Border Down

[AllYourBase]

I've played it now a few times, and I like it. The switching between homing and straight shots is a nice idea and the border system makes this a bit different from the usual.

I found this guide from GameFAQs rather helpful in explaining the scoring system - especially with regards to how your score is affected by how long you spend on the boss.

Have you peeps been trying to kill the boss on 0.00? I managed 0.08 last night and got a whopping score. It's way too tempting to turn his blast lazer on him though and take him out in 5 secs!!

[GOD?]

got it through this morning courtesy of play-asia.

first impressions?

- lovely to look at, although not pushing the DC quite as hard as Ikaruga.

- multiple routes through levels - excellent.

- traditional bullet patterns, less than on a recent vertical shmup, but sometimes lots at once and in very enclosed areas. I like.

- supersmooth 60 frames except during mega destructive boss explosions, for effect.

- no continues. that's NONE. and after an hour's play I haven't earnt the option to have any. and losing a life kicks you onto a different route altogether.

- broken english all over the place. love it. see my new sig.

- backgrounds are nice but cleverly, are usually largely monochromatic, making it very easy to pick out bullets and enemies without losing any visual impact.

- lots of old Toaplan staple level and bullet patterns - either some of the staff worked for them before they went bust, or someone really liked Hellfire and Zero Wing - I may have to revisit G-Darius (by the same people as BD) and see if I can spot any in there.

- basically, I really, really rate it and at the moment it owns me (I refuse to put it on easy). utterly recommended to anyone who likes shooters at all.

and allyourbase, do I know you? living in Cambridge and being a zig-fan and all.

[stroppa]

I've played it now a few times, and I like it. The switching between homing and straight shots is a nice idea and the border system makes this a bit different from the usual.

I found this guide from GameFAQs rather helpful in explaining the scoring system - especially with regards to how your score is affected by how long you spend on the boss.

Have you peeps been trying to kill the boss on 0.00? I managed 0.08 last night and got a whopping score. It's way too tempting to turn his blast lazer on him though and take him out in 5 secs!!

yeah, the blast laser just looks too nice to ignore.

I did the level 1 boss in 0.07 seconds, the bonuses are insane.

[Kirby]

got it through this morning courtesy of play-asia.

- no continues. that's NONE. and after an hour's play I haven't earnt the option to have any. and losing a life kicks you onto a different route altogether.

Thats strange. Are you saving your games? I initially thought there were no continues, but after playing Arcade mode for about 45 minutes i was then given 3 continues (set them in the Options screen)

[stroppa]

got it through this morning courtesy of play-asia.

- no continues. that's NONE. and after an hour's play I haven't earnt the option to have any. and losing a life kicks you onto a different route altogether.

Thats strange. Are you saving your games? I initially thought there were no continues, but after playing Arcade mode for about 45 minutes i was then given 3 continues (set them in the Options screen)

not sure but maybe you have to meet the par score in a level before earning more continues.

[Kirby]

Hmm that's possible. I do have several scores high up the table, most of which have met Par on the first 3 levels at least.

[RYNEX]

WHAT A GAME!!!!!!!

[charlesr]

I just presumed it was a time thing for more continues, but I got more continues after only a couple of goes. I played it for about an hour yesterday, and then saved it. Turned it on this morning and played once and then found on the next go I am up to 6 continues. Didn't think I was doing particularly well either.

Anyone notice the difficulty varies both up AND down when you border down? For example, the very first mid level boss, the "spinny tunnel guard (Tm)", on border green, it fires loads of bullets, but if you let it kill you and border down to yellow, it fires very slow easy to dodge bullets. I've noticed this in a few places.

Also, how big is the game? I haven't had much chance to play it properly yet, but there are seemingly 5 levels, but these are referred to as "training levels". Does this mean there are some "proper" levels after this? Or is the story that you are doing a training simulator and that's the end?

[bcass]

Also, how big is the game? I haven't had much chance to play it properly yet, but there are seemingly 5 levels, but these are referred to as "training levels". Does this mean there are some "proper" levels after this? Or is the story that you are doing a training simulator and that's the end?

Maybe they cribbed Image Fights sytem, whereby most of the game is in fact a training simulator (amazing considering the shere-difficulty of that game), and depending on your performance on the simulated 5 stages, you get to play more/less afterwards.

[GOD?]

no, it says 'training' at the start but it means 'briefing', it's when it's telling you the route and what to do (see my sig )

there are plenty of stages if you take into account the different borders. LOADS in fact.

[charlesr]

Anyone put much time into the remix? Looks like fun. Much bang for your buck too.

[Papercut]

I found the same as charlesr last night, a couple of games and I'm already up to 3/3 credits. It seemed to happen when I cleared the first level (green border) without dropping a life.

What a cool shooter this is

I am glad that the screen doesn't fill with bullets like the last few shooters I've played, but it's still tough to balance the laser use / weapon level just right. The comparisons earlier to Darius are spot on, reminds me of Salamander too in places.

Really like the visual style of this game, the buildings of the first level zipping by complete with interior detail is very cool. The first boss is very nice too.

The border/life system is really interesting, it'll take a while to get the hang of that (and it's effect on scores).

Is the break level just a laser combo counter? Are these accumulative, or does it record the largest single combo?

Remix mode has different music/visuals and (from the first couple of levels) more enemies in different layouts. I like the way the intro splash screen and menu color schemes change between the two modes

Does anyone know if Border Down Remix was released in the arcades?

So, how far have people got with this up to now? I seem to die a lot at the end of level 3...

Also, anyone making use of the different ship speeds? 1 seems too slow and 3 seems too fast to me, whatevers going on

As others have said the music is... different. More so in Remix mode. Still, I quite like it, and at least its trying to do something new. Not listened to the soundtrack yet.

[bcass]

Its best to change ship speeds at certain moments - slow down when there are a lot of bullets, to help you manouvre more accurately.

I'm up to Stage 5 using 2 credits. The R-Type influences are starting to kick-in now too.

[baad bwoy]

I like the music on this game it has grown on me immensly, and I particularly like the music on the second level, the supposed supermarket type music, I wonder what this says about me though.

[Papercut]

you enjoy shopping for cleaning products?