Beastmode (DXL44)
[Another World Chapter 2 Part 1 - DEV BRANCH RECCOMENDED]
A friend turns foe, blaming you for the madness taking over his world.
Beastmode is a level created by DXL44. It is the tenth level in the Another World collection, and the first level of its second chapter. The level features DXL as the main boss, who turns against the player following the destruction of the Powersound building in the previous level.
Layout
Opening
- DXL, Beastmode
An orange squares spins and grows in the middle of the screen while the text "CHAPTER TWO" appears. DXL appears afterwards in a flash, floating in the center. Bullets come out of him as he occasionally sends out a square pulse when “breathing” - warned by arrows appearing alongside his body. Soon after this, his dagger appears at the top of the screen and shoots out lasers before flying down to him.
Opening his eyes, DXL addresses the player and says that helping them was a mistake. Lasers that move across the screen slowly appear as he speaks. DXL attacks with a quicker circle pulse as the screen flashes afterwards - with larger vertical lasers appearing gradually closer to the center until he attacks with groups of lasers in a similar fashion to the dagger before.
Checkpoint 1
- DXL, Beastmode
As DXL continues to talk, bullets move across the screen horizontally. He pulls out the dagger again, and throws it to the ground below as the bullets stop. With cracks on it visible, it flies back up and begins glowing white in a flash. DXL then transforms into a square with a white outline, moving up and down while attacking with bullets that move in towards him in a pattern. This is followed with several spike attacks as the camera zooms in - with DXL transforming into Hyper DXL.
Checkpoint 2
DXL attacks with this pattern of attacks:
- Slamming into the ground and and shooting up two large attacks from his dagger.
- Dashing around the screen rapidly.
- Slamming into the ground and sweeping two lasers down, one on the left and another on the right.
- Shooting out giant rectangle lasers from the center of the screen.
- Slamming into the right and shooting out lasers from his dagger.
- Dashing around the screen once again.
- Slamming into the right side of the screen and attacking with square bullets, before attacking with larger bullets that move in a curved motion.
Checkpoint 3
DXL shoots triangles and lasers to the left side of the screen, while the left side is covered by a wall. He then turns into a spinning sawblade in the center, sending out lasers and bullets. DXL then repeats the first attack of this checkpoint with it mirrored to face the right. After this, he attacks with three sets of wide rectangle lasers. This is then followed with DXL moving to the top and sending the dagger to dash across the screen. After this, he transforms into a sawblade again and then repeats the dagger attacks from the bottom instead.
Checkpoint 4
DXL appears on the edges of the screen and moves across, firing a sweeping laser. Between each of these attacks, he dashes a few times or creates a pulse. After pausing in the center of the screen while bullets fly down, DXL repeats a similar pattern with wide vertical lasers that create rectangle bullets instead of sweeping lasers.
Checkpoint 5
Walls appear on the top and bottom of the screen. Vertical laser attacks appear alongside triangle pulses that come out of the walls. A square that forms a rotating laser and sends out several bullets appears momentarily as well. Midway through the section, the walls retract as DXL appears to attack with rectangle lasers before the attacks resume as usual. The section ends with DXL reappearing in the center and the walls leaving.
Checkpoint 6
DXL hovers in the center and repeats the breathing attack from the first checkpoints, with the addition of lasers instead of bullets. Shooting out several smaller lasers as he leaves upwards, two giant walls appear as DXL disappears. Bullets rain down from the top of the screen as it scrolls up, with triangle attacks from the left and right alongside suare pulses that appear. Eventually, these are both joined by a giant laser attack that covers the inside followed by the outside. As the other attacks disappear, a square pulse attacks in the center and creates six spinning lasers as the camera zooms in.
Checkpoint 7
DXL appears in the center of the screen, floating around as laser attacks appear. He lets out a square pulse before turning into a square surrounded by two rotating outlines. This shape dashes left and right onscreen before exiting downwards, while several small square pulses appear. A giant orange square appears in the background and gradually gets bigger - until revealing itself to be a much larger DXL.
Checkpoint 8
DXL brings up a giant dagger on the left side of the screen, and shoots lasers towards the right. After this, the dagger dashes up and down vertically while moving across the screen horizontally. DXL then repeats the dagger laser attack from the other side of the screen, and brings the dagger to the center of the screen where it shoots out three giant beams. He then repeats the first three attacks from this section before shrinking back down and leaving the screen to the bottom.
Checkpoint 9
DXL appears on the edge of the screen and attacks with a large expanding hexagon while spewing out bullets. He attacks with rapid dashes before repeating the attack on the bottom, and then creates a pulse before doing it once again in the center. After a brief pause with bullets coming from the top while he floats, DXL then attacks with a rotating laser attack. He uses the attack twice, interrupting it with dashes and a pulse and releasing bullets in a similar manner. Lifting his dagger up as if charging a final attack, DXL is suddenly pushed back by it as it pulses. Before he can reach it again, the dagger knocks DXL offscreen in a wave of orange. The level finishes with a title screen showing its part in Another World, and the dagger is quickly retrieved by a blue orb of energy.
Video
Trivia
- Beastmode took the longest time to make out of any level in Another World and by DXL44 at its release, at over five months.
- A common joke before and after the level’s release was when it would come out, a result of many comments on DXL44’s videos asking this question.
- Beastmode is the first solo fight against DXL, with him only being one of the two bosses in Press Start.