I was PM'd and asked how to beat The Gauntlet. I thought it was easiet to post the strategy here. Unortunately, I don't have the means to upload a video of it, so this will have to do. It's quite easy, actually, when you have the right strategy. This will work for co-op or Uberschizoid. If you know how to do it in Wingman, please, tell me. I hate that guy.
First, you need to clear out the eggs at the far left of the board. Move both ships forward to immediately activate the turbo powerup. Then, with the blue ship leading the red ship just slightly, head to the left, weaving in and out between the 2 lowest rows of mines (over the first mine at the bottom of the screen, then under the 2 in the middle of the screen, over the next 1 at the bottom, etc.) IGNORE THE PULSINATORS AND DON'T OVER THINK THIS PART! You don't need to worry about blocking or avoiding bullets, this will happen automatically as long as you keep moving. Just concentrate on making a nice smooth serpentine and not crashing into mines or Pulsinators, and the rest will take care of itself. When you get to the smart bomb, grab it and pull as close to the eggs as you can get before setting it off. Quickly scoop up any eggs the smart bomb misses. If you didn't waste any time getting here, you should have no problem clearing them all before any hatch.
Now you can relax and take a deep, cleansing breath.
I assume if you've made it this far you've already figured out how to deal with Pulsinators, and there's no rush to take them out, so feel free to take your time and employ your own technique. I can offer some advice... They are too close together to use blocking (at first), so you'll have to scoot around their shots. I choose not to use the turbo power ups at the far left. It's way too crowded to be zipping around like that, and in fact your ship's regular speed works better if you use my method for clearing the Pulsinators: Take either ship and park it at the very top or bottom of the screen, as close to the opposite color Pulsinator as you can get. For instance, if the first Pulsinator at the top of the screen is red (sorry, I don't remember), take the blue ship and park it at the top of the screen, pulling as far to the right as you can while staying safe from the nearby blue Pulsinators that will be shooting at you. Leave it there and take the red ship to the bottom of the screen, and pull as far to the right as you can safely. IMPORTANT: pause long enough to be sure all shots are being aimed at you. You don't want any stray bullets that haven't disappeared yet complicating things. Now, choose 1 ship to attack with and take out all the same colored Pulsinators like so: Let's start with whatever ship is on the bottom. Remind yourself which bullets to ignore and which need to be avoided. The key here is to continue moving forward... dodge shots by pausing or weaving slightly, but never double back or you'll mess up the timing. Head right, staying low, until you are just to the left of the Pulsinators, then straight up. The Pulsinator you are targeting will fire a shot diagonally at you, dodge it and fly right through him, and head downward toward your next target, which will fire a diagonal shot. Dodge it, fly through him, and head up toward your next target. Continue in this manner until you wipe out all of your color. Now you can repeat the process with the other ship, or you can use your first ship to block shots, if you prefer.
Wow, that was wordy. Hopefully it's clear. A little practice and you'll gold this level without much trouble.
