Setting up Your Controls.
This is perhaps one of the most important bits of the game when you first start out. You basically have 3 options to choose from, keyboard only, mouse and keyboard combo and joysticks/gamepads. You can configure these controls however you like from the controls menu, but which ever you pick, make sure you have quick access to the suicide button, as it is the key to success in the game, especially in the harder difficulty settings.
While it doesn’t matter which of these three control types you go for, I would recommend steering clear of the keyboard only setup, and opt of either the keyboard and mouse combo (with both buttons set to suicide) or a joypad. You should be able to use just about any joypad you come across; even console pads through converter cables, and you should be able to set these up in the joystick settings menu. I personally use an Xbox 360 controller, with the suicide button set to the right shoulder button, and long time Extend mode Champion Deckard uses a Digital joypad with a SNES style button arrangement.
Keys to Success
If you are going after a good high score, bear in mind that the difficulty setting you play in matters in two ways, firstly there are more enemies in the harder modes, meaning that there are more points to be had and also that your score multiplier will grow faster. Secondly, the basic scores for each enemy shot/bonus collected are doubled in hard difficulty, and tripled in Insane difficulty. To achieve a great high score, and get onto the leader board, you will need to be playing in Insane.
The small golden ships are called rescuables, collecting these gives you 100 points, multiplied by the number you have collect on the stage you are on, further multiplied by you score multiplier. Collecting several rescuables will score you huge points, especially if you have a high score multiplier. Furthermore, collecting every rescuable on a stage will trigger the smart bomb, and kill every enemy on screen for you. Finally, collecting half of the rescuables on a stage will engage the laser-shots, which do five times the damage of regular bullets, and create really cool looking explosions!
Certain enemies can also guarantee specific power-ups, such as enemies that shoot in three directions will spawn a triple shot power-up if you don’t already have one. Similarly shooting five of the green homing bullets will also spawn a triple shot. Shooting Spinners will guarantee a 1-up bonus.
Suicide
The basic premise of suicide mode is this: if you get stuck or cornered or surrounded, instead of loosing a life by dying at the hands of the enemy, you commit suicide and come back with your triple shot and score multiplier intact. Good use of the suicide button will allow skilled players to pass through the game without dropping their score multiplier or weapon, even in insane mode. The penalty for using the suicide button is that you loose two lives instead of just one, so it is wise to consider your multiplier and weaponry before you use it. For example, if you have a 4x multiplier and triple shots, than using the suicide button is a good idea, however if you have a 2x multiplier and no weapon upgrades, then perhaps it would be more sensible to just die at the hands of the enemy, and save your self a life.
Secrets and Unlockables
There are several unlockables in the game, here is how to get them.
Survival mode: reach level 25 in arcade mode
Asteroid mode: finish the game in any difficulty
Turbo mode: finish the game in Insane difficulty
