Jolly Jugglers - Juggling Your Way to a Jolly Trophy

For those of you who can’t juggle, have no fear. That talent proves worthless in this game. Believe it or not, Jolly Jugglers requires very little skill of any sort. Huzzah for easy trophies! But wait…if it’s so easy, then why don’t more people have it? Aside from the fact that it’s a new game, it’s because of a little thing I like to call time. You’ll need to set aside at least three hours to play this game, which many people can’t spare. That doesn’t mean three hours of playing off and on; it means three hours of uninterrupted jolly juggling fun. You know what that means, kiddies. Turn off all cell phones, pagers, messengers, and any contact whatsoever with the outside world. Anything that will take your attention away from the game is a big no-no, especially the messengers. People will try to IM you, creating a new window above your game. Eep. That makes you lose control of the characters which can cause you to lose a life, and as we all know, life is good. I found this out the hard way…twice. So do yourself a favor and turn it all off.

The controls of this game are very simple. You control two Chias, Jolly and Olly. Each has a weapon he can fire with and can only kill the enemies of his color. To fire at an enemy, you need to press either the ‘x’ key or the space bar. To switch from Olly to Jolly and vice versa, press the ‘z’ button. To jump from platform to platform, you’ll need to press the up arrow key.

After you kill an enemy, it’ll drop an item. Most of the time it’ll be ammo, but other times it’ll be a bonus point fruit or a power up. Here’s a quick list of what each power up does:

Jump: This power up is more dangerous than useful. It lets you jump twice as high, but that will often lead to you jumping into enemies. Avoid if possible.

Shield: This is the only power up that will affect both Jolly and Olly no matter who grabs it. It will prevent both characters from taking damage for a short period of time.

Double Shot: Instead of your weapon firing just one shot, this power up lets you fire two shots at once! Even better, you don’t lose any ammo for the extra shot.

Extra Life: As the name hints, this power up gives you an extra life. I’ve mainly encountered these in the first and seventh levels, so keep your eyes peeled in those levels for these gems.

Quick note: Each Chia can only hold one power up at a time. Collecting another one (excluding the extra life) will cause the first to disappear.

Now that that all the introductory stuff is done, it’s time to play the game.

Levels 1 and 2 – These are very simple levels. They’re here just so you can master the controls.

The only tidbit of help I can give you is to watch for Tennas. Any area where a Tenna appears might produce more later on after the spot is off screen, so be sure to revisit all Tenna areas before you exit each level.

Levels 3 and 4 – The only problems you should experience here are the rows of Tennas and Drackonacks. Each enemy is very annoying on its own, but in groups they’re deadly. The smartest thing to do is to jump onto their platforms after they pass overhead and pick off the back of each pack. After that, jump to avoid oncoming stampedes and then finish off the remaining petpets.

Level 5 – Immediately when you start this level, watch for the four Drackonacks that run down the clouds. When they come charging at you, shoot them in the order you saw them. After they’re gone, collect the power ups and concentrate on the Tennas. They will sometimes cluster together at the bottom of the cloud-stairs, so try picking them off one by one at opportune times. Shooting wildly at them will only waste your ammo.

After the Tennas are all gone, you’ll come upon a bunch of Slorg infested mini-clouds. Take the green ones out first. You’ll need their roosts first. Then take out the purple Slorgs (kill the ones on the very left at the same time). After that, the level becomes a simple vertical climb.

Level 6 – This level doesn’t throw anything new at you. Use the previous strategies for defeating the Tennas.

Level 7 – Don’t be intimidated by the level’s size; it’s actually very easy. Even the rows of Tennas and Drackonacks are easy to beat.

When you reach the end, don’t go through the door. Use one of the purple Slorgs next to the door to kill you. You can earn nearly 200 points in this level, so play through it again and again until you’re on your last life. That’s the time to advance.

Level 8, the Boss-o-Doom!!! – Take a quick glance at the clock. Do you notice that you haven’t used much of that three hour block you set aside? That’s because the majority of your time will be dedicated to this level. There’s literally an endless supply of ammo in this level and you’ll be spending most of your time collecting it. Why? You’ll see…

Your first task in this level is to calculate how many points you need. Nab a shield power up and calculator and get cracking. Take the amount of points you have and subtract it from the amount of points it takes to get a trophy. Let’s say that you have 1,700 and you need 3,500. The difference between the two is 1,800 points. Then subtract another 200 points, the end-game bonus, from the 1,800 and you’ll have your magic number (1,600 in our case). That’ll be the amount of ammo on one character you’ll need. You can manage about 100 per character every 10 minutes, so that just over two and a half hours of collecting ammo. Not that bad. *cough*

After about half an hour, you’ll realize that this level is a test of patience. Defeating the boss is so easy. Just firing at him with the correct Chia will take him down. However, that wouldn’t get you very many points would it?

Okay, let’s just say that you now have all the ammo you need. I bet you’re wondering why you need it, right? Before I tell you, you’ll need to beat the boss. Unleash all your frustration on him. Unleash the fury of nearly three hours of monotonous juggling upon his bottom. After you beat him, start firing all the ammo you have at him with the Chia you used to beat him. For every hit you’ll get an extra point. The game won’t end until you stop firing for a few seconds, so you need not worry about a premature finish. When you finally run out of ammo, you’ll receive your 200 bonus points and, if all goes well, a nice new trophy. Good luck!