Airaki

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Overview

Airaki is a tile-matching RPG puzzle game for the Game Boy, written by Furrtek in 100% assembly over about four months and released in 2014 on a small run of physical cartridges. The author sums it up as simple on the outside, crazy on the inside.

Matched tiles power one-on-one battles against eight opponents of rising difficulty. Lining up three or more icons in a row or column launches an attack, raises a shield, heals you or gets you drunk, depending on what you matched, while the enemy above the board strikes back at intervals. Lines of four hit twice as hard and lines of five three times as hard.

Scoring is based on time and efficiency, with a time bonus added after every victory. A two-player mode pits two Game Boys against each other over a link cable.

Made by: furrtek
Released: 2014

Controls guide

Battle

Button and key	Action
D-pad`Arrows`	Move the cursor over a pair of icons
A`X`	Swap the two icons under the cursor (a swap that makes no match flips back)
B`Z`	Tap to switch the cursor between horizontal and vertical
B`Z`	Hold to raise your shield, if you have one stored
Select`Shift`	Use your special skill once its icon has been matched
Start`Enter`	Pause

Main menu

Button and key	Action
Left/Right	Change the setting on the current line (player mode, special skill)
Up/Down	Move between the two lines
A`X`	Next line, or start the game from the last line
B`Z`	Previous line
Start`Enter`	Start the game

Cheatsheet

Icons

Fist: Attack for 3 damage; 20 points
Sword: Attack for 5 damage; 40 points
Scourge: Attack for 10 damage; 60 points
Shield: Store a shield (up to two); 30 points
Potion: Heal 18 HP and sober you up; 70 points
Poison: Makes you drunk for about 6 seconds and the board wobbles; 60 points
Special: Charge your special skill; 50 points
Bomb: Swap it to blow up a 3 by 3 area: 5 damage to the enemy and 5 to you

Special skills (chosen in the menu)

Find: Makes a valid swap for you
Beer: Gets the enemy drunk: no attacks for about 8 seconds
Hammer: Fists become hammers hitting for 10, for the next 3 fist matches

Multipliers and rules

Line of 4: Damage and points times 2
Line of 5: Damage and points times 3
Shield: Halves a hit; a stronger shield from a longer match cuts it to a quarter or an eighth
Lives: 4 in one-player mode; each enemy beaten heals 80 HP
Enemy hits: From 10 damage on the first opponent up to 28 on the eighth

Tips

Each enemy changes pose and plays a warning sound just before it strikes. Hold B as soon as you see it to raise your shield, then let go to get back to swapping.
Match shields from four or five in a line when you can: a shield charged with a bigger match divides the next hit by four or eight instead of two.
Scourges hit more than three times as hard as fists, so look for scourge lines first and treat fists as filler unless the Hammer skill is active.
Avoid matching Poison icons unless it sets up a bigger chain; being drunk makes the board wobble for several seconds. A potion match cures it straight away.
Beer is the safest special skill against the later opponents, which strike faster and harder: it stops their attacks for about eight seconds while you keep matching.
Bombs hurt you too, so only set one off when your shield is up or your health is high, and aim it where clearing the 3 by 3 area will let new icons fall into a match.