Introduction

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, when Locomalito set out to make Hydorah, a loveletter to classic shoot ‘em ups, I think he knew that imitation isn’t enough. Hydorah takes influences from Gradius, R-type, Xaxxon, Abadox, Darius and more while still remaining its own thing.
It’s a modern classic, and I love it. I hope you will too.

So what does this entail?: I aim to cover as much as I am able of this fine game. I will get the good ending and all the secrets!

Wait, did your score/lives just change?! Are you some kind of LP-swindler?!: Yes! I think I’m pretty good at this game, but I’m no master. Since most updates will deal with more than one level I’ve decided to just edit out most of my deaths.

Anything else I should know about this LP?: Yes! I’ve enlisted the help of several cool people to give some different views on this game. But instead of commenting with me they will make their own videos (which will be posted in the OP). Some have some experience with the game previously, some have never played it at all. Hopefully they will all end up liking this game as much as I do!

This game looks pretty cool? Where can I buy it?: You can’t actually, but you can download it here for free! The designer takes donations though, so if you like it you should definitely send some moolah his way.

Game System:

Level Select: Hydorah has several diverging paths. You can either play every level or just enough of them to get to the final boss, but each level rewards you in some way so the easiest path may not be the straightest.

Powerups:

Green Crystals: Powers up your primary gun. The powerup levels are at 5 and 10.
Red Crystals: Same effect but for your secondary weapon.
Yellow Crystals: Gives a use of your special weapon. You can carry a maximum of 3.
Blue Crystals: Makes your ship faster. You can have a maximum of 3 speed upgrades.
Purple Crystals: Gives you a shield! The shield lets you take one hit before dying.
Secrets: Appear in a variety of shapes. What do they do? No one knows…

Weapons:

Primary:

Railgun: Goes completely straight and deals decent damage. Upgrades pretty much only increases its damage.

Wide shot: Weaker than the Railgun, but with a good spread. At 5 another wave of shots is added. At 10 another wave of shots is added that's aimed straight backwards. The backwards fire is what really makes it a unique.

Laser: Huge forward damage! Since the beam is sort of attached to your ship for a while you can snake it around corners to take out cannons for example. Upgrades simply give more damage

Wave: Covers a large area, deals good damage but doesn't go full screen. The real strength of Wave is its ability to hit enemies through walls!

Vulcan: When fully upgraded nothing in front of you or above you will survive for long. Arguably the best weapon in the game.

Secondary:

Bomb: Drops down at an angle. Deals only moderate damage, but the damage splash makes it useful for dealing with some enemies. At 5 it drops two bombs and at 10 the explosion gets larger.

Twin Bomb: Launches one bomb upwards and one downwards. Gives you tools for handling turrets and turret-like enemies that crawl on the ceiling and floor. The powerups work the same as the regular bomb. Really, once you get the twin bomb there's no reason to use the regular bomb ever again.

Tail: Not sure why it's called Tail since it drops straight down, but this bomb works like the regular bomb but with higher damage and much larger area of effect. Unfortunately, utility is much more important than damage and splash, and this weapon beats out neither Scort or Twin Bomb. Sorry, Tail. The aforementioned abilities get upgraded with level.

Mines: Misleading name once again. Mines are actually tiny green bouncy balls that shoot out diagonally and deal good damage. Really good weapon, but it DOES mean giving up Scort...

Scort: A good fit for most levels. The Scort can be used as an unbreakable shield against most shots, which is awesome. It's weakness is that it can't take care of wallclingers very well. The first level lets the Scort fire a weaker version of your current weapon and the second level adds two additional scorts. The second level brings an unexpected weakness however. They don't move as quickly, so blocking shots can actually become harder.

Special:

Missile: Fired straight forward. Deals big damage and the explosion covers a decent area.

Turriwall: A screen-clearing attack. Doesn't deal nearly as much damage as the missile, but destroys all weaker enemies on screen AND their bullets(!), even if they are of the variety that can't be shot down.

Stealth: Makes you invulnerable for a short while.

Light: Opens the Black Gate. Also reveals the final secret of the game.

Ancient Sword: Like a combination of the damage of missile, the coverage of turriwall and the invincibility of stealth!

Videos:

0: Intro		Baldurdash
1: To Cyclades!		Baldurdash
2: Orbital Tree and Verminest	Post	Baldurdash
3: Cult of Hydorah		Baldurdash
4: Galactic Inferno	Post	Baldurdash
5: Frost and Fire	Post	Baldurdash
6: Path of Scylla	Post	Baldurdash
7: No Mercy!		Baldurdash
8: Evil God Hydorah	Post	Baldurdash
9: Final Update	Post	Baldurdash

Out of tradition and friendship, Dectilon asked me to run the game he's playing blind. At first it was a solo run, then Dectilon realized that space would never be saved without his intervention and joined up to guide, co-commentate, and weep as I constantly crashed into generally stationary objects. Sit back and enjoy several hours of painful death culminating in... something or another. Click the images for space action!!