Hero Core

Daniel Remar, creator of Iji, recently released a little something called Hero Core.

It is an awesome, monochrome, pixelly, shooty game.

Remar pimping the game in the Iji thread

I 100%ed the game on Normal in roughly 2 hours. I'm probably going to try going straight to Cruiser Tetron sometime.

EDIT: Miswrote Iji as Hero.

edited 3rd May '10 2:05:24 AM by Ponicalica

I tried killing Tetron early once, the room flooded halfway through the fight and stopped me from attacking.

Unfortunately, in terms of secrets, all I've found so far is the speedrun times.

Also, I'm having trouble getting to the Core with 0%. I think I've made it such that every exit has one of the following things:

• a locked door with one of the basic enemies(I can never remember their names) in the water, impossible to pass without getting the suit upgrade that lets you bypass that, which you don't get until you beat a boss.
• dirt or a pipe, impassable without getting a Blade, which requires you to beat a boss(which is not Frenzied Toroko, thankfully).
• That moving block thing that's a one-way door.

EDIT: So I made it to Cruiser Tetron by biting the bullet and killing Silencer. Had only enough life left for one more hit after beating his first form.

edited 3rd May '10 3:03:43 AM by Ponicalica

As far as I can tell it's pretty much impossible to get to Tetron without getting at least 5% completion. Maybe there's a secret we don't know about, I'm not sure. I just got the blade, went straight to Tetron and beat him after a good few attempts.

The part where the room fills with liquid metal is difficult, I'll agree, but it's just a matter of patience. Wait for the metal to drain from the area again, wait for your gun to cool down and you should be able to get a few more shots in on Tetron before the room fills up again.

Do I need to play Hero before this?

I didn't play Hero before this one, I enjoyed it all the same (And I'll definitely be giving the original and Hero 3D a shot, too. :D)

The plot is completely appropriate to the game's Retraux style, by which I mean the plot is "Are you a bad enough dude to destroying Machine Gentleman Tetron !?"

It's indeed possible to 0% the game on Normal and Hard. To find out how you need to discover the trick (you can't miss it if you explore the whole map).

But in retrospect it's a pretty forced kind of replay value, since the trick allows for "intentional sequence breaks" - the game is full of them anyway...

If you play Hero first, you'll get more in the mood for the setting of the sequel. But on the other hand the first game is pretty tough, repetetive and has no map.

Edit: Btw, the full plot (when finding all the Core computers) is ironic, since Tetron is obsessed with the past and can't let it go - and the game itself is stuck in the 80's. :p I didn't realize this at first while writing it.

edited 3rd May '10 3:02:45 PM by Ulti

Having discovered the trick I have now made it to Tetron with 0% boss completion.

Have now defeated Cruiser Tetron without defeating any of the bosses beforehand. Is it just me or does the first form have the toughest boss pattern(even with the liquid metal in the second form)? In fact, several of the bosses seem to get easier as the fight goes on.

Because Hero Core had no help/readme file, I created this by watching the credits roll at the end of this playthrough and quickly copying down what I remembered about each enemy. It probably has errors and omissions up the wazoo.

Hm. I'd explored the entire map and I don't think I saw anything about a sequence breaking trick. ^^; I'll have to find out for myself sometime. Is said trick only explained in a given difficulty level?

Well, the trick isn't explicitly spelled out, but one of the tricks you learn can be used to kill an enemy that isn't killable with your normal blaster.

Aha, gotcha. I'll try that now.

oh man this game is great.

it really takes me back, you know, back to the good old days, when two colors and two buttons were all we needed to have a good game.

i wasn't alive then. but still.

Seriously though, I may not have been alive back then, but I like Retraux just because it's so aesthetically appealing to me.

It also helps that a lot of these games, such as roguelikes, Cave Story, Hero Core, and so forth, are really, really fun.

So yeah. This game is pretty sweet. I've only been playing a few minutes and those wonderful little chiptunes are already worming their way into my brain. God I love chiptunes. Tracked stuff, too, like /mod files and shit.

Oh, also, Ponicalica, would you share that avatar of yours with me?

edited 4th May '10 12:11:59 AM by Zudak

Anyone remember that video where Mega Man 2 was hacked to have every boss in the game in the same room?

Guess what I just unlocked...

edited 4th May '10 9:47:36 AM by blakyoshi7

Zudak: Avatar sent.

Zudak, I agree completely. I'm a 90's kid who wishes he were an 80's kid because he loves the look and feel of retro games, even if some of them are Nintendo Hard. Retraux games appeal to me too, because of that look and feel.

Chiptune music is the best. (My favourite tunes so far from Hero Core are Tetron's music and the Light Factory music (I heard them on the trailer and loved them ever since.)

edited 4th May '10 8:49:31 AM by ChazFox

I was watching the playthrough by Ortosion on youtube and noticed that the Elite boss uses up-down-left-right before firing the Expel as well!

Hard mode is hard. Getting better against Rock Crusher, which seems like it'll be easier for me than Reaper Drone because I can actually understand its patterns.

edited 4th May '10 1:03:05 PM by Ponicalica

I understand the Reaper Drone's pattern completely. It did not help very much.

• 1. Spinning shield pattern.
• 2. Swirl pattern. Hard mode adds outliers that you have to dodge.
• 3. Crazy buzzsaw of death. Run like hell.
• 4. Four spews. Easiest time to deal damage, because there's nothing in the way.
• 5. GOTO 1

Yeah. I get that part of the pattern. It's the Reaper Drone's motion pattern that I don't get.

So far I've managed to get 6 of the 8 cores of the Rock Smasher dead.

I suspect that much like with other Bullet Hell type things it'll be easier to figure out if I watch videos. Unfortunately, I only know of Normal mode videos, which aren't quite the same patterns.

edited 4th May '10 2:18:22 PM by Ponicalica

Rock Smasher is down, and I'm getting progressively better at damaging Reaper Drone. Also I got rid of the generator blocking the way to Cruiser Tetron. Went in a few times but haven't gotten past his first form. I have enough trouble with Tetron's first form in Normal(but, oddly enough, the others give me very little trouble)

Managed to get to one block of boss health left and die twice against Reaper Drone.

Also: I must say that I love the way that Dan Remar has checksummed Hero Core.

edited 4th May '10 5:29:57 PM by Ponicalica