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So, like...Space Giraffe...
Drez
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Can someone explain to me why this is supposedly good? It just seems like a shitty linear (i.e. non-circular) version of Tempest to me, and everything is displayed at an angle that makes it relatively hard to see what's going on.
Am I alone here? What the hell am I missing?
Am I alone here? What the hell am I missing?
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Not certain as to what the appeal was
The problem is you are over-thinking it. I look at it as a game to experience rather than beat, or even understand. It's a game to play to try and put yourself in The Zone, and it does it well.
If you just sit down and say "I'm going to try and trip out on Space Giraffe" it's great. If you sit down and say "I MUST BEAT MY SCORE" then it's not, because you'll trip over the inadequacies you just mentioned.
They'd have to lobotomize me to not "overthink" my current dislike of the game, I mean I'm not doing any thinking that I can think of and I think I really hate it.
So... I like it.
cONGRADRUATIONS was good.
A WINNER IS YOU!
and then I turned it off.
yeah, nothing special there
You know how you don't have to really play those games, just kinda go with the flow?
Agreed. It was pretty awful.
By awful, you mean awesome, right?
By awesome you mean makes me want to stab myself in the space giraffe right?
Also, what was wrong with the old thread? Is 15 hours too old or something?
WHOSE FACE IS THAT IN THE BACKGROUND!?
The power zone is the zone right in front of you. There's a line, it goes further out when you shoot an enemy, and slowly creeps back in when you're not doing anything. Bulling is when there's an enemy that's reached the rail, you know the one you're on? And you just go ahead and run over him and get extra points.
Did you skip through the tutorial or something? They were pretty clear in explaining all of this.
Also, the first level is called The Eyes of Allard. I think that maybe gives it away a little.
And the eyes of Allard man... creepy. I'm so glad it's only one level :P (I hope it's only one level!)
My 360 is [strike]back[/strike] [strike]bricked[/strike] back!
You are a space giraffe. You are on the top/front of a grid (can be singleplane or circleplane). Enemies come from before/below you and move towards you. So far, so Tempest.
Difference: the power zone. See the line in the distance? Thats the other side of the power zone. It expands away from you (becomes bigger) when you shoot shit, it comes towards you (becomes smaller) when you don't shoot shit.
As long as there is even a itty bitty little power zone the following aplies:
1. Enemy shots are slower inside the zone than outside.
2. You have your normal shot plus two additional shots that you can steer left/right with the right thumbstick.
3. Many an enemy (but not all) can be "bulled" when they reach your side of the grid. Bulling means, you drive right into them and slam them off the grid. You can only do this when you have at least a bit power zone.
The powerzone can also be instafilled by hitting the jump button (as long as you still have a jump pod).
Bulling is essential, because if you bull enough enemies off the grid your multiplier goes up, right till it's 9 (the maximum multiplier you can get per level). And multiplier means score++!
Basic tactics: shoot only a view enemies till a jump pod arrives. Grab the pod, move to the side of the grid where the least enemies are. Wait till all (or at least many) enemies arrive on your side of the grid. Do a very small jump to instafill the powerzone, then run over the enemies to bull them. Highscore. Getting the timing right is not easy and depends on the level, because enemies move at different speeds, enemy bullets move at different speeds, the amount of enemies you need to bull to increase the multiplier varies etc. etc.
Another thing for highscores: you can shoot enemy bullets back, even beyond the far edge. They WILL return onto the grid, but you can shoot the right back again. At the end of the level, as soon as you get the "giraffetastic" message, you can safely fly through them and will get "sneeze bonus" for each ... multipliers apply here too.
Collecting jump pods does something too, but I'm not quite sure yet, what. The first four give you jumps, I believe, the fifth gives you an extra life, beyond that I don't know. If you collect really really many jump pods apparently you gain an "ox token" at the end of the level, which will give you a bonus round after the next level (or maybe you need two tokens, I'm not really sure).
So, that's the very basics.
I can see why some people won't get it/like it, but man, once you know what you are doing it really is awesomesauce, especially playing with custom soundtracks.
I "got it" on my second go though, so I can't really understand the mass confusion over the scoring and bonus systems, the tutorial seemed plenty clear to me. And man, there is some crazy-arse visuals on display.
Also, running over enemies does not always (read: usually doesn't) work unless the power zone is completely full.
Bulling always works for me, even with very little room in the power zone.
What might be killing you are the tiny bullets that like to hide among clusters like that.
Or the flowers, which can't be bulled.
Aye, those too.
Incidentally, EDGE has given this a score of
Which is exactly what they have also awarded Bioshock. And 2 higher than Heavenly Sword.
But everyone knows EDGE is utter dog shit now.
Those of you who like the game could use those screens to demonstrate what it is that makes you like the game.
Those of you who don't like the game could use screens to demonstrate what it is that turns you off.
...and those of us who haven't tried it yet would then have a chance to be illuminated by a suddenly much more visually-interesting discussion.
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com
This really is one of those games where screenshots just don't get the point across.
But hey.
But yeah, actually screens are just about irrelevant in this case!
And J Allard.
If you try to play Space Giraffe like a normal shooter (i.e. shoot everything in sight and dodge stuff), you'll have little fun and get pathetic scores. Playing it correctly involves juggling self preservation, power zone filling, bulling, environment scanning, power-up grabbing, and bullet reflection. When everything clicks, it's absolutely glorious.
Personally, I'd say Space Giraffe is the best deal that XBLA has to offer: better than Geometry Wars and at the same low price of $5.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Maybe. Maybe I'm just not getting it, which is the point of this thread and not just a general specific-game bitch session. But even if I'm missing it, I really can't and won't ever agree that this does the same for Tempest that Pac-Man Championship Edition does for Pac-Man. I don't think I've heard a single complaint about Pac-Man CE. It engages people immediately. Space Giraffe seems to create an immediate dichotomy between people who love it and people who hate it.
Also, I played the demo again since people were chatting about it and as someone above said, it shits color all over the place. Maybe it's just me or my weary, 27-year old eyes but it's like the developer is doing everything in his power to give me a seizure.
I can see your point, but you have to keep in mind that the original Pac-Man is just about the most accessible videogame ever made. The original Tempest was easy to grasp, but not particularly accessible in my mind: it's a tough game and like it's recently released 360 evolved version, it's awfully hard to figure out what's going on at times. Therefore I think the comparison is valid: the original Pac-Man was a game that appealed to both casual and hardcore gamers and Pac-Man: CE continued that tradiiton; the original Tempest was a game that really only appealed to hardcore gamers and Space Giraffe is the same.
Oh and some levels in Space Giraffe are circular (both inside and outside the circle).
And I noticed that GameFAQs now has a guide to Space Giraffe up. It's a quick read and does a good job at explaining how the game works.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Pokémon HGSS: 1205 1613 4041
I don't believe so.
Wait...
When was Tempest released for the 360?
I'll be honest here. My dislike for the game is mostly due to the aesthetics, the visuals. They are a mess. It's not like, say, Rez, which was simple and beautiful. This is like a bleeding Rez.