SOTM July 2019: Captain Tomaday

[NERDtendo]

This month we will be playing Captain Tomaday. Fire up those NEO GEO systems and let’s have some fun.

Standard default settings like usual.



Player-score-platform

Leaderboard:
1. egg_sanwich - 64,341.25 - MVS - ALL
2. oliverclaude - 59,822.50 - MVS
3. ChuChu - 36,167.70 - MVS
4. city41 - 20,591.90 - MVS
5. KidPanda - 17,640.70 - MVS
6. Dogg - 17,515.20 - MVS
7. c0nn0r - 8,400.40 - MVS
8. NERDtendo - 8,289.90 - MVS
9. wataru330 - 5,755.15 - MVS

 

[wataru330]

4665.50

This game is nuts. I blame changing from a baby to a monkey on my premature death. That was stressful!

Also looks like honor system will be in effect...when you continue on MVS, your score keeps stacking and after game over time out, there is no indicator that you continued.

This is the first time I’ve had this on I awhile-look forward to getting moar scores in!

 

[wataru330]

Slight improvement. Made to 1st boss, and almost finished him. Still trying to balance the risk of chasing dropped items (if you spam shoot, they get juggled & eventually missed-you gotta quit shooting to grab ‘em), opposed to just wrecking all enemies.

 

[wataru330]

Dafuq? no one playing a neo game here @ neodotcom? Straight Willie Bobo.

 

[Kid Panda]

Dafuq? no one playing a neo game here @ neodotcom? Straight Willie Bobo.

Im gonna walk into the other room and play in a bit. Gotta get my 4th of July vibes on.

 

[NERDtendo]

I had the game loaded up for a game night last night. I was only able to get a couple tries in, but I got my starting score...

NERDtendo - 3170.55 - MVS

 

[egg_sanwich]

So far it seems fun. They cheaped out by having static backgrounds for sections, but I doubt it was big budget title to begin with.

Starting score:

egg_sanwich - 11275.89 - MVS

 

[city41]

city41 - 5812.15 - MVS

(really playing on NeoSD AES on level 4)

 

[Kid Panda]

 

[NERDtendo]

NERDtendo - 6236.85 - MVS

 

[wataru330]

Jeebus!
Strats, tips, tricks plz. Fuckin’ Sushi X score.

The race is now officially on, for 2nd place.

 

[oliverclaude]

So far I love this game, except its massive slowdowns, but they sure help. Here's my entry:





Edit: oliverclaude - 59,822.50 - MVS

Game should be renamed Captain Tulipday, or whatever plant sticks in that pot of the last mutation form anyway. Yes, that's all you have to do: change into the plant form and everything else solves itself. It has the best shot, powerful and wide, and provokes even more slowdowns. Don't bother to collect options, they're deadly. Don't bother to collect gems, food or other bonuses, Stage 4 makes more than up for it.

 

[Neodogg]

The race is now officially on, for 2nd place.

Correction...race for 3rd

 

[NERDtendo]

Correction...race for 3rd

Hahaha. I thought the same thing.

 

[wataru330]

Looool. The baker just cooked all of scores. I’ll be back at it next week. Thx for the tip, ollie!

 

[NERDtendo]

NERDtendo - 8,289.90 - MVS

 

[oliverclaude]

Looool. The baker just cooked all of scores. I’ll be back at it next week. Thx for the tip, ollie!

You're welcome, wataru! I've been playing nothing but CT for the last couple of nights and this game nearly cost me all my nerves, until... I discovered how good the Pot (form) is. You have to take five pills (Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Klonopin & Oxy 80s hehe, just kidding, but the references in TomDi are truly scary), jokes aside, it goes like that:

Tiny>Giant>Chameleon>Monkey>Pot Plant

But the Captain can do more and take up to 16(!) different forms, some great and some fatal. To get the others, you have to get more pills while being on Pot or get hit while being Giant to turn into Baby and from there seek the new cycle, it goes like that:

Angel>Toy>Carrot>Bunny>Fish>Crab>Airplane>Cat

So far, I've only done Pot, because of its sheer blast power and because you can reach it before the first mid-boss. That's what I recommend anyway, memorize all the spinach, eh, pill cans up to the mid-boss and (tomato) concentrate on the Pot. If you have stick with my corny jokes so far, you'll be definitely boosting up your scores on your next play.

I still don't know what the different colored T's mean, or if different Gem color/size has a deeper meaning for your score. The sidekick system, where the Captain clones himself, seems also quite deep and interesting, just tough to use. The latter feature makes it also easy to realize, that CT is a true Galaga '88 for the Neo Geo, just Y-axis enhanced.

 

[city41]

Thanks for the tips Oliver. The more I play this game the less mediocre it seems.

City41 - 12681.55 - MVS

 

[c0nn0r]

c0nn0r - 8400.40 - MVS

I played this game exactly once a few years ago and tossed it aside as shit. I have to change my mind on this one. Not bad! It's no Battle Garegga, but for a cute-em-up it's interesting.

 

[c0nn0r]

Also looks like honor system will be in effect...when you continue on MVS, your score keeps stacking and after game over time out, there is no indicator that you continued.

You can set continue to NO in softdip settings

 

[city41]

City41 - 15432.20 - MVS

 

[city41]

I have to change my mind on this one. Not bad!

Yeah it's not bad, but it's certainly not great either. It could have been much better with just a little tweaking. Hori-vert games are also just kinda frustrating in general. If it was truly vert it'd be a lot more fun.

 

[city41]

Although gotta admit the more I play the more I am liking it.

Some things I've noticed:

getting the clone power up seems totally worth it. It's almost as good as a 1up, and you can power up each character individually by deciding which one gets a pill. Two flower pots is pretty ballin'

I think the carrot might be even better than the flower pot, but it's hard to get that far.

Chameleon is really quite good, especially against bosses. That tongue does a lot of damage. Chameleon plus tomato side by side is a great combo against regular enemies.

Enemies during bosses don't give you points, so I tend to not be as worried about killing them if they aren't bothering me.

The first midboss, when he sends out those slow flying missiles, they don't damage you and you can just go in and pelt him. They only damage you when they return a bit later flying fast down the screen.

Until you're oliverclaude good, I'd argue gems are worth getting. 150 points is a lot in this game.

 

[egg_sanwich]

I don't think I've spent more than 10 minutes with this game before this month, but have to agree that it gets a lot less mediocre the more you play.

Also some great tips from Oli and City. My strategy looks like this:
- Get to double pot as soon as possible
- Don't bother going beyond pot. Carrot is good, but risk is too great.
- Double pot has nearly unstoppable forward power plus exceptional crowd control
- Use C button to arrange your dudes in a line. This is especially handy for bosses/midbosses as it makes your foward firepower stronger + makes it easier to dodge tight patterns

I was able to get the clear after about 1.5-2 hours, so the challenge is quite manageable once you get the right combinations of powerups.

egg_sanwich - +64341.25 - MVS - ALL

 

[oliverclaude]

...the challenge is quite manageable once you get the right combinations of powerups.

Yes, exactly.

egg_sanwich - +64341.25 - MVS - ALL

Impressive, egg_sanwich, congrats on your clear!