Part nostalgia-bomb, part note-taking and part FAQ, what started in GameTrailers as a video game blog is now on Blogger. This blog is a look back at video games, both popular and obscure, from the video game industry's infancy all the way to the previous console generation.
Compared to the other levels, this one is a bit different. Instead of completing puzzles to collect Power Cells and make it to the exit, all while trying to survive, you're doing something different entirely to get a piece of EVO's robot body back.
For the EuroEden level, you'll be playing as a dog plane. You'll need to fly through all of the blue hoops to start this mission off. The yellow hoops containing the red balls with the air give you a brief speed boost, which you're better off avoiding so you don't lose control of the plane. Watch out for bombs and missiles that fly at you as you get close to flying through all the rings. Use the Control Stick to ascend, descend and turn. A simultaneously fires lasers and drops bombs, while B performs a turn-around that quickly turns you around towards the other direction.
You'll then have to face a slew of other dog planes. The trick to doing this while losing as little energy as possible is to keep holding A, staying higher than the other planes, and constantly moving in a circle, going straight only to line yourself up with another dog plane. After shooting down enough dog planes, you'll get the message "BATTERY CHARGER ON LINE" before a bunch of rocket foxes come after you.
You'll want to go to an area with a red wall with moving lines. Fly through it to get your health refilled. Keep in mind that you can only stay in the battery charger area for so long before you stop getting energy and the area no longer heals you, so try not to rely on it too much. From there, you'll want to fight the rocket foxes. Just like with the dog planes, keep on firing and moving in a circle, and stay higher than your target, while flying straight ahead only to shoot down a target. The rocket foxes also fire missiles, and you'll want to keep from flying into those, too.
After defeating enough enemies, you'll get the message "Hey! There's your torso! Go get it!" When that happens, the game will show you where the torso is. Go straight for the torso and fly into it to get EVO's torso back. Once you do that, the stage is over.
Rat-o-Matic is the last regular level in the Europe/grass set, which the mission brief calls "EuroEden." You'll need to destroy the titular Rat-o-Matic machine so that no more mice get turned into rats, and you'll also need to kill the fox family that is on the premises.
You'll start off as the King Rat. Go down the hall and move towards the four rats that are in the area to get them to follow you. You'll want to go outside with the four rats and take on the fox family. Keep sicking the smaller rats on the foxes and keep moving around in a circle while using your stink attack. The rats will do the work, but the stink attack will do damage if the foxes come your way.
To get the rat trophy, you'll need to move one of the red canisters near the flaming box with the trophy on it over to the box with the King Rat, then use a regular rat to blow the canister up with mines so that sparkles come out of it and put the flames out before the canister explodes. You'll then need to take control of a fox and go up to the ramp opposite where the trophy is, go up the ramp and press A before you fall to speed forward in mid-air and land on the box to get the trophy. You'll need to do this again back at the start to get to the top of the table where a switch is in order to unlock a nearby door.
You'll then need to find a room with a racing mouse, a monitor and a camera. The racing mouse will try to attack you, so attack it first and take it out. You'll need the mouse now. Hit the switch on the nearby machine, then move onto the red circle in the empty cell before the timer reaches zero. You'll be sucked into the piping and taken into the Rat-o-Matic. You'll need a lot of health to get through this. Get under the electricity to move past it, watch out for the crusher, hit the switch on the other side, speed through the fire with the turbo boost so you don't get burned. At the other side is a rat; don't attack it. Instead, have it come after you and lay mines that will destroy the nearby computer terminals. This will destroy the Rat-o-Matic and free all of the mice in the cages.
It is possible to suck one of the other mice into the Rat-o-Matic, then use the camera to get a guided tour of the machine. Don't do this. If you do, you won't be able to get all of the Power Cells.
Follow the mice outside, and you'll be thanked for freeing them before being led to the exit, which is on top of a bunch of hills nearby. As they enter the exit, they will leave Power Cells behind. If you rescued all five mice, you'll get all of the last five Power Cells. Collect them, then go into the exit with them.
To get past the wall blocking the exit, hit the switch in the corridor to the right of where you enter to lower the wall, then speed your way to the left corridor. If you're fast enough, you'll get to the end before the wall rises back up. For best results, back into the switch backwards to hit it, then go forwards and use your turbo boost sparingly to speed your way to the exit. Once the wall rises up, you'll have no choice but to take the transporter and exit the level, so if you need to get the trophy and the other ten Power Cells, you'll want to get those first before even attempting this. Thankfully, I managed to do everything possible before leaving.
You'll be going through the sewers for this one. You'll be playing as a rat for the majority of this level. You'll need to find a keycard to access the main tunnels, reactivate the Big Taps (which are big water taps) and gain access to the King Rat's hole. From here, you're going to have to defeat the Rat King.
You'll start off not as the rat, but as the racing dog. You'll need to find your way through the sewers and find and defeat a rat while trying to find out how to complete the objectives for this level.
The steaming brown triangles are poop. Believe it or not, these things will come into play later.
Once you find a rat, you'll be able to go into some of the more narrow passageways. You'll have to fight some more rats to get them out of your way. Use your bite attack and move in as they move around in circle, and watch out for their mines. You'll eventually find a much more open area with a racing fox. You'll need to race around the room and drop mines as the fox chases after you in order to destroy it. If you need health, eat the steaming poop in the room. Just walk into it with the rat and use your bite attack to eat it. Believe it or not, if you find all the poop and eat it, you'll reveal the trophy, which will be in a dead end the near the start.
From here, you'll need to take control of the fox and make your way back to the watery maze at the beginning of the level. Believe ir or not, there are areas that you can reach as the fox or the rat that you could not reach with the racing dog. There is a crawlspace near two barrels of toxic waste that you need to go through. Take out the rats, then approach the door to open it and find a dead scientist. Move up to him to find the keycard. This will allow you to open the metal door near the beginning of the stage.
Once you're past that door, you'll have to fight some more rats. Fighting the rats is easier with the fox, since the sweep attack does not trigger the bombs and you can do a good bit of damage with it. On the other hand, it's much easier to get close to another rat and defeat it easily with a bite attack as the rat. Keep your options open and pick your poison. After getting past the rat, use the mines from the rat to blow up the line of barrels of toxic waste, and stay away from the explosions!
There is an area full of water after this, but you don't want to go in there yet. Instead, look for and find a water valve. Run into it to turn on one of the Big Taps and add more water to the nearby pool of water. Go in the water, and you'll find a normal dog. Switch to the dog, and push the barrel in the water to create a path to the other side of the pool, where you can find a racing dog.
Take control of the fox again and go back to the side of the pool that you were just in. There is a narrow corridor leading into another maze that you'll need to get through to reach the Rat King. The colors will change as you go through the maze, and if you see a lot of yellow and green, you'll know that you're nearly there.
To beat the Rat King, you'll want to play as the fox and you'll want to come in with as much energy as you can muster. The Rat King will send smaller rats at you when it blows its trumpet. You'll want to stay near the entrance to the Rat King's chamber, attack the rats when they get near, and move out in such a way that you lose as little energy as possible. There are two crates' worth of energy that you may have to rush into the room to get; if you have to rely on it, make sure that the energy does not fly towards the wall, as it can get stuck in the wall and become unobtainable.
Once you beat all of the rats, take control of one and chase after the Rat King. The Rat King will have no means of offense other than a stink cloud that only affects other animals, and he won't be able to send any other minions at you. Once you've beaten this level, you're pretty much done. All you have to do is find the door near the start that had the symbol of a crown near it and approach it as the Rat King to open it. You can then exit the level.
This is the hardest stage yet. You'll need to raise some asteroid chunks up and get them to float in order to make a bridge, and you'll also want to get Dan a springy sheep. This stage has a bottomless pit, and if you fall in, you're starting the stage all over again.
You'll start as the fox. Be careful on the way from platform to platform, and rotate the camera extensively with Left-C and Right-C to ensure you're going somewhere other than down the bottomless pit.
There are two Things on a Spring as well as a Ram on a Spring that will try to kill you, but an electric fence is the only thing between you and them...and you and the Ram's vicious streak. There is a switch nearby that you will have to move from platform to platform to get to in order to turn that electric fence off. Unfortunately, the fence turns back as soon as you get off the switch, so you'll need to keep something down on top of it. When you get to the switch, however, you'll have to go forward to go back, as there is a slight drop-off from the top of the ramp leading up to it to the floor.
You'll come across three sheep. Trap them on the edge of the platform and attack them with your tail. You'll need to get one of them on the switch so you can get a Thing on a Spring. From here, you'll need to jump. From where the energy is, there are two platforms with Power Cells. Jump and float to each one to get to a switch. Run into that switch to raise up the asteroid chunks. You'll need them later, and they'll complete one of the mission objectives.
There will be falling asteroids nearby. You'll want to avoid these as you get to the other side, as they hurt. There is a bridge, but if you cross it, you'll be brought straight down...unless you're the sheep. You'll want to be on the grass before the bridge and float to the bridge itself, then repeatedly jump and float forwards. If any of the bridge panels fall under your feet, keep floating and stay above the panel, and you can continue to the other end, where you can get back to the start.
There is a water area below the start. Carefully float downwards as the sheep, and get in the water for a Power Cell. A metal platform nearby will take you back up. There is also a camera that gives you a free tour and flies around to show you all of the platforms that you can get to.
Back at the start, a metal block will be moving up and down. That didn't happen before. Float onto it as the sheep for a Power Cell. At the Power Cell, you'll notice a tower with another switch at the top. If you float towards it with the sheep, you'll get blown back. When that happens, go a bit to the left so you don't get blown back as you float, then maneuver your way to the switch from there. You'll see a platform with a racing fox on the way to that switch, but you won't need it. Hit the switch to reduce the gravity.
With the reduced gravity, you'll make things a little more interesting for a little bit later. For now, go back to where the three sheep originally where and get the racing fox back. This time, the asteroid chunks are moving around. The first moves horizontally; the second vertically. You'll need to use your shadow (or what little you can see of it) to help yourself gauge where you are so you can land on both asteroid chunks to get to the falling asteroid section with the fox. With the fox, you can cross the bridge with ease just by moving forward; you won't need to press the A button at all. From here, you can get back to the start and take on the Things (and Ram) on a spring.
The Ram on a Spring will try to kill you on sight with an aerial corkscrew attack, so go after one of the springy sheep instead and use it to attack the Ram on a Spring instead. Remember that you can press A while in mid-air as the Thing on a Spring to perform a corkscrew attack of your own and destroy the Ram on a Spring.
Interestingly, this ram fights just like the regular one, but you're forced to hold A and bounce the whole time. Use a springy ram or a springy sheep to get to the exit. As for the trophy, which is a golden asteroid chunk, it's near the exit. Land near, but not on the exit teleporter as a springy sheep or ram, then jump to the trophy.
In this level, you'll have to deal with bears...again. You'll have to destroy them along with all of the angry animals, then flood the sheep dip pool.
You start as the racing mouse. Destroy the crates, but don't grab the energy yet; save them for just in case you need them. As you make your way through the path, you'll find a Sheep. You'll want to destroy it, because you'll need to use it later.
Holding Z will put the camera behind yourself. With the button held, you can use the Control Stick to move the camera and look around. I don't use this very often.
Eventually, as you look around in the places where you can go as a racing mouse, you'll find a racing dog with the missiles equipped. Avoid it and go up the ramps with the left, and use your turbo boost to get past the ramps with the gaps. Hit the switch to open the door leading to a cave, which also has a bear inside. Go in, get the bear to chase you, then get out of there and zoom past the racing dog to get them both to fight each other. Let the bear kill the dog, then take control of the dog and destroy the bear. While you can stick and move with the missiles, stand near the tree close to where you first saw the dog and shoot missiles from there. The bear won't be able to see you, and you can blast it when it is nearby. Congratulations, you just got rid of the angry animals and cleared one of the missions. From there, take control of the bear and stand on the switch in the cave. This will turn on the tap and flood the sheep dip pool. Now you can exit.
From here, take control of the dog again. There is a snowy mountain top with two sheep and a ram. You'll need to destroy the sheep and the ram. From here, you'll be able to get to the mountain top uninhibited. To get the Power Cell on the cloud, you'll need to float to it with a sheep; this will allow you to float to other Power Cells in the level as well as the trophy.
In one part of the level, there are three switches. You'll need to have them all pulled down at once to get the trophy, which is a golden faucet. Unfortunately, the levers never stay pulled down for long. To beat the system, you'll need to bring two sheep and the racing dog to the switches. Place two sheep on top of two pressed switches, then hit a third with the racing dog. Amazingly, you can use just one sheep on one of the side switches, then quickly press the other two as the racing dog, which is what I did. Regardless of what you do, the trophy will show up.
If you try to pick it up, however, the game doesn't let you. This is because of a glitch in the game in a flag that tells the game to consider the trophy collected whenever you run into it is turned off. Thankfully, I'm playing the game with a patch that turns that flag back on, which you can find here. (When the game was ported to PS1 as Evo's Adventures, this glitch was fixed.)
To get to the exit, just jump on the faucet near the sheep dip pool as a sheep, then float to the transporter. The game expects you to do by just moving into the blocks while in the water as a sheep to turn them into makeshift platforms, but by jumping and floating from the faucet as a sheep, you can skip that entirely.
You'll need a keycard to get to the exit. As you're looking for one, you'll need to activate a bridge and open the security door. There's also a dead humanoid in this area, too.
You'll start as the racing fox. Avoid the bear; you will not last against it and you will be destroyed. Instead, follow the bear around; you'll soon see the bear find and try to destroy a racing dog. You'll want to take control of this dog, then you'll want to destroy the bear as well as any computer terminals at the start. These terminals will contain power cells, and you'll need them out of the way at the start to grab a cube with the bear and place it in the red energy field nearby. As the bear, press A to grab a block when you're near it, then press A again with the block in your hand to drop it. Drop the block in the energy field and the platform with the dead professor above the lava pit will move to the edge of the pit. You'll be able to get the keycard.
You can attack with the B button with the bear, but the racing dog has much better range with the homing missiles, so you're better off using the dog if you need to attack anything...which you will still need to do.
The rats here are also enemies, and they are nasty. Fight them off as a dog, as they can not only bite you, but they also lay mines that do a lot of damage to anything that touches it. You'll also need to take control of a rat in order to go through some holes.
One of the paths has a huge lava pit near it that you don't want to fall in. On the way up, there is a switch you'll need to hit. Touching it to activate it activates the bridge.
There is a platform covered by a terminal. Destroying it will reveal two more Power Cells and a crate of energy, which you can push off the ledge in case you need more energy. Thankfully, there is a sheep in the level, and the sheep is the only way to access everything there.
Destroying all of the terminals in the level will net you a trophy. You'll need to play as the rat and enter a small tunnel that only the rat can enter to get the trophy, which looks like a golden computer terminal.
There is a path with two Power Cells that also had a bunch of clear-colored balls rolling back and forth. These balls will hit you if they roll into you, so you'll have to avoid them as you get to the other side, which has two bears and a rat that you'll need to take out. The rat is easy, but the bears? Not so much. You'll need to get in homing missile strikes with the dog, and you'll need to manually turn around to get away from them, as you'll be hiding behind the last rolling ball to get them to go away. Do not go in reverse to avoid the bears, as you'll more than likely touch the ball and lose as much health as you would have lost from a bear mauling.
Once you take out the bears and the rat, you can open the security door, which is one of the objectives...but now what? You've got a bunch of giant mines in the way! This is the part where you take control of the rat, who can not only move around them with some tight maneuvering. If you have the bridge animated, you can carefully get on the moving platform to clear the level.
This was the last level I was able to beat as a kid before it became obvious that the game was a puzzle-platformer and part of a genre that I didn't have the patience for back then.
In this level, you'll need to raise the bridge sections, grow some carrots for Dan. and turn off another electric fence.
You'll start off as the racing mouse. Focus on lining yourself up the ramps and going up them and over the gaps. Do not use your turbo boost, as you'll make things worse; just go at normal speed and you'll get out of the starting area with no problem. The purple weeds that pop in and out of the ground take off one unit of health if you run into them.
Past the ramps is a barn with four crates' worth of energy as well as a sheep pen. Inside the pen, there are a few sheep as well as a ram. You'll need to use the mouse's tail attack and destroy the ram without getting destroyed yourself. If you need to, use the ramp in the barn to get out and get some energy, then get back in there. Once you beat the ram, you'll be able to take control of it.
With the ram, you can jump with A and perform a headbutt that punches your head slightly forward with B. Unlike the sheep, however, the ram cannot float if you press and hold the A button. As the ram, you'll want to defeat one of the sheep, if one hasn't been beaten down already. You'll need the sheep to jump and float across the nearby bridge so you can get over the water and hit the switch. This will raise the bridge sections in the middle and allow you to cross with another animal.
Once the bridge is up, switch back to the ram and cross the bridge. There will be a racing dog wheeling around, and you'll need to headbutt it repeatedly to neutralize it and take control of it. If you're lucky like I was, you can corner him and you can stand in front of him while holding the B button to defeat it while its homing missiles sail clear over you because you're too close to it.
From there, hit the switch in the barn to activate the crusher, then head to the left to find a sheep. Destroy it, then go to the other side of the barn to find the carrots. Keep hitting the switch on the nearby irrigation machine to make the carrots grow and complete the carrots objective. You're going to need to do this anyway, as the tops of the carrots also double as platforms that you can jump across with the sheep.
Loop around to the left to raise the bridge on the other side. This will complete the bridge sections objective. Go back to being the racing dog and take the bridge to the other side. Destroy the sheep as well as the foxes in the housing area. From there, enter the house as either a dog or a fox and hit the switch to turn off the electric fence and complete all the objectives. (Beware: if you enter the house as a fox and go into the fireplace, you will be stuck, and you'll have no choice but to restart the level.)
From here, play as a sheep and jump onto the hedges. Move onto the roof of the doghouse, then jump to the roof of the farmhouse. This will allow you to get some Power Cells. You'll also need to jump onto the hedges near where the water is, then float to the island where the water valve is. There is an empty garden near the barn with the crushing hay bale, and if you spin the valve, you'll water that garden and grow some crops. Enter that garden and touch one of the plants to get four Power Cells.
The crushing hay bale doubles as a platform that takes you to the loft of the barn. Jump onto the top of it as the sheep to find two more Power Cells and a camera that will give you a quick tour of the level. From where the camera is, you can float to the side to the sides of the barn to get two more Power Cells.
To get to the trophy, you'll need to destroy all the sheep once you've completed all of the objectives for the level. The trophy - a golden carrot - will be in the farmhouse fireplace. Take control of a sheep and go into the fireplace to get the trophy. You can also fall into the fireplace from the chimney on the house's roof
That's everything done. Head into the doghouse to enter the exit teleporter and leave the level.
