CHAPTER 3: CORONA

I should have gone to work today, but I decided to stay home “sick”. I’m not really that sick, but I haven’t slept very well for the past few days. Not because of nightmares (I haven’t remembered my dreams for a while), but because I can’t stop thinking about the game.

I’m enjoying the game somewhat, but I got this feeling that if I keep playing I’m gonna see something that I shouldn’t.

Anyway, I don’t see much point in messing around with the password screen any longer until I have some combinations that will get real results. And the only way to get those is to go through the game, so onto World 3.






World 3 is “Corona”, it has a purple board and 4 level types. This world probably won’t take long to complete since the boss is only 3 spaces above my starting point. That strikes me as a little odd since the Gelid boss was 15 spaces away. Since the path is so short I could get through in a few minutes, but I’m going to try not to rush it.

 The levels here are;
POWER PLANT
REFLECT
PATZER
FOREST
And one boss, which is King Kong. It surprises me to see such a big name character showing up. I’m not aware of any connection between Godzilla and Kong but I guess it doesn’t matter.


The Power Plant is a dark, ominous looking level of granite bricks, storm clouds, and power poles. The efficiency of this place is questionable since the power poles lack connective wires. The music has an electronic synth to it.

Going further on I encounter some peculiar enemies, and see that a few of the power poles have electric chairs connected to them, some of which are occupied by dead (or soon to be dead) creatures. Every minute or so a bolt of lightning will strike down and light up the screen.


The power poles appear to function as a combination of a lightning rod and a generator, getting their power from lightning strikes which kill the creature in the chair as the electricity surges downward. So it’s both a power plant and an execution field (lovely).

Since these poles attract the lightning, the only danger of being shocked is if I stand right next to one when it gets hit.

Not too hard to get around, but with all these sad things screaming in pain as their brains get fried, it’s not a welcoming atmosphere. The level is a straight walk to the right, so with no potential for exploration I make my way through quickly.






“REFLECT” is a castle-esque level with a lot of mirrors. It has a strange background, and equally strange music. Like the crystals in Isolation Zone, the mirrors here serve as teleporters.



It takes some guessing as to which mirror to go through, but the level doesn’t seem very large. I can only hope I’ll be shown some indication that I’m progressing towards the end instead of going around in circles.
The mirrors are different from crystals in that creatures can come through the mirrors at random. Usually it’s those little flying creatures made of broken glass. I hate those bastards because you take damage if you touch them.

While traversing i found another creature that talks:




I tried to get it to tell me a password but it was too preoccupied.






It took a little while, but I eventually got to this mini-boss, who I assume is guarding the exit. He moves quick but he can’t do much damage. I’ve got the advantage this time since there’s a lot more space to move around, so his lightning bolt is easily avoided.



What do we have here?



Ah, Rodan! A monster I actually recognize! That’s great, can’t wait to test him out. I just remembered I haven’t fought King Kong yet. I’m tempted to use Rodan, but I’ll use Godzilla for this one. Don’t know what to expect.





Damn, he’s tougher than I expected. He’s dodging my attacks and knocking off too much of my health.



In the middle of the fight the game suddenly started to glitch very badly:




Weird, but I’m not complaining. Now it’s Rodan Time! Onto “Patzer”….
Before the level starts I’m told to “seize a king”?



Oh, I get it. It’s a chess-themed level.


It doesn’t involve actually playing chess though. That’s a damn good thing, because I haven’t played chess in 8 years.

Rodan’s a great addition, does almost everything Godzilla can and he can also fly. It’s only my first impression, but he seems like a promising character and I’m sure the flying will come in handy later.
As for the level, the black and white chess guys can’t pay much attention to me since they’re also fighting each other. So that makes flying around and looking for one of the kings simple.



I don’t think it matters which king I get, so I’m just gonna go after the first one I see.



Ah, there’s one!
So I go up and hit him and then the level ends with another info screen.



That’s great for the Black Team. I’m glad that level’s over because it was starting to mess with my eyes. Let’s see what the Forest is like;



Yup, looks like a typical forest level. The music is unnerving. Going to the right, as usual…



Out of nowhere these huge bat things start divebombing from the trees. They’re hunting down the brown creatures. Trying to get out of the way before I get bit.



I got away from the sideways mouth bats, there weren’t many of them. Not much of anything down through here.



…why did everything lose color? And the music changed, but-








…I don’t know what the hell that was.
Maybe I should just turn this thing off.
.
Then again, all I had left to do was the boss fight…
.
.
.
.



This guy is a lot more mobile than the previous boss was, also uses his ranged attack almost constantly. Normally this would just drain his power down to nothing-



-Except that he can go up to the top of the arena, get hit by lightning, and become re-charged. I can get in some easy hits while he does this, but once he get powered back up, he immediately does a lightning attack that fills a length of the screen.



He doesn’t seem to have any attacks other than lightning, so I wait for that power meter to go down and then hit him with everything. It’s just a matter of time.



And with one good kick to the face he’s done!



I don’t know why, but for some reason it feels good to see another symbol in that wall. I would like to see the thing complete, but then maybe that’s not such a good idea. That ….thing in the forest gave me a really bad feeling. And it’s not going to be happy if it knows I’m coming back.