasty enemy can find you from anywhere on the board and
will follow you unless it runs into some water. Another enemy is the pirate
Kiko. This is a faster version of the Techo and it will kill you if it ever
touches you. One good thing about the Kiko is that it won’t ever step on a square
that is next to you. It will try to trap you and pounce on you when you try
to escape. Not to worry, there are some helpful items in the game. The boxes
are dangerous. Each square has a different pattern on them. When they explode,
they will convert all squares in that pattern back to their first colour. Make
sure you pick them up before they explode. There is a sword in the game that
will kill any enemy it touches but not you. This sounds useful, but they rarely
appear and they don’t follow the enemies. There are Dubloons in the game that
will add to your score if you pick them up. There is also the health flag. Make
sure to keep an eye out for these, they will completely replenish any lost life.
You get to retry 3 times if you die, but it costs 30 points if you retry.
My strategy: In the early levels, you only have to change the colours once
or twice. I like to go around the whole level once during the early levels.
In the later levels, you have to change the colours 4 or 5 times. I change my
strategy at this point. I will jump on the same 2 squares until they are the
goal colour and then I will move to the next 2 colours. If there are enemies
nearby, I just run. Remember, there is no time limit, but you cannot replace
a lost life. At the end of each level, you get a score. You can get a maximum
of 40 points on each round. 10 for completing the level quickly, 10 for having
full life, 10 for completing the level and 10 if you collected enough Dubloons.
There is a neat little trick you can use to avoid enemies. When an enemy is
jumping from its square to yours, jump towards the enemy. If you do this right,
you won’t take any damage. This takes a lot of practice though.
Grundo Snowthrow
This is a fast action game and it requires a bit of skill. This is a simple
enough game to play. You control 3 Grundos and you must throw snowballs at your
opponents to win. Click and drag your friendly green creatures to move them.
Click and hold to power up a snowball and release when the bar is high. If you
release the button close to the top, if will stun your opponent. If you release
the button just as the bar hits the top, the snowball will knock down the opponent
it hits. A downed opponent can’t throw snowballs at you. Make sure you don’t
hit your own players though. Points are given out for accuracy above 90%, secret
bonuses (yellow enemies), levels completed, and levels beaten under 15 seconds.
Each new level will have one more enemy than the last level. At level 8 and
16, it will go back down to 1 enemy but they will be a lot tougher than before.
If you want a high score, you need to focus on accuracy. If you throw snowballs
randomly, you will get a low score. If you have 90% or higher, you will get
that many points added to your score. If it is below 90%, you get nothing.
My strategy: I like to move 2 of my guys to the bottom of the screen and use
them one at a time. If you stay to the lower left of your enemies, you will
be able to hit them, but they won’t be able to hit you. In the low levels, I
like to throw weak snowballs to raise my accuracy. When there are too many too
handle, I like to knock them down with a strong snowball.
That’s all for this week. Next will be Ice Caves, Faerie Caves, Whackabeast,
and Grarrl Keno. |
