fepnascimento, added a new category for your run, rejected your submission but re-submitted and accepted the run under Arcade 2-player co-op.

Thanks!

Tried to leave a note with the rejection but received server errors.

Hope to start a guide to this when I get the time- here are some of my observations & strategies, some of which may be incorrect :)

Boss fights:

Grenade drops are the limiting factor here- easy to run out, and the gun is very slow. If you have to take out more than 2 bars of health with the gun, you lose a lot of time.

Boss hitboxes on levels 1, 2 and 3 are weird. For instance the 1-4 boss takes a lot of damage just below the highest propeller- the top half of the ship. Boss 4 & 5 seem not to suffer from this. The hitbox on boss 3 (the truck laying out the guns) is the most confounding to me. I have 20 second differences between fights that, to me, seem identical.

General strategy:

1. Kill every green colored enemy. Each kill moves the level's progress bar up one point. Prioritize soldiers over vehicles when you have to choose. Gray enemies do not progress the level.

2. Take out all slow-crumbling scenery, but not necessarily every piece of scenery. Some levels require a full clear, while others may be faster to execute by just taking out certain features. There are some painfully slow scenery crumbles such as the foreground concrete wall in 1-2.

3. Get as many grenade drops as possible. Grenades love to drop out of bushes periodically, especially at the beginning of the level. Grenades will not drop while a bonus star is on the screen, so collect the stars whenever possible. Collecting grenades is often slow and deadly, so getting lots of drops early and carrying over your grenades saves lots of time later.

4. Don't die, but if you die, sometimes it loses no time, or minimal time. My best runs have several deaths.

5. Red and Blue power up guns are convenient, but don't deviate too much to grab them. They aren't that much better except in certain situations that become obvious the more you play.

6. Don't destroy scenery with an enemy behind it. It will de-spawn the enemy and you won't progress the level.

7. Finish levels in the middle of the screen. If there is a scenery crumble you have time to run there. If not, try to fire your last shot from the middle. Loses tons of time if not done.

Other thoughts:

This game is excellent for speedrunning. Lots of predictable patterns but still plenty of random variables like drops and enemy aim keep it spicy. Plus the occasional invisible bullet or inexplicable de-spawn. No lag though. The game sometimes spawns enemies a few tenths of a second faster or slower, but it's pretty consistent.

Dive-rolling vs Running. Both are useful at times. Dive-rolling is slow but if your timing is good you can avoid explosions and bullets, especially when you're in a corner (very useful on 1-3 and final boss). Running is fast but so often gets you sniped.

Comments on a few levels:

1-1: House on the left is a slow crumbler. Prioritize it but don't de-spawn an enemy behind it. The rest of the scenery can stay up. It's probably just humanly possible to take out all the scenery with a gun drop or two. You can force 2 grenades (or guns) at the start by the bush. High drop rate for grenades if you mind the stars.

1-2: Really difficult to take out the slow crumbling right walls (3 sections) without de-spawning enemies. Good times can vary by 6 seconds because of this. Concrete wall in front is slow too, so take that out.

1-3: Don't destroy the gate in the middle. Saves at least 15 seconds. Hard level because the middle gate enemies spawn quickly, usually right when the side enemies or grays are trying to snipe you. Take out the warehouse on the left if you have time- it's a slightly slow crumble.

1-4: Take out all scenery/cover. Target top half of the airship. Can be done shockingly quickly, but the timing is intense.

That's it for now, cheers.

Current time for me is 20:05. Sum of best is 18:51.