1-All'd - 327,800pts.
Funny example of how too much leniency can end up being a downside, something that probably sounds absolutely insane given how much dying once can set you back, but I'd say it's the frequent checkpoints which are the real issue. Those first waves of each stage do get progressively more difficult, but there's opportunity in these bits to get a chunk of your firepower back; most mid-level sections get kinda whack when you're scrambling to even just stop moving at a snail's pace anymore.
But I still found some value in how the threat of that punishment pushes your play further, which itself is made easier when you're already maintaining so much screen coverage. A clean run is about keeping the streak going as tightly as possible, sometimes to the point that playing without deaths is easier than just a regular run-through...not sure if the 15-minute runtime vindicates or worsens that notion yet, but it's there.
Still, have to appreciate some of the regular idiosyncrasies here too: Double and Laser being mutually exclusive creates a nice dilemma between safer vertical coverage or higher damage and piercing, and the Shield's protective area is larger than Vic Viper's actual hitbox, incurring more hits than you might have otherwise. Efficiently maximizing on Shields is another fun quirk: ideally you're leaving that power-up space charged in preparation to refresh it, but it then turns other pickups into de facto enemies, something to be mindful of and avoid lest you end up rolling all the way back to the beginning of the list. Cute way to spin the main gimmick around by the end, and goes a little ways towards making the later pickup dumps less moot.
Funny example of how too much leniency can end up being a downside, something that probably sounds absolutely insane given how much dying once can set you back, but I'd say it's the frequent checkpoints which are the real issue. Those first waves of each stage do get progressively more difficult, but there's opportunity in these bits to get a chunk of your firepower back; most mid-level sections get kinda whack when you're scrambling to even just stop moving at a snail's pace anymore.
But I still found some value in how the threat of that punishment pushes your play further, which itself is made easier when you're already maintaining so much screen coverage. A clean run is about keeping the streak going as tightly as possible, sometimes to the point that playing without deaths is easier than just a regular run-through...not sure if the 15-minute runtime vindicates or worsens that notion yet, but it's there.
Still, have to appreciate some of the regular idiosyncrasies here too: Double and Laser being mutually exclusive creates a nice dilemma between safer vertical coverage or higher damage and piercing, and the Shield's protective area is larger than Vic Viper's actual hitbox, incurring more hits than you might have otherwise. Efficiently maximizing on Shields is another fun quirk: ideally you're leaving that power-up space charged in preparation to refresh it, but it then turns other pickups into de facto enemies, something to be mindful of and avoid lest you end up rolling all the way back to the beginning of the list. Cute way to spin the main gimmick around by the end, and goes a little ways towards making the later pickup dumps less moot.