You don’t want us to compete against each other? How are we supposed to improve?
Man, I used to play this with friends back in 2004. I never got really good at it, but it’s really fun. I just played on 2DF/FreePlay, worked pretty great.
AIM me at ZerodotJander if you want some easy wins, lol.
Had some GG’s with zerodotjander on 2df tonight. 2df is great for me as i have no problems like i did with p2p (i think its because my ports aren’t forwarded, i can’t when i don’t have a router and i don’t have my firewall up so its not that).
I also had some ggs with zerodotjander. I mostly agree with stanski’s list (my differences are really tiny), but I’m one of those idiots who has to provide reasons with his tier list 
You’ll probably notice I don’t factor bosses in a lot. I don’t factor them strongly because boss attacks aren’t nearly as frequent as fireballs or extra attacks. That, and certain characters (Sprites, Kim, Memory) can destroy bosses before they have a chance to act. Bosses do play an important role in the game, but they’re mostly about being fat and taking up tons of space.
Another thing to note is that tiers in this game are not the end all be all. Basic concepts such as dodging, knowing enemy formations, and getting perfects are much more important than using a powerful character. Furthermore, some of mid and low tier characters have strengths that the top tier characters don’t have, like homing extra attacks or fast movement speed.
Banned:
Memory: Retarded fast (second fastest), fast shot, charge attack is godly and makes her the best turtle in the game. Yeah, it invites extra attacks, but extra attacks aren’t as threatening when there are no fireballs on the screen. Charge attack also destroys bosses without giving them a chance. She can just turtle her way to victory abusing charge attack from time to time.
Mevious: Really fast (tied with Kim for third fastest), fastest shot in the game, and the most fucking annoying extra attack ever - it has a small hitbox, but it lasts on the screen forever and chases after your opponent, making it better than every other extra attack in the game. He’s also the best character for scoring 
Top tier:
Nanja Monja: Great charge attack - it charges up quickly, fires instantly, and it can be directed. Its only weakness is mediocre damage. Nanja Monja also has an incredibly annoying extra attack that takes up a ton of space and lasts forever. On top of all of this, he is tied with Memory for second fastest shot in the game. His only real weakness is average movement speed.
Tinker and Linker: They’re here for one reason: their charge attack - it can either fire so quickly the opponent can’t react, or it can bounce around slowly and last forever. It also helps that the fairies have a tall hitbox. Their charge attack is also good - it can be aimed in eight directions and it charges fairly quickly, but it doesn’t do much damage (5). Their movement speed and shot speed is average, and those two things coupled with their low damage charge attack means they don’t have a great way of dealing with bosses.
High tier:
Sprites: She’s really more like a borderline top/high tier because she’s definitely better than Load Ran, but probably not as good as Tinker or Nanja. Anyways, she has a quick shot, a great charge attack (big, does a lot of damage) that can kill bosses quickly, and a good extra attack (aims towards the opponent, fairly fast, tall hitbox). What really prevents her from being top tier is the fact her extra attack isn’t as good Nanja or Tinker. Like the top tier characters, she is somewhat hampered by an average speed.
Load Ran: Basically sub-Sprites in almost every single way other than her extra attack, which might be better than Sprites’s because they’re quick stealth bunnies that leave a long-lasting explosion (it lasts for roughly a second). Other than her extra attack, she’s really average - slightly above average charge attack, average speed, and average shot speed. Why is she high tier then? Her extra attack is really good, and she doesn’t have any outstanding weaknesses.
Mid Tier:
Macky and Pentell: Fast shot and awesome charge attack (fairly big, lasts on the screen forever, moves towards the opponent), but also the second slowest character in the game and has the worst boss possible. The fact her charge attack doesn’t pierce also gives her some trouble against Nanja Monja.
Arthur Schmitt: Fastest character in the game, but also has the slowest shot. Aside from that, he’s average. His charge attack covers the height of the screen instantly, but it deals damage over time instead of hitting instantly. His extra attack kills beginners, but better players have no problem dodging it because it’s so slow and so skinny the guns on the side don’t hurt (however, a cluster of them are still deadly). His boss has a godly attack (double lasers), but it also has a crappy attack (the blac bullets) and the lowest life of any boss in the game. Either way, everything balances out so that he’s average (though he might be borderline low).
Yan-Yanyung: She’s literally saved by her extra attack, it’s homing and quick. However, it’s also quite erratic - it can end up flying nowhere near your opponent. Aside from that, she’s pretty bad - she’s the slowest character in the game and her charge shot is weak (4 damage) and it’s too wide, it ends up catching every fireball, whether you want to or not. Yan-Yan does have the fastest charging charge shot though, and her boss is pretty good, but overall her lack of speed and bad charge attack means she has incredibly poor defense.
Realy Till: I think she should probably go into mid-tier, but it’s pretty borderline. Stanski was right on about most things about Till, except for her normal shot, which actually travels at an average speed. Her extra attack is big and the turning gives a slight trapping effect, but it’s also slow and easy to dodge, only making it effective in groups. She’s fast and has a decent extra attack, so I’d say she’s mid tier, but her weakness are quite glaring.
Low Tier:
Kim: He’s great in theory: Quick, powerful charge attack, fast movement speed, and probably the best boss in the game; but there is one thing that completely cripples him, his extra attack. It’s a slow, skinny fist that explodes randomly, which means it can explode before reaching the bottom half of the screen,It’s so bad that it shouldn’t even count as part of his offense. Basically Kim ends up relying on fireballs and trying to turtle his way to victory, while his opponent constantly barrages him.
Griffon: Probably the worst character in the game. His problem is that he simply has nothing that makes him really stick out. He moves fairly fast, his boss is pretty good (has the most life in the game at 25), and his charge attack covers a lot of area. Unfortunately, he also has a fairly weak shot, his charge attack doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, and his extra attack is bad unless if it’s in groups (it’s just a griffon that flies from top to bottom at a constant pace). His extra attack can be pretty threatening in groups though (good thing he fires four at once).
Josh: SDA Faggots unite indeed. :arazz:
Oh yeah, some strategy sites (both Japanese of course)
http://www.geocities.jp/r13_5034/0000.html
http://nmt.cside.com/twinkle/index.htm
Here is a rar containing videos on how to score perfects (it’s just a compilation from the first site, I had nothing to do with these):
Hmm i’m gonna have to scope this game out…
So I’d never heard of this game but decided to goof off with it after hearing good things about it. Count me pleasantly surprised. This is quite a fun diversion. :tup:
I don’t play seriously or anything (right now I don’t even know the characters’ names or how some of the game mechanics work), but I’ll probably be messing around with this a little bit.
Catch me on 2DF Freeplay. I’m quite bad.
Replays!
Here is me vs. kaede (yeah I make some stupid mistakes :()
http://www.2dfighter.com/replays/8/2008/132/369_466_128549965261875000.2df
And here is mfm005 vs kaede
http://www.2dfighter.com/replays/8/2008/134/465_466_128551793994062500.2df
Japanese match videos:
http://www.geocities.jp/r13_5034/7000/7100.html#1 (some of them require a nicovideo account)
http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=tssfans&page=4
Also, if you guys have any questions about the game, just ask. I would write a primer, but I’ve been feeling lazy recently :-/.
oh man, you can play this on 2df. I want to test this out. I just played another game on 2df and the delay was so little. I wanna see how the delay feels in twinkle star sprites
Is there a website someplace that explains the mechanics of how the game works?
I’m still confused about really basic things like the color of the clams/whatevers changing color when you shoot them, when a boss attack gets summoned, what the star or $-sign powerup does, and why enemies sometimes do chain reaction explosions when you shoot one.
Hey guys, I just discovered this game - I love it! If you see me around 2DF I’m always up for a match, or P2P NFBA - MSN me.
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When you shoot the patterns floating down at you, their color represents their stamina, basically. It works like a rainbow, purple is the hardest to destroy, red will blow up in one more hit.
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There’s 2 ways to trigger a boss attack. When you shoot a bullet sent over by your opponent, it turns green and reverses back. If you shoot a reversed bullet, it turns into a special attack. If you catch 3 reversed bullets simultaneously in a chain combo, a boss attack is triggered. As you create chains, your meter also builds up - getting perfects helps build it faster. If you do a level 3 meter attack, it will immediately kill any boss currently attacking you, and whether there is a boss or not, it will trigger a boss attack on your opponent.
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The $ does nothing, just more points. If you time it right and get the *, it bursts the bubbles surrounding the pattern that is coming down.
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Whenever a target explodes, its explosion will count as 1 hit against any thing caught in the explosion radius. If that’s enough to destroy whatever is in the explosion, that will explode and cause another chain, etc.
Basically the way to play the game is to shoot the patterns coming down at you - first, destroy the bubbles, then soften them up so you can chain, and then trigger a chain. Get perfects if possible. Don’t shoot your opponent’s bullets too much - reversals can kill, but they can also lead to special attacks or even bosses. Beyond that, learn to dodge.
Stanski and Mikwumya probably have better advice to offer but I figured I’d chip in.
Edit- Just thought I’d add something on how attacks work-
Whenever you set off a chain of at least 4, you will send attacks at the enemy. You send 1 bullet for the first 4 in your chain, then an additional bullet for every 2 after that. So if you get a 6 chain, you send 2 attacks over. If you get a 10 or 11 chain, you send 4 attacks over. Attacks are aimed toward wherever your opponent is at the moment of the attack (can someone confirm this?). As you play, once in a while an Orb will appear in place of a piece in a regular pattern. When you get the orb is dependent on how fast you destroy patterns and the chains you get - getting perfects not only charges your special attack faster and creates larger attacks, it also helps you get the Orb faster. The orb cannot be destroyed directly, it can only be destroyed as part of a chain. Once you get the orb, for a short time all of your attacks will send twice as many bullets over.
Raisin: What zerodotjander said is mostly correct. To elaborate on bosses, a counter-boss attack (getting a boss attack when a boss is already on your side of the screen) always gets rid of the boss on your side and sends your boss over to the opponent’s side, regardless of how you sent the boss over (charge attack or reflecting 3+ reverse attacks in one combo).
Here are the life values that correspond to each color.
Purple = 5
Blue = 4
Green = 3
Yellow = 2
Red = 1
Also, you can tell the amount of life a fireball has from its size.
If anyone is having trouble with bosses, I made a video with all of the bosses and their attacks: http://hosted.filefront.com/mikwuyma/2226350 (yes it also has the perfects video, which is very important too)
Sorry about the sound, I guess my computer doesn’t like FRAPS.
Here is some stuff I pulled from my WIP FAQ. I know some of these things are common beginner problems (e.g. constant charge attacks).
The basic point of this game is to survive while overwhelming your opponent with attacks.
Evasion:
Evasion is the single most important thing you need to learn. Yes, a good
offense is very important, but to create an offense you need to stay alive.
Here are a couple of evasion pointers.
-Don’t make big movements unless if you need to. Flying all over the screen not
only looks dumb, it causes crap to fly all over the screen, cutting off your
evasion options.
-Learn the popcorn enemy formations and movement patterns. Memorizing the
patterns will significantly decrease the number of times you collide into
enemies.
-Don’t mash the fire button constantly. You can only have two shots on the
screen at once, and if you’re mashing the fire button constantly, you might
get hit by a fireball you could have easily reflected. Only shoot when you want
to hit something.
-Don’t charge attack constantly. You’re vulnerable while charging, and you’ll
never get consistent perfects.
-Diagonal movement is faster than non-diagonal movement, a little over 1.4
times faster to be exact. Diagonal movement is especially important for slow
characters like Yanyan, who have difficulty dodging attacks otherwise.
-If you have a choice, it’s better to go up and towards the outer wall (edge of the screen), rather than down and towards the inner wall (middle of the screen). If you go down and towards the inner
wall, then you don’t have many options to escape once you reach the bottom, and
you’ll have trouble dodging angled fireballs because they will approach very
quickly. But if you go up and towards the outer wall, you can go back
downwards, and you’ll have more time to react to fireballs.
-All objects have smaller hitboxes than what their sprites (no pun intended)
display. For example, all characters have hitboxes that are either shorter,
skinnier, or in many cases shorter and skinnier than their sprites.
-Never stay in corners unless if you’ll get hit otherwise. Corners are the
single worst places to be in because there is almost no room to maneuver in
corners (only two directions to move in, as opposed to 4). Also, if you’re in the bottom corner near the inner wall, you can sometimes get hit by quick fireballs.
-Learn to peek at the middle and your opponent’s side of the screen. Peeking in
those two locations gives you a heads up for how many attacks are coming your
way, their speed, and their trajectory.
-Straight fireballs, angled fireballs, and some extra attacks and boss attacks
will head for your current location. You can bait these attacks by sitting in
a spot you want them to head towards, then moving away once they’re locked on
you. You generally want to move later rather than earlier, to narrow how spread out attacks coming your way are.
-One way to bait fireballs is to brush right up to the inner wall, then move
away when the fireballs start to move. This prevents fireballs from taking up
a lot of room since they’ll all end up near the inner wall, instead of taking
space in the middle of the screen. However, using this bait is risky because
you can sometimes be hit by attacks before you can react. As a result, it’s
best to use this bait either when there isn’t much going on, or during heavy
slowdown.
-Since fireballs head towards your current position, it’s better to dodge later,
rather than earlier, or else fireballs will be more spread out and occupy more
space.
-If you really can’t dodge what’s coming after you, then use a bomb. However,
don’t bomb just because you think you can’t dodge what is coming up (boss or
barrage of attacks). Bombing should be reactive, not predictive. If you’re
getting hit by boss attacks all the time, then you need to learn boss patterns,
which are in section [TSS006].
-If you have to ignore one of these pointers to dodge an attack, then do so.
Getting hit is the worst thing that can happen.
I’ll post some basics about offense if people want tips.
tried this game for the first time in many years against kaede just now. Got my ass kicked since I was basically just shooting everything in sight and trying to dodge
kaede is really good, so don’t feel bad about losing to him a lot.
I’m on 2df a lot, so just hop on there when you guys want to play.
ZerodotJander and mikwuyma, thanks so much for the explanations you wrote. I still need a lot of time to gain experience and let the info all sink in, but it was SUPER helpful of you guys. :tup:
I’ll rep you both if I ever have the ability to. (I guess I need 500 posts first or it shows it as “gray rep,” hahaha.)
I got your back !
Offense:
Though good dodging is the most important skill in Twinkle Star Sprites,
without good offense you will have a difficult time hitting your opponent.
There are two very important things you need to know for a good offense.
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The normal attack, reverse attack, extra attack relationship.
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Enemy formations and perfects.
Note: The relationship I’m about to describe below is VERY VERY IMPORTANT. This
relationship is probably one of the, if not the most important thing you should
know.
- Normal attack -> Reverse attack -> Extra attack relationship.
The short version:
Reflect fireballs that flash green or purple, but don’t reflect fireballs that
don’t flash and flash yellow. If you reflect the latter fireballs, they can be
reflected back as extra attacks, or even worse, a boss and extra attacks.
The long version:
When you create a combo, you usually send forth normal attacks. If the opponent
reflects a normal attack, it will return to your side as a reverse attack. You
can reflect this reverse attack, and it will return to your opponent’s side as
an extra attack, which cannot be reversed.
What this relationship means is that you should dodge normal attacks and
reflect reverse attacks. If you reflect normal attacks, that means the opponent
will reflect it back as an extra attack. And if you dodge reverse attacks, you
miss an easy chance to send an extra attack to the opponent. However, if there
is a high chance of getting hit when reflecting a reverse attack, then just let
it pass by. As mentioned earlier, getting hit is the worst thing that can
happen. If you’re thinking this is a matter of judging risk/reward, that’s
exactly what this is.
The relationship also means you need to be aware of what your opponent is
sending towards you before destroying enemies. If you destroy a bunch of
enemies while normal attacks are heading your way, then there is a high chance
you will have to deal with a bunch of extra attacks soon. If your opponent
sends a bunch of reverse attacks, then you want to time enemy explosions so
that they hit the reverse attacks. Sometimes this is impossible to manage, but
it’s good to keep this in mind as a general rule.
If you’re still wondering why this relationship is important:
Extra attacks are the second most common attack (fireballs are first). Unlike
fireballs, extra attacks simply absorb shots, making them a crucial aspect
of offense. Characters with good extra attacks can make it very difficult for
the opponent to maneuver (Nanja Monja), they can force your opponent into
moving (Load Ran, Sprites), or they can just be plain difficult to dodge
(Tinker and Linker). Characters with bad extra attacks (Kim, Griffon) tend to
be weaker as their attacks are easy to dodge, and don’t add much pressure (at
least, not by themselves).
- Enemy Formations and Perfects
It’s very important to know enemy formations well enough so that you can
acquire perfects consistently and quickly. Why do you want perfects? I
explained why in the perfects section, but let me repeat myself, here are the
three reasons you want perfects.
A. You build charge meter more quickly, which allows you to use more level 2
and MAX charge attacks.
B. The fever orb comes earlier, which is important for building a strong
offense quickly.
C. Your offense becomes slightly faster, while your opponent’s offense is
slowed down a bit.
As you can see, if you get perfects quickly and consistently, if will give you
a significant offensive advantage.
Here is a link to a zip containing videos of perfects on all of the formations. Yes, I linked to this previously, but this is for people too lazy to look at the previous posts :razzy:
wow griffon is bottom? Hmm I gues I can see why but I still main him any way.
There’s a surprising amount of depth in this game beneath the loli exterior. Stanski and Kaede, you guys are too good.