TERROR MOUNTAIN - Ah, Cliffhanger!
If you're not too familiar with the game, it's that wonderful cryptogram that
dishes out decent Neopoints if you can solve it. But most people don't play
it because they can't stand seeing a big green Neopet fall off of a mountain.
Never fear! I am here to open your eyes to the amazing advantages of playing
this hair-raising and Tuskaninny-dropping game.
I kind of got hooked on Cliffhanger as a newbie when the first time I played
it my Lupe went up three IQ points in 20 rounds. Up until then I thought the
only way you could make your pet smarter was to read books to him. There are
other ways of making your pet smarter, of course. But at the time I didn't know
enough about Neopia to have a prayer of finishing the Faerie Crossword in less
than 24 hours and I thought Coltzan's Shrine was just some boring tourist attraction.
And... umm... okay, I confess. Despite the name GENIUS Negg, I didn't know that
feeding one to your pet would make him smarter AND give him a book, too. So
I started playing Cliffhanger a LOT. I played it so much I starting dreaming
about sentences with letters missing. Actually I STILL do that, but at least
now cute little faeries dance in the blank spaces. BIG improvement to that dream,
I swear.
Anyway, for those of you who are still reading this and are even remotely
interested, let's start with the basics. The first thing you need to do is memorise
the alphabet. If that's too hard to do at first, don't worry. The whole alphabet
is there for you at the easy level. Whew! A load off your mind, right?
When the game starts you have a bunch of lines dotting across the screen with
spaces in between. The spaces mean that there are SEPARATE words in the puzzle.
All you have to do is click on a letter at a time until all the lines disappear
and you have nothing but connected letters forming words. All these words together
make a SENTENCE. I haven't lost you yet have I? Then you copy the EXACT sentence
in the box and click "I Know!!! Let Me Solve The Puzzle!"
If you type it in right, it will say "Winner" and give you Neopoints. If you
mess up and type it in wrong, it will say "You Lose!" But I wouldn't worry about
that too much. After all, if YOU are such a loser, why does the TUSKANINNY fall
off the mountain? I mean, if losing meant YOU fell off the mountain, then that
would be a big deal. Who cares if a Tuskaninny has his nose flattened like a
pancake? And you get to see the cool little video of him taking the plunge.
Worth it to lose on purpose, if you ask me.
Okay, now that we have the basics down, let's move on to the game strategy.
The best strategy is to NOT pick wrong letters. If you pick more than five letters
that aren't used in the sentence the Tuskaninny will bungee jump off the cliff
without a bungee. Like I said, cool graphics, but it costs you 15 Neopoints
every time you watch it.
Now that you have mastered the trick of playing Cliffhanger, you may want
to move up from "Easy" (Also known as "Duh!") to "Average" (also known as "Huh?").
For a game at the easy level you get 50 NP for a correct answer, but for the
average level you get 100 NP The only thing is, some of the letters of the alphabet
have been removed to make it a little trickier to figure out. You can't keep
plugging in letters until to have the whole answer sitting in front of you like
a birthday gift. You actually have to figure out what letters SHOULD be there
in the answer but aren't because the they have been STOLEN. Probably by the
Ice Devil. This makes it more challenging so you have to EARN your Neopoints.
Bummer, huh?
And if you think that's bad, try the "Hard" (also known as "Eek!") level.
It pays 150 Neopoints for a correct answer but that's like promising a Baby
Paint Brush to anyone who can guess the name of Doctor Sloth's kindergarten
teacher. All of the really important letters have not only been stolen, they
have been tossed onto Money Tree so you don't have a prayer of ever getting
them back. These important letters are called "vowels". Not only are the vowels
missing, but so are the letters "R", "S" and "T". If that doesn't sound so bad,
trying spelling "restaurant" or "store". I'm not saying the hard level is IMPOSSIBLE
to do. I'm just saying that you'd better grab a soda and a bowl of popcorn because
you're going to see that video clip of the Tuskaninny plummeting to his doom
A LOT.
The really important game strategy though is to play it until your brain starts
to fry and smoke billows from your ears. That's because even after you have
earned your maximum allowed Neopoints of 1500 NP a day, it STILL makes your
pet smarter if you keep on playing. But the REALLY cool thing is that you get
nifty random events like the Snow Faerie will pop and ask you if you have your
pets bundled up warm or a Bruce will ask "Did you know I used to be a game show
host?" WAAAY COOL, huh? And if you're REALLY lucky the Ice Devil will show up
to help you clear stuff out of your item box by taking them off your hands.
Gosh, what a nice guy! Oh, yeah... and you can get the regular boring events
like a Christmas Paint Brush or an Ice Negg, but you learn to live with stupid
random events like that which clutter up your item box with more stuff. But
hey-- you have to take your chances, right?
Okay, maybe you know all of this already. But I also have discovered that
there is a lot more to Cliffhanger than getting Neopoints or IQ points or free
snowballs. Cliffhanger gives out really cool advice too! Check out some of these
deep thoughts from the game:
"A Buzz will never sting you"
Wow! I must confess I was really worried about this. I was afraid if I looked
up someone's pet and it was a Buzz that it would attack me and leave little
pinprick holes all over my body. Thanks to Cliffhanger I don't have to worry
about that anymore!
"Jubjubs defend themselves with their deafening screech"
This is an important bit of news for anyone fighting against a Jubjub in the
Battledome. Make sure you turn off the sound on your computer when you go up
against one and you should be safe. Thanks to Cliffhanger, this dark secret
has been revealed!
"You cannot teach an old Grarrl mathematics"
Boy, I wish I had known this when I was a green newbie. I wasted an entire
afternoon once trying to explain advanced Calculus to a Grarrl. Now I know that
even attempting to do that is silly and pointless. And I owe this time-saving
advice to Cliffhanger!
"Every Neopet should have a job and a corndog"
I did not know this. The moment I saw this message I rushed out to the employment
agency and tried to grab a basic job for my pet. I haven't succeeded in 311
tries but I intend to keep trying. I trust Cliffhanger completely. If it says
my pet needs a job, then by golly I won't rest until he has one! In the meantime
I plan to keep bloating him on corndogs. Thanks for the heads-up, Cliffhanger!
"Meercas are to blame for all the stolen Fuzzles"
AH-HAH! Bad, bad Meercas! You didn't think anyone knew what you were up to,
did ya? Well, thanks to Cliffhanger everyone now knows to keep their Fuzzles
locked up in their safety deposit boxes and away from the greedy paws of Meercas!
What would I do without you, Cliffhanger?
"Put all of your Neopoints on Poogle Number Two"
Is this a red-hot tip or what??? I always put my Neopoints on Poogle Number
Two now. I haven't won yet, but if Cliffhanger says that's the Poogle to bet
on-- well, that's good enough for me. You're a real friend, Cliffhanger!
"Please wipe your feet before you enter the Scorchio den"
Man, this tip sure would have come in handy if I had only known about it when
I was a newbie. I walked right into a Scorchio's den and almost had my muddy
feet fried by a fiery blast straight from the nostrils of one really furious
Scorchio. Thanks to Cliffhanger this will never happen to you!
"Do not speak of an Elephante if there is no tree nearby"
I haven't a clue what this means. But if Cliffhanger says it, then that's
good enough for me. I never speak of an Elephante now without a tree handy.
Even if I have to bring along my own. Isn't Cliffhanger a great treasure trove
of information? These are just a few of the timesaving even life-saving--tips
you can get for the 15 Neopoints you plunk down to play Cliffhanger. So don't
just sit there! Go out and discover the wonderful hidden secrets of Cliffhanger
for yourself! And who knows? If you play the game enough, you and the Ice Devil
may become great pals! |