Space Giraffe - Player's views, help needed, etc.

[WiredWorm]

I'd agree with Pyroxian - if you're rushing over to push back a bullet then the hoof shots can be a life saver. Gives you the chance to repel the bullet without having to put yourself in harms way (i.e. right in front of it).

So yeah, the hoof shots can come in handy when moving around the web......

[Mentski]

Now... you see... I do manage to do that on the "flatter" playfields just fine, But once, I get to a circular/cube one, all of a sudden I'm wearing an idiot helmet.

[SpookyElectric1]

Stuck on level 13 now for about 3 hours and 50 tries. I'm really enjoying this game but this level is putting me off ever so slightly now....

[Yak]

Stuck on level 13 now for about 3 hours and 50 tries. I'm really enjoying this game but this level is putting me off ever so slightly now....

It's not too bad, the only real difficulty is that the flowers grow up above the Rim. Choose a few lanes to defend and move back and forth over those shooting down any baddies and bullets. Watch the colour of the streaks that denote arriving enemies at the bottom of the level - most of them are red but green ones betoken arriving flowers. When you see green streaks, use the right analog stick left and right to rinse around the level with your hoof shots. Normally in the process of doing this you'll destroy any newly arrived flowers. Listen for the donkey to confirm flower kills.

If a flower does grow above the rim, just don't run into it. Stay calm and eventually it'll ping off harmlessly.

Eventually you'll be comfortable enough not just to keep your immediate zone clear of flowers but also to clear enough area to also gather some baddies into for the purposes of bulling, and be able not only to survive the level but to do so with decent BM too .

[Yak]

Oh, and another thing, if you're stuck on a level it can make sense to play the previous level (assuming you're OK with it) and try deliberately to end it with a Yes Yes Yes. Rinsing of incoming flowers is 10x easier with super-speed semi-aimed hoof shots .

[Tyma]

Having spoken to a couple of people, the common thread linking the people who 'get it', and the people who just can't understand it's appeal seems to always boil down to one misconception :

This is not just a twitch game.

Anyone who says "this is Tempest" is clearly approaching it from the wrong direction. Tempest was a twitch game : It was played aggressively, with a minimal ammount of strategy, and although there were gameplay patterns you could memorise, they weren't necessarily crucial to success.

Space Giraffe looks like Tempest, but it's about as similar as 9-Ball Pool is to Snooker. They look the same, but if you try to play Snooker in the same was that you play Pool, you're likely going to get punished by the game's mechanics.

Likewise, Space Giraffe can be played aggressively, but if you don't recognise, fear and respect the new layers of depth and strategy, it's going to punish you. Although reflexes are a useful tool, the fact is that every level of Space Giraffe is so different that a strategy guide would have to dedicate at least 300 words to describing the waves and strategy of each level, then another 1000 words to describe how to pull off that level's maximum score.

Each level is an event. You can go in all guns blazing, and blindly charge enemies off the rim, but unless you take the time to learn the patterns behind every wave of that level, you're going get punished by the speed of the game.

The key to approaching the game seems to be sectioning off one 'safe' area of the board, and then making considered judgements on when to charge enemies away. Of course, this isn't going to net you an incredibly high score, but it's going to let you live long enough to understand the subtleties of the game, before you either write it off, or attempt to play the game aggressively.

[SpookyElectric1]

It's not too bad, the only real difficulty is that the flowers grow up above the Rim. Choose a few lanes to defend and move back and forth over those shooting down any baddies and bullets. Watch the colour of the streaks that denote arriving enemies at the bottom of the level - most of them are red but green ones betoken arriving flowers. When you see green streaks, use the right analog stick left and right to rinse around the level with your hoof shots. Normally in the process of doing this you'll destroy any newly arrived flowers. Listen for the donkey to confirm flower kills.

If a flower does grow above the rim, just don't run into it. Stay calm and eventually it'll ping off harmlessly.

Eventually you'll be comfortable enough not just to keep your immediate zone clear of flowers but also to clear enough area to also gather some baddies into for the purposes of bulling, and be able not only to survive the level but to do so with decent BM too .

Cheers. Made it through the level although it was more luck than judgement I think - just stayed pretty much between 3-4 lanes and used the hoof shots. Only 1 life left and no BM but at least I'm through!

But then comes level 14 - OMFG - here we go again!

[WiredWorm]

Damn you Jeff for making such an addictive game - just sat down for a 'couple' of goes and found that 2 hours had flown by!!

[korruptor]

Er, another obvious handy tip is to always stay on the left hand side of the web. Until later levels, anyway.

[CarlBillen]

For some odd reason, I feel to call this game more a move-em-up than a shoot-em-up... I know, moving is very important in a shmup, but it simply feels... more important to move than to shoot

And sometimes it is really weird; I have managed to get the Great Green Arkleseizure three times on Level 5, but when I failed to get it, "I was Meh"

But after a while you feel that you find your strategy for each level... For me, Level 5 = focus purely on the bullets (so I might get the Arkleseizure); Level 7 = the Klepto-Giraffe level with the heaps of pods...

And I still forget my A-button, and I still forget to jump to shoot the flowers that have gotten too high...

I tried it without any music, and while you hear the audio cues far better, it just isn't the same... But I noticed that when I got the Klepto-Giraffe or the Ox Token all the effects seemed to get in overdrive resulting in a panicky "What is happening?" reaction

(And I have only unwrapped my Limited Edition Bioshock box to look at the Big Daddy, I haven't even tried out the game... See what Space Giraffe does to me?)

[PVB]

Having spoken to a couple of people, the common thread linking the people who 'get it', and the people who just can't understand it's appeal seems to always boil down to one misconception :

This is not just a twitch game.

Anyone who says "this is Tempest" is clearly approaching it from the wrong direction. Tempest was a twitch game : It was played aggressively, with a minimal ammount of strategy, and although there were gameplay patterns you could memorise, they weren't necessarily crucial to success.

Space Giraffe looks like Tempest, but it's about as similar as 9-Ball Pool is to Snooker. They look the same, but if you try to play Snooker in the same was that you play Pool, you're likely going to get punished by the game's mechanics.

Likewise, Space Giraffe can be played aggressively, but if you don't recognise, fear and respect the new layers of depth and strategy, it's going to punish you. Although reflexes are a useful tool, the fact is that every level of Space Giraffe is so different that a strategy guide would have to dedicate at least 300 words to describing the waves and strategy of each level, then another 1000 words to describe how to pull off that level's maximum score.

Each level is an event. You can go in all guns blazing, and blindly charge enemies off the rim, but unless you take the time to learn the patterns behind every wave of that level, you're going get punished by the speed of the game.

The key to approaching the game seems to be sectioning off one 'safe' area of the board, and then making considered judgements on when to charge enemies away. Of course, this isn't going to net you an incredibly high score, but it's going to let you live long enough to understand the subtleties of the game, before you either write it off, or attempt to play the game aggressively.

Very well said.

[HGFB]

Level 11 was eating me alive until something clicked and I got past it and did pretty well. Level 14 tore me a new one.

[chub]

Level 14 is a bastard! It's like backwards perspective or something. Two words that I used a lot on that level were 'cunt' and 'Minter' in various orders.

I just wonder what kind of warped stuff happens in later levels.

[skweek]

I'm stuck on level 31.

This may be the best videogame I've ever played you know.

[sty]

Er, another obvious handy tip is to always stay on the left hand side of the web. Until later levels, anyway.

That's just Yak fucking with my mind because I've always used the lower right corner as my safe zone in old school shooters