Warning Forever

Warning Forever is a freeware 2D shoot 'em up written by Hikoza T Ohkubo and released under the name of his software house, Hikware.

The premise of the game is to fight a constant stream of bosses. The gameplay is broken into stages; each stage is a single boss battle. To progress to the next stage, the boss must be completely destroyed within the time limit. The game starts with a default time limit of 180 seconds (which can be changed to the maximum of 999 seconds in Options), with 30 seconds being gained for every boss defeated. 20 seconds are lost every time the player is destroyed.

The main gameplay feature is how the bosses change from stage to stage. Based on how you fight a boss, the next boss will adapt itself to defend against your strategies, and prey on your weaknesses. For example, if you destroy the front part of the boss first, it will increase armor on the front. Likewise, if you are killed by a certain kind of weapon, but still defeat the boss, the next boss will probably have more of that weapon.

The player flies a relatively small green ship. There are no power-ups - the player's only weapon is a very rapid-fire revolving cannon which can fire in any direction, and widen or concentrate its projectile spread.

As is common in manic shooters, the area of the player's ship vulnerable to collisions is much smaller than the ship itself. This enables the ship to squeeze through small gaps.

Boss evolution


The initial form of the boss is called the Pure Heart. The Pure Heart will take on new characteristics in response to the player's assault.

The top and bottom halves will each choose a characteristic based on the method of attack the player uses against the four corner pieces of the boss:


 * Wide - Result of destroying the corner(s) from the side
 * Attack - Result of destroying the corner(s) from the top or bottom
 * Armor - Result of destroying attached parts before destroying the corner(s)

Once the Pure Heart chooses a top and bottom characteristic, its evolution path cannot be changed. The name of the boss at this point is derived from its top and bottom characteristics; for example, a Wide top and an Attack bottom results in a Wide Attacker.

Each of the three characteristics has two possible evolutions, one for the top and one for the bottom. The speed at which the Pure Heart evolves to this form depends on how consistent the player's attack pattern is.

Once both characteristics have evolved to this point, the boss will continue to evolve to its final form regardless of the player's attack pattern. There are nine possible evolution paths:

The Double Armor path does not evolve past ISE-ONE.

Boss parameters
Before each battle a chart pops up showing the strengths of the upcoming boss. There are six categories:


 * Front - Indicates forward strength
 * Rear - Indicates rear strength
 * Defense - Indicates defense
 * Core - Indicates strength of the core (the centre piece; destruction of the core destroys a boss)
 * Search - Indicates boss' ability to track down the player
 * Generator - Indicates quantity and speed of enemy gunfire

Weapons

 * Vulcan - Basic machinegun turrets. Stronger generator increases projectile amount and speed.
 * Laser - Laser cannons that shoot pink beams. Stronger generator increases duration and width of beams.
 * Cannon - Cannons that shoot a spread of blue balls. Stronger generator increases amount of shots per spread.
 * Smash - Turrets that shoot purple shotgun-style projectiles. Stronger generator increases projectiles fired.
 * Needle - Turrets that fire a stream of thin green bolts over a duration of time. Stronger generator extends the firing time.
 * Homing Missile - Homing missile launchers. Stronger generator increases duration of time in which the missile can home in towards the player, and the amount of missiles fired in one shot.

The bosses can also have thrusters with which they charge at the player; mobile arms; multidirectional spreading vulcan guns; and defensive shielding, which appears as a yellow glow.

The spreading and multidirectional vulcan guns can come from any piece that had a mounted weapon but was removed by the player's gun. The core also uses these "unseen" weapons when all parts have been destroyed. The firing pattern is three wide arcs of shots, and then three multidirectional bursts. A stronger generator increases the speed and spread of the arc.

Game modes

 * 180 seconds - The normal, time-limited mode.
 * Three Ships - No time limit. The player begins with three lives, and gains an extra life for every hundred pieces blasted off a boss.
 * Five Minute attack - The player has a time limit of five minutes to get as far as possible.
 * Sudden Death - The player has one life and no time limit.

Tactics

 * Tactic for getting to high level - start by shooting one lower-corner of the pure heart from the sides, do it precisly without hitting any other parts, particulary the top corners, and in level 4-5 the bottom half will evolve into wider, from this part, continue fighting as usual and avoid hitting the top half at any cost! From here it'll stay on wider modifications until you destroy some of top half, avoid IT, and you'll get far...