I got some variety in the setting, after defeating the boss at the end of the circus levels. Maybe I should say bosses; there were two stilt walkers who sat on opposite sides of the screen, throwing things into the middle. There didn’t seem to be too much of a pattern to where these went, so it seems difficult to avoid them, particularly given the need for the diagonal attacks at their feet. Having built up a good stock of lives (about 20) over the previous levels, a good few of them were lost here. It feels like the designers of the game knew this, since when you die during a boss fight you respawn immediately without the boss’s health regenerating.
So, circus down, and onto a couple of new locations outside. There were some new mechanics introduced here, with pendulums to jump on and roller coasters to ride. One of the rides was a rocket sled that either sat on top of rails or hung beneath them, and I had to switch between the two states to avoid obstacles that appeared with minimal notice. Again, save states made this much more bearable.
The level-boss mechanics continued here. Multiple lives built up over the levels; multiple lives lost during the boss.
The controls still don’t feel that great, particularly shooting stars. Oh, yes, shooting stars, another way of attacking the enemies, which I hadn’t previously discovered because it seems that sometimes you will throw a star out and sometimes you won’t. You have to collect them first, but even when I had multiple stars in stock, I would stand still, press A, and nothing would happen. No idea what is going on there.
Anyway, I’ve just got into the museum and the difficulty has increased significantly. Let’s see if I ever get around to completing this.
