And
it came to pass, that the Heroic Dot would spawn many offspring,
who would then start killing one another like College Republicans
on a bender.
Adventure:
This level is pretty obvious to anyone who grew
up with an Atari 2600. It's a throwback to Advanture, Warren Robinett's
groundbraking game from 1978. Not only was this the first graphical
advanture game (take that, Zelda), it was also the first game to
feature an "easter egg" - Robinett's name hidden in a
secret room.
Castle:
The castle is densely packed with forests, slowing movement a little,
but the 10 cities make it the perfect battleground. Yellow may have
home-field advantage, but red and blue both have openings to drive
through.
The
Dragon Ducks:
Yeah, the roads surrounding red and blue do look like those dragon
duck, uh, things. What the heck were those things, anyway?
Also,
don't forget to use those blocks of forest as a defensive cover
(rockets, artillery).
Aircraft:
You begin with a helicopter, so you can begin shooting each other
right away. Be sure to use transport copters to move mechs around.
Just don't stretch yourself too thin; getting your copter shot down
will put you at a serious disadvantage, as enemy soldiers can capture
cities unscathed.
Multiple
Fronts: Each player can quickly attack the
others, so keep this in mind. An important tactic is to disrupt
the other two when they're caught in heavy fighting. Sometimes
it's more important to let your friends weaken each other
than to destroy them one at a time.
Never
get caught in one front. Keep your options open.
Balance:
It's a different challenge to design a map for three players than
four. You can't simply chop the playfield into fourths and call
it a day.
Perfecting
the balance for Adventure! took a surprisingly long time,
and a lot of minor tweaks and alterations. But make no mistake,
each player has an equal shot against one another. Yellow may seem
to be in a pinch, but she can more than handle herself.
Adventure
may be my best map. It's going to take me a long while to top this. |
