Eight Purple Switchez

[twiggy]

I am just now getting to this level. I have enjoyed it, but now I'm stuck. I have my sheildz and strawz standing on purple switchez near their checkpointz. I have 1 gruntz in the oven. If I put it where the shovel is, I am trapped because the green pyramidz don't come down when we 3 stand on our checkpointz. Have tried other ways, such as giving to spyglass, but gauntletz gets killed by rolling ball when playing with toy. Am very confused. Don't know what the spellz are used for either. Is there a walkthrough for this? Since, it is rated at Hard, I think we should definitly have a walkthrough. Also, do I need to download another version or is the one GooRoo sent us able to get a Perfect?? Thanks!!

[twiggy]

I have figured out some more and have my springz where he uses the spellz. What does the secret switch do, because I don't see anything happening?? Also, still can't lower those green pyramidz where shieldz, strawz and shovelz checkpointz are??

[GooRoo]

Feb 15, 2011 11:32:17 GMT -8 twiggy said:

I have figured out some more and have my springz where he uses the spellz. What does the secret switch do, because I don't see anything happening?? Also, still can't lower those green pyramidz where shieldz, strawz and shovelz checkpointz are??

Usually, those Silver Timer Secret Switchez change Water areaz to normal ground tilez ... or vice versa. As to the Green Pyramidz, one of the complaintz I have about several Custom Levelz (and have found in some of my own ) is having Switchez change thingz outside of any possible view of the switch itself. Since newer versionz of Windoze seem to make it impossible to play Gruntz in 1024X768 screen resolution, it has become much more frequent that the "out of view" actionz happen. My future CLz will make a point of having any action taking place within a 640X480 screen (the default setting), to prevent the "What happened?" type questionz.

[twiggy]

I figured out that the secret switch allows the spongegun to cross to the tilez it was on before. I think that he is supposed to shoot the springz back, since he is trapped after using all the spellz or to shoot him off of a tile when he crosses back and forth, but it doesn't save the tile. It still disappears. So, I don't get it??? Also, don't know how green tilez around King get lowered. I know you guys finished this level. Where is everyone??

[twiggy]

I finally figured it out and got the PERFECT!! Thank you Ginden for the level. It was very challenging and as you can read in my other posts, I was quite stumped. I look forward to more of your levelz and always feel good after I have reached a PERFECT, especially with a tough level.

[Sheroan]

!!!!!!! PERFECTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT !!!!!!!

[swietymiki]

Also beaten this one and got the "Perfect" in January (39:38). I'm very slowly catching up on writing about some of my scores.

I actually have one more death than the designer intended and there's an interesting story behind it. At the end of the level, you have to bake 2 Gruntz in isolated Creation Pads who then run diagonally with bombs to activate BOTS and open the entrance to the final area. I was surely surprised to find out that, at the very end of the level, I was missing a goo puddle. I replayed from the oldest save I had but that didn't help at all - still one puddle short. And then I remembered that there used to be 4 Yellow Gruntz in an area close to a Rolling Ball track. I definitely came into their range while doing the Spring Grunt part (which I COULD HAVE done later) and one must've wandered into the hazard - something that I didn't notice. And the best part is, I actually came up with a solution. I let the AIs in the area kill my Shield Grunt and used his remains to bake the second bomber. Then I managed to kill two Green Barehands nearby with my solo Goober Straw, drink two pink puddles and create a new Barehand Grunt to replace the Shield I sacrificed earlier. So it would be possible to actually finish the game with 10 survivorz, if that mistake didn't happen.

The level itself seems like a great entry point for a new designer (sadly he didn't submit any other maps). It utilizes many of the game's gameplay bugs features and has some quite clever puzzles, for example the area with 5 scrolls or the Rolling Ball spy chase. Despite looking overwhelmingly confusing at first, it's actually something I'd call "multilinear". The west-center part of the map has 4 locked areas that almost don't interact with the rest of the level (and shouldn't be rushed). The main character is the Grunt starting next to the Boxing Glovez who usually has only one path that he can follow.

The map has its quirks too, there are several large areas unused during gameplay, especially the north-eastern corner. This space could've been used to make the rest of the level less dense. Also there are some logics with very fast timing that just look weird. Usually these are not intended to be walked through however (I unknowingly collected one coin that was made easier to access by a Secret Switch later). The level really isn't as hard as some people mentioned (Tomalla 8 years ago) - the fact that many people figured it out without a walkthrough backs me up. It's Hard, but definitely not Very Hard.