Overview
ITCH.IO LINK
The Super Freaks have had many games over the years, a lot of which weren't finished at the time. None were more emblematic about this than Strato-Scruffy, the Super Freaks' long awaited take on Fantasy Zone. Strato-Scruffy first appeared on YouTube in 2009 and was known for its fancy effects and elaborate looking boss fights. Unfortunately, I was a pretty bad coder back then, so the game was about half complete when it went on a long hiatus due to the code becoming incomprehensible spaghetti. It was in hot demand (yes really) for 14 years, before I finally buckled down and got the job done in April 2023. It was finished exactly as intended, in Game Maker 8.1, with the only major changes being the addition of 16:9 widescreen and 60fps, and a little rebalancing here and there. Although there's a small handful of little flaws (I could only fix so much of the terrible 2009 spaghetti code), Strato-Scruffy has aged surprisingly well and was worth the wait.
Story
Sometime after the events of the original Super Freaks trilogy, the United States of Craziness entered a period of relative peace. Unfortunately, that all changed with the return of Sticky Funnybone: villain of the classic games and the estranged half-brother of Kranion (the Super Freaks' arch enemy and antagonist of 1 Ultimate Edition). Sticky learned of the powerful Monkey Council, a massive group of magic monkeys on Crazy World, and he immediately realized they'd be his perfect power source. Sticky, who had previously promised to return with all of his evil robots and minions, proceeded to do just that, and swarmed the entire planet looking for the monkeys.
On their way to rendezvous with King Quincy at the Monkey Council meeting grounds, Scruffy and Gambi were ambushed by Sticky and Dino, who proceeded to drop their supply of Bangs and try to nuke them. Thankfully, they were warded off by Tikiman's latest invention: the Grand Gyro, a machine that could stay in the air with flawless control for an unlimited time. Scruffy needed to take to the skies, and fast, before the powerful Monkey Council really did become the perfect power source!
Gameplay
Strato-Scruffy is most similar to Fantasy Zone, Sega's classic shmup where you can scroll the screen to the left as well as to the right. Because I couldn't replicate the screen wraparound effect back then, the levels are enclosed around all sides, and enemies do not respawn when killed. Scruffy can face left and right at any time, but you can strafe if you need to point in a specific direction; there are also four strafing modes that can be accessed from the pause menu if the default one isn't to your liking.
Fellow Super Freak Gambi (back when he actually did look like a ghost) will appear in several sections of the level, holding a randomly chosen powerup that can be used with C provided they don't just automatically work:
- Yo-Yo: The Yo-Yo will spin around you and not only damage opponents but block enemy shots. Press C to expand it and make it swing farther and faster. The Yo-Yo will disappear after a limited time. (1 Use)
- Dash: Press C to dash in a straight line, invincible, until you hit a wall or the side of the level. (1 Use)
- Fire Walls: Press C to shoot three angled fire walls. This one is useful for covering a wide distance but is also devastating for any enemies up close. (4 Uses)
- Invincibility: You'll become invincible for a limited time. (1 Use)
- Boxing Glove: An extremely powerful boxing glove that will pretty much annihilate whatever you punch it with. (1 Use)
- Laser Sword: A powerful laser sword will face in whatever direction you move in and slowly shred enemy health and block bullets. Good defensive powerup! Will disappear after a limited time. (1 Use)
There are 16 normal levels, an intro level, and the final level which contains three bosses back to back. In every normal level, you will need to find the seven Magic Monkeys, each one of the seven colors of the rainbow. If you die, the game will remember how many monkeys you've collected. Finding all seven will open a portal that will take you to the level's boss; defeating the boss will give you a rainbow key (that has absolutely no plot significance or any point at all) and open the next level.
New to version 3.0 and above, there are over 50 playable characters that can be selected, and you don't even need to unlock any of them.
Controls
| Action | Key/Mouse Binding | Gamepad Mapping (Xbox Layout) |
| Left | Left Arrow, A | D-Pad Left, Analog Stick Left |
| Right | Right Arrow, D | D-Pad Right, Analog Stick Right |
| Up | Up Arrow, W | D-Pad Up, Analog Stick Up |
| Down | Down Arrow, S | D-Pad Down, Analog Stick Down |
| Pause / Start | Enter Key | Start |
| Shoot / Confirm | Z, Space, Left Click | A |
| Strafe / Deny | X, Alt, Right Click | B, Trigger L, Trigger R |
| Powerup | C, Shift, Ctrl, Middle Click | X, Shoulder L, Shoulder R |
Modes
There are three main modes. You'll start with only Adventure Mode, but after beating the game, you'll get a snazzy sunset colored title screen and unlock two more modes:
- Adventure: The main story mode. You'll unlock each level in succession, and you have infinite lives. Try to get a high score for each level!
- Arcade: Unlocked after beating the game. You'll play the entire game in one sitting with limited lives. After 100 points and every 200 after that, you'll get an extra life, up to 5 total. Your score will not reset upon dying.
- Boss Rush: Unlocked after beating the game. You have one life to fight every boss in the game back to back, though thankfully your health will refill after each fight. If you die once, it's back to the title screen. Good luck!
