wow this is hard... only 3 lives, and 1-hit deaths...I'm gonna want to try and beat this with savestates. keep retrying each stage until I can beat it without losing more than the amount of lives I gained from the stage.
... wow... so I got up to the death star level on novice mode. the level is a giant maze... all the obstacles are very easy to avoid once you know they're there. it feels like I'm playing a metroid game now. I didn't feel bad about save stating here, cuz the alternative would be drawing my own map of each room so that I'd know what to avoid and wouldn't die.
it turns out, in order to beat this level, you can't pick up the blaster. if you do, you won't be able to get into the garbage shute on the detention level. and since I was on my last life, I was permanently stuck...
I like this game though... I might try and beat it from the beginning on hard mode.
Attempt #2 - 3/25/2015
no. no. nonononononono.
I retried this again from the beginning.
First of all, the first boss kills me a lot just because you die in one hit, and this boss's movement pattern is stupid and you only get a tiny precise window where you can hit him and just barely get away. That's one part where I feel the need to use savestates even on novice.
Second, the space shooting sections rely on literal dumb luck to get through. It's practically impossible to get passed these on Hard mode without losing all your lives. That's another part where I feel like I NEED to use savestates even on novice.