If you leave the title screen running long enough, you'll see a cutscene of Badler, the leader of the BB Brigade, send his troops after Punky. Why is he doing this? Because Badler is destroying the chain of island where Punky Skunk and his friends, Kelly and Nash, live in an attempt to take them all over. It's up to Punky Skunk to stop Badler.
From here, Nash introduces the first of several inventions that you'll be able to use throughout the adventure: the paraglider, which allows Punky to glide by pressing X in mid-air when equipped. Meanwhile, Kelly will get info on the members of the BB Brigade. After this, the game starts.
Woodlands
Drop Zone
Left and Right allow you to move, Down ducks, Up lets you look up, X jumps and Square attacks. (This is assuming you are using the default controls.)
At the top of the screen, you'll have your current amount of lives and health, your current form, and the amount of starts you have. Collecting 100 stars nets you a 1-Up. Small stars are worth one, while big ones are worth five. Beating up enemies will not only net you small stars, but also the occasional health refill that replenishes one of your hit points. The "1-Up" symbol is an extra life.
The enemies here will just slowly move towards you; hit them with your skunk spray by pressing Square. Use your jump to hop over the bottomless pits at the start of the level. Enemies do re-spawn, but thankfully, they'll usually drop health or stars just about every time you defeat one.
Once you collect the paraglider, you'll be able to get the ability to glide by pressing X in mid-air. You'll also be able to use the glide ability to be pushed around by air currents, and thankfully, you can see which direction the currents will push you in by watching them. While the paraglider is equipped, you can switch between the paraglider and your regular, non-ability gameplay with the Circle button. Also, while you have the paraglider equipped, you won't be able to attack with Square, but the game does give you the ability to jump on enemies to defeat them, which is something you can't do as regular Punky.
With the paraglider, you can easily zoom through the level and get a feel for how the paraglider works. This is the first level you'll be using it in, but it will not be the last.
The pole at the end with the BB flag is the goal. Attack the button (or jump on it, if you still have the parachute equipped) to get rid of the BB Brigade flag and clear the stage. You'll get five stars for each unit of health you have left.
Once you beat the stage, you'll enter your first mini-game, which is a clone of the Game & Watch game Flag called "Captain Flag." Use the shoulder buttons to follow the directions and raise or lower a red or white flag before Captain Flag does. If you can do it correctly enough times, you'll get a red crystal (much like a Heart Piece in the Zelda games). Collecting red and if you're perfect, you can get that as well as a ton of extra lives. As you'll soon see, it pays to play the mini-games well.
R1: Raise Red
R2: Lower Red
L1: Raise White
L2: Lower White
You'll also get the pogo stick after playing the game. When you have it equipped, hold down X to jump higher. There is a ceiling on the jump, but the high jumps will prove useful.
Mushroom Romp
When you enter a level or world, the game will give you a chance to save to the memory card before you enter. When you select the save option, make sure you move the cursor to Yes so you can actually save your game. X lets you enter, Triangle lets you back out.
The guys in the caterpillar suits can only be hurt when their spikes are down and not sticking out.
The rainbow color orbs refill all of your health, as opposed to the green orbs that only refill one.
For this level, you'll need to jump up the mushrooms to get to the goal on the other side. This is where the pogo stick comes in. Thankfully, you don't have to press X as soon as you land upon jumping with the pogo stick equipped in order to get a higher bounce; you can just hold the button, which is great if you're not in the mood to deal with timing to get the higher jumps.
Completing the level introduces you to another mini-game: the pedal generator mini-game. Left and Right let you switch between the four bikes, while tapping Square repeatedly makes Punky pedal. You'll need to fill up all four gauges and get them in the blue zone to turn on the lights before time runs out, and if you can do that, you'll get a red crystal as well as a 1-Up the moment that all four lights are on. This mini-game isn't too hard as long as you're fast and you're paying attention to all four gauges as you're filling them up.
You'll then get the skysurfer, which acts just like a snowboard. You can still move left or right, but if you go down slopes for fast enough and long enough, Punky will glow gold, and as long as Punky is glowing gold, he will be invincible.
Cool Runnin'
Drop Zone is to the west of the cabin and Mushroom Romp is to the east, but Cool Runnin' is to the north.
The yellow platforms will ride up the track in the background when you stand on them. This will get you to higher areas.
The bowling pin enemies will throw bowling pins at you, while the flying enemies will fly around in circles while also trying to fly into you. Both can be easily taken out with the spray attack.
At the top, you'll get the skysurfer. It's not hard to glow gold and run through the enemies, but be ready to jump when you reach the big slope going downward so you don't fall into a bottomless pit. If you can get the speed and jump at the right time, you can easily jump right to the goal.
After clearing this level, you'll be introduced to the slot machine mini-game, which is the hardest of the four. Use Left and Right on the D-Pad to switch between the four buttons and press Square to stop the reels so that they land on Punky. You'll want to stop the reel when Punky is on the line in the middle. The reels get harder as you go from left to right, and I found myself starting with the right-most reel first later on to make things a little easier. You'll need to get all four reels to stop on Punky to get a red crystal for a health extension, even though this level's edition of the mini-game will give it to you at three. Again, it's all about those extra lives.
You'll then get the skates. You'll be building up speed, and you won't be able to stop on a dime unless you press Down on the D-Pad while the skates are equipped. The skates allow you to be fast, but you'll also want to be careful.
Desert Derby
As soon as you grab the skates, be ready to move, as the screen starts scrolling when you do. If you go too far to the left, you'll instantly lose a life...so watch it. This can be pretty easy to do, and if you're not ready for the scrolling as soon as you pick up the skates, you'll be whisked to the left, to your doom.
There will be a guy on an ostrich throwing spears, and you'll want to avoid running into the spears even if they are on the ground. Aside from that, you can still jump on enemies and go for as many stars as you can.
You can run into the button at the goal with the skates equipped to trigger the goal and clear the stage.
Clearing this stage introduces you to the matching mini-game. You'll need to look at the lone monitor in the upper-right, then move the cursor with the D-Pad and press X (not Square!) when you highlight the title that is shown on the lone monitor. You only have thirty seconds, but once you figure things out, you'll be able to get in the groove and get a lot of matches before then. You'll have to do well to get the red crystal, but if you do really well, you'll get a bunch of bonus lives along with that red crystal.
When you collect four red crystals, your maximum health will increase by one hit point...so beat those mini-games!
Completing this game will net you the diggers, a set of heavy metal claws. You can use them to dig in the dirt and you can throw them at enemies with Square, but you won't be able to jump unless you take them off with Circle.
Pathgrinder
This is where you'll get used to the digging controls. Once you get the diggers, you can walk into the dirt and move in four directions through it with the D-Pad. You'll be able to attack from a distance with the
There are waterfalls of quicksand that will cause you to sink downwards, although they don't kill you. Watch out for spikes, however, as they will hurt you if you touch them.
When you beat the level, Commander Chew and his minions will kidnap Nash as punishment for helping Punky. You'll have to go from island to island to find Nash.