Job #20:
Stage Name: Enchanted Forest
Stage Origin: Centipede (Atari 7800 pack-in comic, 1986)
Fun fact - a few of Atari's games had pack-in or tie-in comics specially designed to set up the story surrounding the game's narrative, though some of the most notable looking back are probably the
SwordQuest series, maybe
Yars' Revenge, and of course,
Centipede. This stage would be inspired by the Atari 7800 version's pack-in manual, which recontextualises a lot of what you see in the game as a part of an actual plot.
In terms of design, the stage is a fantastical forest packed with all kinds of strange beings, like the evil Mushroom Wizard, as well as characters like Spider, Flea, the Elves, and of course Centipede, all of which act as decorative background elements. The stage itself takes place on a fallen log between two rock faces, as well as some other tree branches - but too many attacks directed at the central log breaks it in two and opens up a chasm below. After a certain amount of time, another log will fall into place.
Job #21:
Item Name: Boss Galaga
Item Origin: Galaga (1981)
Functioning similarly to in that other platfighter game with video game characters in it, Boss Galaga can be picked up and thrown, at which point it'll fly to the top of the screen and trace another fighter horizontally before diving back down, activating a tractor beam, and trying to drag them to the top of the stage and into the blast zone. You can, however, escape by mashing - plus, you can hit it to get it away from you. It maintains its unique arcade aesthetic, using sound effects from the original game when active, as well as darkening the background.
Moveset Submission: Space Invaders
Space Invaders are designed to be a little bit unusual in terms of their general nature, closely resembling their appearance in the original arcade game as opposed to using a design from an external media source. This design means they, and their attacks, have a unique property in that they're designed to represent traditional sprites to a reasonable degree of accuracy. This also means that attacks that land on opponents have a unique pixellated "explosion" resembling when you successfully manage to hit an Invader in the original arcade game. That said, I'd pull from a variety of pieces of
Space Invaders media in order to represent them on a more general level.
In terms of moveset, they're intended to be very vertically and aerially focused, but heavily lacking in close-up and horizontal tools so as to offset this. That said, they're not completely helpless when on the ground - but when in the air, they're almost playing their own kind of game. That being said, you need to be smart when playing as them due to their unorthodox playstyle.
In terms of stats, they're pretty slow and floaty - being lightweights with high air speed but middling ground speed. They have a total of three jumps, and can't wall-jump or wall-cling. Many of their attacks are fairly weak, aside from their charged ones, resulting in a defensive and ranged playstyle that rewards you for playing to their vertical strengths.
Attack Name | Button Execution | Description |
---|
Invader Squadron | None (fighter ability) | By default, the Space Invaders act as a unified horde of three - the Light, Medium and Heavy Invaders. They're also able to call in the UFO for some attacks. Similar to Ren & Stimpy in NASB or Tom & Jerry in Multiversus, they don't have the ability to desync akin to the Ice Climbers, instead fighting as a singular unit. From time to time, they'll change their "order" around depending on what moves they're doing, though again, this is purely cosmetic. |
Speed Up! | None (fighter ability) | Purely by default, the Space Invaders gain faster horizontal movement over time, both on the ground and in the air. This is a direct reference to how they'd typically move faster as they got further down the screen in the original game. This property is reset if they lose a stock, and only continues up to a certain point. |
Hover | Hold Jump whilst airborne (fighter ability) | By holding Jump whilst airborne, it's possible for the Invaders to hover - as well as being able to control their horizontal direction for so long as you hold the input. However, the effect stops after a couple of seconds, so you can't just camp at the top of the screen forever. |
UFO Strike | B | This move allows you to call in a UFO, which will fly over your head before scanning in front of you. If it detects an opponent, it'll lock onto them and fire a series of low-powered pixel bullets at their location when the lock-on happened. If not, it'll just fire the bullets directly forward. |
UFO Trace | → + B | This move allows you to send the UFO forward and away from you, with it having a field around it. If an opponent enters that field, the UFO will perform UFO Strike on them automatically without player input - plus, it'll then try and follow the player horizontally.
At any time whilst this move is active, you can press B to recall the UFO back to your own location.
The catches to this are twofold - firstly, when UFO Trace is active, you do not have access to UFO Strike. Secondly, the UFO can only travel horizontally, so if an opponent manages to evade it from above, it'll struggle to attack them. |
Upward Small-Scale Fire | ↑ + repeatedly tap B | This simply allows you to fire a low-powered pixel "bullet" downward directly above you, with it moving in a straight line even if you're moving when you let the attack off. Each bullet is fired by a different Invader on a cycle from S/M/L, though there's no difference in damage.
Repeatedly tapping the attack is capable of massively slowing your falling speed if used in the air, but the attack lacks somewhat in outright power. For that, you'll want... |
Upward Broad Upgrade Fire | ↑ + charge B | A more powerful variant of the Small-Scale Fire, which shoots five bullets at a time, but lacks the spammability of its weaker brother, even though it does still stop your falling momentum upon being fired in the air. This item is a reoccurring one in various games in the Space Invaders series, such as Space Invaders Extreme. |
Upward Beam Upgrade Fire | ↑ + fully charge B | Fully charging an upward B input has the attack upgraded to a powerful beam which remains in place for multiple frames, with above-average horizontal coverage on top of that, and stopping your vertical aerial momentum during its entire duration whilst still allowing you to move horizontally if airborne. It's even capable of being fired through walls and opponents that it hits!
However, its power is offset by the fact that it needs to be charged up fully in order to use it. This attack has also featured in various Space Invaders games over the years. |
Downward Small-Scale Fire | ↓ + repeatedly tap B whilst airborne | Effectively a variant of Upward Small-Scale Fire, but downward instead. Identical properties to its aerial variation, but doesn't work on the ground for obvious reasons. |
Downward Broad Upgrade Fire | ↓ + charge B whilst airborne | Effectively a variant of Upward Broad Upgrade Fire, but downward instead. Identical properties to its aerial variation, but doesn't work on the ground for obvious reasons. |
Downward Beam Upgrade Fire | ↓ + fully charge B whilst airborne | Effectively a variant of Upward Beam Upgrade Fire, but downward instead. Identical properties to its aerial variation, but doesn't work on the ground for obvious reasons - and also has very slightly increased damage. |
Barracks | Shield (fighter ability) | When you input shield, a Barracks (from the original game) will spawn over you, protecting you from attacks.
Unlike a normal shield, the Barracks can last forever... but attacks to the shield will whittle it down, pixel by pixel. If it breaks, you're stuck in a dizzy state, and if it gets damaged, it takes a short time of not being used to start to reform. |