Like many style-conscious teenage Neopets, Lumi has her eye on a fashionable new shirt, but lacks the funds to purchase it. So she decided to do what countless cash-strapped teens do; she offered to babysit. But while working a shift at the local Neopian crèche, things started to get ugly. As soon as she was left alone with the hoard of Baby Usuls in her care, the little pig-tailed darlings donned propeller hats and started flinging themselves off the jungle gym equipment with ray guns in their sticky mitts. All that was left for poor Lumi to do was to take refuge on the lift and try to defend herself with a water pistol and a utility belt full of milk formula. Another normal day at the nursery then...
Controls
Press the space bar or the left arrow key to fire your water gun; you can keep it held down for continuous fire if you find that easier. Use the up and down arrow keys to move the lift up and down. Tapping the right arrow key will cause Lumi to toss a bottle behind her. This might seem like odd behaviour, but I'll explain that in the next section. I personally find it easiest to use the space bar to shoot; that way you can use your left hand to fire your water gun, your right index finger to control the lift and your right middle finger to throw bottles.
Gameplay
Waves of Baby Usuls will wander out onto the platform at the top of the screen, leap off into thin air and then float down to earth with the aid of their little heli-helmets, as I like to call them. Your job is to take them out during their descent. In order to do this, you have to aim a blast of water from your pistol at the heli-helmet itself in order to make it short circuit; hitting the Usul (whilst satisfying) will only stun it momentarily and doesn't really achieve anything. If you manage to hit an Usul's heli-helmet, it will explode and the Usul wearing it will drop to the ground. Presumably the drop is enough to make them see the error of their ways as they will no longer cause you any bother.
However, if you are unable to hit them before they reach the ground, they will take off their fetching head wear and clamber up the slide in the background to stand on one of the platforms behind you. They will then poke you with a broom that they found, conveniently discarded en route, to try and knock you off the lift. The only way to placate them then is to toss them a bottle of milk.
Oh yes, and just to make things a little more interesting, some of them are armed.
Usuls and Helmets and Bottles, Oh My!
Although the typical Baby Usul is pink, in this game you will come across many different shades. They range from the default pink model through to a snazzy, souped-up shadow variation. Here is a table of the colours in the order you'll encounter them, the number of points you get for making them drop to the ground, and a few notes about their behaviour:
Quite slow moving and won't shoot at you, a good starter to practice your aim (1 point)
The blue ones will fire a single fireball at you and are slightly faster (3 pts)
These little guys don't shoot at you, but they're a bit nippy and slightly harder to hit (5 pts)
These pests can shoot up to two fireballs at a time and reload much faster than the blue ones (7 pts)
Thankfully these guys don't shoot you, but they are really hard to hit because they move so fast (9 pts)
These imps can shoot clusters of three fireballs at once and reload immediately (11 pts)
Armed to the teeth with gadgets, these guys fire one Usul-sized fireball at a time and drop rapidly. Not the colour to mess with (15 pts)
There are a few other ways to make points in this game as well, as the following handy table will demonstrate:
Once they reach the ground, the Usuls will take off their heli-helmets. You can shoot these as they return to the top of the screen (2 pts)
If a falling Usul shoots at you and you duck out of the way, you will earn points if the fireballs then hit and stun an Usul standing behind you (2 pts)
Tossing a bottle to an Usul behind you earns you a single point and gets rid of them (1 point)
Shooting the actual Usul itself will only stun it. It can't shoot you while stunned though, so it isn't a total waste of time (0 pts)
Strategy
First of all, you can type in lumiwatergun at any point during play to earn an extra life! I'd suggest doing it at the start of the game, when the orange Usuls are slow and can't shoot you.
I personally find it easiest to stay in the space between the top two platforms, but don't spend too much time right at the top of the screen as this makes it harder to dodge Usuls who shoot at you straight away. Limiting yourself to this space prevents you from wasting time chasing after one Usul when you could be shooting several others. As a general rule, I never pursue an Usul once it passes the second platform; Usuls that you miss will line up on the platforms from the bottom up anyway, so if you stay near the top you won't have to deal with them for a while.
You can keep the space bar held down to shoot continuously, you don't have to keep tapping it for each shot. You can do this for throwing bottles too; however you can only do one action at a time, you can't do both at once.
Maybe Lumi could use an extra hand?
In later stages of the game, I find the best strategy is to concentrate more on avoiding the fireballs and brooms whilst continuously firing, rather than actively trying to shoot down the falling Usuls. They can travel down the screen so quickly that you only get one shot at them, and in chasing them you often end up on the nasty end of a broom.
Fortunately, this is one of those games that you can quickly get better at with a little practice. So go forth, little grasshopper, and take down those pesky brats! Good luck. :)
Weepit Was Here
Like several Flash games on this site, this game was worked on by Weepit. Sometimes a "Weepit was here" note will be attached to the face of the Chia slide.
For a full list of Weepit's note appearances (as well as the original Easter Egg hider, Ollie), check out our article!
