New Game

This entire page contains **SPOILERS** for the Story Mode of *Just Shapes and Beats*. It is recommended to play the entirety of Story Mode before proceeding this page!

You have been warned.

## NEW GAMEbyNitro Fun

Beginning
"*IT'S OVER...?*"

### World

PARADISE

**New Game** is the sixth level of *Just Shapes & Beats*. It is the second boss battle of the game, and immediately follows the previous boss level, Long Live The New Fresh. It is the second encounter with the main antagonist.

Upon the level's first completion, they'll unlock the *Okay maybe it wasn't over* achievement.

## Description

*New Game*, like its preceding level, is also a boss battle. It is a somewhat more difficult than the previous boss fight. This level introduces a mechanic which the camera of the level moves, this makes the hazards and enemies move as well, forcing the player to dash in order to avoid incoming damage and to stay in the camera view.

The Boss uses attacks that are in the vein of the previous level, with those attacks upgraded to make it hard for the player to dodge. Beams, triangles, shooting round spikes and ramming the player are the Boss's methods of attacks. Timely dashing to avoid the attacks or memorizing the attack patterns can help make this level easier for the player.

The level itself lasts around 2 minutes and 16 seconds, plus 20 more seconds if the player is playing on Story Mode.

## Story Sequence

Following the rampage that it caused to the player's world as well as the separation of the friend, the Boss manages to get a hold of the Tree of Life and prepares to corrupt it. The Blue Square appears and attempts to intervene the Boss's actions, starting the level.

The Square was not able to thwart the Boss's successful plan of corrupting their world and as a result, the Square (and other shapes) was shot off to a place far away. After the level, the player transitions to the second chapter of Story Mode: Island.

## Layout

First Phase
The level starts out the same as the level selection: The Boss is floating above the Tree of Life, which is now spewing out spikeballs of varied sizes and shooting out pink lasers from the middle. When the music picks up the beat, the Boss grabs the Tree and angrily shoves it into the pink hill underneath, and then punching it further in soon after, while streams of the pink squares shootout to the side, but at an angle far away from the player.
This goes on for a little bit until the Tree of Life is completely in the pink hill and the music slows down to a halt, while pink squares float above, as the Boss delivers the last punch and disappears.

Second Phase
The music picks up again, as the player(s) see the Tree of Life is now pink, completely corrupted and is now creating the Tower, which is seen throughout the game. As it creates a block of the Tower, an explosion is made, with an array of lasers appearing with spikes on the bottom.
The speed of the creation increases slightly before stopping as this continues 11 more times. A white flash covers the screen before fading away to a reveal that furthers the horror of the player: The Corrupted Tree has now broken into three, with the bottom two spewing out pink triangles.
The top one is then grabbed by the Boss, who proceeds to turn it upside down and starts eating the pink triangles pouring out. This continues as the drop builds up. As it eats the triangles, the Boss starts going through an appearance change: It sprouts out more horns, gets another eye, and right before the drop hits, a light pink glow appears around it, as it turns white. When the drop hits, it now has a sinister and deranged smile, which flashes white in a "wave" format (The leftmost lights up first and fades as the next one lights up and so on).

Third Phase
The Boss, currently as simply a head, "jams" out to the beat, by pulsating (acting as a spherical equalizer), then gets its arms back, as well as sprouting legs, bops up and down a bit as spikeballs rain down from above. Afterwards, light pink pillars show up on the right, alerting the player to move out of the way. It slides off as the pillars appear.
When the pillars move away, the Boss is seen as only a head again, this time with spike-balls surrounding it, acting as some sort of shield. It rolls from the "ceiling" to the left wall and then slides to the right when it reaches the "ground", just as light pink glows appear from the top and bottom, alerting the player that the pink area is where the Boss is rolling to.
Then a Warp Pipe from the *Super Mario Bros.* franchise appears on the bottom left, which the Boss goes through, only for another Warp Pipe to appear in the middle, which the Boss appears from, as it lands and more pink pillars appear. Then, it gets up and flies up towards the "ceiling", where the player is and bends its elbows up to the point that they touch the "ceiling".
Then, it goes into the middle row of the level, as it spreads its arms and latches onto the sides. It then moves to the right and proceeds to act like Pacman as it eats pink dots which somehow appeared from its right arm (the player's left). The entire process in this paragraph is repeated one more time, excluding the "Pacman sequence" as well as the actions that led to it, before a pink triangle appears in which the Boss eats.

Final Phase
In the last phase, the Boss becomes like a cannon, shooting out streams of spike-balls, wherever the array of pink glows appear. This is done two more times, before the Boss "jams" out similarly to earlier, at the beginning of the third phase, with white circles appearing.
Then, as the robotic voice in the song says "Let's go!", the Boss flashes white, as 5 rows of pink squares appear, revolving around the Boss, with even and enough spacing for the cube to glide through. The Boss proceeds to continue shooting out pink spike-balls as before, 3 times, before "jamming" out again and a pink triangle appears again, to be eaten.
At this moment outside Story Mode, the Boss merely sinks into the middle of the screen as the square array vanishes, giving the goal line the chance to sweep the screen and conclude the level.
*In* Story Mode, however, the Boss proceeds to open its mouth and starts sucking up all of the squares and the player(s), like a vacuum. The player(s) can only try and dash away for so long, but they won't be able to save the protagonist(s) from being sucked up.
Once the player(s) is(are) sucked up, the Boss will turn into the cannon again and shoot the cube (and other players, if present) away, at far left, signaling the end of the boss level, as well as the end of the first chapter in the Story.

Hardcore Mode Changes
First Phase* At the beginning of the level, the round spikes are much larger and the lasers have less reaction time.

Second Phase* When the boss is punching the tree into the ground, and when tree is creating the Tower, there are more double the amount of lasers coming out of it, and there is less warning time to them.

Third Phase* When the Boss, in its new form, dances to the beat, the round spikes that rain down are much larger in both quantity and size.
* When the Boss slides to the right side and creates a shockwave, there is less warning time for the attack.
* When the Boss rolls around, it appears to be bigger, giving the player(s) less space.

Final Phase* When the Boss attacks in its cannon form, the indicators are removed to make the player(s) pay more attention to where the Boss is pointing.
	+ This also applies to circular rings where the little squares follow.

## Gallery

* Level selection. Note the resemblance of the introduction during the level
* The First Phase: Floating Tree
* The Boss corrupts the Tree of Life
* The Corrupted Tree starts making a Tower
* The Corrupted Tree has broken into three pieces
* Transitioning into the second phase
* The Boss is mutating
* The beginning of the second Phase
* Second Phase Transition
* The Boss now has legs
* Pacman Reference
* The Third and Last Phase: Cannon form
1/12

## Trivia

* This level introduces the composer Nitro Fun. Other soundtracks that they composed for this game is Cheat Codes and Final Boss.
* This is the level with the longest development time, which took 2 months.
* Some of the level's elements and track elements are based on *Super Mario* franchise, particularly, the Warp Pipes that the Boss comes out during its second phase, as well as the well-known sound whenever the player character collects a Super Mushroom.
* During the same phase, the Boss turns into a figure that greatly resembles *Pac-Man* of the titular franchise, eating several pellets before returning back to the middle of the screen. These are also accompanied by the same sound effect when the Boss eats one of the pellets.
* This is the only non-special level that replays a certain part of a track.
* This is the only level that a unique sound effect plays, being separate from the track itself. This only happens in Story Mode.
* This is the only level where the gameplay and the track at a point are slowed down. This is also the only level which rewinds the music.
* This level is the first story level to have active camera movement (i.e. scrolling). This level is also one of only two boss battles to feature active camera movement.
* A meme that was made about this level is the boss eating the power triangles, which people refer to as Doritos.
* It is one of the only three levels where the player is forced to go upward; the others are Granite and Final Boss.

* This level and Annihilate (Original Mix) have the following traits that are similar to each other:
	+ In Story Mode, both levels end without the player collecting the triangle, after the level, the next story sequence will begin.
	+ Both levels are second consecutive encounters of the Boss, as well as a boss battle with it.
	+ Both of these levels are the levels that the Boss alters its form during gameplay.
	+ Both levels' beginning sequence greatly resembles their level selection sequence during Story Mode.
* It is one of the few levels in the game that does not display the track's name nor the composer when being selected in Story Mode.
	+ This trait is shared with the level Final Boss, albeit with the track's name displayed.
	+ This trait is also shared with The Art Of War, as the player plays the level directly without interacting its level select pentagon.
* This level shares similarities with Close To Me:
	+ The background music at their level selection is a slower track.
	+ Both levels begin with an object without a hitbox (the Tree).
	+ Also, at both levels, that object without hitbox will get corrupted and gain a hitbox.
	+ Both levels are boss battles.
* Regardless if a player is broken, damaged, or still completely intact, the Boss will still shoot out all of the players at full health at the end sequence in Story Mode multiplayer.
* Like some levels, this level's/track's name is a wordplay. New Game refers to the beginning (new) of a player's (and the square's) journey (game) after the first four levels, which were tutorial levels. This level is the first level that plays after the Tutorial chapter.
	+ In addition, this is the only level that is played during the Paradise chapter, as this can be playable during the said world in Chapter Select.

## References

1. ↑ The Three Rules of Just Shapes & Beats - Escapist Magazine