Fifty games ago, we played Secret Agent. Now we're playing the spiritual sequel...or is it the other way around? I can never remember. Anyway, here's Crystal Caves!
Poor Mylo Steamwitz. He just wants to get rich quick so he doesn't have to work for his uncle's Yorp herding business. Too bad he has to put his life on the line every time he takes part in the latest get-rich-quick scheme by heading down to the crystal mines in Altair to get enough money from the trading post.
In the first episode, Mylo has to get a bunch of cash in order to afford a down payment on a Twibble farm and get in on the Twibble market before the fad fades.
On the way to Altair, Mylo's Millennium Kiwi nearly runs into a planet with its own moon, but he safely makes it to Altair.
Playing the game is pretty simple. Left and Right on the arrow keys lets you move around, Ctrl jumps, and Alt lets you fire rockets from your rocket launcher. You only start with a few rockets and you'll need to find guns to get more, so take care to preserve your ammo. You have three hit points that you won't be able to replenish, and if you lose all of them, you'll have to restart the level from the beginning. Thankfully, you have infinite lives, and you can save and load games at any time by pressing Escape and selecting the save and load options. If this game is reminding you of Secret Agent, that's because it's made by the same developer (Apogee/3D Realms) and is more or less a spiritual sequel to it.
When you start the game, you'll be in a hubworld full of platforms and elevators with sets of doors leading to the sixteen levels of the episode. When you complete all sixteen levels, you'll beat the episode. There are 3 episodes and 48 levels in all, and we'll be playing through every single one of them.
Sometimes, random fruits will pop up in the level. If you can grab one, you'll get a few thousand points.
This was the first level of the game that I played when I booted this up for the very first time.
The red, blue, yellow and green crystals are the main thing that you need to collect, and you'll need to collect every single in a level in order to exit the level.
The green needle-like tip is a stalagmite that will pop up and hurt you when you walk into it. Jumping over it prevents taking damage.
Platforms will move left and right or up and down depending on their appearance. If they have the green static line, they move left and right; if they have the thrusters as well as the yellow and orange lines, they move up and down. Some of them will not move until you activate them by activating a switch. To activate a switch, stand in front of it and press the fire button.
Along the way, you'll find bonus items such as candles, shovels, picks and even blue mushrooms. Those things will give you bonus points to add to your total score. You don't need to pick up these extra items, but you can if you want.
Your score will be in the lower-left corner, and to the right of that will be your current amount of ammunition for your rocket launcher, your health and a spot for your key. To the fight of all that is space for a timer for some power-ups, and this will be mentioned later.
Watch out for laser turrets; if you're lined up with them on the ground or in the air, they will shoot at you. Some of them can be turned off if you find a switch; thankfully. To activate a switch, stand in front of it and press the fire button.
The purple cobra takes two hits to kill, and after the second hit, its corpse is left behind. If you walk into its corpse, you will take damage, so you will have to jump over it. This is used to make some levels more difficult later on.
The spiders will shoot webs down if you are under them. At least they take only one hit to kill.
There are red, blue and green levers used to open red, blue and green doors. To pull a lever, walk into it and press the fire button. If the lever is pointing left, it is activated; if it is pointing right, it is not.
If you see an air machine, don't shoot it! Doing so will suck all of the air out of the room, instantly killing you and forcing you to start the current level over.
The big green dinosaur takes five shots to kill. If you hit it with a rocket, or if it is facing you when it is moving around, it will charge at you. Keep your distance while facing this thing.
The green thing that looks like a teardrop takes one hit to kill, but it will only change direction when it runs into a wall, which makes it a slippery creature to shoot down.
If you complete a level without getting hit once, you'll get 50,000 points when you reach the exit with perfect health intact, even if you died at any point in the level.
The caterpillar can be killed by shooting it in the head until it is completely gone, which will require four shots from your rocket launcher.
There are five eggs in some levels, and if you shoot an egg, a bonus letter will pop out. Regardless of the order in which you shoot down the eggs, if you shoot down all five eggs and take the letter from each one to spell "BONUS," you'll get 10,000 bonus points. Sadly, you won't get nearly as many points if you just take the eggs.
The metal girder platforms can hide hidden clear diamonds that will give you bonus points, and if you hit certain segments from below like a ? Box from a Mario game, you can find them. These bonus crystals are not required to complete the level, but they're still fun to get.
The chests require a key to open. You'll have to find the key, and when you get it, the key will show up next to your health on the bottom of the screen. When you walk into a chest with the key in your possession, you'll get bonus money (or points, depending on how you want to look at it). The more points you have, the more money you have.
The mine carts and the rocks with legs are invincible...almost. If you can grab the P icon, you can power up your gun and make it more powerful without using any of your ammo for a limited time, and you'll have a timer in the lower-right corner of the screen showing you how much time you have left with the power-up. With this powered-up ammo, you can blow the rocks with legs and the mine carts away.
The hammer heads will not only crush you, but they are harmful to the touch regardless.
Hit the switch at the beginning to turn off the wall turrets. I should have done that before exploring, honestly. You'd think I'd know these levels by now.
Watch out for the water drops that comes out of the blue pipes; they can damage you.
You'll need to pull all the levers in order to get everything here.
You'll need to go all the way to the right at the start to find the switch that turns the lights on. When you get to the light switch, press the fire button to toggle it like you would a normal switch to turn the lights on.
The bats fly back and forth, but they can double back, so keep an eye on them.
The switch in the lower-left corner will turn on the platforms near the red and green doors.
The clear blocks can be shot down to make paths to places and things, but be careful not to shoot down more blocks than you need. This is especially true here, as you'll need a way to get back up after finding what's behind the red and green doors.
Sometimes, you can hit your head on invisible blocks to reveal them. While there is on in the lower-left corner, there will be more in future levels.
The grey pipes have fires that bellow out of them. Wait for the fire to be completely gone before jumping over them and passing by.
The blue ball monster takes three hits to destroy, but they are only vulnerable when they are sleeping - which happens randomly - and they will shoot projectiles at you if they are rolling towards you. If you've picked up a P icon, you can destroy it no matter what it's doing.
Wait for the red triceratops to turn away from you before firing, as it will shoot projectiles of its own that can cancel out your shots. Much like the green dinosaur, it turns around when it is hit by a rocket. It takes five shots to take down a red triceratops.
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