Aqua Slug

Aqua Slug is a side scrolling shooter loosely based upon the gameplay style of the Metal Slug Series.

You play as "Polo" (a direct reference to/play upon Metal Slug's main character, Marco). Polo was spending a relaxing day at the beach with his prized football autographed by Joe Montana. Suddenly, he's kicked off the beach and his football is stolen by a kid and his musclebound bodyguard so that they may build the ultimate sand castle. It's up to Polo to reclaim the beach and his favorite football by engaging in a massive squirt gun battle.

The game consists of two very long stages each with a boss fight at the end. You can submit your score once competing the game or losing all your lives.

How to Play
On the title screen you can choose to start the game by clicking "Play", view the default controls and power-up description by pressing "Instructions", or customize the controls to your liking by clicking "Control".

Once starting the game, you're given the choice of an Easy, Normal or Hard difficulty. Afterward, the story cutscene begins, which you can skip by clicking the "skip" icon in the lower right corner.

Default Control
Since control can be customized, this isn't set in stone, but you if you choose to just start the game, this will be the default control setting.

Move your character and aim your pistol with the arrow keys.

To shoot, press the "D" key.

To jump, press the "S" Key"

To strafe (hold your gun in a certain position while still being able to move around) hold the "A" key.

To throw a water balloon, press the space bar.

Pause the game by pressing "Enter".

Power-Ups
You start with a standard water pistol, but can obtain power-ups from various enemies. (There are no power-ups in Hard mode.) All weapon power ups have a meter that depletes with use, but can be refilled through certain means. Losing a life will remove all power-ups you had, except for extra water balloons.


 * Double Shot: Fires two parallel shots forward. Icon is a pic of two stacked water drops.
 * Spread: Fires three shots outward in a "spray" fashion. Icon is three water drops.
 * Jet Stream: Fires a thin water beam that travels through multiple enemies. Similar to a laser weapon. Icon is a diagonal stream of water.
 * Water Ball Launcher: Fires a large, powerful ball of water in an arc. Icon is a large detailed water blast.
 * Water Balloon Launcher: Fires water balloons forward in an arc, causing splash damage when it hits. Weapon does not deduct from your water balloon cache. Icon is a red balloon with an explosion effect.
 * Power: Increases the damage and size of the shot of whatever weapon you are currently holding. Icon is the letter "P".
 * Rapid Fire: Adds a rapid auto-fire feature to any weapon you are currently holding. Icon is the letter "R".
 * Water Balloons: Add to your water balloon cache. There are three quantities.
 * Blue: +5 balloons
 * Yellow: +10 balloons
 * Red:+20 balloons
 * Sand Dollar: Worth 5000 points each. Sand dollars will also replenish your water supply if you are holding a special weapon. Icon is... a sand dollar. If you (for some frightening reason) don't know what a sand dollar is, it looks like a white circle with a star in the middle. Collecting every sand dollar on every stage grants a point bonus if you complete the game.

Difficulty modes

 * Easy mode: Start with 100 lives and 20 water balloons.
 * Power-ups drop often.
 * Normal Mode: Start with 50 lives and 10 water balloons.
 * Power-ups only drop from strong enemies.
 * Grants a 300,000 point bonus if you complete the game on this mode.
 * Hard Mode: Start with 25 lives and 10 water balloons.
 * Power-ups do not drop in this mode.
 * Grants a 1,000,000 point bonus if you complete the game on this mode.

Tips
Like in Metal Slug, you can attack someone in melee (with a plastic shovel, in lieu of a knife) by pressing the fire button while standing close to an enemy. A melee attack will kill any enemy (save for bosses and the kids in the hot-air balloons) in one shot. It's also useful for conserving ammo.

Since enemies can only kill you by shooting you, or doing a melee attack, you will not immediately die when touching them.

Sand Dollars are scattered throughout the game, but will always appear in the same spots. There are many game screens where you will only have once chance to nab a sand dollar, and if you miss it you won't be able to collect it for the rest of the game.

Water is a hindrance but also a major help at times:
 * When in water Polo moves very slowly, but can jump high.
 * Make you keep Polo's head above water as often as possible. If underwater too long, a counter will appear above his head. If it reaches zero, you lose a life.
 * Waterguns are useless underwater. Luckily the same goes for the enemies, so you can hide from enemy shots there.
 * Being in water will automatically refill your water gun, regardless of what type you have. Simple logic... in a flash game?!

During the first boss fight (Henry the bodyguard), you may think you're not doing any damage. Don't worry, he just takes a LOT of hits to go down. Occasionally he will fall but don't be fooled. He'll often get right back up and keep fighting.
 * The first boss also has an attack where he throws random beach items at you. At one point he WILL throw a sand dollar instead. Try not to dodge it.

During the second boss fight, you encounter a giant robot covered in sand. That robot is NOT your target, and you will be unable to damage it directly. It shouldn't take much thought to figure it out.