Is there a part of a game that's driving you crazy this week?
For me it's Level 14-4 in "N+," which is driving me up the wall for the simple fact that I cant... drive my character up a wall.
14-4 of my latest Xbox 360 download obsession involves is tricky. It throws the most frustrating curve ball in "N+'"s level design. To play the game you must bring a small ninja through some challenging platform stages.
The majority of the game's obstacles involve avoiding carefully scattered mine fields, but occasionally the game's development team, Metanet Software, throws a few heat-seeking missiles your way. In 14-4, there's not one missile out to destroy you, there are two. The trick is getting said missiles to crash into a wall. Another missile spawns, but there's a split-second to plan a new move.
Apparently, that split-second isn't enough for me. In less than 20 minutes, 14-4 made me put the controller down.
That, or I simply need more practice.
So far in "N+," I have been unable to perfect one of the more advanced techniques associated with the wall-jump. Bouncing back and forth a la "Super Mario 64" is a breeze, but skillfully timed presses are required to wall-jump up a completely vertical slope, and coming to grips with that is crucial to my success.
We've all encountered brick walls and hated foes in video games, the kind we lose sleep over. Read on to learn how 14-4 has vexed me and how my desire to conquer Bungie's Luke Smith is helping me get over it.
The sad thing is, I already know exactly how to complete 14-4, thanks to "N+"'s built-in video recorder. Each stage's leaderboard include easily downloadable recordings of top player runs. I'll never approach their skill level, but the videos provide a road map that removes the mystery, placing the burden squarely on my shoulders. In 14-4, the key is wall-jumping to keep the missiles on your tail just enough to stop them from crashing and re-spawning, which would cause them to completely re-align their aim.
For now, however, I've reached the point where I must simply admit defeat and come back another day -- or after work, whatever comes first. I've already conquered the prior 13 episodes, but those were my only my first run through. Surely, I can do better. Surely, I can defeat Luke Smith.
Each stage in "N+" takes place within an episode, with each episode made up of five stages. After spending 20 minutes frustrated with 14-4, a quick look at the leaderboards showed my first runs on each episode put me perilously close to Smith's scores. In "N+," scores are determined by how much time is left at the end of the episode. Scattered throughout each stage are gold icons, which boost your overall time. You could complete an entire episode without touching the gold, but grabbing them is what nets you leaderboard spots.
Without pasting a table filled with mindless numbers, currently Smith's scores are ahead of me on two episodes of N+ -- three, if you count that I haven't finished episode 14 yet -- but that puts me on top a whopping 12 times. Smith claims that's only because those are first run scores, but we'll see how he fares later tonight, when he tries to topple them. I'll let you know if he's successful.
Readers, have you played "N+" yet? If not, you should (as Multiplayer's own Jason Cipriano will attest to), but what's been your "N+" roadblock? Have you given up?
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