Warning Forever

Warning Forever is a famous arena shooter created by Hikoza T. It is perhaps their most famous game and has received many excellent reviews.

Gameplay

Warning Forever is an endurance game with a unique style of play. The objective is to destroy as many bosses as possible before either running out of time or lives. The way the game is structured, for casual players no two plays are exactly the same.

There is only one ship and one weapon with two modes. The first mode is a straight firing wide shot that allows the player to worry more about moving as the fire is always ahead. The shot bends about 20 degrees left/right. The second mode allows the shot to go in any direction and also allow the shot stream to be very narrow (30 degrees) or very wide (170 degrees). The stream is adjustable by moving forwards and backwards. The direction is aimed by moving around, holding a button will lock the direction.

Although Warning Forever never ends, new bosses and forms eventually stop occurring resulting in as close to an endgame as possible.

Speaking of bosses, the one thing that makes Warning Forever stand out is the evolving boss system. Depending on the performance of the player will dictate future boss forms.

Bosses and Evolution

As mentioned, depending on the player's actions, future bosses will change in an effort to be more effective against the player's attack style. It all depends on what parts the player shoots/destroys, where the shots are coming from, and how the boss is ultimately destroyed.

It all starts at the first boss, the Pure Heart. Following this basic formula will dictate the ultimate future of bosses. When the pattern is learned, advanced players can adjust their style and manipulate the ultimate forms of the bosses.

Check the links for much more detailed information on this evolution system.

Boss Characteristics

All bosses have a style of their own which tells a bit about how they will attack. This is shown at the boss introduction. The following are the characteristics and what they represent.

• Front - Strength of the front half of the boss.
• Rear - Strength of the back half of the boss.
• Defense - Defensive capacity and component health of the boss.
• Core - The strength of the core.
• Search - How well the boss can track the player.
• Generator - How powerful and fast the boss' weapons are.

Boss Weapons

Bosses also have weapons of their own that they will use against the player in an effort to terminate them. The following are all the weapons available to the bosses. Generator level dictates the overall capability of the weapons.

• Vulcan - Standard rapid shot that shoots straight.
• Laser - A charged laser that shoots straight for a limited time.
• Cannon - Shoots a very wide series of shots over a long arc.
• Smash - Shoots bunches of small shots in a medium arc like a shotgun.
• Needle - Shoots a rapid stream of tiny shots faster than the vulcan.
• Homing Missile - Shoots homing missiles that home in on the player.

Sub Forms

All of the bosses have sub-forms that are not unique to any particular main line. They tell of special variants of that particular boss and are usually stringed together to create a small description such as Octo-Beamed or Giga-Smashed.

• Vulcaned - Uses vulcans
• Cannned - Uses cannons
• Podded - Uses missiles
• Needled - Uses needles
• Smashed - Uses smash
• Beamed - Uses lasers
• Forced - Refers to the number of weapons used
• Twin - Two of
• Tri - Three of
• Tetra - Four of
• Penta - Five of
• Hexa - Six of
• Octa - Eight of
• Deca - Ten of
• Dodeca - Twelve of
• Hecto - A bit powerful in (Fourteen of)
• Mega - Powerful in (Sixteen of)
• Giga - Very powerful in (Eighteen of)
• Tera - Exceptionally powerful in (Twenty of)
  

Other designations

Should a boss have a name that is a otherwise the same as a previous boss, an arbitrary designation is added to the end.

• Bravo
• Crazy
• Custom
• Death
• Excellent
• Excite
• Extra
• Fantasy
• Final
• Full-size
• Gonzales
• Great
• Hell
• Maximum
• Omega
• Perfect
• Returns
• Special
• Super
• X
• Zwei

Initial Form

There is one initial form of the boss.

• The Pure Heart

Unevolved Forms

A boss may determine to have a Wider, Attacker, or Armor front or rear. Once this has been determined, the evolution path will be limited to that of the front-rear combination.

• The Wider
• The Attacker
• The Armor

Single Evolved Form

Once the front or rear evolution path has been determined, it will continue to evolve when you take down their components first. The names depend on both the side of the ship (Front, Rear) and the evolution path (Attacker/Wider/Armor).

• The Wing/Arms
• The Bustard/Striker
• The Tornado/Defender

Usually, the other side will be of an unevolved form. The first part always refers to the rear, while the second refers to the front. There are 9 double unevolved forms, 18 single evolved forms, and 6 forms with an initial half and an evolved half.

• The Double Wider (w/w)
• The Wide Attacker (w/a)
• The Wide Armor (w/d)
• The Attack Wider (a/w)
• The Double Attacker (a/a)
• The Attack Armor (a/d)
• The Armored Wider (d/w)
• The Armored Attacker (d/a)
• The Double Armor (d/d)

• The Wide Arms (w/W)
• The The Wide Striker (w/A)
• The Wide Defender (w/D)
• The Attack Arms (a/W)
• The Attack Striker (a/A)
• The Attack Defender (a/D)
• The Armored Arms (d/W)
• The Armored Striker (d/A)
• The Armored Defender (d/D)

• The Wing Wider
• The Wing Attacker
• The Wing Armor'
• The Bustard Wider
• The Bustard Attacker
• The Bustard Armor
• The Tornado Wider
• The Tornado Attacker
• The Tornado Armor

Double Evolved Forms

Once both sides have been evolved, the boss will continue to evolve to a semi-final evolved form.

• Wing Arms
• Wing Striker
• Wing Defender
• Bustered Arms
• Bustered Striker
• Bustered Defender
• Tornado Arms
• Tornado Striker
• Tornado Defender

Semifinal Evolved Forms

These are the major paths a boss will take during it's evolution into an ultimate form. If the side is an Attacker or Wider, that side will eventually get the other trait.

• The Murasama (A/A)
• The Phoenix (W/A)
• The Berserker (D/A)
• The Scorpion (A/W)
• The Asura (W/W)
• The Hekatoncheir (D/W)
• The Big Magnum (A/D)
• The Hammer Head (W/D)
• ISE-ONE (D/D, This is also a part of the major evolved form line)

True Final Evolved Forms

These are the ultimate form of a boss. Once a final evolved form is reached, it will not evolve into a different form although it will still have sub forms.

• Infinity (AW/AW)
• The Armageddon (D/AW)
• The Catastrophe (AW/D)
• ISE-ONE (This is also a part of the major evolved form line)

Links

• Hikoza T.'s games (Japanese)
• Flowchart for the bosses
• A more through explanation of the evolution