MAME ROW #61 - Willow
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This week's winner is Willow
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For anyone else wondering how in the heck you climb up to the ledge to get over the bridge at the very beginning of the game, you press
Up+Jumpat the same time. It took me way too long to figure that out. -
Holy cannoli this is an unforgiving platformer. I can make it to what I assume is the boss at the end of the first level (the big dog/rat/pig thing) but no farther. You also don’t see your score on the continue screen.
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I finally made it to Level 2. I actually ran out of time fighting the boss on the first level. The lowest score on the leaderboard is 10,000 points, but I did manage a screen grab right after I died the final time in Level 2. 9,000 is my best for now.
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On to the leaderboard! Woo hoo!
14,150
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@obsidianspider that's a great score! Best I can manage is 10450 so far. And that took a lot of practice!
It's a difficult game. Not least because of that timer - I don't think I've ever seen a game that doesn't stop the timer when you reach the end of level boss - you can be halfway through beating him when this game suddenly goes 'Time Up!'. Ha!
And the timer ticks down even when you are choosing what to buy from the shop guys.
I'm not really sure how the purchased items work either. I seem to do better against the end of level boss if I have bought the ancient stone item. I don't know if the benefit of items remains if you lose a life?
The number of coins you collect seems to be random. For a while I thought of you picked up a coin which was still bouncing, you were more likely to get more, but I'm not sure that's correct - sometimes you get 1 coin, other times a few hundred or even a thousand I think. There doesn't seem to be any rules to this.
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@gtbfilms The timer seems to be unreasonably short, and yeah, the game is unforgiving. The farthest I've gotten is just past the "Shop" in stage 2.
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I was having a hunt around the internet for tips for Willow, and came across this:
https://www.arcade-museum.com/manuals-videogames/W/Willow__1989__Capcom.pdf
It's the instructions for fitting the Willow boards into the cabinet of an old game - it looks like this game was sold as an upgrade to existing cabinets to provide a new game at low cost. There's interesting advice on cleaning up the cabinet, and replacing the marquee/artwork to make it look like new, but all the arcades I remember used to just jam a new board in and leave the cabinet a total inconsistent mess!
I actually find this sort of thing quite interesting, as it shows arcade-owners side of the business, which I was never really aware of (or even considered) in the hey-day of arcades. I remember being flabbergasted to first find out about dip-switches and how arcade owners would set a new machine to EASY on arrival, then bump up the difficulty after a few weeks - all the kids like me would plough more cash in adamant that "I used to get further than this on a credit!"
I did manage to find a comprehensive game guide as well:
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Willow overlay and launching image are now available.
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Wow this game is hard. My highest score, I think, is 2,000 points. Furthest I've gotten is just past the first bad guy that requires more than one shot.
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@periodiclogic best strategy I have found for that guy (on the bridge) is buy the ring from the shop before, this allows you to take a few hits, then keep jumping towards him firing, trying to time it so you jump any projectiles. If you get close to him he disappears and reappears elsewhere but it prevents him firing too many shots. Also if he reappears at the level of the bridge (instead of in mid air) you can get a few shots in before he disappears again.
When he dies the bridge collapses so get ready to run.
Having said that, he still manages to kill me about half of the time!
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They had Willow in my local arcade back in the early 90s. I seem to remember, near the start of the game, there is somewhere you can shoot into what looks like empty space but there is something there which turns from invisible to visible when you fire there a few times if you know what I mean. Some kind of power up? Sorry for the vagueness but it was a long time ago!
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Got to the second stage twice in about 30 attempts. 14050 is my best so far.
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The Ghosts and Goblins comparison is surprisingly valid from a gameplay perspective. It certainly feels like a have from the series, maybe slightly easier than those.
Still, I never managed to get into the high score table. Maybe I'll play some more this week if I have the chance.
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17,300!But only after setting the difficulty to the lowest level (which I'm not sure really changed anything), and jacking up the number of lives and hit points.
I found the game a lot less sadistic with these settings, although the time limit still eliminates one of those extra lives.
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MAME ROW #62 is live!
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