Vs. From Below has entered the next stage of Beta testing, and likely the final iteration of the game before officially branding it complete!

If you want to get up to speed Vs. From Below, and how it's the first game for the Nintendo Vs. System in 30 years, check out the previous blog entry here.

Here's what's new in Beta 0.10.0 of Vs. From Below:

Major Changes

• Fixed issue with DAS charging tucks: Essentially you could end up missing tucks due to DAS charge only checking for movement every 10 or 5 frames. It now zeros out the DAS countdown if you hit a wall and should dramatically improve tucks on high speed levels.
• Initials on leaderboard are now remembered during a session, so that re-entering the same name is as simple as hitting "A" 3 times. Memory gets cleared if user switches any letters.
• Game now defaults to Free Play mode to make it a little easier for people to play on emulators without searching for dipswitch settings. (dipswitch settings in zip file, and at the bottom of this blog entry)
• Added 1 additional dipswitch setting for 1 credit per 4 coins.
• Updated GAME OVER text to use better graphics (not just plain text).

Minor Changes

• Added arrow sprites to leaderboards to make it clear that you can navigate between modes.
• Updated thanks list.
• Shortened attract mode timer to 15 seconds (down from 30).
• Improve UI for entering initials on leaderboards.
• Allow more buttons to skip through intro sequence (not just Button 1).
• Hooked up missing "4 Row Clear" sound effect when also leveling up at the same time.
• Fixed a bug where user could get "-" character entered into the leaderboard by waiting for timeout.
• Entering initials now allows for Numbers and Period character (in addition to standard alphabet).

In addition to all this, over the past few weeks, players on the From Below Discord have been battling in the first ever Vs. From Below Tournament! 

The prize: to have their names and scores etched into the Vs. From Below ROM forever. The top scores in each mode/difficulty combo would have their score and initials become the defaults when someone first boots up the game. In addition to just being a cool bragging right, and a fun way to reward the best players, it also serves as a great "target" for the really serious players. If you get the number 1 spot on this game, you know you beat some of the best out there!

After a hard fought battle, and some amazing gameplay, the winners are:

• 801 pel
• CheeZed_Fish
• Kirby703
• nahucirujano
• PMYA

Their initials and scores can now be found in this latest build of Vs. From Below. Thanks to everyone who participated!

As always, please let me know if you find any bugs!! The best way is via discord, but comments and DMs work too!