Mustache Ride final beta live with several new features news

Mustache Ride has entered the final rounds of beta testing! Thank you to everyone who participated in the prototype and alpha development testing.

The beta version has seen many recent updates and game mechanic changes that drastically change the strategy the player will use in the game. There are also many new aesthetic changes. Since the alpha build, these updates have occurred:

GAME MECHANICS UPDATES

• Combs do not give ridiculous bonus points during high combos. Now, only every fifth combo (tier change) will give additional points, and the amount has been reduced slightly.
• Wax shield now stacks to allow for a double wax shield. When picking up a wax tin while you have a wax shield powers up and sparkle particles emit from the mustache.
• When the powered-up wax shield is equipped, deflecting reduces the player to the regular wax shield, and the multiplier is not lost. Keeping the multiplier through a deflection is a critical game mechanic change that completely changes available strategies.
• Difficulty levels last an extra second each. This adds an additional 20 seconds before the final difficulty and potential appearance of pink razors.
• Pink razors give less points, but more multiplier boost. Pink razors destroy both wax shields if the player has two.
• Cafe scene requirements are drastically lowered. This allows players to reach the story's ending without as much frustration.
• Mustache card requirements have been rebalanced to reflect the new game mechanics; for example, combos are easier to obtain with the double wax shield, so the combo requirement is higher for the handlebar, but overall score will be lower, so the walrus requirement was lowered.

AESTHETICS AND OTHER UPDATES

• "NEW!" icons appear when breaking a previous record on the results screen, and on the main menu when there are new mustache cards to see or a new cafe scene to view.
• Death "animation" makes for smoother transitions to the results screen.
• Results screen displays an "explosion" of mustache hairs.
• Obnoxious help screen has been added because many people said they did not understand the game. It originally always displayed, now it can be turned on and off from the options menu, and defaults to off.
• Retry option after the results screen allows players to play again without returning to the main menu.
• Previous high score is displayed at top of screen (above current score) during flight. If the score is broken, it will say "BEST!"
• All shaving utensils have new, unique sound effects.
• The mustache talks. Voice clips can be heard when starting a new flight and at the results screen. There are 10 possible phrases for each, with 5 of each set being "rare." There is also a voice for the title screen, and three secret voice clips are hidden in the game.
• Game has been optimized and compressed from 71MB to 6MB. Loading time should be much, much quicker!