Duration: 26:40

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3

I cannot say enough good things about this game. Hazelnut Hex is one of the most purely fun, cute, and just crisp looking and awesome sounding shmups you can buy right now. Developed by a small indie team that doubles as a band: "The Chunderfins", this game is a joy to play. This run is far from perfect and I get hit stupidly a lot, but it showcases a few scoring strats that I am very proud of. There's lots of room to still optimize it though. I'm playing on Normal difficulty.

Scoring mechanics are simple but hard to optimize: you get a charge shot if you stop firing for a short time. This charge shot pierces enemies, deletes bullets, and deals massive damage. Each enemy pierced multiplies the next one killed by a multiplier which scales up by 1 per kill: x1, x2, x3, x4, and so on. There is parabolic score growth if you hit as many enemies as possible with this charge shot, meaning that optimal scoring involves TAKING RISKS AND LEAVING ENEMIES ALIVE until they can "line up" with more enemies to be taken out by the charge shot. There are also score bonuses for picking up powerups without taking damage, finishing the stage with your buddy Sam alive (lost on taking damage), and a massive one based on the highest number of bullets you cleared with your bomb in that stage. Bombs recharge plentifully if you are scoring well and you can stock up to 6 of them. They give immediate large score bonuses based on how many bullets are cleared in addition to the massive score bonus at the end of the stage based on the single highest number of bullets cleared: you'll be trying to get this right at the end of the boss fights. As usual, I played this on PC on an 8bitdo M30 controller, wired. It has the SEGA Genesis (and Saturn) style D-Pad and I love it for shmups.