Game:

Cactus McCoy 2: The Ruins of Calavera (2011)

Category:

Walkthrough

Duration: 7:31

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Cactus McCoy, the daring chlorophyll fueled and spiny protagonist of a game that's just as silly as it sounds, is a blast to play as. Not only is it fun gameplay-wise, but its presentation is just as amazing.

As Cactus McCoy, you are tasked with returning a magical artifact to its rightful resting place lest you be cursed to remain a walking, talking, punching, and shooting cactus for the rest of your short life. To that end, you go from level to level, taking on various enemies (well, enemigos as the game calls them) and navigating trickier and trickier levels.

The difficulty curve is relatively gradual in this game, with the first few levels being fairly easy. This is perhaps the first level that poses a real challenge (though the previous one was tough as well). It's no longer possible to just breeze through the level at will. There are precise jumps to be made, tricky passages to navigate, and intelligent (well, relatively, compared to previous levels) enemigos that will bar your way.

The fifth level is Powderkeg Pass, and as the name would suggest, you're going to be doing quite a bit of explosives work on this level. And being a pass, the area is rocky, dirty, and very bottomless pit-y. While it looks a lot like the first level, it is many, many times harder, and many many times more fun. There are lots of new weapons to be had here (sticks of dynamite being a personal favorite) along with various barrels of TNT just waiting to be picked up and hurled into the faces of the various nameless mooks on the level.

Speaking of nameless mooks, the enemigos on this level can pack more of a punch. Not because they're harder or anything, but because there are generally more of them. That, and there are more of them armed with ranged weaponry. Previously, you could go about your jumps and leaps of faith without having to worry about them. Now, because a lot of them are armed for long distance combat and not melee, they can and will shoot you out of the air sending you screaming to your doom in the many bottomless pits of the level.

Like previous levels, there are various challenges here. This time around, rather than having a single one that's pretty tough with the rest being simple, this one has only one challenge that's easy to get.

The first challenge requires that you blow up ten boulders. The catch is that you can't use just any means to blow them up, you need to use the barrels of TNT that you find. While this may sound tricky, remember that you can't climb ladders or shimmy along ropes while carrying said boulders or barrels. It takes some strategy then, to find the boulders and carefully choose which barrels to use to blow them up.

The second is the classic time challenge, and to show just how tough the level is, this particular challenge gives you a whole 2 minutes and 45 seconds to beat. This is perhaps the hardest time challenge so far, so be prepared for multiple play-throughs before you manage this one.

This challenge is the only easy one to get. To get the King of the Hill challenge, you need to take out all the enemigos in the Bottomless Gorge area. You're pretty much going to do this anyway, as it'll be next to impossible to get across all the ropes and ladders safely unless you kill the enemigos trying to shoot you out of the air.

The fourth challenge ties in with the previous one. You have to get across the same area without falling to your doom. This is harder than it sounds, as the enemigos in the area will gladly shoot you down like a clay pigeon should you get too close. As if that wasn't bad enough, you have to precisely time and align your jumps down to the last millimeter or you'll miss the ledge by just enough to send you plummeting down.

The last is probably the hardest. While "Juggler" may seem rather innocuous, it's a lot more difficult than it seems. While by now you've probably gotten the hang of keeping a single enemy in the air by hitting him repeatedly, this challenge calls for you to do it with -three- enemies.

Well, that's it for this level, don't go away, and we'll have the next one for you soon!

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