Attack of the Slorgs - It's Never Too Late to Repel!

Too early for thinking about crops and slorg repelling you think? It’s NEVER too early! Sooner than you know it, the snow will melt away and the cultivating season begins. By then you want to be prepared, oh yes. Slorgs fear NOTHING when it comes to attacking your fields of marrows and turnips – nothing. Not even your fierce glares and waving of the shovel at them! But fear not, for there is aid. It’s time to again brush up on your skills at the Slorgeriser!

The Background

An army of Slorgs are attacking your garden, threatening to annihilate your baby tomatoes carrots and turnips, you must take action! Don’t worry, we’re not going to kill anything, the aim of the game is simply to repel the Slorgs and shove them out of the way (at least that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it!). To aid you in this task (because doing it by hand would take a lifetime and make for too early a death for your cabbage!), you have the latest thing on the market; the Slorgeriser X4. This handy machine lunges away a most effective substance by the name of Slorg-B-Gone at the pesky little critters and with a good aim and quick fingers you will have defeated the Slorg invasion in no time. Ladies and gentlemen; man your Slorgerisers!

The Controls

The keyboard controls you have at your disposal are the arrow keys and the spacebar. With the arrow keys you take aim and the spacebar fires your Slorgeriser. When you first start the game, your Slorgeriser will have a laser aim that helps you get the right angle on the Slorgs. Don’t get too comfortable with it though since it will eventually fade out and need to be recharged. This is possible to do by typing in chargex4 while playing . Now, this sounds handy you think, making a bit easier. Yes and no.

If you’re only trying for the avatar, you should be able to use the charge-code without it impairing your game much, once you get some basic skills, but as the game proceeds the Slorgs move faster and at the higher levels you will simply not have time to type anything, you’ll be too busy trying to keep up with the slimy lil buggers. So if you ever want to try for a high score and trophy, I suggest you get used to aiming without the laser. It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it, and the lower (slower) levels are excellent for practice. :) Also, especially when playing without the help of the laser, remember that if you get confused about where to the Slorgeriser is pointing, tapping the Up or Down arrow key will always position you to the very middle. That way you can quickly find your bearings again, should you become disoriented.

Last thing you need to know about the controls is that you will sometimes suffer what is known as “Revenge of the Slorgs”, an evil evil spell they will cast on you which will reverse your controls. Tapping left will make the Slorgeriser aim right and vice versa. Devastating the first time it happens, but once you get used to it, it’s pretty easy to adapt to it – and it only lasts till the round is over, so don’t worry too much! Once you’ve had a bit of practice it won’t be a major issue for you anymore, I promise.

The Game

Layout

There are an unlimited amount of levels in this game, but only 6 different “attack formations” that the Slorgs will approach your crops in. They basically present themselves from ‘longest’ to ‘shortest’ chain. On the first level they’re slow and have a long way to go to reach the garden – giving you plenty of time to get rid of them. In the sixth level they walk a shorter path, giving you less time to repel them. There is, however, no exact 1:1 relation between “short” also being “difficult” - at least, not in the first few rounds where all levels are pretty slow. Personally I think that part of the difficulty of some levels is determined by the kind of route the Slorgs take. At the start of every new level, you will be presented with a “ghost attack” of Slorgs, showing what route they’re going to take. (Remember I said there were 6 different formations; once you learn which they are, you won’t depend so much on the “ghost attack”, but it’s good in the beginning to learn what you’re up against!). Those levels where the Slorgs move horizontally (from side to side) are for me the easiest. They mean you have the whole field from left to right to work with. The harder levels are those where they go vertically (up and down) since that limits your range of sight and aim – you’re subjected to shoot for the Slorgs that are at the bottom curves; you can’t reach those at the top since they’re “covered” by their friends below and booooy can that be frustrating.

Scoring points

So, enough about basics; let’s hit the real action, shall we? Before you actually start the game, type in marrow and you’ll get one extra try added to the three you start out with (represented with marrows in the bottom left corner – nifty isn’t it? ^^). You score one point for every Slorg you repel, and you can only repel them in groups of at least 3 (a minimum of at least 2 in the line and one Slorg-B-Gone). Clearing the field completely will give you a x2 bonus of the points for that shot. That might make it tempting to shoot closely to the tube they’re coming from and keep the field clean all the time. A good strategy, all right, but not a good way to maximise your points.

The trick to scoring high is to build and execute combos. You see, when one group of Slorgs has been repelled by the Slorg-B-Gone, the remaining Slorgs draw together, closing their ranks again. Should there be 3 or more Slorgs of the same colour ending up together, they self-repel! If you’re smart and lucky with your Slorgs, you can build a chain reaction, giving you x5, x6 or even more bonus each time! Now THAT is maximising your points. The basics to building a combo is to add one Slorg-B-Gone to each single Slorg of the same colour in the line, making a row of alternating colour ‘couples’. Then when you feel you’re done, the Slorgs are getting too close and you want to execute, you aim towards the middle of the row making one set of Slorgs go poof and the rest following their lead neatly. The Slorgs basically do all the work themselves and you can just sit there and be proud of yourself!

Each level requires you to repel a certain amount of Slorgs, starting at 30 Slorgs (minimum of 30 points) for level one. When 30 Slorgs are gone, the next level will begin, regardless of how many points you’ve scored; HOWEVER, if you’re scoring a combo, the level won’t end till the combo is done. In other words, you benefit from building up to a long combo when you’re reaching around 25 out of 30 repellations. That way you can actually score close to 100 points, just in the first round!

Power-ups

Not all Slorg-B-Gones are like the rest. There are certain ones that will take on special features, some good, some not so good. They always come in the same colour and their name will be displayed on the game screen. It disappears after a while, but you can still tell that you have a special one by the slight pulsing they perform when loaded into the Slorgeriser. Their properties are as such:

Slow down (Green) - This one is always good. It will cause the Slorgs to move slower. Not by much, but even just a little is a lot, especially in later levels that tend to move wickedly fast. Of course the best idea is to place it into a green cluster of Slorgs, but even if you don’t have any green ones available at the moment – shoot anyway (unless the line of Slorgs is really close to the garden...). Important to remember, however, is that the effect only lasts until you use another power up. That can be especially important to remember if you have fired a “Slow down”-shot and then get a “Super Slorgeriser” for example. Since it only removes a few Slorgs, you might want to consider not using it if you’re on a very speedy level, since immediately after those five Slorgs are slorgerised, the Slorgs will be back to moving at normal speed, which can be much more devastating to your game!

Slorg-block (Blue) – Personally I don’t give much for this one really. It will put a block on the trail, preventing the Slorgs behind it to move until you shoot into that part of the line. The Slorgs in front continue forwards as usual, so you generally want to shoot it as close to the front of the line as possible. This might be useful at times but mostly I feel it is more trouble than use and I usually toss it away. It’s not a good idea to toss this one in at the beginning of the trail if you have a multitude of Slorgs in the field since you can’t know what colour Slorg-B-Gone you will be getting next and thus might end up with moving Slorgs close to the garden and nothing to fire at them!

Super Slorgeriser (Brown) – A more helpful power up. When fired, this one will remove 2 Slorgs on both sides of where it hits. This can be quite helpful if you’ve ended up with a long line of slogs alternating in colour that would require you fire a lot before you get to actually repel them. Especially if the Slorg army is approaching your veggie patch quickly, which is something you will have to get used to in the later levels.

Multi-slorg (Red) – In my opinion the worst one. You’re trying to get rid of the Slorgs, not breed them. This ’power-up’ will add about 5 Slorgs of random colour to the line. Throw it away, throw it a w a y.

Slorg Destruct (Pink) - This is by far the best of the power ups. It annihilates a whole line of Slorgs from the point of impact and all the way down to the pipe they’re all slipping out from. With all the other Slorg-B-Gones you usually want to fire as quickly as possible, to prevent the Slorgs from accumulating; however, with this one, you want to wait. Yes, it’s true, you wait. Why? I’ll tell you why: To maximise your points. When you have the pink “Slorg Destruct”, you finally get a chance to rest! It’s true, just sit back and relax, but keep an eye on the Slorgs! Never let them out of your sight so that you are ready when they approach close to the garden. When your nerves can’t stand waiting anymore, when the Slorgs are almost there, you aim at the very front of the line and shoot. This will remove all the Slorgs and depending on the level/how many Slorgs there are in the line you could score almost 100 Slorgs in one shot.

Puddle of Water (Grey) - Grey?? Yes, I hear you cry. There are no grey Slorgs appearing in the marching attack formation; there won’t be, unless you fire a grey Slorg-B-Gone into the line. Don’t do that. Don’t use the grey ones at all. They only add to your Slorgs and you are trying to get rid of them. Don’t use it unless it’s labelled “Puddle of Water”. That’s a good one. It turns all Slorgs currently on the screen into one and the same colour. Yay! Take out a whole screen = maximising points! Just like with the “Slorg Destruct”, it pays off to wait till there are a lot of Slorgs on the screen. However, since “Puddle of Water” only transforms the Slorgs, it doesn’t automatically repel them; you still have to get the right colour Slorg-B-Gone loaded into your Slorgeriser to actually get rid of them. Since that can take a few tries, you can’t wait for as long as with the “Slorg Destruct”, so keep an eye on the head Slorg!

The order in which the different colours of Slorgs and thus power ups are going to appear is as follows:

Level 1-3: Green, Blue, Brown

Level 4: Add Red (and sometimes Grey)

Level 5: Add Grey

Level 6: Add Pink

Remember that if you get a colour in the Slorgeriser that doesn’t really fit anywhere in your line of Slorg at the time, there is no rule that states you have to put it there. If it won’t add to a combo or remove any Slorgs, just aim out of the way from the train of relentlessly marching Slorgs and discard the charge. Nothing happens; there is no penalty and it’s basically the only way to get to any higher levels. Don’t add unnecessary Slorgs to the invader forces!

And that is pretty much all there is to it! No wait! One more thing;

Crazy Frog Bonus!

On the left hand side of the screen, an inch or so down from the Slorg pipe, there lives a crazy frog in a hole. No, usually you can’t see it, but sometimes the crazy frog will peek up to see how you’re doing. Completely pointless and rather annoying, you’d think. Well, yes, it is. Except, if you aim for him and shoot him with the Slorg-B-Gone – you get an extra 25 points! (And you keep your garden free of not only Slorgs but also Crazy Frogs. Good deal!). Personally I make it a habit to aim around there whenever I need to discard a Slorg-B-Gone charge, just in case the frog will pop up. Try it if you have time. It sometimes pays off, but weigh your options on the higher levels. When the Slorgs move fast, you don’t want to get distracted by things like Crazy Frogs... believe me...

Now, good luck with your Slorgeriser and saving those marrows! Let the battle for the veggie patch begin!