Fraxy – Sky Leopard 42k by Metarex Master

Seeric November 29, 2016 1 Comment

Boss Download
Music: Aerobotics by Just Coffee of OverClocked Remix

Size: 360 x 480
Mode: Fixed

Starting off the fight with a deadly rush across the screen, this boss provides a consistently fun and fast-paced challenge. One of the first things players are bound to notice is the addition of two twining frontal turrets for the player’s own ship, which serves as a an early sign of the flashy aesthetics at play here. While most small, fixed arena fights have fairly static bosses, the Sky Leopard 42k is rather dynamic, launching attacks from the top, middle, and bottom of the screen, which adds to both the challenge and the aesthetic appeal of the fight. Most of this boss’s attack patterns consist of either bombarding the player with aimed shots or using lasers and lines of bullets to limit mobility, though it is generally easy to find safe spots. This boss doesn’t have an excessive amount of health and, between the additional turrets and the fact that damage is dealt to the boss regardless of which piece of its body is hit, this fight definitely doesn’t overstay its welcome, but the first phase does last a bit too long and the boss doesn’t really gain any new attacks until it is down to about a third of its initial health bar.

Defeating the ship leads to a second, humanoid form which moves around frequently while staying near the top of the screen. This second form has the opposite issue of the first phase as it goes down so quickly that it may not get a chance to use all of its attacks, but it otherwise feels like a nice continuation of the first part of the fight with aesthetically-pleasing attacks which are challenging without being quite as dangerous as they may initially appear to be. Overall, this fight feels like it falls into a sweet spot in terms of balance, offering up a good challenge with plenty of visual flair and nothing in the way of frustration or tedium.