Game:

Cactus McCoy 2: The Ruins of Calavera (2011)

Category:

Walkthrough

Duration: 6:32

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29

Cactus McCoy and the Curse of Thorns, which, while sounding absolutely and ridiculously cheesy, is actually one of the better casual games out there. It has style, it has flash, and it has above all else, great gameplay. It'll keep you, at the risk of sounding clichéd, coming back for more.

The premise of the game is simple. You're a typical cowboy in an atypical world of four-armed men, magical curses, and general strangeness. You've been sent on a mission to retrieve an artifact for some big bucks. Unfortunately, as the title would suggest, the artifact is cursed and you're doomed to remain an anthropomorphizied cactus who will eventually turn into stone and crumble unless the artifact is returned to its rightful resting place.

With the first two levels cleared, it's time to tackle the third, the Rustler Railroad.

The previous two levels were fairly simple with the second level only being marginally more difficult than the first. The third level of Cactus McCoy continues that trend, and though it doesn't ramp the difficulty up too high, it's noticeably harder than the previous level. Furthermore, this time around there are actually enemigos that can hit back and do damage. Sure, previous ones could hurt you, but only if you let them. Button mashing prevented them from doing anything. This time, there are some enemies who can break your streak and hit back. Those, however, are few and far between.

The level continues the trend of Wild West clichés by putting you onto a speeding train, jumping from car to car and playing fisticuffs with the baddies. It's just as detailed as the previous levels, and the animation of various background flora whizzing by adds a very nice touch.

As usual, there are five different challenges. Unlike usual though, some of these are actually tricky to get.

The first challenge is one of the easier ones. You're required to "rummage through all of the different suitcases" on the level. Most of these are easy to spot, and it's a simple matter to grab them all over the course of the level. Being a train, there's far less vertical exploration involved making it that much easier. If you really want to bet all five of the challenges, you're going to need to go after all the suitcases.

Like the previous levels, this one is a speed challenge. You need to beat the level in under a minute thirty. Also like the previous levels, don't expect to get this one on your first playthrough, as you're going to need to do some rather serious enemigo dodging to get through this one.

For the inquisitive explorers out there, this should be a piece of cake. You have to explore all of the train cars, and you're going to be doing that anyway if you want to get all five treasures. A little creativity, some Mega Man ingenuity, and a few leaps of faith, and you'll be good to go with this one.

Cherrybomber. This level introduces a new weapon, the cherry bomb. You hurl it, and it explodes. Some of the enemigos even use them. To get this weapon, you're going to need to open quite a few suitcases. Remember, the number of cherry bombs is limited, so be sure you're going to hit the enemigo before attacking. A tip though, you have to kill 20 enemigos using the cherry bombs. It doesn't say you can't beat them to the point of death, and then switch to the cherry bomb for the final blow though.

The final challenge is tough. You have to get a ×50 combo when attacking. The problem is, there are no enemies that can take fifty hits without dying. The key is in the name, Combo Train. Find a long stretch of train littered with enemigos and go wild. Remember, a combo is a set of speedy consecutive hits. That doesn't mean that it has to be a set of speedy consecutive hits on a single enemy though. You're going to have to find a large number of enemigos, and rush them all. As soon as you send one flying, go for the next one to keep your combo rating going up.

The last bit is the treasures. On this level, there are actually a couple that are easy to miss. Just keep in mind to be quite inquisitive. Some can be tricky to get, and you'll have to make more than one leap of faith if you want to grab them all.

And that's all for the third level, keep watching for the next level

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