PrinceWatercress plays Big Challenge! Gun Fighter - Part 4 of 6

Well, this was a short stage.

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Level 4

In this level, you'll get your fourth and final weapon: the dynamite. This weapon does not travel very far, is thrown at an arc before exploding on the ground, uses five bullets to throw one, and is best for enemies below you. Not surprisingly, you won't get to use it very much outside of this level.

The boxers are back, as are the ninja. This stage is pretty short, but thankfully, the ammo man is back near the end of the stage, and it's easy to keep your ammo topped up as long as you're not playing around with the dynamite.

The boss here is a stranger in a red cloak. Once again, you'll want to shoot at the upper body just below the boss' covered face until he dies. Beating this boss will net you $50.

PrinceWatercress plays Big Challenge! Gun Fighter - Part 3 of 6

Since there's no ammo salesman here, this is your chance for some big money as well as some big bullet reserves for the levels ahead. Also, ninja.

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Level 3

You have a new weapon here: the boomerang. While the boomerang does not have the range of the gun or the knife, you can still use it to hit enemies through walls and hit enemies with on its way back.

The ninja jump back and forth, and they are easy to take out if you can anticipate where they are going to go. Some of the ninja enemies can also rush at you.

Unlike the other levels, the man who sells you ammo does not show up here, but if you know what you're doing, you can easily get to 99 bullets here. Since you'll need to loop through the level at least twice to get enough enemies to reach the boss, it's definitely possible.

The white floor damages you, so don't touch it.

The ninja boss may be kneeling, but you can still hit him easily in the chest. Beating him will net you $20, which isn't much unless you combine that with all the money you'll be getting (and saving) from beating up all the enemies around here.

PrinceWatercress plays Big Challenge! Gun Fighter - Part 2 of 6

We have a new weapon in the knife...and you'll need to learn how to use it quickly if you want to get through this level.

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Level 2

To select between the gun and the knife, hold Down and press A. Use the D-Pad to switch weapons so that the eagle symbol is above the one you want, then press A.

The knife goes quite a far distance when thrown, and it also get thrown upward at an angle. You'll need to get used to how the throwing arc works if you want to effectively use it. The best part about this weapon is that compared to the gun, you have unlimited uses of the knife.

The martial artist enemies can only be hit with the knife, as the gun will have no effect. They will only move to the left, and they will not double back. Since their jump kicks will cause them to be vulnerable to the knife's throwing arc, this makes the knife good to use against them from a distance.

Carefully inch your way forward so you don't get caught out by any snipers.

Any pits that are colored brown will hurt you, so don't fall into those.

When you see the guy that gives you ten bullets for $50, press B to advance the text, then press A to buy the bullets or B to refuse.

When you shoot down enough enemies, you'll take on the second boss. Just like with the first one, you'll need to press B to bring up the target reticle, then aim at the chest with the D-Pad and press B to shoot. Keep firing at the chest until the guy dies. You'll get $20 for beating this battle.

PrinceWatercress plays Big Challenge! Gun Fighter - Part 1 of 6

Jaleco was actually making games for the Famicom Disk System well past the point when a lot of other developers stopped doing it due to the sturdy cartridges holding more than the unreliable disks as well as more games getting battery back-up and password save systems. Not surprisingly, this is one of those games that you can get through in less than 30 minutes, even if you don't know Japanese.

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Big Challenge! Gun Fighter is one of four games in Jaleco's Big Challenge! series exclusive to the Japan-only Famicom Disk System. Here, you play as a cowboy, and you shoot down all sorts of bad guys while taking on some tough customers that are taking over the Wild West.

Level 1

Left and Right moves you left and right, Down ducks, A jumps and B shoots. Holding A will give you a little more hangtime than if you just tap it. At the bottom of the screen, you'll see your current health, current amount of money, current amount of bullets and the weapon that you currently have equipped. The number at the bottom-right corner of the weapons window indicates how many enemies you have left to kill before you can fight the enemy boss. If you make it to the end of the stage before reaching that enemy quota, you'll start the level over to fight more enemies and get more bullets. Once you reach the end with zero enemies left to kill, you'll face the level boss. Between the health and the weapons windows are your current amount of lives. You start with three, and if you lose them all, it's game over.

Holding Down and A will allow to switch weapons as well as pause the game. Press A to unpause.

The man you meet at the beginning will give you ten bullets for $50. By shooting down enemies, you can get medicine to refill three units of health, bullets for the gun or bags of money worth $10 each. When you shoot at enemy, wait for them to stop flashing before shooting and hitting them again, or else you will waste bullets. 

Enemies include guys running around with guns, guys throwing barrels, snipers whose bullets will follow where you are when they shoot at you, and boxers that rush up to you and punch you.

If the tops of any crates are broken, do not stand on those crates. Those are basically spikes that will hurt you the longer you stand on them. There are also spikes that pop up on the ground, too, so watch out for those. If there's anything in any of the stages that looks like odd ground or spikes, don't stand in it as a rule of thumb.

If you talk to the man at the beginning again after looping through the level once, you'll be able to buy ten bullets from him for $50. Just press B to advance the text, then press A to buy the bullets or B to refuse.

To beat the boss, you'll need to press B to activate the target reticle, then move the target reticle over to the man's chest and shoot at him. If the black leather vest flashes, you got a hit in. Whenever you shoot, the target reticle moves to a random location above the boss' head, and you'll need to re-aim before you can fire at the boss again. If you're both quick and accurate, you can get through the boss battles relatively quickly and without harm. You'll also get $50 for beating the boss here. 

PrinceWatercress plays Berzerk (Atari 2600) - Game 7 Longplay

Welp, time for a challenge.

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In Game 7, Evil Otto is gone, but the robots will shoot at you. The worst part? There are no extra lives in Game 7. If you lose a life, you lose it for good. Games 7-9 are the "survival modes" of the game, with each successive game variation more difficult than the last. You'll need to play very, very well on this variation as well as Game 8 or Game 9 to get a high score.

PrinceWatercress plays Caveman Capers - Longplay

For once, I do better in the longplay than I do in the Let's Play! I made it through the first loop!

Let's Play

Ogg, the caveman, has just discovered a new form of transport - Kickstart the turtle. All day long he tries to train Kickstart to jump and run. However, the turtles isn't too keen and Ogg keeps falling flat on his face.

Help Ogg ride Kickstart, avoiding the snakes, pterodactyls, holes, dinosaurs, toadstools and any other prehistoric hazards. Get him to the 'phone box' so that he can tell his wife that he'll be late for tea!

Z and X let you move left and right, respectively. Return lets you jump. Q and S turn the music on and off, respectively.

When you start the game, you'll be jumping over the divots with Return. Running into them will cause you to fall flat on your face and lose a life. Other things you'll need to watch out for are dinosaurs who stretch their heads out from the right side of the screen and take away from the amount of room you have to move around on the screen, flying pterodactyls that you'll need to avoid jumping into, snakes that move up and down and can only be avoided with careful movement and positioning, mushrooms, 

To avoid the snakes, make sure they are up as they move up and down when you pass by them. To avoid the mushrooms and other ground-based hazards that are not divots in the ground, you'll need to hold Z and then jump to jump over them.

You have three lives, and if you lose them all, it's game over. You can get an extra life, but you'll need to get 5,000 points to do it, and in order to get that many, you have to clear the first loop! When you lose all your lives and start the game again, you'll need to move all the way to the left, as the game remembers where you were positioned when you got a game over and sticks you there when you restart, which can throw beginning players off guard. 

If you get a high score, you can use Z and X to select between the letters at the bottom of the HUD, then press Return to choose a letter. Amazingly, the HUD handles everything that the game does.

Aside from the three eggs that serve as your lives as well as your score, you also have a bone that serves as a progress meter that fills up from right to left. It starts at blue, then goes to green, then yellow, and then red. When the gauge is filled, you'll enter the next area. At the bottom of the screen are flags, much like in [i]Galaga[/i], and the more you have, the further you are in the game.

In Level 1, there are just divots in the floor. You can just stand in place and jump over them with Return.

In Level 2, there are pterodactyls in the air above your head. You can still jump over the divots in the ground like before, but you'll need to make sure you're ahead of the pterodactyls so that you don't hit your head on one and lose a life.

In Level 3, you'll be avoiding snakes as they move up and down in the trees above. Don't jump, and make sure the snakes are moving upwards when you move past them.

In Level 4, there are mushrooms. You'll need to move towards them and press Return to jump over them at the right time, and if you don't get the timing down, you will crash, lose a life, and start the whole level over.

In Level 5, you're jumping over...something. I'm guessing they're supposed to be logs. Jump over these the same way you did the mushrooms in Level 4.

In Level 6, there are frogs that leap up and down. You'll need to jump over them when they are not airborne, or else you won't make it. You may have to move towards them before jumping over them.

In Level 7, you're jumping over what look like rocks in a cave. While you can jump over these like you did the mushrooms in Level 4, the main problem I have in this level is that the dinosaur head usually shows up and effectively cuts the amount of area I can move around in by more than half.

In Level 8, you're doing the same thing as Level 7, but the pterodactyls are back. Once again, you'll need to be ahead of the pterodactyls to ensure you don't hit your head on one. I only reach this level and the next one once, and it is during the longplay.

In Level 9, the level is the same as Level 2. You should know what to do here. When you get past this screen, you'll reach the phone box, then you'll play a second loop where the levels are a little different once you get past the second level. You'll even have a little flag on the lower-right corner of the screen proving that you beat the game.

As you play, sometimes you will see a dinosaur stretch its neck and poke his head out from the right side of the screen. As long as the dinosaur is there, you'll have much less room to maneuver in the current level, and it can make some of the higher levels a pain.

This is a fun game, but it is challenging and it can be frustrating and aggravating. The trial and error nature of the game will keep you on your toes, but it does make the second half of the game frustrating, especially when you keep losing all your lives in it and have to play up to that point again just to get there. Is it still worth checking out? Why, yes. You won't be playing it for long and you'll eventually go to something else, but it's still a fun arcade-style game for the BBC Micro and is definitely worth giving a go.

PrinceWatercress plays Caveman Capers - Let's Play

"Easy to get a hang of, tough to get good at" describes this game perfectly.

Longplay

Ogg, the caveman, has just discovered a new form of transport - Kickstart the turtle. All day long he tries to train Kickstart to jump and run. However, the turtles isn't too keen and Ogg keeps falling flat on his face.

Help Ogg ride Kickstart, avoiding the snakes, pterodactyls, holes, dinosaurs, toadstools and any other prehistoric hazards. Get him to the 'phone box' so that he can tell his wife that he'll be late for tea!

Z and X let you move left and right, respectively. Return lets you jump. Q and S turn the music on and off, respectively.

When you start the game, you'll be jumping over the divots with Return. Running into them will cause you to fall flat on your face and lose a life. Other things you'll need to watch out for are dinosaurs who stretch their heads out from the right side of the screen and take away from the amount of room you have to move around on the screen, flying pterodactyls that you'll need to avoid jumping into, snakes that move up and down and can only be avoided with careful movement and positioning, mushrooms, 

To avoid the snakes, make sure they are up as they move up and down when you pass by them. To avoid the mushrooms and other ground-based hazards that are not divots in the ground, you'll need to hold Z and then jump to jump over them.

You have three lives, and if you lose them all, it's game over. You can get an extra life, but you'll need to get 5,000 points to do it, and in order to get that many, you have to clear the first loop! When you lose all your lives and start the game again, you'll need to move all the way to the left, as the game remembers where you were positioned when you got a game over and sticks you there when you restart, which can throw beginning players off guard. 

If you get a high score, you can use Z and X to select between the letters at the bottom of the HUD, then press Return to choose a letter. Amazingly, the HUD handles everything that the game does.

Aside from the three eggs that serve as your lives as well as your score, you also have a bone that serves as a progress meter that fills up from right to left. It starts at blue, then goes to green, then yellow, and then red. When the gauge is filled, you'll enter the next area. At the bottom of the screen are flags, much like in Galaga, and the more you have, the further you are in the game.

In Level 1, there are just divots in the floor. You can just stand in place and jump over them with Return.

In Level 2, there are pterodactyls in the air above your head. You can still jump over the divots in the ground like before, but you'll need to make sure you're ahead of the pterodactyls so that you don't hit your head on one and lose a life.

In Level 3, you'll be avoiding snakes as they move up and down in the trees above. Don't jump, and make sure the snakes are moving upwards when you move past them.

In Level 4, there are mushrooms. You'll need to move towards them and press Return to jump over them at the right time, and if you don't get the timing down, you will crash, lose a life, and start the whole level over.

In Level 5, you're jumping over...something. I'm guessing they're supposed to be logs. Jump over these the same way you did the mushrooms in Level 4.

In Level 6, there are frogs that leap up and down. You'll need to jump over them when they are not airborne, or else you won't make it. You may have to move towards them before jumping over them.

In Level 7, you're jumping over what look like rocks in a cave. While you can jump over these like you did the mushrooms in Level 4, the main problem I have in this level is that the dinosaur head usually shows up and effectively cuts the amount of area I can move around in by more than half.

In Level 8, you're doing the same thing as Level 7, but the pterodactyls are back. Once again, you'll need to be ahead of the pterodactyls to ensure you don't hit your head on one. I only reach this level and the next one once, and it is during the longplay.

In Level 9, the level is the same as Level 2. You should know what to do here. When you get past this screen, you'll reach the phone box, then you'll play a second loop where the levels are a little different once you get past the second level. You'll even have a little flag on the lower-right corner of the screen proving that you beat the game.

As you play, sometimes you will see a dinosaur stretch its neck and poke his head out from the right side of the screen. As long as the dinosaur is there, you'll have much less room to maneuver in the current level, and it can make some of the higher levels a pain.

This is a fun game, but it is challenging and it can be frustrating and aggravating. The trial and error nature of the game will keep you on your toes, but it does make the second half of the game frustrating, especially when you keep losing all your lives in it and have to play up to that point again just to get there. Is it still worth checking out? Why, yes. You won't be playing it for long and you'll eventually go to something else, but it's still a fun arcade-style game for the BBC Micro and is definitely worth giving a go.