They Took Our Candy

[Warlock]

Flash shooter They Took Our Candy is kinda fun- it reminds me of the old Game Boy game Mercenary Force. You assemble a party of four trick-or-treaters of various types with varying abilities, then chase down aliens for your candy! You can spend candy between waves to increase your varying statistics, as well.

It's fun if lightweight, and surprisingly challenging- I haven't finished it, and it took me forever to crack the 7th wave. My main complaint is the slow pace of the early portions of the game- it can be kind of annoying to need to go through the first couple waves repeatedly; I wish they just had a stage select or something.

- HC

[Vireo Gilvus]

Thanks for the link! I actually remember a review of Mercenary Force in Nintendo Power Magazine. Even though I never played it, I thought it was interesting how they combined side-scrolling shooter mechanics with an oriental styling and a build-your-own-party idea similar to Final Fantasy 1.

I got all three badges and registered an account with Kongregate so I could save them. It's a really cool game; similar in concept to the Upgrade Complete series, but with a different central theme and slightly altered gameplay elements.

The best party to use, I've found, is three Ninjas and a Cat. At higher SPECIAL levels, you can stay in Special Mode almost indefinitely and unleash a constant barrage of shurikens in multiple directions. This is a must for later stages.

It took me two tries to get the final badge (30,000 points in Survival Mode). Remember that boss from the end of Stage 8 in Story Mode? During Stage 18 of Survival Mode, that boss shows up as a regular enemy, and it's not unusual to see four or five of them on the screen at once. In other words, you probably won't reach Stage 19, so you'd better hope you already gathered 30,000 points in the first 17 stages! (The first time I played Survival Mode, I got about 29,600 points and then died on Stage 18. D'OH!)

Can you recommend any Kongregate games that are similar to They Took Our Candy and the Upgrade Complete series? My Kongregate account has 140 points and is at Level 3.

EDIT: Oh, I was a little disappointed that Psy wasn't one of the game's unlockable costumes. Oppan Gangnam Style!

[Warlock]

I did not complete the game- I got as far as the last boss, but died there and had other things to do, so I moved on. My preferred party was similar- two ninjas, a robot, and a witch- for similar reasons. The Robot's Vending special can help build up candy quickly at early levels... My general strategy was to upgrade the candy drops, followed by my attack, speed, special, magnet, and health in that order.... I kind of found that if I was taking more than the occasional hit to begin with, it was usually because my attack or speed wasn't good enough, and upping Health wasn't going to help.

I don't have any other recommendations offhand- I generally see these things as they come across the indiegames.com feed - but I'll keep an eye out.

- HC



ETA: Also, I think Deadpool already won the Gangnam Style meme: