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.
Aside from getting a kangaroo again, you have to locate four archaeological discoveries. So we're doing some sightseeing and fossil hunting this time around? Nice.
You start off as an armed desert fox. Touch the four camera near the lizard holes, the giant footprints, the mosquito covered in amber, and the skulls with the eyes and teeth. On the way to the last one, watch out for the enemies that come out of the holes. The red and purple ones can spit fire and hurt you. Congratulations, you just found four archaeological discoveries. I'm not sure what kind of joke the developers were going for here.
From here, you want to head to the nearby area with all the holes, the stairs and the narrow paths. Watch out for the fire breathers again. Use the health around you to minimize damage when necessary. At the end, you'll find a kangaroo. Keep your distance from all the dinosaurs and watch your health as you shoot the kangaroo down. From here, you'll be able to exit...and do everything else.
However, you're not done yet. You'll need to jump across the top of the rib cage bones where you first saw the dino enemies, and you'll need the wind to kick in and blow with you. You'll find two vultures, and you'll need to take out at least one of them in order to find everything in this level. Once you do, you'll be able to clear this place out and exit. The exit teleporter will be on the top of a huge hand fossil.
If you're looking for elevation to the higher areas with the vulture, use the wind at the rib cage bones. As for the Power Cells you can only see as the vulture, you'll need a super high elevator, and you'll need to travel the perimeter of the level in both directions.
At this point, you start with Animal A, get Animal B, use Animal B to get Animal C, and so on until you get to the goal, more or less. At least the levels are creative and expansive, and you get to explore them a little bit for Power Cells, too.
The other animals have been forced into the mountains by the scorpions, and you'll need to get yourself a kangaroo and a vulture in order to beat them at their own game.
You start off as a desert fox. You'll need to take one of the scorpions and take them out. If you jump at the right time, you won't get zapped by the scorpion's lightning attack. You'll want to get the timing on this down, as you'll be forced to fight one of them at close range. Once you can take control of a scorpion, destroy the other. There is energy at the start; take advantage of the two energy pick-ups to ensure you don't die as soon as you started.
In this level, energy pick-ups will have different colors. The light blue ones you've seen so far will give you the most energy, but there are more purple versions of the energy pick-ups that give out less energy, with a fully purple pick-up giving you the least.
You'll need to take control of the desert fox again, this time to walk left around the perimeter of the level to access new areas. You'll be able to get a few Power Cells and get a free tour from the camera. Just be ready to jump across the metal platforms.
Go back and take control of the scorpion. This time, you'll want to go to the right instead of going left like you did with the desert fox. To take out the scorpions effectively, you'll want to either keep zapping them from a higher elevation or zap them three times and hit them with the claw attack afterwards if they come at you. The scorpions go after you if you zap them enough time, so be ready for close combat. The zap attack only kicks in if you're close enough to an enemy; if you're too far away, you won't be able to do it.
As you continue to explore with the scorpion, you'll eventually find two kangaroos. Take out the scorpions in the area with the scorpion, then return to the air with the kangaroos with the desert fox. This is going to be a bit of a trek, but it can be done. The desert fox can jump from column to column to get to the kangaroos, and once you get to the kangaroos' level, you'll want to attack them without getting attacked yourself. The more energy you have available for this, the better, even if you have to leave the area and take a bit of a journey to get it and come back. Whatever you do, make sure the kangaroos aren't looking your way. Once you take down a kangaroo, take control of it immediately. Not only will you have a big jump, but you'll be able to get in the water and go just about anywhere (something you couldn't do with the desert fox or the scorpion due to their terrible water resistances). If you have any energy that needs to be picked up, go ahead and get it now. The worst is over; don't risk dying at this point of the level.
Destroying all the scorpions will net you the trophy for this level. You'll need to get the kangaroo or the vulture later to grab it.
From here, there's only one place left to go to: the metal mountain in the center. The only way to get there is with the kangaroo. You'll need to jump on a few platforms, then jump your way to the top on the flat parts. There are two vultures here, and you can easily take out both of them by punching them, running away until they land back on the ground, and hitting them again. Repeat this until both vultures are down, then take control of one of them. With the vulture, you can get everything else that you've missed - including the remaining two Power Cells under the small, narrow, metal bridge - then get to the exit.
There's a problem: you can't get into the teleporter! There's a "no kangaroos" sign nearby, and the vulture won't fit, either. You'll need to bring the desert fox all the way to the exit with the vulture, then switch to the desert fox to get into the tiny area with the exit teleporter and get out of here.
Dan's not happy right now. It's really hot, the music is annoying, and he's not in the mood to deal with everyone. Not only do you finally get to destroy the speakers pumping out the music, but you get to destroy a bunch of spinning foxes and turn all the noughts to crosses...whatever that last one means.
You start out as a camel with a cannon on its back. The cannon will always face forward...unless you change direction and don't stop, or if you rotate the camera and don't move. When that happens, the cannon will be facing the last direction you faced (for changing direction) or whatever the camera considers "forward" (for rotating the camera). This can be used to your advantage to take out the spinning foxes near the start. Of course, once you stop moving again, the camera re-centers itself to face forward like you are. I usually just carefully approach them, then mash the A button in range to fire the cannon shots and take them out in seconds. As for the B button, that is a short-range teleport dash similar to the racing fox's speed boost from the Euro levels. That takes care of that second mission immediately.
Aside from the speaker near the start, there is also a vulture you'll want to defeat. You'll definitely want to do that, as you will need the vulture right now. Take control of the vulture, grab the camel, and then continue to the next section of the level with the camel in your talons. This will help you (and the camel) get over the pit of spikes that is instant death if you touch it. You'll also want to take one of the non-armed desert foxes to the next area as well.
At the columns, get the Power Cell, destroy the speaker and hit the switch. This raises up a panel with a circle on it, or a "nought." Take control of the camel again, then go down the stairs. Scorpions will crawl out of the bunkers in the sand, and you'll need to destroy them all as quickly as possible, as their lightning attacks pack a punch. Destroy all four of them, then take control of one of the scorpions and go through the bunkers to find some Power Cells as well as the switch for the second panel for the noughts/crosses mission.
By exploring this area, you'll find another speaker to destroy and another scorpion. You'll want to destroy it, then get the vulture. Grab a scorpion, then fly around and look for a floor switch. Hitting the floor switch activates the third noughts/crosses panel. Place the scorpion on the floor switch to keep the panel up.
There is one last speaker near the exit teleporter. Carry the camel over there with the vulture, then shoot the speaker down as the camel. Then, take the desert fox into the next section and jump from one noughts/crosses panel to the next. You'll need to do this quickly to turn the noughts into crosses and make sure that they stay crosses, and you'll want to make sure that you are near the edge of these platforms to ensure you jump into the next one without falling into the water below. Since the desert fox has very bad water resistance that causes the water to eat away at its health, you'll want to be careful.
As the vulture, you'll want to grab all the scorpions and drop them in to the nearby vortex, including the one you left on the floor switch. Doing this will cause each scorpion you dropped to turn silver. When you have seven silver scorpion, fly into all seven of them to get a gold scorpion to pop out of the vortex. That's the trophy. Pick it up.
With all this done, you're clear to get out of this place. Just fly to the exit teleporter across from the noughts/crosses platforms.
It's time to take on the desert levels, and if you were expecting something even harder, well...it actually doesn't happen. The sailing is a little smoother from here on in.
Welcome to the desert levels! After completing three of the jungle levels, we're able to start playing these levels. After having to go through absolute madness with Evo's Escape, this part is going to be a breeze. For some reason, the desert levels are the easiest ones to get through, and it's not exactly established why. Maybe these were actually meant to be "cool down" levels after everything you've been through. Maybe the development team were running out of time and money to make the game. Maybe they were meant to be the first set of levels, although that's probably not the case due to how the beginning of the "Euro" levels got the game started on the right foot. Nevertheless, this is where the game eases up, and sometimes, gets a little creative.
For Fun in the Sun, you'll need to restart the oil pump and open the fuel line valves in order to restart the machine that produces the station's fuel supply.
You'll start out as an armed desert fox. With the B button, you'll have a three-way pistol shot, and use you can use that to lay waste to enemies from a distance. There will be a camel to the right of where you start, and you'll want to blow it away immediately. Just be ready to keep your distance when the camel approaches when you shoot at it enough times, as it will run at you and spit water at you.
Once you take out the camel, don't take control of it just yet. You're still going to need the armed desert fox and its ability to jump in addition to shooting. Make sure not to take out the speaker will progressing past the start, or else you won't be able to clear the gap and you'll be forced to restart.
There is an oasis just past the start. If you wade into it with the armed desert fox, the water will actually damage you and kill you due to poor water resistance. Instead, you'll want to get close to the corner of the oasis across from the two camels in the distance and shoot tt the camels instead. The bullets from the Armed Desert Fox's hot shots actually travel downwards after a short period of time, and if you're standing in the right spot, you can rain down mortor shots on the one near the pyramid. To take out the other one, however, you'll need to find a mound of sand near a wall, jump to the cliff side and then travel towards the pyramid before getting close to the camel. Doing this can let you chase the camel back to where you have to jump before you get to the pyramid, and you can more easily hit the camel there if you keep moving back and forth near the edge.
The camel will be used to push a block near the door leading to the next area. Once you've pushed the block, you'll still want to be the Armed Desert Fox for what's up ahead. You'll also want the camel to get the Power Cell that is blocked by the oasis.
In the next area, there are a few other armed desert foxes, and they will shoot you on sight. Keep your distance and pay attention to where they patrol so that they don't fire back at you. You may have to close to them and fire mercilessly on them and kill them before they kill you. Thankfully, there's plenty of energy in the earlier areas. You'll see a switch near the big brown pipe; jump on it to turn on the oil pump.
By looking around the perimeter of this section, you'll find another hill of dirt that you can go up to explore more of the level with. Once again, keep your distance and figure out where your hot shots will work best when blasting at enemies.
Shooting down all of the armed desert foxes will net you the trophy. You'll need to get to the vulture platform to get it.
At the oil switch, you'll see two squares moving up and down. You'll need to jump on one of them, then jump to a switch to activate it and turn on an elevator. This will allow you to make your way to the exit teleporter. Before you can activate it, you'll need to jump across the three nearby platforms. Make sure that you can jump from one to the next without being burned by fire.
On the other end is the aforementioned vulture platform where the trophy will be. There will be a vulture that you need to shoot down as well as a Power Cell. Shoot down the vulture, then take control of it. From here, you can get the final Power Cell, fly to the valves at the nearby fuel line, drain the oil, and get to the exit.
As the vulture, you can press the B button while on top of another animal to take it wherever you need to go. Press B again to let go of whatever you've grabbed with your talons to lob it. Remember that for later.
This level is the third of the EVO shellsuit levels, and not only is it the hardest of those levels, it's also one of the hardest levels in the entire game.
In this level, you're shooting down enemies after EVO takes control of a chameleon and runs off before Dan finds a flying security camera with a gun on it. The Control Stick moves the camera, A shoots and B button speeds the camera up. You have to shoot down as many animals as possible, as different animals have different point values, in order to face EVO and shoot him down to get the shellsuit piece.
Why is this level so hard? Because it's atrocious in execution. You can move the camera and aim, but the lack of a target reticle on the screen makes it a gamble to guess where you're aiming, so you're better off continuously firing at all times. Because of this, it's hard to hit just about every enemy that's here unless you have a rough idea of what you're doing, and even then, that doesn't feel like enough. It doesn't help that the camera moves at one speed and you can't hold another button to fine-tune aiming and rotate more slowly. There's a shooting gallery section midway through, but good luck hitting anything with a high point value.
There are power-ups such as double arrow shots missiles that do more damage, but once again, good luck hitting anything. All I could do was just hold A and move the camera around to shoot everything I could, and if you want to get the bare minimum of 12,100 points that you need to trigger the part where you shoot at EVO and get the arms, you have to shoot just about every animal down and destroy them. That also includes the two parrots at the end, which are worth 1000 points each, and all the chameleons before that, which are 500 points each. I also made sure to shoot every piranha, as they are 500 points a pop, as well as the two turtle tanks that are also worth 500 points each. Lions are worth 300, but even near the end, every little bit is going to help.
If you get anything less than 12,100 points, the level will end and you'll have to play it again. If you get 12,100 or above, EVO will show up in his chameleon form and you'll have to shoot him down. EVO leaves a footprint trail wherever he goes, and you can use that to aim the camera and keep shooting to take him out. The boss battle doesn't end until you beat EVO, so take your time and keep shooting and aiming to bring EVO down and get the arms.
You'll need to kill all the gorillas, kill all the hyenas and collect all the keys to get through this area.
You'll start off as the racing turtle. There will be a key on the path behind you, and there will also be Power Cells near it. There is also an area you can only enter with the turtle left of where you start, and it contains more Power Cells and a box with energy in it.
Go opposite of where the first key was and use the shell attack to take out the elephant, then use the turbo ramp to go up the ramps and go through the rings. Keep moving forward and turbo boost off the ramps to continue and go through another ring. You'll soon move past where you need to put the keys as you keep moving forward. Turbo boost off the ramp to get to the platform with the tree, then make your way further around the perimeter of the level to return to the start. Leave the gorillas on the way back alone for now.
Explore the ground area of the starting area. You'll find another elephant to take down, so do that. There is another area to enter as the turtle for energy if you need it. From here, control the elephant. There is a cave that you need to go to take out two motorcycle hyenas. Spit water at them and take them out, and make sure that neither of them falls into the lava. This is possible to have happen, and if it does, you won't be able to finish the level. You may take some damage, but as long as you're aggressively hitting them with water, you should be fine. Take control of the hyena from this point and use your missles to defeat the chameleon on your way out. As the chameleon, you have a tongue attack with A and the ability to be invisible with B, but you need to hold the button down to stay invisible and you won't be able to attack while you are. Unfortunately, with the way I've done things, I won't need the chameleon.
You'll want to control the hyena from here on in. Head back to the area just before you return to the start and take out the two gorillas here with your missiles. Take control of one of the gorillas and head back to the starting area. Go back to ground level and double jump across the metal boxes, then double jump over the branches that act as platforms on the tree to get to the bridge. Double jump from plank to plank to get your second key.
From here, you'll need to jump to the nearby vine and double jump up the branches to another vine. You'll need to swing and jump to a second vine, then jump off that to go through another ring. This is the fourth and last ring you need to go through, as well as the hardest, since you risk taking fall damage if you miss the vines on the way to the ring. If you go through all four rings, though, you'll get the trophy, which will appear on a log to the right of the first two ramps you saw near the first elephant. You'll need to swing on yet another vine to get to it, but at least the worst and the hardest of this is over. Just remember that you need to single jump off the vine or else you'll keep missing the trophy every time. There is also another ring near the keyholes, as well as a vine. This vine will take you to another vine, which in turn takes you to three power cells and a key. This key will be the third and last one you need.
When you have all three keys, go back to the keyholes. You'll unlock the panel in the ground and you'll be able to go through the exit teleporter.
Not only do you have an elephant that you have to get out of a tree, but you also have to activate a switch to reveal some stepping stones and take control of a piranha. Time to get to work.
You start off as a lion. A jumps and B roars, and the roar also acts as an attack. There will be a hyena near where you start; chase after it and keep roaring at it to destroy it. There will also be a gorilla running around; you'll want to roar it to death too. Thankfully, you can do it from a distance atop a tree root.
From here, take control of the gorilla, go up the ramps, and grab the box. Take the box to ground level near the red ring that is floating over the ground, then grab the boulder that is also laying around near this ring. Throw the boulder over the red ring to get rid of it, then take the boulder and throw it into the red ring above the water near the exit. Grab the box and take it to the ring near the speaker, then get the boulder near the speaker and throw it into the ring. Go up the ramps to the top of the mountain, swing to the top of the giant tree trunk, then throw the nearby boulder into the nearby red ring. There will be some vines to the side; swing to the other side and hits the switch to activate the stepping stones. Use the nearby waterfall to drop down.
From here, grab the box, bring it to the top of the mountain, then grab the boulder that is halfway up the mountain and throw it through the red ring that is suspended in mid-air nearby. By throwing boulders through all the red rings, you'll get a trophy. The trophy will be at the top of the mountain, ready to grab.
Go inside the tree trunk and place a hyena on the middle platform in the center, then go back to the top of the mountain and place the box on the metal platform. Now you see why the level has the title that it has. Swing to the top of the tree trunk, then switch to the hyena and jump across the stepping stones. Travel around the perimeter of the level. Near the big palm tree, there is a parrot. Laugh it to death with the hyena. From here, you can take control of the parrot.
Fly back to the pool that you saw after the stepping stones and hit the switch to reveal a metal platform, then get in the water to get the piranhas' attention. Get out of the water and divebomb them to defeat them, then take control of one of the piranhas. As a piranha, follow the path, and when you see a wooden wall a little further down the path, get to the surface and jump over it to hit another switch. This will reveal a metal bridge and lower the door.
Go back to the parrot and take control of it, then get back to the tree near the huge logs. There are two ways to get the elephant off the branch. The first is pushing it off with the parrot. The second - which is probably not intended - is taking control of the lion and repeatedly jumping and roaring to shove it off more slowly. I do the latter. You'll need the elephant to get the last two Power Cells and exit the level.
