Huntdown - "His blood type spells AK47"

[Benny]

I found Cyra a real pain in the arse until I discovered the trick to making the fight easier:

 

Spoiler

Save the cluster bombs from earlier for the giant snake. Two of those at close range kills it instantly.

 

[K]

A nice touch I noticed last night. The police cruisers/tanks on the first level are clearly based on top eighties programmable robot toy, BigTrak:

 

 

 

[Talvalin]

2 hours ago, Benny said:

I found Cyra a real pain in the arse until I discovered the trick to making the fight easier:

 

  Hide contents

Save the cluster bombs from earlier for the giant snake. Two of those at close range kills it instantly.

 

Do you use them when the snake is travelling from side to side across the screen, or do you wait until the very end when its stationary on the right side?

Also, I noticed that the game has an annoying "bug" where throwing explosives in quick succession does less damage than if you leave a short gap between them. Case in point, if you throw the two cluster grenades one after the other, it does about half the damage that you would expect (and so I had to finish it off with the Asteroid Blaster).

 

I may have asked this question before, but have you managed to 100% the game on Badass? I get the feeling that you've already done it based on how much you've been playing (and talking about!) the game.

[Benny]

45 minutes ago, Talvalin said:

Do you use them when the snake is travelling from side to side across the screen, or do you wait until the very end when its stationary on the right side?

Also, I noticed that the game has an annoying "bug" where throwing explosives in quick succession does less damage than if you leave a short gap between them. Case in point, if you throw the two cluster grenades one after the other, it does about half the damage that you would expect (and so I had to finish it off with the Asteroid Blaster).

 

I may have asked this question before, but have you managed to 100% the game on Badass? I get the feeling that you've already done it based on how much you've been playing (and talking about!) the game.

 

Spoiler

Wait until the very end just as the big one appears, drop down to the bottom, two cluster bombs in the face. Also I don't think it's necessarily the gap between explosives, as I've done both quick and killed it before. I think it might depend on the angle of the throw and where it hits. From the bottom of the screen and close does seem best.

 

I've not got anywhere near 100%ing on Badass yet. Got as far as just completing the Misconduct level on it so far on Switch. Now I have it on PC I might go back and do it on there just for the Steam achievement. One of the few I've actually cared about ever...

 

Also, I think with the new Arcade mode this will become the place to post those sweet Arcade scores. I think the Misconducts level will be the most fun to go for high scores, mostly because the later levels require a bit more care than showboating, and the first level takes a while to really get going as it's teaching you stuff. They have remixed them a bit for Arcade mode though in a really nice and satisfying way so that the levels suit more showboaty stuff. It's great.

[Talvalin]

Remixing enemies and placements is exactly the thing that I would continue playing the game for and I suppose wish there were achievements for clearing all the challenges for each stage in one go as it's the one thing I skipped doing for most of the Badass levels as some of the stash chases were frankly bonkers to do without getting hit.

 

I'm saying that now but on reflection it would have killed me so no.

[K]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-05-24-huntdown-review-pulpy-2d-brilliance
 

Eurogamer have just reviewed this. It’s a bit late - it came out last year - but any additional coverage for this absolute gem is very welcome, and the review is absolutely glowing. 

Hopefully Huntdown is going to get the attention it deserves - I thought the initial release was very muted. This is pretty much exactly the kind of game I like, but I’d never heard of it until fairly recently. I played the two player mode for the first time over the weekend, and it’s just absolutely stellar - this game deserves to sell in huge numbers. 

 

[moosegrinder]

Anybody waiting for it to drop in price on other platforms I've just bought it on PC so no doubt there'll be a sale on soon.

[Count Buffalos]

I've actually double dipped over the weekend. I initially got it for just under £5 from EGS and then again for my Series X. I'm not too far in but safe to say I'm loving the 80's vibe crossed with Metal Slug and Elevator Action returns gameplay elements. 

[Benny]

I feel sorry for the Easy Allies guy who's been banging on about this for the best part of a year and the other guys have been humouring him like their weird uncle.

 

Until they played it.

[Talvalin]

Suki the Sniper is finally down!

 

Honestly, I think this stage is the hardest one in the entire game. Rocket guys and jetpack guys are the worst, and having to deal with multiples of each enemy type at the same time is a nightmare. I eventually managed to develop a consistent strategy for getting through the level (although that last checkpoint was still a bit hairy) but once at Suki, I was faffing around with trying to whittle down her health slowly with the sniper-ish weapon (it looks like it was based on the heavy rifles that Boddicker and his gang get from OCP for their final showdown with Robocop, except without the explosive ammunition) before realising that if you can reach her with all four of the cluster bombs in the stage, those alone can wipe out anywhere from 75% to 100% of her health, and it's even possible to take her out before she starts firing homing missiles at you.

 

Now just the Shogun to go and Badass is done! I managed to get to the second half of the final stage on my first try and then immediately fucked up the next part so didn't bother continuing as the Shogun's first phase is practically impossible without the grenade launcher ammunition you pick up in the first half of the level. Almost there though!

[CheekyMonkey]

Holy heck this is brilliant! Can't believe i only just discovered it but it's like the love child of Elevator Action Returns, Metal Slug and even a slight dash of Katana Zero!

 

It's clearly had tonnes of love poured into it - the animation is superb, the soundtrack is amazing there are nice little touches everywhere.  🥰

[moosegrinder]

It reminds me of Terminator and RoboCop Vs Terminator on the Megadrive. 

[matt0]

It's all run and guns to all people, that's it's brilliance.

[Sarlaccfood]

Has Arcade mode for Switch been released yet?

[Down by Law]

 

Oh man!

 

LRG only 😩

 

 

[Benny]

Oh my God

 

EDIT: Switch version already sold out on Limited Run Games

[MW_Jimmy]

LRG only selling a collector's edition suggests to me a normal retail release from a different publisher.

[Soulstar]

I was trying to work that out last night. Decided to have a quick check on LRG site and was surprised to see this listed but was put off by the collectors only edition. Thought I’d check to see if there was another physical version but so far there isn’t, but it does suggest there may be one to come. 

[Soulstar]

https://www.clearrivergames.com/lesson/huntdown/

 

Found this so it looks like it is coming out as a standard edition via Clear River Games. 

[gizmo1990]

Pretty poor behavior tho. Like a lot of others, I've been waiting ages for this. Just being able to buy a straight vanilla copy maybe, for a likely extortionate amount, without any of the freebies is galling. Especially the art book.

[Benny]

I don't really see a problem there. It's probable they've only been able to even consider a physical release due to being successful enough digitally. It seems odd to arbitrarily deny yourself a great experience by avoiding a digital release that's literally ones of pounds.

[gizmo1990]

@Benny Not sure if in reply to my post? But I do already own the digital game. 

[Benny]

5 minutes ago, gizmo1990 said:

@Benny Not sure if in reply to my post? But I do already own the digital game. 

 

Oh right well that makes a lot more sense (didn't realise it wasn't referencing the game itself).

 

Publishing is an expensive business mind.

[gizmo1990]

Sure, it absolutely is. But I feel pretty confident in saying that they could have shifted easily double the amount of special editions they've ended up ordering. Just looking at the effort and trouble they've gone to proves that, the figure, the badges etc. They'd have known their sales and audience interest, social media footprint etc. Hence, their decision to make so few seems quite baffling. I'd honestly love to know the reason behind it. Money might well be the only reason, yet they're well funded with a good publisher and a hit game. It's odd.

[deerokus]

Manufacturing and distribution of everything is badly hit at the moment. 

[K]

I have to confess I still don't really understand why people buy games from places like Limited Run Games. They're currently selling the Castlevania Collection on PS4 for $34.99, which is about ten quid more than it is digitally at full price. The collection is regularly on sale for £3.99 on PSN - why would anyone buy it on disc for six times that?

[Soulstar]

its a repeated question that we already know the answer to. Some collect others aren’t fussed. I’m the former and strongly like getting the physical media. It’s nice to have a solid physical version that’s going to work and can be taken with you wherever and in most cases will hold its value. Its the postage that I find the most annoying bit though on LRG as it often bumps up the price just enough that I find it a bit too pricey. I’ve only ever used LRG though twice in the past. 

 

There should have been more than 900 of those collectors editions for each system. I was toying with the idea but I didn’t wanna spend that much and deal with a large box. I’m also not yet attached enough to the product just hyper curious because of all the attention on here and the fact I previously bought Blazing Chrome on there.  

 

I’ll definitely be interested in getting this standard edition once it’s out. 

 

[DC]

This is £11 ish on Switch.

[gizmo1990]

On 17/06/2021 at 12:11, Soulstar said:

There should have been more than 900 of those collectors editions for each system. I was toying with the idea but I didn’t wanna spend that much and deal with a large box. I’m also not yet attached enough to the product just hyper curious because of all the attention on here and the fact I previously bought Blazing Chrome on there.  

 

 

That's my issue with the CE release too. By creating so few copies the release just becomes a collectors investment. I read somewhere that copies are already up on eBay for 250 euro...

 

Regarding it's price, I actually feel it's extremely generous, especially when you see the likes of Nintendo's Metroid Dread SE. You get a hell of a lot and you can see the love and passion that's been put into it. All of which makes the small print run even more baffling. They've done all that just for it to disappear into the hands of many non fans. A print run 3 times as big would have still sold out and all their hard work would have paid off financially and artistically, imo.

 

It's a brilliant game btw. If you can snag it at discount it's worth it (That's my highest praise, since I only buy physical!) before the standard edition becomes available. I really hope they've made enough copies of those..!

[Soulstar]

@gizmo1990

 

I know what you mean by the price if you’re the kind that wants that sort of thing. As I mentioned earlier, I was toying with the idea but ultimately decided against spending $100 or close to that inc the postage. It does look cool but I’m after the small simple box versions of things for the most part. 

 

It ran out anyway. I don’t understand why they don’t just keep an open pre-order for those like they usually do for a certain time frame.