Believe them when they say it's difficult.

[Kloodge]

I read all the reviews before I bought it. Having finished many "hard" games, I brushed off all the claims that it was difficult.

I wish I hadn't. This is sadistically hard in some spots. It has sections with multiple precision jumps several screens away from a checkpoint, and the bosses are very tough (checkpoint near each though). ElectroBot took me 36 tries. I was starting to wonder if I missed a weapon upgrade somewhere.

The game is very well done, and if you find constantly being on the verge of punching your monitor to be fun, then it's worth the money.

For me, it just sucks the fun out of it. There needs to be a normal mode and this be hard mode...or something. Or call it easy mode if you want, I don't care, I'd just like to finish the game at some point.

It's not a matter of the number of lives. It's that progression is simply too difficult for non-masochists. I don't even mind the hard jumps as much as the amount of damage you take, and the HP of the bosses that make those fights so tedious.

If the devs were going for a super-hard, niche market game, they succeeded. But they may want to consider making it more accessible to us mere mortals.

[Construct]

Actually, I can't even play Super Meat Boy, and that's one of the most popular games of all time. Way, way harder than this game.

You just have to accept the game mechanics and try to work to be better at them. It's incredibly easy compared to some of the MegaMan games released in the last few years--I just can't get to the robot masters in those games. Megaman 9 and 10, for example. Then again, in some respects those are niche games. This game is based off of three very specifically unique games: MegaMan X, Super Metroid, and Cave Story. While a lot of people have played the first two games, there is no denying that they are difficult. At this point Cave Story has its own fairly large audience over multiple platforms, and that game is INCREDIBLY difficult, if you want to take the challenge.

I've literally never even tried to become skilled at these kinds of games, and after about 8 hours on this one I was really feeling it. The game plays a certain way and expects you to remember certain patterns, which is why you are provided with 20 lives instead of 3.


But that's my perspective. The developer himself will come in and offer to help you, provide you with a cheat code, and inform you of a new mode in development, too. Give it a few hours, I think he's asleep. I should be, too!

[Kloodge]

>Super Meat Boy - Got quite a ways in to this but got bored with the level-based structure.
>Megaman X - Never played it.
>Super Metroid - Beat it, twice.
>Cave Story - Beat it.

(Megaman always seemed more level-based, run and shoot to me. Maybe I should give them another chance.)

I know about the 30 lives code. I'm just letting people on the fence know that this can be incredibly difficult and frustrating. It's a very good game, but it would be better with a mode that your average gamer has some hope of finishing.

[cattleCountryDev]

Hey Kloodge! We've got a 'Casual' mode in the works for Rex. We're hoping to have it pushed live within the next month or so before we run our first Steam sale. Casual mode will start the player off with a Jetpack, removes the lives systems, reduces boss health and eases some of the more difficult points in Rex.

[Kloodge]

Ok, nice to hear. I think it's a good decision to not leave out the less hardcore among us. I didn't get to the jetpack, so I don't know how that will affect things, but please don't make it so easy that it becomes boring. :)

I'd be happy with just a few more checkpoints in some of those long stretches, and a bit lower HP on the bosses, but I'll keep checking to see what you come up with.

[Kloodge]

*** Spoiler/Cheat ***

If you lose your last life fighting a boss (or anywhere) and then continue, you will have to run back through everything you did to get to him again. To prevent this, use the cheat code at the opening screen (UUDDLRLRBA), then when you get to 1 life, quit and restart, using the cheat code again. You'll be back at the boss checkpoint with 30 lives.

[Jack]

Originally posted by reterorob:

Hey Kloodge! We've got a 'Casual' mode in the works for Rex. We're hoping to have it pushed live within the next month or so before we run our first Steam sale. Casual mode will start the player off with a Jetpack, removes the lives systems, reduces boss health and eases some of the more difficult points in Rex.

When is casual mode launching?

Repeating stuff over and over is pising me off, got bored at trash bot.

[TeraTelnet]

Oh gosh, casual mode might just save me completely. Sadly, even the first boss is too tough for my time-numbed reflexes.

[cattleCountryDev]

Casual mode is coming soonish!

[Jack]

Not quite what I was thinking with casual mode (I was thinking half damage to rex).

Still, tried another 15 attempts at trash bot and got past it, still like 4 more bosses to get mad at.

[TomatoYumYum]

It's not even about difficulty at this point. You can try and try again until you follow the pattern perfectly. The bosses are time consuming. Because of the infinite continues. The PROBLEM with this (patience experiment) game is some very strangely missing checkpoints. Who took them out of the places where they should be? What was the point of this??

[limelight1210]

I have played my fair share of hard NES games like Contra, Super C and the original Mega Man. While i've beat those games without dying, I think Rex Rocket has some *seriously* difficult choke points throughout the game. I just got the jetpack and I'm almost ready to stop playing- its just too much dying so that i dont really care how the game ends.

I absolutely love the graphics and the soundtrack.

The Bot bosses have very quick patterns which require the absolute precision to master, all while their life bar is a bullet sponge.

There are also way too many instant death portions of the game, lack of extra much needed checkpoints throughout the world, and the overly complicated shooting downward to get a boost while moving forward to clear an area or you die in a acid pit moments.

[Shogun_Gundam04]

This is probably the only game I purchased on steam that I actually regret buying, despite how promising it looked, even replaying it I still hate it's cheap difficulty and punishment for playing blind, even though thats how you move forward in the game. I have a fair number of platforming games under my belt, including classics like mega man and etc.
Aslo heres to the casual mode and difficulty tweaks that never happened,

well except that game over restart from the very beginning of the map thing.
(who the ♥♥♥♥ thought that was a good idea anyway?!?!?!)

[bernd]

Also funny to see that the f*cking easy mode never happened!
Currently playing the game and it still has the 30 lives in it and is hard as f*ck! >:-(

good game but honestly I dont even care about any collectibles anymore (where in the beginning I planned to collect the 90 thingies.... crazyb me)
currently I am jsut happy to get anywhere.
also a funny thing to waste like 10 lives to get to the end of a section of rroms jsut to realize that its a deadend and you have to find another way around O_o

there also is WAY too much instakill sh*t in it for me!
got hit by a robot?
no problem, except... it pushes you into spikes, lava, whatever which all INSTAKILL you! >:-(