Difference between revisions of "Slap Fight"
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The game loops infinitely, with enemy aggression and bullet speed increasing with each loop. However, enemy bullet speed will be reset to a low speed when ''loop % 8'' is equal to 1 (loop 9, 17, 25...), resuming a new cycle of bullet speed increase. | The game loops infinitely, with enemy aggression and bullet speed increasing with each loop. However, enemy bullet speed will be reset to a low speed when ''loop % 8'' is equal to 1 (loop 9, 17, 25...), resuming a new cycle of bullet speed increase. | ||
| − | As the game loops infinitely, scoring mainly comes from looping the game infinitely, but there are many scoring secrets to take into account in order to reduce the number of loops needed | + | As the game loops infinitely, scoring mainly comes from looping the game infinitely, but there are many scoring secrets to take into account in order to reduce the number of loops needed to reach certain score thresholds. A loop with optimized scoring can earn roughly twice as many points as a loop with no scoring effort. |
Revision as of 21:40, 31 May 2023
Title screen
| Developer: | Toaplan |
|---|---|
| Release date: | 1986 |
| Previous game: | Tiger-Heli |
| Next game: | Hishouzame |
Slap Fight, also known as Alcon, is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up developed by Toaplan and released in 1986. It is notable for its upgrade system similar to Gradius.
Contents
Gameplay Overview
Slap Fight is a typical game with 8-way movement, a shot button, and a secondary button to activate upgrades.
Controls
- A: Shoots the equipped weapon
- A (Hold): With Laser equipped, the ray will travel further. With other weapons, will fire automatically at a very slow rate.
- B: Activates the upgrade highlighted in the bar
Upgrade Bar
The game geatures an upgrade bar similar to Gradius. By collecting stars, the player advances the upgrade bar, and can press the second button to activate the corresponding upgrade.
If the player collects a Star while the last upgrade is highlighted, the selection rolls back to the first upgrade again.
If the player dies while one upgrade is highlighted, or pressed Up+Right+A+B upon respawning, they start their next life with the Speed Up already highlighted. Otherwise, the player resumes with no upgrade.
The Shot, Bomb, Laser and H.Missiles are mutually exclusive, and activating one will deactivate the one that was active before.
Activating any Shot type or the Wing power-up will move the ship close to the middle of the screen and award the player around 2 seconds of full invincibility.
- Speed: Increases the ship's speed. Up to 5 Speed Ups can be stacked.
- Shot: Activates the starting shot again. Limited range, but deals decent damage to all enemies.
- Side: Activates a secondary weapon fired from each side of the ship. Can be stacked with any other weapon.
- Wing: Can be stacked up to three times, increasing the firepower each time (and, for H. Missiles, the missiles' speed), while making the ship slightly slower. The first upgrade will make the ship wider, the second and third will made two options appear, one on each side of the ship. Options can be destroyed by enemies, and the upgrade can be activated again after this happens.
- Bomb: Fairly powerful weapon, but with range similar to Shot, and terrible reload time.
- Laser: Long-range weapon. The player has to keep the button pressed for the shot to hit long distances, otherwise the ray will disappear.
- H. Mis: Will fire one homing missile for each enemy present on screen, with a few exceptions for some midbosses. Cannot be fired again until all missiles hit their targets or left the screen. If no targets are on screen, the ship will fire many missiles in all directions.
- Shield: Limited duration shield that can withstand a few hits. Getting hit will decrease the shield's timer.
Secrets
General secrets
If the player died with no upgrade pending, it is possible to start the next life as if they collected one star by keeping Up+Right+A+B pressed.
After starting a game, if the player dies without having scored any point, they will respawn with complete Wings and the homing missiles, as well as 1,000 points earned. However, no speed up will have been granted, nor the Side shot.
After the player reaches a certain point in the game without destroying anything, dying will award the player hundreds of thousands of points and will make them respawn much later in the game. The longer the player survives, the more points are earned, and the further they will respawn. It is possible to earn more than 200,000 points by doing so.
There are some hidden 1-up locations by firing with Shot at them. However, shooting again before collecting them will destroy the extend and award the player 3,000 points instead.
If the player reaches specific spots while having the Shot equipped, and a certain number of stars collected, a helper ship will come and help them. The helper can only shoot if the Shot is equipped. More research about the exact spawn conditions has to be conducted.
Scoring secrets
When starting the game while pressing Down+Left+B, the first enemy killed will award an extra 10,000 points. A sound can be heard at the start of the game if the command was successful.
If the player has the Shot weapon equipped, this enemy from Space Invaders will appear on screen. The player can earn points by shooting at it repeatedly.
Using the bomb in some specific spots (mainly in the area after the second midboss) reveals some plants, earning 1,000 points for each. Some roofs can also be destroyed by bombs, earning the player a whopping 170 points. Because these bonuses are low and the bomb is bad, the player may want to neglect those.
The player can bloom flowers by repeatedly firing their laser at them. It is possible to earn around 15,000 points per flower. Keeping the button pressed rather than using fast autofire is more efficient. The optimal rythm for points appears to be around 15 frames ON and 2 frames OFF, while being as close to the flower as possible.
Some metallic things are revealed by shooting homing missiles, and give 1,000 points when doing so. Destroying them also gives you 150 additional points.
The faster the final boss is killed, the more points are earned. With high autofire frequency and the helper ship, it is possible to earn 240,000 points.
Loops
The game loops infinitely, with enemy aggression and bullet speed increasing with each loop. However, enemy bullet speed will be reset to a low speed when loop % 8 is equal to 1 (loop 9, 17, 25...), resuming a new cycle of bullet speed increase.
As the game loops infinitely, scoring mainly comes from looping the game infinitely, but there are many scoring secrets to take into account in order to reduce the number of loops needed to reach certain score thresholds. A loop with optimized scoring can earn roughly twice as many points as a loop with no scoring effort.
