Larry And The Gnomes

Larry And The Gnomes is a Fighter/Brawler Flash Game by JAZZA. It is part of his Larry series.
== Story ==
Karryon is under attack by the usually peaceful gnomes that live underground. Larry, the reluctant chosen one, is sent to meet the Gnome King, and has to fight all the gnomes in his path. Despite his minuscule stature and some stiff opposition, he manages to reach the gnomes' city. Meanwhile, he discovers that the gnomes have been taking orders from a man in a fireplace. Unbeknownst to Larry, this man is The Overlord, who was responsible for his becoming the Chosen one in the first place. Larry meets the king in his throne room, where they engage in a fight to the death. Afterwords, Larry rushes through the fireplace, where he discovers a passageway back to Karryon.
== Design ==
Larry And The Gnomes is remarkably long for a Flash Game, taking as much as one or two hours to play through. The game is divided into 4 acts, each with their own boss at the end, and is subdivided into 13 smaller levels. The goal of most of the levels is to reach the far right side of the screen by traversing dangerous terrain and defeating enemies along the way. Boss stages require the player to kill powerful enemies, and the falling stage at the beginning of Act 4 simply requires survival.
The game is mostly focused around combat, with limited platforming elements also thrown in the mix. The top left corner of the screen displays three bars: a red one, an orange one, and a white one. The red one represents health, and when it is completely depleted, the player is sent back to the start of the level. The orange bar represents Rage; Larry can pick up weapons and ammunition for his sling or gun from many of the enemies he encounters. Different weapons have different attributes, which are shown when they are picked up. There are also several powerful cameo weapons that are randomly hidden in the latter half of the game.
Once the game is completed, certain cheats become unlockable depending on the difficulty level. Beating the game on easy mode will allow the player to access "Extreme Gore" and "Kenyan Leg Power," beating medium mode will unlock "Sceptre of the King" and "Unlimited Stamina, and beating hard mode will unlock "Immortality." However, the player must start a new game for a cheat to take effect, and beating the game on an easier mode using cheats will not unlock any more cheats.
=== Boss Guide ===
Larry And The Gnomes contains four boss fights at the end of each Act. Players receive medals simply for reaching these fights, and by beating them, and thus completing their respective Acts, they receive additional medals.
The first boss is a Gnomish Mage, who was sent by his King to kill Larry. He specializes at casting a variety of spells, including energy blasts that cause status ailments, summoning meteor showers, and creating a small army of ersatz gnomes. He can also teleport away from harm. The best way to hurt him is to attack him at a close range in order to avoid his spells. If he is too far away to hit, the sling is also a viable option. Meteors can be avoided by watching their shadows to predict where they will hit. The false gnomes are significantly weaker than their standard counterparts, and are particularly vulnerable to Larry when he is in Rage mode. They also drop health pickups. A good strategy is to farm rage from the shadow gnomes and then use it against the Gnome Mage.
The second boss is the Boar Rider. He attacks Larry from atop his steed, occasionally tossing javelins. However, his must dangerous technique is his charge. The boar will constantly go from one side of the screen to the other, only turning around outside of the arena. Essentially, this means that the boar is always charging. When the boar charges through Larry, it causes significant harm. Meanwhile, the Boar Rider is invulnerable while charging. Fortunately, he does have a major weakness. The boar can be evaded by rushing to the far end of the screen and going as far up or down as possible to avoid its charge. (When you see the ground starting to rumble, that means the boar has locked onto your position, and you can safely move away from your spot to avoid him). Eventually, the rider will toss a javelin. Larry can pick up the javelin and throw it at the Boar Rider. This will completely paralyze it, giving the player a chance to attack. However, when the Rider recovers, he has the boar stomp the ground, damaging Larry if he is nearby. The best way to avoid this is by jumping, good timing is necessary here to jump right before the boar stomps. If need be, the two bushes in this stage can be attacked to procure health and rage orbs, allowing Larry to recover.
The third boss, a purple monster called "The Freak" judging from the descriptions on the newgrounds medals regarding him, is the only non-gnomish boss in the game. He is also the most powerful, capable of killing Larry in a couple of hits. In Hard Mode, the Freak's attacks are virtually one hit kills. However, his health is very low. This fight takes place in an arena, where cheering gnomes will regularly throw fruit at Larry. Left to his own devices, the Freak will slowly march towards the player, and quickly dispatch him with his twin butcher's knives. Fortunately, like the Boar Rider, he is extremely vulnerable to a particular strategy. While he is advancing towards Larry, the player can throw their weapon or shoot their sling at him to cause damage. (Attacking him in melee is also possible, but be careful not to get too close otherwise he will strike at you.) When he gets too close, they can pick up and throw a piece of fruit. This will make the monster pause to eat it, making it more vulnerable to a direct attack (not only is he unable to attack in this state, but he also has his armor reduced for the duration). The monster will then leap into the air and land on the opposite side of the arena. Now provoked, the monster will charge at Larry at full speed. Once this happens, the only way to dodge the onslaught is to sprint and jump over the monster. After that the player can repeat the process.
The Final Boss is the King of the Gnomes. He is a large, powerful adversary, armed with a huge mace and various magic powers. His basic attack is slow, but powerful mace swings. He can also unleash a long-ranged flamethrower from his crown, or occasionally shoot fireballs if Larry is far away. His most dangerous technique is a ground stomp he uses uncommonly (one hit kill on Hard Mode if Larry is close and fails to jump) that also makes chunks of the roof rain down (like the Mage's meteors). Before fighting the Gnome King, be sure to take note of the various boxes and jars outside of the arena. The player can break these at any time to receive health orbs. When Larry is attacking the Gnome King, it is best to attack from directly under him. This is his blind spot, and any attacks that can harm the player here will be predictable in advance. (If this doesn't work, just run behind the King or to his side whenever he prepares an attack. Using health pickups and rage wisely, and with a good weapon, you can usually easily dispatch him even if you take most of his attacks.) When the King jumps into the air, it is essential to also jump immediately. Otherwise, the player will be very badly hurt. When the king shoots fire, it is best to either run directly towards or away from him to avoid it, depending on the situation. The meteors are also best handled by running as quickly as possible. This is the only attack that can follow Larry into the area with jars and boxes. Larry should use Rage mode wisely in this battle by unleashing a full frontal assault at the king or by using the temporary immunity to reach safety. Note that the King is immune to the slowing component of freezing weapons. It is recommended to use a fire weapon in this battle for maximum damage.
=== Special Weapons ===
Larry And The Gnomes features a variety of weapons from other franchises, both on and off Newgrounds. These weapons tend to be exceptionally powerful.
*Kingdom Key (Kingdom Hearts)
*Kratos Blade (God of War)
*Master Sword (Legend of Zelda)
*Sting (Lord of the Rings)
*Sword of Ancients (Paladin)
*Clouds Sword (Final Fantasy)
*Frostmourne (Warcraft)
*Lightsaber (Star Wars)
== Gameplay ==
Compared to many games on Newgrounds, Larry And The Gnomes has complicated controls. Like many brawlers, the game essentially takes place in three dimensions, despite having 2D graphics. Therefore, Larry can move in one of eight possible directions using the arrow keys and also jump. The player can also execute melee combos, use ranged attacks, activate the deadly Rage mode, and can even can pick up or throw weapons. In order to ease the difficulty curve of this complicated system, the player can assign actions to keys prior to or during the game.
Rage mode is Larry's most powerful technique. When his orange Rage bar is filled, he can temporarily become extremely powerful. In this mode, he is invincible, can decapitate and/or kill most enemies in a single hit, and has infinite stamina. However, the effects of this mode are temporary.
== Presentation ==
Larry And The Gnomes uses the same style as the rest of the Larry series. Seeing how JAZZA, who made the game's art, is the creator of the Larry series, this is to be expected. The various characters have fairly realistic proportions while still remaining cartoony. One notable feature about the artwork is that characters have entirely white eyes. This is in contrast to some of JAZZA's earlier work, such as The Composer, which had fully drawn facial features. The game also features a few still images by Kamikaye, which are used during the game's prologue and epilogue cutscenes. The game's music was composed by DavidOrr, who is selling it through iTunes. Sound effects were created by Zach Striefel (also known as ZStriefel). DavidOrr and ZStriefel had also contributed on previous installments in the Larry series prior to the creation of this game.
== Reception ==
Larry And The Gnomes was a major hit on Newgrounds. As of December, 2011, it has over 1.8 million views, more than any other entry in the Larry series, and an average review of 9.6/10. In addition to spending weeks as one of the best scoring submissions on Newgrounds, the game was soon featured in the Larry and Action Games collections. Later, it would be featured in the Flash Portal History. Furthermore, it was voted the best game of June 2010, just ahead of the popular Doodle God, qualifying it for the Tank Awards. On the main Newgrounds "Games" page, it became one of the four featured Action Games, along with Madness Accelerant, Dadgame, and Alien Hominid.
Larry And The Gnomes was also favorably reviewed by people outside the Newgrounds community. The Kongregate version of the game has had over 350,000 plays and an average rating of 4.10, while the Armor Games version has over 400,000 plays and a score of 8.6/10. jayisgames.com gave the game a score of 4.2/5, complimenting the presentation and action. However, the difficulty of traversing the terrain was strongly criticized. Several fan pages have also been created on Facebook.
Play it here
Category:Flash games
Category:Fighting
Category:Action Games
Category:Flash series
Category:Teen
Category:Games With Medals