Spriggan: PC Engine - How does the power up system work?

greedostick

Obsessed Neo-Fan
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OK few questions.

1. How does the power up system work? Example, is the weapon chosen determined by the order of colored orbs? The slot they are in? or does none of that matter and it's just the amount of colors (no specific order). I feel like a blue in the left most slot is always a rotating blue orb around you, but the rest I'm confused about.

2. Why does that little option (mech) guy come out to help? Is there a way to call him?

3. How come sometimes you can take what seems like several hits before being destroyed, and other times you die in one hit?

4. What are your favorite weapons? I've just been trying to get something rotating around me, and a strong blue or red direct or spread shot.
 

egg_sanwich

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The order doesn't matter, just the color mix. If you sit through the attract mode, there is a lengthy demo video showing all the different variations.

I recall using only one or two color combos exclusively, can't remember off the top of my head though.

Edit. Seems like most people stick to the yellow/green combo, but I found the blue/red combo worked best for me.
 
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greedostick

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Interesting... I sat through what i thought were 2 different intros the other day. I will check it out again.
 

RAZO

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I prefer going with all green orbs.
 

greedostick

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I was going green blue red. Was working well. Gonna try those tonight. Green seems pretty weak, but maybe some magic happen with your combo
 

SNK_Pro

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Green and yellow for me too. Fine choice of game, in my opinion possibly the best (CD) vertical shooter on the system.
 

Liquid Snake

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Still remember EGM showed this screenshot in their magazine................
Spriggan.jpg
 

greedostick

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OK, green yellow is pretty solid, but I think I still prefer red, blue, green. It gives me a powerful straight fireball, with 2 more fireballs the criss-cross around the straight one. It actually spreads pretty far. It also gives me a blue swirl option thing, which eats bullets.

I'm still going to keep playing around though, it seems there is no definitive combination. Especially on the cave stage because you need to find something that will go into the rocks.

I figured out when I am down to one shot as well. If you look at snakes pic you can see the little arc above the shoulders, that's a shield and will give you a free shot. If you get the bomb orb, it will refill your shield as well, so it's super important even though they normally drop them in spots where there's not much threat. I feel like I am getting my shield recharged sometimes when just picking up regular orbs, but haven't figured this out yet.

I first played Spriggan a few years ago at Terry300's and always wanted it after that. So it's pretty awesome now to finally devote some time to this game. It's kind of meh for the first few stages, but once you hit the cave stage the game really picks up. I'm trying to beat the game on 3 credits before going for a 1cc, which seems pretty doable. So far I have made it to the dimensional portal stage after defeating the magician guy. That was on 2 credits but I had to quit. Going backwards down that portal kinda blew my mind. The Magician stage before you drop through the floor is really cool as well. I'm going to give it another go tonight.
 
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Tarma

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lol... if you wait for the game to cycle through the demo/attract screens it actually shows you how the power-up system works in the game and what the various combinations of orbs produce!

Great game btw :D
 

greedostick

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Spriggan is the best shooter on the console IMO hands down.

Bold statement.

It's pretty damn good for sure, but Lords of Thunder takes the 1 spot for me. Gates of thunder and Soldier Blade are up there too. I still need to play Nexyr though. I hear its pretty awesome. It's on my to get soon list.

I'll tell you what SHMUP blows... Sylphia. I made the mistake of buying that recently. What a pile of overpriced garbage.
 

SNK_Pro

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For my personal taste, Spriggan is the best CD based vert shooter on the system, with Soldier Blade being the best on HuCard. As far as hori's go, I would choose R-Type on HuCard simply due to it probably being one of my all time favourite games regardless of genre, and on CD I'd most likely go for Winds of Thunder.

As for Sylphia, maybe stick with it a bit more. When I first bought it back in the day I wasn't keen either, but t grows on you the further in to it you get.
 

radiantsvgun

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I agree, it is the best CD shooter on the system. It like a turbo charged Blazing Lazers. Better than Musha and Robo Aleste for sure.
 

joecommando

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Bold statement.

It's pretty damn good for sure, but Lords of Thunder takes the 1 spot for me. Gates of thunder and Soldier Blade are up there too. I still need to play Nexyr though. I hear its pretty awesome. It's on my to get soon list.

I'll tell you what SHMUP blows... Sylphia. I made the mistake of buying that recently. What a pile of overpriced garbage.

Lords of thunder is a godlike game. Gameplay is amazing and the music is some of my favorite of any game.
 

geise

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It is a good game bit not the best playing for a shooter. Ido personally love it to death. However I feel GoT is the better shooter in the Thunder series.

Getting back to Spriggan it needs to have it's own high score thread or shooter of the month. I would love to go for some 2 min runs again. It's been ages.
 
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