616,300 - Night 11: Greed

RSS Bot · February 13, 2010

So I should have beat my high score today. I had 144,500, was on my final life, and had only one rivit left to grab, and all the Fox Fires trapped. And then I notice that all the Fox Fires are at the top of the same ladder, and that that ladder is directly over the hammer. Well, I decided I just had to grab that quick 3000 points. And, hey, what are the chances they respawn in any way that can cut me off from one lousy rivit. And they didn't respawn in that way at all. In fact, they didn't respawn anywhere because I jumped into one of them when I was jumping up to grab the hammer.

If I'd just grabbed the last plug, I'd have gotten the level finishing bonus, and would probably have grabbed a bunch more points in the barrel stage, even if I died there. Heck, I might have broken 200,000. But no, I just had to try for 3000 measly little points. Less than that actually, as the lost time would have taken over a thousand.

The problem with greed in arcade games is that it is so often rewarded. Most of my best scores come from greed.

In any case, I figured out the real way to beat the Fox Fires tonight. It was one of those "a-ha" moments. I owe it to the "How to Win at Donkey Kong" book I downloaded. When I read their description of the right "pattern," I didn't get it. Then I tried a variation of it in this game and had a virtually Fox Fire free run from there on out. That was, of course, until I got greedy.

Now if I can just figure out how to control the barrels, I'm in business.

Best score ever: 161,500

Best score today: 144,500

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