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Swarm

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Swarm submitted by gnomefriend

Ok, for those of you that enjoyed the old arcade game, Alien Invasion (don't remember the correct name), you will like Swarm. Basically you have a bunch of bugs in lines coming at you slowly from above and moving from one side of the screen to the other. These bugs drop "bombs" on you. You control a buggy behind 4 shield blocks and it is your job to shoot the bugs without getting hit by the bombs. The nice thing about this game is that when the bugs get close to the shields, they don't start eating the shields. My advice is as follows. Power ups (PUS) at the different colored blobs that come down after you shoot the bug with the corresponding color. You can use only 1 at a time and they last until you catch another one of a different color. They also do not stack IE: Catching another dark blue PUS after already catching one will not make your buggy faster. Use the PUS. I like the light (makes your buggy real small) and dark blue (makes your buggy fast) Avoid yellow and green PUS. One will make your buggy so big it cant hide behind the shields and one makes your buggy real slow. The Brown PUS will restore the shields. This is good only if you really need those shields for help other wise keep a more useful one. Grab the orange PUS as soon as you can. This gives you 2 shots for the price of one. What happens it that the shot will go through (and kill) one bug and then kill another one behind it. The PUS that gives you another shield is also well worth the grab. My advice for clearing each level. Start at one side and start shooting bugs. Leave 1 bug on the end row. Quickly work your way into the middle and cleaning the bugs top to bottom. You should now have a space in the middle that is bomb free. By thins time the bugs are moving left to right real fast and they are lower to you on the screen. Use the hit and run tactics of getting close to one side and shooting them and then running away. When you get to the point that you onlu have 1 to 1 and a half vertical rows left, shoot the end bug you left at the beginning. This will let the remaining rows travel the whole screen. Now just wait until the pass over you and shoot while avoiding the bombs. If you still have a remaining shield block you can use that for cover. Eventually you will clear the screen. Good luck and happy bug hunting.