So don't get too excited, there aren't any new costumes in Kid Hallow (yet!), but all the old costumes have gotten upgrades! Let's run them down:
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The Kid - Of course, you start every level with no costume on. The Kid has only had one minor upgrade since you last met him: he can duck now, which is not low enough to dodge any bullets at all. It's just for fun. |
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Frank - Classic Frank! He too has gained the mystical power of ducking. It has a slight advantage here because you can smash bricks beneath you without any risk of hitting the ceiling above you (which might be spikes, who knows?). You just hold Down and tap Action and he instantly hits the ground without having to jump first. There is also a new situation for Frank to interact using his pushy powers, but that's a tale for tomorrow. |
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Ghost - Spooky as ever! The Ghost has gained - say it with me - the ability to duck! Totally useless. He also now has the power to descend rapidly, which is new (it's like ducking, but in midair!). Another minor touch to his flight is that you can now hold down the jump button to continuously go upwards (not quite as fast as if you pounded it at the right speed, but decent). |
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Witch - Would you believe the Witch can now duck? Other than that, and major cleanup to how her powers affect the world (objects no longer get stuck inside each other, they push apart neatly), she hasn't changed. She's very puzzle-based so we couldn't mess around too much. I kept wanting to give her the ability shoot up and down, but it would completely change every puzzle for her. That feature still may come in the future though, in a very special new way. |
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Vampire - Now we get some interesting stuff! I know what you're expecting, but let me blow your mind: the Vampire cannot duck! Nay, pushing down when using this costume instead makes you turn into a cloud of mist for a very short time. Very short. With this, you can dodge bullets (even Dragon Statue laser beams if you do it right), and with excellent timing, even dodge right through a Screamer. It's the Dark Souls of Kid Hallow moves. |
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Santa - Santa could always duck, to drop Gifts. What's so great about him now is that he can also do this in midair! It's a huge change that has made him a ton more fun to play. In addition to that, dropping Gifts is a lot better now. If you remember way back (uh, 13 years ago...), you previously needed to drop each one carefully so that it was in an empty spot. If there was already a gift too close, it wouldn't appear. So now instead, you can drop them all over the place, and they simply push each other aside for maximum explosivity. Santa has truly become a lot more jolly. |
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Snowman - The Snowman doesn't exactly have any new tricks. It's more that he is much easier to play now. Previously, if you froze somebody too close to you, you'd get stuck inside the ice block with them until they thawed. It was really annoying. So now, anybody caught in an ice block is gently nudged out (same feature as the Witch has when she transforms things). |
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Penguin - More ducking fun! But this time there's a good purpose. If you crouch as a Penguin, any Baby Penguins that reach you will stay underneath you to stay warm, just like real life. They also change their direction to match yours, so you can use this trick to steer babies away from danger and toward any Igloos you want annihilated. We've also improved how splashing out of water works and looks, which affects everybody but is most notable as a Penguin. |
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 Bouapha - The Gourdslayer is back and probably has the most upgrades of any character. He couldn't do much originally, just toss hammers. Well now he can duck! Surprised? It's slightly useful in that it allows you to stay in place while tossing hammers downward instead of running around. We've also added a new feature to disable pressing Up to jump (there's a jump button now, you can play either way). If you do that, you can throw hammers in all 8 directions without accidentally jumping, which makes him easier to control. But that's not all! His rate of fire has also been doubled - he's got some Pants of Power now. And biggest of all, when he ducks, he can pick up Baby Penguins or Princesses, and then throw them around like he throws hammers! Oh it is fantastic fun, I assure you. The princess doesn't appreciate it much though. |
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Happy Stick Ninja - He could already duck. Aside from a small simplification to his controls, he's the same flippy jumpy maniac as ever. |
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Yerfdog - Oh you bet this dog can duck! It's actually very very useful, because it used to be very difficult to enter small passageways, with the way he would constantly bounce up and down on the ground, and he almost couldn't operate Gears at all. Now with ducking, you just hold down and crawl around. It's very weird looking, like he's some kind of mutant slug dog. In addition, like the Ghost, he can hold down in mid-air to descend faster, which is a great control improvement. On top of that, he has massive improvements to how sucking up and spitting out enemies works. And lastly, he has a whole new trick! He can suck up water and spit it out too. Use this to put out fires, charge up batteries, or a few other weird tricks. It gives Yerfdog an entirely new dimension. |
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Elf - Just one little change for the Elf - he shoots faster than before. |
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Wizard - Wizard's teleport was a subject of much consternation. So we cleaned that up a lot. He now aligns his destination with a whole tile, so if you are a pixel off, you don't end up with the very top of your hat stuck in a wall. Along with a few other tweaks, his teleport is vastly more reliable now, but it'll still kill you if you end up inside a grate! |
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Knight - Last and just about least, the knight has gained a really nifty duck move in which he hides behind his sword (odd, since he's holding a shield, but also it was an accident, and I loved it so I kept it!). That's all the new stuff he's got that I can recall... He's still really fun though, with his pogo-jumping and electricity-conducting and bullet-deflecting. |
Phew. That is it. I had no idea that was going to be so massive. There are just a lot of characters in this game. And I don't even remember all the little tweaks we did, so I missed some stuff in here (also, I am about to go experiment with making Frank's headbutt faster right now, a day before we ship! Foolish but potentially fun). See you with another insider info tomorrow, discussing all the new monsters and items we added. And of course... you can also play them all tomorrow because it's gonna be release day!
