> Seems like the most flexible method to me tbh. Did you have something particular in mind that wouldn't work with it?
>
You can't stretch animations as you please. They have a height and width for a reason
man this was a fast disproved point...... yes you can stretch it as you wish, that is why is a image. and can also look good, depends on how you create your graphics, you can use also not a regular sprite, but a tiledbackground for the frame of the laser to repeat itself in length or width, however tiledbackgrounds dont have frames, so im using sprites cause its more useful.
Demo capx enjoy it <--- has animation in it also multiple frames.
if you want the beam to stop a platformer, just add the behavior Solid to it, and will be working as long as its on screen and blocks the blobs path.