Okay, this game took me a while because it's all screwed up. Lol! But I'm now averaging 64,000 and shooting for that 65,000 mark. First off, make sure your computer is a decent one. Slow computers will severely affect your game play. Although this game runs better than fireworks on some slower computers, the faster the computer, the easier it is to score higher.
Second, make sure your mouse tracking and clicking speed are adjusted properly. You can do this in your computer's Control Panel settings. If your mouse isn't moving at the same time your hand is, or if it responds slower than you click, you will not be able to score as high as you can.
Now for the game. The most important rule that you MUST follow...if you do not remember anything else but this, then that will be find. NEVER EVER PRESS THE UP KEY! NEVER! NADA! NIL! NO! Forget that key even exists in this game. It will eat up your gas and you will most likely not finish. Even one press messes you up for the rest of the game. So NEVER press the up key.
The patterns for the animals are pretty standard. There's only a couple changes, but otherwise they always appear in the same spots. Ignore what the instructions say. Ignore the "Flawless", "Good", "Ok", etc. remarks. They aren't exactly working like they should. To score higher points, you need to wait until the animals are almost gone (pretty much covered in smoke) and then click on them. Just like in Fireworks. Yeah, I know it says "Oops" instead of "Flawless". But feel free to experiment and compare scores at the end. When it displays all the scores at the end, those are your true scores. Not the ones that appear in the game. However, your total IS correct. So you can also see the differences there.
Centering your shot on the animals is semi-correct. There are certain "sweet" spots you want to click to get higher points. But it's not always exactly in the center. For example, the flamingos give higher points if you click just in front of their heads and not exactly on them. Also, ignore the camera frame. It's where your mouse is pointing that counts. Like those animals that appear way on the edge of the screen and your camera frame stops...just make sure you cursor is where the animal is.
Be aware of your camera frame however...there are some animals that appear right next to each other and you don't get as many points if you get them both in the same shot. Sometimes you have to sacrifice higher scores to get 2 separate animals in 2 seperate shots.
The rocks change, but also have the same patterns. There's about four different rock patterns. I would say, first, memorize the patterns of the animals. You want to know especially where the ones in the water appear. The Hippos and Elephants are HUGE points, and you don't want to lose those points by running them over. For those that have trouble steering and shooting at the same time, once you know where it's safe to "park", do that and shoot the animals first, then steer your way to the other side. Again NEVER EVER press the up key. I know, it's slow. But better slow and high score than fast and nothing but 20 credits, right?
Some animals disappear faster than others. Learn which ones do. Hyena's are fast, while the flamingos are not quite so. The first drive through, they are pretty much easy to learn to time. As they sit for a second or two. The second time through, they disappear a bit faster. The third time, is the fastest. For those just learning, don't even worry about waiting in the third round since they disappear pretty quick. Just learn the patterns first. Once you get used to the patterns, then worry about waiting longer and longer.
Here's sort of an average breakdown of my scoring:
1:1 3,000
1:2 6,000
1:3 10,000
1:4 13,500
1:5 18,000
2:1 21,500
2:2 26,000
2:3 31,000
2:4 34,500
2:5 40,000
3:1 44,000
3:2 48,500
3:3 53,000
3:4 58,500
3:5 64,000
As always, if you're not having fun, it's not worth the stress. So my final advice, have fun! ^_^
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