Sorry about the long break, the past month was absolutely awful for multiple reasons. With everything going on I forgot to pay the hosting bill, then I did pay it but the site had multiple technical problems keeping me from accessing the site and posting for a while. The problems have been fixed now, thankfully. For anyone who ran into that SSL security error, it’s fixed now. So here’s one article I’ve wanted to post for a few days now but couldn’t until today since the issues are finally fixed, and expect another one soon, I’ve got more Guild Wars images to post. Anyway, on to this little article.
Eliminate Down is one of the Genesis’ best shmups. The game was originally only released in Japan, but finally got a licensed modern homebrew release from Limited Run this year. I got it and it has a very cool holo-cover. The game itself is identical to the original, so this applies to either an original or modern re-release copy of the game. Either way the game is absolutely amazing, with some of the best gameplay and music in any shmup that generation… and it has something that my searching has not managed to find any mention of online, a hidden level select option that you can unlock. It’s not a full level select as far as I’ve seen, but it’s a lot better than nothing, particularly in a game which has limited continues as this one does.
So, if you go into the config menu, notice how there is a one-line gap in between Mini Game and Exit. This is where the level select will appear, if you’re good enough. What you need to do is play the Mini Game and do well at it.
The Mini Game is a twitch reaction test thing. On the screen there is a grid of boxes with your ship’s image on them, and a cursor selecting one of the boxes near the center. The boxes will randomly flip over and then back. Each run starts out slowly, with one box at a time flipping, before speeding up as things go until lots of them are flipping at once by the end. Each Mini Game run is 60 seconds long, and goes similarly each time though with new random box locations so you can’t memorize it, you just need to get better at reacting quickly.
At first, how to play the Mini Game may not be apparent. You’ll hit the but ton while a ship is flipping and nothing will happen, then other times you’ll get the explosion marker and get a point. What’s going on? Well, the trick is that you have to hit the fire button while the tile in question is flipping BACK to get the point, not while it is flipping forward. Yes, you have to hit the button in the SECOND half of the animation to score, you won’t get anything if you hit it while it’s flipping over, only back. Once the animation has finished you have missed your window, so the timing is tight.
With some practice, though, I found myself getting better at the Mini Game. It’s kind of fun. If you score at least 30 points in the Mini Game, you get a little musical number and the configuration menu adds a new option in the missing slot, allowing you to start from levels 1, 2, or 3 with each new game.
if you score at least 40 points, there is a longer music piece after the minigame completes, and levels 4 and 5 are added to the round select list in addition to 1, 2, and 3.
You’d think that there would be a third unlock to start from levels 6 and 7, but if there is I haven’t gotten a good enough score for it. The most I’ve done so far is 52 points, but sadly getting a score over 50 did not unlock anything new. I’m not sure if a score of 60 is possible, that would be insanely difficult; 50 was pretty tough. I got it but didn’t unlock anything new, ah well.
So, in Eliminate Down, get a score of at least 40 in the Mini Game and you can start from up to level 5. Given that this game has 8 levels, limited continues, and no save system, this lets you start from the halfway point of the game. This is a lot better than having to start it over every time, that’s for sure. Enjoy!
