Fractal Fighter

By: Derek Yu

On: June 18th, 2007

Crazy cactus has put together (in 24 hours, I might add) a great “boss rush” shoot ‘em up called Fractal Fighter. In this one you’ve got to clip off the tips of each boss while you slowly make your way in to the core. Each “generation” of the boss has it’s own attack pattern.

I really frickin’ love this game, especially the way the two different weapons (gun and laser) can be used in different situations. cactus, you are the man of the hour.

(Source: the2bears)

Update (from cactus):

In other news: I’ve updated the game. New things: Random Mode, Lives, Targetting + lots of misc stuff that you might not notice.

The targetting works like this: press C and three crosshairs will appear. One at the position of the enemy closest to your x-coordinate, one at the x-coordinate of that enemy and the y-coordinate of yourself, and a third at your x-coordinate and the closest enemy’s y-coordinate. When you align with the aim a small beep will play to confirm that you’re locked on. Press C again fast to dispatch six missiles that will move towards the spot where you locked on to target. Targetting also makes it easier to find “hidden parts” and to locate nearest destroyable entity. Hint: Targetting is best used against the bigger cannons.

Posted in Freeware, Shoot-em-ups, Windows | Tags: cactus

Albert Lai

Let me be the first to note that Cactus is inhuman.
Twisted Rabbit

The Hour of the Man
PHeMoX

24hrs??? Imagine what he could make if he’d spend more time on games like this! ( ;) ) Pretty cool game.
siiseli

fuck you cactus, stop being so awsome
fish

brilliant!

im a sucker for white on black vector art. and fractals.
http://www.distractionware.com Echo

This is wonderful! Step aside, Kento Cho!
jkd

Really fun, cool game. 504,000 pts so far.

I wish it was a bit harder, though. The most challenging part is the beginning of each boss, where a million little bullets are flying around. Once you get past that stage, the rest of each boss is pretty easy. The heat seeking dots are a bit of a pain I guess, but they’re not too bad. The lazers are easy to avoid.

I guess I’m saying it’s a bit anti-climactic, since the difficulty ramps down as you start destroying each boss, rather than getting harder.

Highly enjoyable game though. Very impressive it was made in such a short time.
Splinter of Chaos

I always knew fractals were awesome, but never knew they were THIS awesome!

Highscore: 328900
http://www.distractionware.com Echo

High Score: 720,400 so far. Will check back once I give it a proper go :P
cactus

I made an update:
http://www.shmup-dev.com/forum/index.php?topic=1258.msg11743#msg11743

For those who’d like the short story;
Lives, Random Enemy Option, Targetting/Missiles and some smaller things…

Thanks for posting the game here (and the kind words as well!), Mr Yu. And many thanks for the positive response to the rest of y’all. Glad you like it!
siiseli

wow thats just fucking great… i still only manage to get 500 000 points >.< i suck arse
Derek

1216300 is my highest. >:D
Splinter of Chaos

Highscore update:
1,792,400
siiseli

fuck you all, stop being better than me!
im gonna cry if you dont
Neon

This game is 100% better then clean asia. i still don’t get that game.
BigBossSNK

siiseli: 2.273.800
Neon: Clean Asia > Fractal fighter, La Mulana > Cave story, Jack Bauer > Superman, JFK > Ron Paul
Neon

Oh and Cave Story > La Mulana
Neon

Hey, how do you use missles? i see the instructions but i’m confused as fuck!
cactus

The closest enemy gets marked when you press C. You need to get the small circle that appears straight over your plane into the center of the marked enemy. Once there, the circle locks in place. And you can press C again quickly to fire the missiles.

There is a beep that plays when the crosshair locks on. It’s not very loud, but it is audible. You also don’t have to be aligned with the crosshair when you fire the missiles. So you basically just need to go through the crosshair next to your ship and quickly press C when you’ve gone through it.
Neon

Alright, i got the hang of it, but i don’t really like it. they’re way over power and make this game worse for me. When the first one came out i was an addicit and i still play that one rather then this one. I had a strategy built for that one. Every time you moved on to the next part, there was a delay long enough for you to destroy 1 limb before it shot, not this one. And also before you could go outside the border thingy as well which helped alot. No you didn’t do many things wrong with this one but they bug the hell outta me. Lives are nice even though i usually only play with one. Random is also pretty fun and a good idea. You wouldn’t want to make a Neon eddition of it would you :D?