Here's another one for the "I didn't think I'd be playing this for the channel" files.
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Slider is a tile-walking puzzle game for the Sega Game Gear by Loriciel, and is the only Game Gear game (and only Sega 8-bit game) that French developer Loriciel ever made. The game is the same as Super Skweek, which was made for the Atari Lynx, but with a different name. You have to walk over all of the blue tiles to turn them pink in order to get rid of all the pollution in the land of Slider's home world of Rozen, all while avoiding fall into pits, getting attacked by monsters and running out of time for 99 levels. Thankfully, you start out with ten continues, there is a password after every level play control is easy and responsive for the most part, and there are tons of power-ups that will help you along the way.
The D-Pad allows you to move around, and Buttons 1 and 2 shoot and activates the warp pads Button 2 also allows for entering letters on the password and high score screen in conjunction with Up and Down on the D-Pad. If you need to give up for whatever reason, press Buttons 1 and 2 simultaneously after pausing the game with the Start.
At the top of the screen, you'll have quite a bit of info to work with. The four shadows on the far left are for the teddy bears - red, blue, yellow and green - and if you collect all four of them, you'll be able to skip to the next level without having to hit all of the tiles in addition to earning five extra lives. If you have a bear of a certain color, do not pick another one up, as it will remove that color bear from your HUD at the top of the screen and count against the bear total.
To the right of all that is, from top to bottom, your current score, the amount of tiles you have to step on to clear the level, the amount of time you have left, and the amount of lives you have left.
All the way to the right is the bonus window. This will show a randomly-appearing power-up and whether you have to head to and scroll the screen to either the left or the right to get it. You have a limited amount of time to find the item and collect it before it disappears.
There are four ways to end a level. Aside from turning all the blue tiles pink, there is collecting all four colors of teddy bear, freezing six enemies at once with a freeze gun (more on that later), and finding a green exit door that randomly pops up (again, more on that later).
This is the most information I can give before actually getting into the game without frying the mind of whoever is reading this and wants to play it, so from this point forward, I'll cover things as I go.
Level 1
Press either Button 1 or Button 2 at the level number screen to start the level.
The yellow and orange checkered tile is the position that you start the level from. It has no special properties other than signaling where the start of the level is. In case you lose a life, you'll start back here, but any times you stepped on will stay stepped on. You'll also lose your current weapon (if you have one; more on that later) and be downgraded back to your basic one-shot attack. If you have the shoes or the freeze gun, you'll also lose those (more on that later, again). If you lose all your lives, get a game over and use a continue, however, you'll have to start the entire level over again. You'll also lose all the bears you've collected, and you'll need to get those back.
The little blue guys are called Menaces, and they just wander around aimlessly. The white hooded enemies are Ghosts, and they will quickly run up to Slider to hit him and cost him a life. It's one hit and you're dead in this game, so be careful.
The plain green tiles have no special properties.
If there are black spaces where a tile should be, those spaces are bottomless pits. Walking into one will cost you a life.
There are multiple kinds of weapons in this game. You start out with a single shot that is blasted in the direction you are currently facing when you press Button 1, but you can upgrade it to other weapons. They are as follows:
Laser gun (looks like an arrow, has the letters L and F): Destroys enemies as well as the square walls. Square walls are destructible. Circular walls are not. By shooting down walls, they turn into blue tiles that will add to the tile counter at the top, which you will therefore have to walk on to turn pink.
Multi-fire gun (two arrows pointing right with "MF" under them): Shoots continuously in one direction. This will go the full length of the screen.
Plus gun (an F with four arrows around it pointing in the cardinal directions): Shoots vertically and horizontally at the same time.
Diagonal gun (an F with four arrows around it pointing in the intermediate, or diagonal, directions): Shoots in four diagonal directions at the same time.
Octagonal gun (an F with eight arrows around it pointing in both the cardinal and intermediate, or diagonal, directions): Shoots in eight directions at the same time.
Freeze gun (a blue wand with an F next to it): Freezes enemies for a certain length of time. A level is cleared when six enemies are simultaneously frozen. Slider can destroy frozen enemies by running into them. When Slider has this weapon, there will be a blue ball on the upper-left corner of the bonus window.
The white tiles with the big black holes are enemy spawners. Be careful near them, as they can hurt you as they are opening and closing to spawn a new enemy, sometimes out of nowhere. You won't have a hint as to when they will activate, so be careful moving past them, especially when the game forces you to.
The tiles with the arrows are conveyor belt tiles, and they will slowly push you in the direction that the arrows are facing. The arrows will only be in the cardinal directions, meaning only up, down, left and right.
The cotton candy awards 5000 bonus points when collected. Interestingly, you cannot get bonus lives from getting a certain amount of points, so you'll have to collect the teddy bears as well as collect the Slider icons (which look just like Slider) to get bonus lives.
When you complete a level, you'll get a password, and you'll also get a time bonus based on how much time you have left. The sign Slider is holding will either read 10 (and be green), 50 (and be pink) or 100 (and be red), and you'll get that many points for every second you have left on the timer.
Level 2
Password: AJAJ
The orange tile with the blue arrow is a teleporter pad. Press a fire button to teleport between the pads. There will be at least two in the levels that they appear in, but you can have as many as three or four in a level.
There are two types of fireball enemies. They both can fire at you, but some of them can be defeated by firing at them while others cannot, and you won't be able to tell which one is which until you attack them. Like the Menaces, they can move around pretty aimlessly, but they do it at a slightly faster and more erratic pace, which can prove to be an annoyance, especially in the later levels.
The white and cyan checkered tiles are ice tiles. If you walk on them, you'll slip and slide over them in the direction you walked into them from. This is something you'll need to keep in mind for some of the levels later in the game.
The blue tiles with the big explosion will destroy itself and every tile surrounding it in eight directions. If you step on one, be ready to run away from the destruction so that you don't fall into a pit immediately afterwards. If there are any square walls in the destruction radius, they get turned into blue tiles that you will have to step on and turn pink, adding to the tile total in the process.
The green tiles with the big explosion destroy all monsters currently on the screen.
The tiles with the cracks on them will fall apart and disappear when you walk on them. Be careful with these types of tiles, as you may have to save them for later, or in the case of some levels, for last, as they can be placed in such a way as to keep you from reaching certain areas once you move past them.
The green shoe makes it so that you cannot slip on ice tiles or be carried away by conveyor belt tiles when you walk on them. Collecting it will also give you a green orb on the upper-right corner of the bonus window.
Level 3
Password: JJJL
The green guy with the crown is a Slipster, and it can only move in the cardinal directions, and never diagonally. They can not only fire projectiles at you, but they will move pretty quickly and careen into you if you are not carefully, so be ready to shoot them down!
Level 4
Password: AACC
Get back to the starting tile when you step on the blue explosion tile at the start. Despite having no special properties, the explosion tile can't destroy it. That's good. Because if it did, we'd have a serious bug in the game's programming.
Speaking of tiles, you'll get more used to how the ice tiles work here, with Level 3 being a slightly smaller crash course.
The hamburger gives you 8,000 bonus points if collected.
The gift boxes have a random effect. They may give you bonus points, or they may curse you in certain ways, such as causing you to turn pink tiles back to blue temporary or temporarily taking away your attack. You may want to avoid these if you're doing well in a level.
Level 5
Password: JALE
You'll want to plot your course through this level carefully. While there is more than one way to step on all the tiles and clear the level, it is possible to get yourself in a pickle and have nowhere to go.
Level 6
Password: AJCL
Be careful near some of the dead ends, as there are monster spawners that may get the chomp on you as you double back.
Green hourglasses add 20 seconds to the timer, while pink hourglasses add 40 seconds.
The blue octopus enemy is called Tentacles, and they can only fire diagonally. Walls will protect you, but approach and attack them from cardinal directions, just to be safe.
Level 7
Password: JJLN
You'll be following a more linear path here compared to the previous levels, so be mindful near the enemy spawners.
Level 8
Password: CAAC
You're surrounded by pits without any walls to save you. Tread carefully. You'll want to save the path with the conveyor belt and ice tiles for last so you can clear this level without losing a life.
Level 9
Password: LAJE
Some of the tiles here will be dreadfully close to enemy spawners. Once again, tread carefully.
Level 10
Password: ACAC
There are a lot of conveyor belt tiles here. Thankfully, you can move against the grain to get them all. The only area of note is the far left; be careful near enemy spawners so you can get all of the tiles there.
Level 11
Password: JCJE
Aside from the narrow paths and the enemy spawners that will get in your way, you'll also have the added bonus of the enemies suddenly being able to move about on bottomless and create blue tiles that you must step on in their wake. While this is annoying, this will also make the level easier. Just watch where you're going. This is the first level to do something like this and be creative, but it is far from the last.
The shield protects you from enemy attacks, and as long as Slider is flashing, the shield is in effect. The shield only wears off if you use a teleporter pad.
If you see a green door, get to it before it disappears! Touching the green door with the word "EXIT" on it before it disappears give you a free pass to the next level without having to touch all the tiles. This can be handy if you're in a tough level.
Level 12
Password: ALAL
Save the conveyor belt tile near the ice tiles for last; otherwise, you're losing a life just to complete this when you don't need to.
Level 13
Password: JLJN
Be careful with the cracked tiles so that you don't throw yourself into an accidental dead end. If you need to, hit all the regular tiles first, then hit all the cracked tiles.
Level 14
Password: ACCE
Oh, hey, it's a level full of ice tiles! Kinda like Kablooey! (aka Bombuzal) You'll have to find out through trial and error where you need to move in order to hit all four tiles to clear the level without running into monsters or pits.
Go go, then left at the start, then down and down again, then right when you're at the bottom of the screen. Go left from that second to last tile to get to the last tile and clear this one out. You won't have a lot of time to complete this stage, either, so you'll have to be quick.
If you lose all your lives, it's game over. You'll get the password for the current level again, and if you get a high score, you'll need to press Up and Down with the two fire buttons to input your initials. You can then choose whether or not you want to continue. If you continue, you're starting the current level all over again.
Level 15
Password: JCLG
More linear paths! Be careful near the enemy spawners as well as with the blue explosion tiles so you don't accidentally fall into a pit that you just made, and save the dead end with the cracked tile for last. Don't forget to use the teleporter pad!
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