Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars
|
Featured Article |
|---|
| Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars | |
|---|---|
| |
| ID # | 585 |
| World | Virtupets Space Station |
| Category | Action |
| High Scores | |
| Game Page | |
Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars, also called Evil Fuzzles, is a rail shooter game. Players help Zygorax, a Grundo maintenance worker, defeat alien Evil Fuzzles that are attacking the Virtupets Space Station.
It was featured in the Daily Dare competition in 2007, and in the Games Master Challenges in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012.
There have been two games with this title. The first one was release on 30 March 2002 and was replaced on 6 October 2005 by a remake with the same name.
How to play[edit]
In the game, the player mans an X-Scrub 4000 Walker Bot, a type of mecha or powered exoskeleton. In it, they patrol the hull of the Space Station and must destroy as many Evil Fuzzles as they can.
The player does not control the movement of their Walker: it moves automatically in a straight line towards the next "station", a shop where the player can buy upgrades and repairs. The player is only responsible for the weapons, using the mouse to target and fire the Walker's mega gun at enemies. Beneath the window, the player can see the upgrades they have installed. Shields, smart bombs, and stun bombs can be activated by clicking the icon at the bottom of the screen - smart bombs can also be fired by pressing space.
If a Fuzzle reaches the Walker before the player destroys it, it will damage its hull. If the Walker loses all its hull points, the game is over. The Walker starts with 50 out of a maximum 100 hull points. Additionally, players must contend with land mines placed in their path. As they cannot steer the Walker, they must also use their weapon to destroy these mines.
For every Fuzzle the player destroys, they start a bonus score count. This appears as a green box on the Walker's screen. The bonus goes up with every consecutive Fuzzle they kill without missing - if they miss, the combo goes back to zero. Blowing up a landmine does not add to the bonus, but does not break the combo either. The player claims these points by shooting the bonus score box. Shooting one Fuzzle gives a bonus of 1 x 2, shooting two in a row gives a bonus of 2 x 2, shooting three in a row gives a bonus of 3 x 2 and so on. Destroy ten Fuzzles in a row, and the multiplier goes up to x 3 - that is, 10 x 3, 11 x 3, and so on. The player can see in the top left corner how much longer they have before they reach the station and the level ends - any bonus points unclaimed by then are lost.
At each station, the number of Fuzzles killed are converted into Virtucreds that can be used to buy upgrades. Any unspent Virtucreds are kept until the next station.
Enemies[edit]
Evil Fuzzles attack in pairs, often in addition to a mine. They will fly towards the player's Walker. At later levels, they will approach faster.
To begin with, all the Fuzzles will be destroyed by a single shot from your starter weapon. However, with each level, Fuzzles will appear that require an extra hit to destroy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Levels 1 & 2 | Levels 2 & 3 | Levels 3 & 4 | Levels 4 & 5 | Levels 5 & 6 | Levels 6 & 7 | Levels 7 & 8 |
| 1 hit | 2 hits | 3 hits | 4 hits | 5 hits | 6 hits | 7 hits |
Each upgrade to the mega gun increases its damage by one - this means that while the first gun will take two hits to kill a yellow Fuzzle and four hits to kill a brown Fuzzle, the second gun will kill a yellow Fuzzle in one shot and a brown Fuzzle in two, and the fourth gun will kill a Brown fuzzle and all weaker in one shot. Whenever a Fuzzle takes damage but doesn't die, its colour downgrades, e.g. using the default gun on a brown Fuzzle will turn it into a green Fuzzle, then a yellow Fuzzle, then a red Fuzzle each time.
The final gun upgrade deals seven times the damage of the first gun, which means it destroys a purple Fuzzle in one hit. However, even the most powerful gun takes two hits to destroy the grey Fuzzles.
Upgrades[edit]
At the station at the end of each level, the player can spend their Virtucreds, calculated from the number of Fuzzles they have destroyed, on new equipment for their Walker. Shields, smart bombs, and stun bombs are activated by clicking their icons in the Walker. A smart bomb can also be fired by pressing the space button. The repair droids and radar are active automatically, and don't get used up.
Droid repair systems accumulate and their benefits stack.
| Upgrade | Name | Price | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Hull | 10 | This will repair ten points of hull integrity, up to a maximum of 100. |
|
Shields | 10 | When activated, this will add twenty points of additional points of health to the Walker. Each shield bought can only be used once. |
|
Droid Repair | 25 * | During the levels, each of these robots will restore a point of hull integrity every three seconds automatically. |
|
Radar | 25 | This upgrade adds an extra element to the heads-up display showing when Fuzzles are drifting to the sides. |
|
Mega Gun | 50 * | This increases the damage the main weapon will do. |
|
Smart Bomb | 10 | The player's Walker can hold up to five of these at a time. When fired, they will destroy all the Fuzzles on screen. |
|
Stun Bomb | 10 | The player's Walker can hold up to five of these at a time. When fired, they will temporarily stun all the Fuzzles on screen. |
| * The cost of the Droid Repair and the Mega Gun increases by this value each time one is bought. The fist Droid Repair costs 1 x 25 = 25 Vitrucreds, the second costs 2 x 25 = 50 Virtucreds, and so on. The first Mega Gun upgrade costs 1 x 50 = 50 Virtucreds, the second costs 2 x 50 = 100 Virtucreds, and so on. | |||
Original version[edit]
| Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars | |
|---|---|
| |
| ID # | 128 |
| World | Space Station |
| Category | Action |
| Replacement | Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars |
| High Scores | |
| Game Page | |
The original version of this game was released on 30 March 2002, and interred in the Game Graveyard when the remake was released on 6 October 2005.
The original version plays very similarly to the remake. One difference is that, in the original version, Fuzzles would sometimes appear from the left and right of the Walker rather than from ahead. This gave the player very little time to react to destroy them without the radar upgrade. The player could turn their Walker to face left or right with the b and n keys to check if Fuzzles were sneaking up on them.
In this version of the game, the only land mines that would damage the Walker were the ones directly in front of it: most land mines could be safely walked past.
Trivia[edit]
- The font used in this game is called Seized Future.
External links[edit]
- Editorial: #273, #406
- Neopedia: Zygorax the Grundo
- Neopian Times: Invasion of the Fuzzles - A Guide to Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars, Advanced Guide to Evil Fuzzles From Beyond the Stars