marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 9 of 9

We finish this game off with an entire walkthrough of all five mini-games!

Okay, okay. There's one useful password...kinda.

Go to the password screen and input Elmyra, Shirley La Loon and Calamity Coyote. You'll instantly enter a black screen with six choices.

Roulette

Roulette takes you to the World o' Games screen. Gee, I guess you can play this any time you want, too. But, hey, in case you can't decide...

Squash

Here's the only one we haven't covered: "Furrball's Championship Squash." Obviously, you have to land on Furball to get this one.

If you get Furball on the Wheel o' Games wheel, you'll get the squash game. Hit the ball 15 times without missing to get an extra life. Other Tiny Toons characters will run from one door to the other, and if you hit them with the ball, you'll be able to do nifty things such as slow the ball down, stop the timer, or instantly get a one-up.

Junction

This is the "Hungry Boy Hamton" game we covered back in Part 5.

This is like those little slide puzzles you probably got at parties and such when you were a kid where you had that empty space and you had to slide the panels around so that all the numbers were in order.

This is exactly the same thing, except you're constructing a path to the apples so Hamton can eat them, giving you extra lives. Move the blank space around so that the path is unbroken. Every apple Hamton collects nets you an extra life. If Hamton falls in the blank hole or runs into an empty space with no path on it, the game is over. Hold down A, B, X or Y to make Hamton move faster.

Maze

This is the "Babs, Find Your Friends!" game covered back in Part 4.

This is a maze game where you have to avoid the bad guys and free all your friends. You control Babs Bunny in a maze-like setting. Use the Control Pad to change her direction. Each friend you rescue nets you an extra life. Avoid Dizzy, Elmyra and Arnold and you'll be able to stand a chance.

Bingo

This is the "Plucky Duck's Go-Go Bingo" game from Part 6.

This is my personal favorite out of the five. For every line you complete in this randomly generated bingo board (it's different every time you play), you'll get an extra life. You get seven balls and it's all luck-based, so hope for the best. Compared to the rest of the bonus games, you'll probably get more extra lives here than in all the other games.

Seesaw

This is the "Mystery Weight Challenge" game from the beginning.

You have five characters, and you have to select your sequence carefully to get as many extra lives as you can. The maximum here is four, if you can do it right.

Pay attention to how the line-ups are represented while the description on how to play is onscreen. If you were to pit Sweetie Bird against Lil' Sneezer, you'd get a tie. Same goes for Gogo Dodo against Little Beeper, Plucky Duck against Shirley LaLoon, etc. Also, it goes from lightest to heaviest as you go down. Yeah, you're welcome.

If you're heavier than the other character, you win an extra life. Otherwise, you get nothing. Draws also give you nothing.

And that's it for this one!

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 8 of 9

We finally fight Duck Vader and finish the game!

Level 6 (continued)

Before you make it to the maze with the stormtroopers and balls, climb up to the top and you'll meet the big headed guys again. Around this part, you'll find a key. Grab it first, then go right and you'll see the platforms with the Stormtroopers. Go all the way to the right and drop to the lowest platform. Since you have the key, you'll be able to open the door. Walk into the rope and you'll be able to catapult yourself back to where we left off and skip a bit of the level in the process.

While you're making your way to the top, be mindful of both the Stormtroopers and the balls. You can't destroy the balls, but if you drop kick one it'll change direction and turn from orange to blue. When they're blue, the balls will destroy the Stormtroopers. Once you make it to the top of this part, go to the right and you'll finally face Duck Vader!

Level 6 Boss: Duck Vader

Love the background and music here!

This battle is as easy as it is interesting. Basically, you'll have to use your drop kick to manuever Duck Vader around the room and into the fire of his paralyzer beam, which spins around and fires in all its Mode 7 glory. You can stand and move around on top of the gun whenever necessary. If he locks himself onto the firing end of the gun, drop kick him away from it. As long as you don't get hit by the ray of the laser gun, you're fine.

If you have to, drop kick the gun so that it spins around. It'll still fire when it's spinning around faster than usual, so you'll have a better chance of nailing Duck Vader with the gun.

Once you beat him, we all find out it's the end of the game and that Duck Vader is actually Plucky. Yeah...the final boss was Plucky. Who would've thought?

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 7 of 9

Do you remember that episode that mocks Star Wars, complete with Duck Vader, the duck-helmeted Stormtroopers and Plucky Duck as Luke Skywalker?

Hope you do, because this episode gets its whole level at the end of the game!

Level 6: Star Wars

Strangely enough, you're still playing as Buster, though, and you have to rescue Princess Babs (who unsurprisingly looks like Princess Leia).

Good gravy, the music here is really awesome.

The first section has its share of bomb-throwing robots and Imperial Stormtroopers at the beginning. Make your way to the left first, climb up the ladder after running up all those walls and you'll be on the ship. Go right, climb up the next ladder, then go left. Dash and slide past the Stormtroopers to get the key. Head back to the keyhole, duck to put the key in and you'll be able to make your way inside.

The second section is in outer space and is chock-full of Star Destroyer wanna-bes in the background that look like wedges of cheese. The whole screen auto-scrolls, and to make matters worse, you're being shot at by something you can't see or destroy. When you see a barrier, get directly behind it so that the giant laser in the background won't damage you when everything flashes white. When you see that glint in the background, you know one is coming. When you're close to the end (which is after that wall you have to run up), take the ladder upwards and hide behind the barrier. Congrats, you won't have to deal with those lasers anymore. All that's left to do is to grab the gold Carrot trophy, climb back down, and walk into the next section.

Hit the switch in front of you to reverse the gravity and send the ball careening into the ceiling. Go left from here (you'll be walking on the ceiling at this point) and hit the switch to bring it back down. Do this a few more times and you'll be able to get a secret room full of stars at the top and the ability to continue your quest at the bottom.

When you enter the room with the pinball bumper, a robot will come in. When it does, the room closes up and the robot will fly around. Avoid the robot and collect as many stars as you can while you drop kick the robot twice. (Love the fact that when you die in this room, stars will touch you and you'll [b]still[/b] collect them. You can get a 1-Up if you're dead in this game...that's a first.)

The fourth section is a dashing course. You can take either the hard course or the easy course, which is further to the right. Basically what you want to do here is run up the walls avoiding the "Out" switches, which sends barrels falling down from the other side. The switches you want to hit are the Gogo Dodo switches (which refill your Dash meter) and the star switches (which send three big stars down at you, touching one of them gives you ten stars). This is your last big chance to farm on lives, so if you need some, get them now. The easy course has a halfway point that you can go back to if you fall, but the hard course has to be done in one shot. (At least it's easier to farm on lives in the hard course.)

The fifth section is back to standard platforming action. Once you make it onto the platform, jump and go to the left. Hold left down to bounce off the rope. You'll careen through the pipe and end up at a large platform on the other side. Next are a bunch of levers that push balls and Stormtroopers up and down. Avoid the balls and take out the Stormtroopers. One of the new bad guys you'll meet here are those ducks with the big, bulging heads that asked Plucky to save their planet in the aforementioned Tiny Toons episode. (Why they're here as enemies, I'll never know.) Going further right will take you to a maze of ladders and platforms. Avoid the balls that bounce back and forth on the ropes, and watch out for all those Stormtroopers again!

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 6 of 9

If you're playing on Children, you won't get this level at all.

Guess what?

We're not playing on Children.

Level 5: Buster's Sky Jinx

Love how Calamity Coyote holds up the sign every time he's speaking.

I would always play this game on Children back in the day and wonder why this level was in the instruction manual. I knew what the level's music sounded like, so I assumed that this was an unused level and that the music was never used. It wasn't until the days of YouTube that I was proven wrong, and I finally got to see this level for the first time. I finally saw what I was missing...

Anyway, the first screen has the capsule that Calamity was talking about. Jump onto it, and you'll take a balloon ride into the sky, after watching it inflate in all its Mode 7 glory. In the following section, Hamton will be flying around blowing bubbles that you can stand on to get higher into the stage. They pop after a little while, so be careful. You'll also find bubbles with stars in them. Sometimes you can move into it and pop the bubble to make the star yours, and other times the bubbles might pop on their own and the stars will drop down. You'll also find more permanent platforms at certain points here, so don't be alarmed if you mess up on your jumps. When you reach the top of this section, move all the way to the right to move on.

In the third section, the balloons act as smaller platforms. Jump from one to the other quickly, as they pop when they reach a certain height. The background here should look familiar, as it's the background from the end of the last section of Level 1. The second set of balloons you'll see don't do that - instead they lower the longer you stand on them. When you reach the next sphere, go left and you'll get three stars and a Buster Bunny doll. Go right and you'll land on a blimp which you'll be standing on for the fourth segment.

Guess what? The Blimp is Mode 7. Beat up any of the buzzards that you can, and keep an eye on the blimp, as you will be trapped on one side of the screen as all the buzzards come out of the other. After a while, the blimp's stopper comes off and Concord Condor will break your fall to take you to the next section. (Gotta love that Mode 7 shrink and rotation there.)

The fourth section is a pinball games. In the first part, grab enough bubbles with the balls in them until the platform appears. When you reach the second part, touch all the balls to bring up the third set of flippers. With those, launch yourself to the top. Pretty simple as long as you don't fall all the way down to the bottom.

The fifth section is dead simple. Just make your way to the door and touch the grey ball. You'll open the door and find what Calamity forgot - the script to the next episode. Unfortunately, as soon as you get it, the building begins to collapse, and the door will shut behind you.

In the last second, you'll be running all the way to the top before the screen closes in on you. Your dash skills will be put to the test here, but it's not really like anything you've seen before. Grab all the silver Gogo trophies and get out of dodge. You're done with this level.

Plucky Duck's Go-Go Bingo

Landing on Plucky gives you this game. This is my personal favorite out of the five. For every line you complete in this randomly generated bingo board (it's different every time you play), you'll get an extra life. You get seven balls and it's all luck-based, so hope for the best. Compared to the rest of the bonus games, you'll probably get more extra lives here than in all the other games.

If you haven't seen the show, I feel bad for you.

Redeem yourself. Nao.

Also contains a link to the entire episode guide in-article.

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 5 of 9

How can Bookworm be a substitute player? He's too darn short!

Level 4: The Big Game

What's this? Football? In a 2D platformer? Did the game just suddenly glitch up? No! This is an actual level! And it's actually pretty interesting!

Here, you're basically sliding under and jumping over the Perfecto Prep players on your way to the end zone. If you can't get a first down before the fourth down is over, you'll lose a life. If you do happen to get one, you'll get some stars. If you're good at this, you can really farm on stars here.

Run is basically self-explanatory: you'll be jumping over and sliding under the players of the other team and you'll able to dash as long as you want. Pass involves making it to the X and hoping you'll be able to catch the ball in time. If you do, you'll be able to get a first down and a bunch of stars.

When you make it all the way to the end zone on the other side of the map, you'll win the level and the game.

Hungry Boy Hamton

Landing on Hamton on the wheel gives you the Hungry Boy Hamton. This is like those little slide puzzles you probably got at parties and such when you were a kid where you had that empty space and you had to slide the panels around so that all the numbers were in order.

This is exactly the same thing, except you're constructing a path to the apples so Hamton can eat them, giving you extra lives. Move the blank space around so that the path is unbroken. Every apple Hamton collects nets you an extra life. If Hamton falls in the blank hole or runs into an empty space with no path on it, the game is over. Hold down A, B, X or Y to make Hamton move faster.

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 4 of 9

We finally enter a haunted house and take on a bunch of ghosts, amongst other things. This is one of the more interesting levels in the game, due to the attention to detail that Konami put into it. Don't blame me if you're looking at the background for minutes on end in the third section.

Level 3: Spook Mansion

The first section here has ghosts. Lots and lots of smiley ghosts. Some of them will be flying solo, others will fly in straight lines. The straight lines of ghosts that curve around are reminiscent of Gradius. I like that.

You'll see a Crystal Gogo Dodo Trophy shortly after the start. Touching one turns all the enemies on the screen into stars. Wait until a large amount of ghosts appear, then grab it. As you continue, the screen will be full of ghosts. Drop kick as much as possible so you can get through it unscathed (if you're still in the last frame of animation, you can still cause damage to them). Once you reach the end where the background is a blue brick wall, leap on the leftmost end of the seesaw and the balls will launch you up. Before you leave, dash up the walls. You'll find both a Crystal Carrot Trophy as well as a gold one. Get those and head out.

The second section takes place on what seems like a belfry. There are bells ringing everywhere, and there happen to be a lot of balconies in the background. Enemies here include the evil chocolate cakes (from the episode where Hamton goes on a diet) and two-headed Frankenstein monsters (another creature from the show).

Near the end of the second section is a ball on a pedestal. Get behind the pedestal, drop kick the ball, and you'll be able to get it onto an incoming seesaw. You're better off taking this ball to the left, as you'll be able to get another crystal carrot as well as another gold one. It's possible to get the Buster Bunny doll near the end of this section without using the ball to get it.

The third section looks very much like a cathedral, complete with stained glass pictures of the main characters from the show. Most of the time you'll be taking rides on mallets, which move back and forth and usually hit other mallets, like some sort of chain reaction. The only enemy you'll meet around here are the vampire bats, which take three hits to kill off. However, you have to wait for them to turn into vampires before you can actually damage them. Make your way to the left and you'll meet Babs. She'll tell you that the Mad Scientist has kidnapped her friend. She'll tell you that destroying the machine will set him free.

If you're on Children, the level ends here. Otherwise...it's boss time!

Level 3 Boss: Marvin the Monster

Yet another reference to the show. This time around, you'll be dealing with Gene Splicer and his mind control machine, which is connected to Marvin the Monster (who Gene Splicer created).

Marvin will throw both light bulbs and rocks. Avoid Marvin and the light bulbs and drop kick the rocks so that they fly into the machine. The machine will show more signs of damage with the more rocks you send into it. Once you send enough rocks careening into the machine, Marvin will be freed.

Babs, Find Your Friends!

Landing on Babs gives you a maze game where you have to avoid the bad guys and free all your friends. You control Babs Bunny in a maze-like setting. Use the Control Pad to change her direction. Each friend you rescue nets you an extra life. Avoid Dizzy, Elmyra and Arnold and you'll be able to stand a chance.

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 3 of 9

We continue on with another of a zillion movie references the show is best known for! Yay!

Level 2: Western Stage (continued)

After the mini-boss, you'll have to leap off rectangle-shaped rocks that acts as makeshift platforms. If you have to, use your drop kick to slow down your jump a little bit. When you reach the next train car, you'll find out that Arnold is back, and he's been throwing these things all along. Drop kick him twice and you'll get ten stars.

You'll then happen upon a train car with a bunch of logs on it that go up and down. Take down the buzzards here for stars, and if you can land on top of the next train car, you can get a gold Carrot Trophy for your effort.

At the last train car, the game automatically makes Buster Bunny dash. You'll jump off a ramp into the stars and you'll land down onto the coal bin of the train itself. Welcome to the third section!

Destroy the smoke stacks with the fire coming out of them, then get on the ladder and go down when the screen scrolls down. Take out the parts of the piping where the steam is coming out, then go down and wait until the screen starts scrolling to the right. Be careful as you take out the boiler, as you don't want to accidentally fall past the bottom of the screen and start this whole section over. Once that's done, slowly make your way to the right and get the Buster Bunny doll while you're at it.

When you see Montana Max, move towards him, as the wall at the front of the train bursts into flames from the inside, causing damage if you're in the radius of all that. (Sheesh, it's like a beginner's trap.) Once the text box comes up, you're done. Buster and Max escape on a railroad cart by speeding it up to 88 MPH as a mock reference to Back to the Future. Level 2 is complete!

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 2 of 9

Hey. Hey, Plucky. Could you time your advice better next time?

Level 2: Western Stage

The first section has dogs running around and guys dropping tomatos out the window. You may remember the guys in the windows from the episode of Tiny Toons where Buster and his friends deal with those four coyotes in a Wild West Town. You'll also see Wile E. Coyote in character as one of the villians from that movie. He'll move forward, throw a tomato towards you, move back, throw a tomato, repeat.

You can slide into the bottom of the stacks of barrels and have them destroy enemies as they go. If you can keep up with them until the reach the first stack of hay, they'll bounce off and go towards you. The barrels can damage you if you do that, so watch out. Just thought I'd throw that in.

If you run all the way up to the top of the Town Hall building, you'll get a Crystal Carrot Trophy as well as a silver one next to it. Useful if you're playing on Challenge Mode. Just stand behind the hay, let your dash gauge fill up, and you'll have enough running time to get up to the building.

After that first stack of hay, you'll have to play jump rope. Jump over the rope successfully ten times to move on. The rope will damage you if you let it sweep you off your feet. Now that's unforgiving.

You'll then go towards the horse pen. The brown horses do nothing, but the blue ones will kick you up into the air, letting you grab the stars floating in the air and also take on the buzzards that are flying around. Nice place to farm on stars. Then it's on to the second section.

The second section takes place in a multi-level saloon, complete with stairways lined with Donkey Kong-esque barrels, Barky Marky clones and falling chandeliers. Once you make it to the fifth and last level, you'll see Montana Max with all the gold. He'll jump out the window and you'll give chase. If you're playing on Children, the stage ends here.

Guess what? We're not playing on Children.

The third section is on a train. Guess what? It's auto-scrolling. Also, the music fits the mood of this part perfectly.

Pay attention when you're in the first car. If you see a pair of coyote ears at the bottom of the windows, drop kick them. If you get caught in the nets, quickly dash out of them before you get moved off the screen and lose a life.

After a while, you'll have to dash over the tunnel in order to keep yourself from getting killed. This section makes the wall-running section of Level 1 look like child's play. Try to stay as far to the left as you can as you dash and jump your way through this part, taking the silver Gogo trophies as you go, and when you're almost there, you'll run into a gold Gogo Dodo Trophy. This one gives you temporary invincibility, allowing you to run into those coyotes in your path with relative ease.

The railroad track will then fall from below you. When the car you're on is about to fall into the bottomless pit, dash and jump to the next car. There are two cars after the first one, and the first of the two has an enemy on it, so be careful when you dash jump. On the last car, you'll see Calamity Coyote chasing after Little Beeper. Dash jump when the screen tells you to, and you'll run on top of another tunnel. When you get back on the train, you'll go through the tunnel, and the screen begins to dim and out.

Take care of the gangsters (they both take two hits to defeat), and you'll eventually meet the magician Silas Warner. You may remember him from the episode where he kidnaps characters from Wackyland and places them in his circus. He moves back and forth and tries to hit you with his extending magic wand. Three drop kicks will put him in his place.

marioatwlink plays Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! - Part 1 of 9

About time I covered another Warner Bros. related game that doesn't suck. Thank you, Konami, for making this big pile of awesome (like last time).

Oh, by the way, this will be played on Normal, which means you will see all the bosses ("Children," the easiest difficulty, doesn't have them), and "Buster's Skyjinx" (again, not on Children Mode).

Of course, that also means there will be no passwords, as the passwords take you back to Children difficulty. It's like The Adventures of Batman and Robin for Super Nintendo, except the passwords are nearly useless.

Anyway, on with the show...

Level 1: ACME Looniversity

As soon as we start the level, we meet enemies who look like that rat from Perfecto Prep and find out that none of the students can reach the water fountain, much less the top set of lockers. As a matter of fact, they can fit in the lockers easily. Thanks, Konami, for totally breaking the laws of perspective and almost making me think I was covering Monster in My Pocket. Again.

The first section is pretty straightforward. When you reach the stairs, dash and slide under them to find a crystal Carrot Trophy. This will add one heart to your maximum life - but won't fill it.

Whenever you defeat enemies, you'll get a star for doing so. Collecting 100 of these gives you an extra life. You'll also see these out in the open.

The second section gives you a crash course in dashing. The silver Gogo Dodo trophy will instantly fill your dash meter to maximum. Whenever you see these, you'll usually see a couple more in quick succession to promote continual running in a dashing segment (which there aren't much of, but boy, are they different from normal gameplay). Press the shoulder buttons to dash and get ready to jump long (but not bottomless) pits. The stars that give you extra lives work as a path to tell you where you need to be at with your running jump (like the coins in Super Mario Bros.). Thankfully, if you fall in these gaps, you can use the dash to run up the walls and make your way out. Just make sure that dash meter is filled up first, and avoid the 16 ton weights as you're making your way up at the right-most end of the section. Thankfully, if you know what you're doing, this section is pretty easy.

You'll also find a gold Carrot Trophy here. This one completely refills your health.

The third one is the library, and it's more of the same, except you're not jumping over large gaps. However, the walls of the gigantic library shelves are littered with enemies that peek out of the walls to toss books at you! Jumping on the buttons will, of course, move the second oversized shelf, allowing you to wall run through this part. You'll also see the silver Carrot Trophy at the beginning of this section. These refill just one heart, but they're still better than nothing. After this, just jump on the next button, drop down, and you'll come down into the arts and crafts storage room where you'll break a Montana Max statue and catch the unwanted attention of Arnold, the muscle-bound pit bull with the German accent. Welcome to section four!

Drop kick Arnold and jump over him when he dashes. When you drop kick him three times, he dies, leaving a key (which you need to pick up) and a bunch of stars. This key unlocks the door on the left side, so open it up and run up the wall before you take the elevator. You'll find another gold Carrot Trophy and a hidden Buster Bunny doll in a secret alcove just above the trophy. If you walk into the wall in that alcove long enough, Buster Bunny will appear through the wall when he's in the wall-leaning animation.

Take the elevator up, and you'll be at the outside cafeteria seating. The enemies here are easy, just like the rest of everyone you've fought in the level. If you run up the wall just next to the elevator, jump to the opposite side, jump back to the wall and go right, you'll make the background move...and nothing else. Yet another glitch. Didn't know that until now.

Go left, and you'll meet Hamton. He'll tell you that Dizzy Devil is causing chaos in the cafeteria. If you're playing on Children level, the level ends here.

If not, this will be your first boss fight.

Level 1 Boss: Dizzy Devil

This is pretty easy. Hit the conveyor belt blocks with the food above them. The food will bounce off, and if Dizzy is near that piece of food, he'll eat it. He'll run around the level, using the doors of the conveyor belt to run around the level, which you can do as well. He'll spin every so often, and he'll also spin if you drop kick him. When he spins, he'll tear through the conveyor belt blocks, making gaps in the belt.

If you hit the underside of a conveyor belt block while Dizzy is on it, it'll reverse the direction he's facing. It can be helpful at times.

Once you feed Dizzy Devil enough food, he'll go to sleep. Level 1 complete!

Bonus Round!

There are five mini-games that you'll be able to choose from at the end of every level (except the last one), and each one is different. Thankfully, there is an extra video after the end that shows how they all play. I'll cover each one as they come across and cover them all again at the finale.

Mystery Weight Challenge

Landing on Sweetie Bird on the Wheel O' Games gives you the Mystery Weight Challenge. You have five characters, and you have to select your sequence carefully to get as many extra lives as you can. The maximum here is four, if you can do it right.

Pay attention to how the line-ups are represented while the description on how to play is onscreen. If you were to pit Sweetie Bird against Lil' Sneezer, you'd get a tie. Same goes for Gogo Dodo against Little Beeper, Plucky Duck against Shirley LaLoon, etc. Also, it goes from lightest to heaviest as you go down. Yeah, you're welcome.

If you're heavier than the other character, you win an extra life. Otherwise, you get nothing. Draws also give you nothing.

Controls

D-Pad: Move
B: Jump
X/Y: Drop Kick (this is your attack, obviously)
L/R: Dash (press Down while running to slide, press B while dashing for a long jump that can also destroy enemies, press L/R again to stop)

Pay attention to your Dash Meter. The more it's filled up, the more you can run.

Might as well throw this in for free.

Believe it or not, the special "make friends with kerrek" and "buy kerrek a cold one" commands didn't show up in the game until after this Strong Bad e-mail.

Also, if you click on "good gravy" at the end, you get the King Of Town's Good Gravy. Also, clicking the word "crap" at the end also gives you the "All is on" song, which is a reference to Allison's name at the beginning of the e-mail.

DeceasedCrab plays Peasant's Quest - Part 6 of 6

We finally smote Trogdor! Yay!

You'll have to deal with the Three Keepers of Trogdor and take their quiz questions in order to get into Trogdor's lair. Or...you could give them the soda, the meatball sub and the pills respectively. Either way, you get the same amount of points.

If you get the quiz questions wrong, you die. The first one turns you into some kid named Ron Cumberdale, which is pretty hilarious.

Anyway, the first one gives you the Trog-Shield, the second gives you the Trog-Helmet, and the third gives you the Trog-Sword.

When you enter Trogdor's lair, throw the sword at him. You could just stand there and get the ending right here, but talk to Trogdor first. Not only do you get points for doing so, you get a really awesome old-school digitized voice for Trogdor. No wonder there isn't much to Disk 2. Then he kills you.

Enjoy your ending.

Now go play this game already!

DeceasedCrab plays Peasant's Quest - Part 5 of 6

We complete our peasantry quest and reach Trogdor's lair.

Head back to the cottage on the lower-left corner of the map. Since you moved that rock and uncovered the hole, drop the baby and the baby will open the door for you before it crawls off. Go inside and open the drawer. You'll find a robe. Take it and put it on. Be sure to close the drawer too. That's the only way you're going to get the maximum score. Mission two complete.

Go back to the inn and get a room. You'll wake up in the middle of the night. Get the pot of horse grease. It'll fall on your head, and getting around will be a little difficult until you leave the inn, as the arrow key controls are different. When you get it off your head, it'll still be night. Go south one screen and walk under the lantern. You're on fire now. Mission three complete.

Go back to the knight and you'll be able to go to the mountain. When it tells you to switch to Disk 2, just press Enter twice. (Pressing it once gives you the old floppy read sound from the Apple II era. It's pretty interesting to listen to.)

Climb the mountain with the command "climb mountain," and try not to get hit by the rocks. Thankfully, it's pretty easy. Be sure to save on each screen just in case you die from  a rock showing up in the wrong place at the most inconvenient time, because that can happen. Just use the arrow keys to move anywhere on the rock wall that you want. After three screens of cliffside, you'll finally make it to the cave.

Now go play this game already!

DeceasedCrab plays Peasant's Quest - Part 4 of 6

throw baby

54 of 150 points? Okay.

Go back to where the old man was and throw the feed. The old man will get a bite on his fishing hook and get a load of fish all at once. If you go to the inn on the right, you'll be able to go inside now that you've helped the old man. Before you do that, though, go back to where you found the pebbles and type the command "throw baby." You'll get the baby back as well as a bottle of soda. Way to go, parent of the year.

Go back to the well. Put the baby in the well basket and turn the crank. (If you walk away while the baby's still in the basket, the game automatically kills you. That's awesome.) You'll get the baby back as well as a meatball sub. (Even now, this scene still makes me crave Subway.)

Go back to the inn and type in the command "get a room." He tells you that he only serves peasants, and that you'll need a robe. If you give him the baby, he'll pull out his bottle of medicine. You'll automatically grab it. (Weirdest way to get an item. Ever.)

Now go play this game already! 

ORIGINS UNLOCKED: Trogdor

Dear Strong Bad, can you draw a dragon?

DeceasedCrab plays Peasant's Quest - Part 3 of 6

Okay, now we actually do some stuff. Sorry if those last two videos bored you to death.

Go back to the old man fishing and go one screen south. You'll find a cottage surrounded by four crunch berry bushes. Go in and you'll find a woman in a rocking chair with her baby. Take the feed from the shelf next to her. If you talk to her, you'll find out her husband was squished by Trogdor, and that the jhonka stole her insurance riches. She'll give you something if you can get her gold back. When she leaves, she also tells you that the baby lost something in the bushes and that it's yours if you can find it. Go to all four bushes and type "get berries" near them. On the fourth bush, you'll find a Super Trinket! Nice!

Go back to the archery range and give the Super Trinket to the archers. They'll finally let you play the archery mini-game. You have to hit the bulls-eye at least three times, and it's really easy. Just pay attention to where the flag's blowing, as the wind is random with every shot. Make sure that both arrows point at the red line on the power meter in the lower-right corner. When you get three shots on the bulls-eye, they'll give you the SuperTime FunBow! And since you have the arrow, you'll have something to shoot at with.

Go find the Kerrek. He's east of the screen of the screen where Gary was, and he's also south of the screen where the pebbles were. Either screen's find. Enter the command "shoot kerrek" when he's on the screen, and...ARROWED! He's dead. (If you pass by him several times, his body will be a bit decomposed and flies will be buzzing around him. A while after that, he'll be nothing more than a skeleton. Nice touch, there, Videlectrix.) After that, it'll rain for a few screens. Grab the kerrek's belt. You now smell like a peasant. Mission one complete. Now go down to the dried mud (going south to it lets you get there faster, as the world loops from north to south) and fall into it. Then go one screen west and hide in the hay. Fun time.

Go one screen to the south, and you'll find the Jhonka dancing around like a lunatic, as well as his riches. Grab the riches. The hay will blow off in the wind after you grab the riches, and when he asks if you took his treasure, say "no." He'll leave you alone. (Good lord, the Jhonka is stupid.) Bring the riches back to the woman in the cottage and she'll give you her baby.

Now go play this game already!

DeceasedCrab plays Peasant's Quest - Part 2 of 6

Don't hug trees. You'll get stuck.

More jokes here.

The lower-left corner of the map is a cottage. There is a rock you can move, and if you enter the command "move rock," you won't get much of an opening. Maybe later...

Hey, at least you get 2 points.

North of the pebbles is an archery range. If you talk to the guy (whose name happens to be Mendelev), you'll find out that his brother Dondolev is somewhere in Peasantry, and to say "Haldo" if you see him. To the north of that is the well. If you place your pebbles in the well bucket, it'll cause the bucket to go down. If you turn the crank, you'll find a monster maskus. You'll automatically take the maskus. Go back to the upper-right corner of the map, where Old Gary was, and wear the mask to scare him. He'll break through the fence, and if you walk through where Gary went, you'll find the archer's brother! Say "haldo" to him and he'll go back to the archery range. You won't be able to play it yet until you get a certain item, though...

Now go play this game already!

DeceasedCrab plays Peasant's Quest - Part 1 of 6

I'm using DeceasedCrab again.

*walks around the room funny wearing socks and sandals*

In case you can't tell, this game is available on www.homestarrunner.com. Isn't too hard to find, thankfully. The game is kinda short, yet it's pretty fun.

Also, the game debuted on August 1, 2005. The 1982 copyright is a lie, as funny as it is. But hey, you gotta love the loading screen and the Apple II-esque visuals and sound.

It's like the original King's Quest. Type in commands with the keyboard and control your hero with the arrow keys. Nothing different from the original source material, really. The "tips for moro-er, beginners" screen will tell you basically everything you need to know, especially the whole "type 'inv' to check your inventory" thing as well as the fact that the plus and minus keys increase and decrease your walking speed, respectively.

Anyway, you are a peasant from Peasantry named Rather Dashing. You have returned home from a vacation at Scalding Lake only to find out that your house has been burninated (yes, burninated) by none other than Trogdor the Burninator, the most evil (and awesome) dragon that ever lived.

You start the game at the entrance to the mountain where Trogdor is. Unfortunately, it's blocked by a guard. Unless you look like a peasant, you smell like a peasant, and you're on fire like a peasant, you're not going over there.

After a few joke commands (as well as two interesting ways to just kill yourself) as well as the "pwd" command (which I didn't know about until now), we ask the knight about stuff - mostly Trogdor, the Jhonka, and the Kerrek.

Walk two screens to the east and one screen south. (You can also take other alternate ways over there, since the world is one giant rectangle. You'll find some pebbles next to the lake. Walk up to them and type in "get pebbles" to get the pebbles. They're now in your inventory and you have one point out a possible 150.

From there, go one screen left and you'll be back at your burninated house. If you examine it, you'll find an unburninated piece of paper. Pick it up. Congrats, you actually have a map. Not only is it in your inventory, you can type in "map" and see where you are.

There's not much to this entry, just a bunch of jokes.

Now go play this game already!

Batman Returns (SNES) Mania Tool-Assisted Flawless Playthrough (TFP) by Sabih

Here's the tool-assisted flawless playthrough, or TFP, that I used for a few interesting tidbits and hints that I never knew about when I played this.

Unlike TASes, or tool-assisted speedruns, TFPs still use re-records and rewinds, but eschew game-breaking glitches, taking advantage of game code and other tricks such as damage boosts and dying to save time. The result: artificial perfection achieved through a much more normal playing experience.

For more TFP goodness:

http://www.enterplayment.net

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 7 of 7

This game definitely saves the best for last! At least there isn't a boss rush.

Scene 7

The Penguin's Lair

Section 1 (beat-'em-up)

You'll be dealing with basically every enemy you've met in the beat-'em-up sections ever. First, it's bomb-carrying dark green Thin Clowns and Bikers, then Fat Clowns and Fire Clowns, and finally Knife Throwers and Sword Swallowers. You'll have the blue and green Thin Clowns interspersed throughout all of these groups, too.

The Penguin has an army of his namesakes packing heat in the foreground and background. They'll be firing rockets from both sides, throwing you into a three-front battle. Block the rockets to take less damage from them, just in case they come for you, as they're impossible to avoid once you're right under them. Otherwise, switch to the grappling hook and swing around so the rockets end up being way off when it comes to tracking you.

Whenever you see a lone green Thin Clown cartwheel onto the screen after you finish off a slew of enemies, you're at the end of an attack wave. Beat him down to continue on.

You'll get a Small Heart and an extra Bat Test Tube at the very end when you reach Arctic World. You'll also be dealing with three Sword Swallowers at one time, and if you don't bob and weave with these guys, you'll have a hard time with The Penguin's last line of defense.

Section 2 (side-scrolling)

You'll be facing the Duck Vehicle. You'll have to jump onto the platform underneath the duck, then walk back. After doing this a couple of times, it will shoot rockets. As you throw Batarangs at this things, block the rockets (unless you're far enough away from them and can still hit the vehicle, which is painfully hard to do). You'll want to lose as few lives to this thing as possible.

Section 3 (beat-'em-up)

You'll fight The Penguin once more.

Don't dally around when he starts walking around, otherwise he'll hop forward and sidestep as he shoots at you with his umbrella machine gun. If you grab him and throw him to the ground, stay away from him when he's on the ground. He'll leap back up when he gets up, and if you're right in his path, he'll grab on and bite you.

After you do some damage to him, he'll start flying around. Stay away from him and don't even bother trying to attack him as he flies around leaving a movement trail behind him, as he'll be an invincible human battering ram at this point. He'll fly around in a diamond-shaped pattern. When he runs half a diamond, he'll throw umbrellas on the ground, then he'll cover the rest of the distance and fly around a little more when he reaches the top of the "diamond," giving you a chance to hit him and/or grab him for a quick combo. When he's flying around fast enough for him to smack into you, go the opposite direction he's going. If he's going clockwise, go counter-clockwise, and vice versa. Punch him a few times and do the two headbutt-throw combo. This way, you'll hit him out of his off-screen flying attack and he'll be walking around on the ground again, ready to repeat his pattern.

If he does manage to fly off the screen, throw a Bat Test Tube down just before he can hit you. This will let you get past the attack without getting hurt, as it's really tough to see coming and dodge since you won't be able to tell which side of the screen he'll reappear at.

When you beat The Penguin, you've saved Gotham City! The Penguin's evil tirade is finally over! You did it!

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 6 of 7

This is perhaps the hardest scene in the game before the last level, and you're going to find out why really, really quickly.

Scene 6

Circus Train

Section 1 (beat-'em-up)

You're going to be dealing with Fat Clowns at the beginning. Grouping them up and trying to deal damage to two of them at the same time works well here.

The background will eventually change from the outside world to the inside of a tunnel. You'll start seeing a biker moving in and out of the background tossing bombs onto the top of the train. Whatever you do, don't be near the background or in the flight path of the bombs. If you do the former, you'll most likely be performing the latter as well. If you're in the bombs' flight paths, you'll instantally get hit as soon as the bomb touches you. Once again, cheapness at its finest. You could stop the biker with a Bat Test Tube, but it's just going to come back at the same exact time interval, so it's not even worth it just to keep the biker from throwing one bomb. You'll be dealing with a lot of Knife Throwers and dark green Thin Clowns that carry bombs, adding an even more explosive element to this slice of the ride.

You'll eventually end up back outside the tunnel, but you'll also have to jump over arches positioned over the tracks. The arches will sweep you off your feet and cause damage, but it will cause instant death to any enemies who touch them...except the blue Thin Clowns, who will jump over them even if they're facing you. Apparently even the blue ones have a special talent. If you can somehow stun them in time, the arches will still kill them...but I wouldn't even recommend doing this on Mania unless you got the timing of the arches' appearances down to a science.

When the background is covered by a building, you're nearing the end. You'll be dealing with Fire Clowns, Sword Swallowers and Knife Throwers. You'll be dealing with two waves of them, then you'll finally get a chance to refill all of your health with a Big Heart before the train stops, signifying the end of the first section.

Section 2 (beat-'em-up)

When you get off the train, you'll immediately be in a boss fight. This time, you'll be facing an organ grinder. The Organ Grinder will have blue Thin Clowns flanking him throughout the battle until you get rid of them all. At the outset, the Organ Grinder will try to get in close and whack you with his organ. If you can throw Thin Clowns into him or - even better - knock his head into that of a Thin Clown, good for you. You'll be doing a lot of throwing just to keep the Thin Clowns off your back. If you need to, use a Bat Test Tube whenever you're cornered by the boss and the Thin Clowns.

When you get the Organ Grinder down to a light green health bar, he'll switch tactics. Instead of trying to go after you, he'll run away from you, and quickly! He'll go to one side of the screen and try to shoot you down with the machine gun hidden in his organ. Since he won't even use close-range attacks at this point, it's a lot easier to get close to him as he's running away from you (walking into him diagonally really helps). From there, you can do some headbutts and throws on him until he's dead. Just remember to sidestep whenever his machine gun pops out.

When you beat this scene, you'll finally come upon the old Gotham City Zoo...and Arctic World! You're at The Penguin's Lair now, and your adventure is just about over. It's just you, even more clown lackeys, and The Penguin.

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 5 of 7

Mode 7? Mode 7.

Scene 5

To The Batmobile

This level looks just like the end of the cutscene before the first level, minus the Batsignal. Here, you'll be racing down the streets of Gotham City taking down (and avoiding) the many bikers in your path.

Press Y repeatedly to shoot at enemies. Holding Up and Down on the Control Pad allows you to speed up and slow down. While there isn't any noticeable speed difference if you're standing still, it allows you to make faster turns when you're sped up and narrower turns when you're slowing down. Holding Up while turning works wonders, as you (and I) will find out, as it allows you to avoid enemy rockets with the greatest of ease.

You'll first see bikers leaping out from behind the Batmobile on their bikes. They can easily be shot down and destroyed if you're quick enough.

When the bikers are coming straight at you in rows, stay in the center line of the road so you can avoid them all and take as little damage from colliding into them as possible.

The bikers that show up ahead of you and ride forwards will turn back every so often and fire a couple of rockets before you're able to pass by them. The easier the difficulty you're playing on, the more likely you are to destroy them before the game allows you to pass by them. You're better off just focusing squarely on avoiding all of their rockets on Mania, since these bikers have light green energy bars and can be pretty relentless with their attacks.

The purple Batman icons show up in lulls in the action, and you'll see a few of them twice. You'll get 500 points if you can pick one up, which is 300 more than what you'll get out of the bikers, so try to pick up as many as you can. Once you pass by the first wave of Batman icons, you'll see the pattern of bikers you see at the beginning begin again.

You don't want to die in this scene. If you do, you'll be sent back to an earlier point in the level. If you die against the boss, you'll have to start the entire fight over.

The boss in this level is the Campain Vehicle. (Yeah, just one in over a million Batman puns.) This vehicle has two guys hanging onto the back of it that are not only firing rockets at you from the back, but also flinging firecrackers at you! The rockets can be avoided as they normally would be, but you'll have to get all the way to the side to avoid the firecrackers, assuming you stay in the center as much as possible between attack waves. All the while, you'll be shooting down the Campain Vehicle while avoiding bikers. When you get the Campain Vehicle down to the normal yellow energy bar, it will start firing more rockets at you than normal. Weave around while avoiding the bikers, and keep mashing the Y button to make your way to victory!

When you beat this scene, Batman's reputation is restored while The Penguin's true intentions to bring bedlam to Gotham City are revealed. He begins an initiative to kidnap all of the first-born sons in the city, and it's up to Batman to save the children!

Batman Returns movie trailer

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 4 of 7

Well, our intentions WERE noble, but...

Scene 4

The Penguin's Trap

Section 1 (beat-'em-up)

The enemy placement in the first section of this scene is completely random. You could face from four to as many eight blue Thin Clowns in the very beginning, and the way they enter the screen will either be down from the ceiling or from the side of the screen. I finished off enemies as soon as they appeared and got eight Thin Clowns as a result, but I'm not sure if either speed is a contributing factor or it's completely random.

The enemy placement on the way to the door is also random. Sometimes you'll have three Fat Clowns drop from the ceiling at once, and sometimes you won't. Either way, throwing enemies into the background wall is a huge help.

The second section can actually be memorized compared to the first. You'll be dealing with Fire Clowns and Sword Swallowers. Once again, you can throw enemies into the background wall if you need to.

Section 2 (beat-'em-up)

You'll now commence the second battle with Catwoman. This is basically the same battle as the one from the end of Scene 3; the only differences are that you cannot throw Catwoman into the background wall (probably because the wall was programmed to be empty space due to the Ice Princess being tied up in the chair in the background) and Catwoman does not perform the speedy V-patterned attack that made the first battle aggravating. The same strategies apply, and she still has the same annoying kick, dashing scratch and whip attacks. Yes, the dashing scratch can still hit you on the very last frame. Don't use your Bat Test Tubes against Catwoman, as you'll need the three that you have for what happens next.

Section 3 (side-scrolling)

You'll then hit the rooftops and face The Penguin for the first time. The Ice Princess from the Gotham City Christmas celebration is being held hostage again, this time on a building ledge. You'll be pelting The Penguin with Batarangs as he flies around, but take care not to get hit yourself, which is all too easy to do in some cases!

The Penguin will start by throwing umbrellas down. About a second after they hit the ground, they'll explode. Stay away from the umbrellas and stay on the move, and when Penguin's feet are around the same level as Batman's head, duck. He will hit you from running into you.

When he floats in place above you, he'll start throwing umbrellas to the side. He'll throw four in the easiest difficulties, but from Hard on he'll add one more depending on what difficulty you're playing on. In Mania, he throws seven. To avoid them, the pattern is to duck, duck, duck, jump, duck, jump, duck. Feel free to cut the end of as much as you need to, as this pattern never changes on the easier difficulties save for the number of umbrellas he throws. When he flies further up and off the screen, be prepared to either pelt him with Batarangs when he shows up from either side of the screen. You'll have to hit him several times to be able to duck under him in time, so if you can't, feel free to throw down a Bat Test Tube. Be prepared to lose at least one or two lives.

When you beat The Penguin, he'll throw an umbrella down in front of the Ice Princess. When it opens, bats will come out of it and will push the Ice Princess off the building. The Penguin will succeed at turning the people against Batman, but things aren't what they seem...

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 3 of 7

This scene is actually quicker and easier to get through than what you've seen so far. It's also really fun until CATWOMAN.

Scene 3

On The Prowl

Section 1 (side-scrolling)

You'll be going up buildings in a window-washer's scaffold. As you go up, Thin and Fat Clowns will be smashing through windows to get a piece of you. Stay away from them and knock them off with Batarangs while they're still in the air.

When the scaffold stops, use the grappling hook to go to the right and catch a ride on another scaffold. There'll be more clowns this time compared to the last, but it's not really that much harder.

Section 2 (side-scrolling)

This time around, you'll be walking on rooftops. You don't want to mess around after the beginning and near the end, because it's a long way down and it's instant death if you plunge.

The windowsills shortly after the beginning will crumble when you stand on them. Keep on moving like normal and you'll make your way through before you can plunge down the bottomless pit and lose a life.

If you can make it to the top platform, great. That's where you want to go, as you can completely refill your health meter and get an extra Bat Test Tube there. Even if you don't need the health, pick up the health pickup anyway. It gives you points regardless.

If you dropped down from the edge of the building you started from, you'll find a Bat Test Tube to your left. You definitely can't miss it.

The Bazooka Clowns appear here. They're much easier, since all they do is fire their rockets and jump around. Since you can duck, do just that and pound them with Batarangs.

You'll eventually go up on a large steel girder. Watch out as you go up, as bombs will drop along with Thin Clowns and Bazooka Clowns. Two Tall Clowns will also show up for the ride as well. Better enjoy fighting them, because this is the last time you'll see them in-game.

Once the ride stops, you'll be able to go to the right, use the grappling hook to get over the bottomless pit, and make your way to the boss fight. Don't forget to pick up the big heart that's just at the bottom as you go.

Section 3 (side-scrolling)

This is the first of two fights with Catwoman in the game. When she gets near, punch her first and then do the two-headbutts-and-a-throw combo. Watch out when she's doing her backflips, as she'll do a nasty attack where she zips across the screen in a V-Pattern. In the lesser difficulties, she zips from one side of the arena to the other twice, but on other difficulties, she'll do it three or four times. On Mania, she'll do it five times. It's usually in a V-pattern, but it's still best to keep an eye on her and move up and down accordingly.

Her cat scratch, kick and whip attacks all have some range. Use your punches to stun her so you can inch your way forward and put her in a grab combo. Her cat scratch is the worst of the three attacks, as she dashes forward whenever she performs it and you can be hit even at the last frame, which can be another embarassing cheap hit/death source.

When she's near death, unleash all the Bat Test Tubes you have on her. She should be able to go down then.

When you beat Catwoman, she'll jump off the building and escape without a scratch. She'll then join forces with The Penguin to help him create a trap that Batman can't resist...

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 2 of 7

The battle continues as we make our way to Shreck's department store and take on a strongman!

Scene 2

Battle In The Streets Of Gotham City

Section 1 (beat-'em-up)

In the first section, you'll start dealing with a bunch of Thin Clowns. For the second set, you'll meet a new type of Thin Clown: the brown ones. These guys juggle bowling pins and will throw them at you, but if you hit them with a Batarang they'll instantly lose all their ammo while stunned and will be forced to come at you like all the other Thin Clowns. Be sure to toss the enemies into the background wall when you can!

When you come out of the bridge, you'll meet the dark green Thin Clowns. They're just like all the other ones, but some of them will carry and throw bombs. If one is standing still with a bomb, just get the entire bomb on the screen and stay away to force them to throw the bomb just before it explodes. Some of them also walk towards you with bombs. If that happens, throw a Batarang to stun them and force them to drop the bomb. The bomb will land on the floor with a boom, giving you free damage on the clown and any souls stupid enough to be right next to it when it lands.

I found after completing this LP that if they do manage to throw the bomb, you can pick it up with the Y button and press it again to throw it. It can still blow up in your hands much like in the enemy's, so be cautious.

You can throw enemies into fences, benches and signposts to cause some pain along with collateral damage. The signposts make an interesting "pwung" sound when you slam an enemy into them, which I like a lot.

The Fat Clown here will have a light green health bar, so you'll have to pummel it a little more than usual. It also has some AI, as it will jump onto the park bench and jump again from the bench, trying to crush you from above. Stay on the move when this happens, as you can't hit the Fat Clown out of this attack.

Some Bikers will just breeze on by, while others will move back and forth trying to kill. You should always try to throw a Batarang at them regardless for the points. The ones that do the former will show up after certain waves of opponents are destroyed or when you reach a certain part of the scene. The hard part about those types of Bikers is getting down their time of appearance to a science, but it can definitely be done.

The Knife Throwers have the smallest amount of HP, but they have a close-ranged knife stab attack that's hard to predict coming as well as the ability to throw knives from the other side of the screen. This is faster and harder to see than the Bazooka Clowns' ammo, believe it or not.

Section 2 (side-scrolling)

You'll now be in a department store. Hit the Thin Clowns before they can slide down the escalator railing, and keep still so you can keep an eye out for the Fat Clown bouncing down behind him. You'll be doing this twice. After three more Fat Clowns, you'll come across two pairs of elevators. The first pair has a Thin Clown in each one, while the second pair contains two Thin Clowns in the elevator to the right.

You'll earn more points by throwing a Batarang into an enemy in the side-scrolling sections, as opposed to punching them at close range (200 points vs. 100). Keep that in mind.

When you make it to the Circo Porto, the windows will break and the whole department store will be set ablaze! You'll have to go right and use the Grappling Hook to get past the flames on the ground, taking out Tall Clowns and Fat Clowns as you go. Watch out for fire dropping from the ceiling as well as falling lumber from the ceiling, as it will be also on fire and fall to the ground when you're just under it. You'll have to press A repeatedly to get past the huge pit of fire and also trick that piece of ceiling lumber into falling. When you reach the Tall Clown at the end, avoid the torches he throws while they're in the air and wait just next to him. The floor will collapse, giving you the chance to move back and finally nail him with some Batarangs.

Section 3 (beat-'em-up)

You'll meet a new enemy here: the Sword Swallowers. They'll slash at you with their swords, and their weapons cause hellacious damage! If you throw a Batarang at them, they'll simply repel it by swinging at it, nullifying any attempts to stun them. You'll have to bob and weave to get close to them without getting hurt.

Sometimes, if you're far away enough from them, they'll perform their sword-swallowing trick. If you hit them with a Batarang while they're doing this, not only will it connect, but you'll also get points and land some damage on them!

You'll be dealing with the Sword Swallowers as well as some Bazooka Clowns at the beginning of this section. With the power behind their attacks, this is a dangerous combination! Be ready to move around as you take these guys and throw them into one another. You'll want to do as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time here.

You'll then be dealing with both Sword Swallowers and Fat Clowns. This is a bit easier, since you can easily throw enemies into each other.

When you reach the intersection of this cold, empty street, you'll be dealing with some Thin Clowns. They'll all be of the light green, dark green, and blue varieties, and some of the dark green Thin Clowns will come out with bombs.

After this, you'll deal with a few more Thin Clowns before fighting the Tattooed Strongman, who rips up the newspaper he's reading and comes straight at you. Believe it or not, this guy is really easy if you keep walking diagonally at him and do a bunch of grab combos. When you toss him to the ground, you'll want to go down and forward before going up and forward once you're close enough to him to grab him. He'll have some blue Thin Clowns to back him up. If you can grab the boss and one of the clowns and bump heads, great. That's a lot of time you'll save against this guy. Also, don't be afraid to use up your Bat Test Tubes if you're near death here.

PrinceWatercress plays Batman Returns (SNES) on Mania - Scene 1 of 7

Oh, snap. Guess who decided to make something awesome?

I couldn't find a guide interesting enough for this game when I looked for an LP, so I decided to make one myself.

Just like in the 1992 movie of the same name, you'll be playing as Batman and taking down The Penguin. Catwoman is also prowling around, and her intentions aren't quite clear. It's up to you to beat The Penguin, defeat the Red Triangle Circus Gang and its horde of clown thugs and bring peace back to Gotham City!

Scene 1

Ambush In Gotham Plaza

Section 1 (beat-'em-up)

When you start the game, two bikers will ride past you after you show up. You'll only get enough time to throw a Batarang at one of them to get some points right off of the bat, so be sure to do it.

In the first section, you'll be able to move around like in other beat-'em-ups, particularly Final Fight.

The Thin Clowns come in two varieties in the first level: light green and blue. The green ones can cartwheel all over the place, making them immune to attacks (including Batarangs) and letting them move around the screen in a mere second. The blue ones cannot. Regardless, use a boomerang to stun them to give yourself enough time to get close and whack them.

Speaking of whacking things, the controls in the game are great. You can carry an enemy while grabbing one for a short time, which allows you to either headbutt and throw them into enemies or run into another enemy and grab two at once, giving you the ability to knock their heads into one another to cause some massive damage. You can also switch between throwing the Batarang and swinging around on the grappling hook and kicking enemies, but the latter item costs a little bit of energy to use. Pressing B and Y simultaneously will perform a super attack that covers what's in front of you and behind you, but it also costs a little bit of energy to perform.

Punching an enemy three times, grabbing them and headbutting them twice before throwing them onto the ground gives you the most possible points from an enemy. With an extra life awarded every 50,000 points, you're going to need all the points you can get! (Just remember that you can't stockpile past nine lives.)

The Bikers move around on bikes and try to run you over. While you could jump kick them to damage them, the best thing to do is either throw an enemy at them or hit them with a Batarang to get rid of them in one hit. If they run into an explosion caused by another bike, they'll also be dethroned off their chariots of death if they ride right into the explosion.

The Bazooka Clowns carry around bazookas, and their rockets pack a punch! Blocking them lessens the damage a little bit and keeps you from being knocked to the floor, but tricking them into either firing at another enemy or grabbing an enemy and using it as a human shield works wonders. As you can see, they're prone to performing friendly fire on their comrades constantly. They are also the only enemies that can destroy destructable props on the ground such as garbage cans with their attack. They can also perform hit and runs - shoot an enemy (or you) and then run away after they hit a target.

If there is a wall in the background, you can hold Up and press Y to throw the enemy into the wall. You can do this to cause some damage to store windows and other enemies, and it also gives you more points compared to just throwing the enemy onto the floor. Of course, if any enemies are in the path of the enemy you're throwing into the wall, they'll get knocked to the wall with him. Stuff like this and the ability to knock two enemies' heads together are why Game Informer has mentioned this as #10 on their best movie-to-game adaptations of all time back in 2011, as well as the best Batman game before Arkham Asylum. Now that's what's up.

The Fire Clowns have two attacks: a trident stab as well as a fire-breathing attack. Both not only involve fire, but they also have some range. Stunning them with the Batarang and staying on the move against these guys works well, but just be careful not to run straight into their attacks or their attack range if they're standing still. The grappling hook works well against these guys, now that I think about it. Too bad I rely exclusively on the Batarang.

The Fat Clowns are slightly more powerful and have more health than the Thin Clowns. They can also be extremely cheap, as they can keep punching even while you're on the floor while you're next to them, causing you to stand back up and rise straight into their one-two combo to be knocked back onto the floor. This can also be the source of many cheap deaths.

The Batman logos give you extra points. The color dictates how many points you'll get, with white giving the least, then light purple, then light red, then dark red giving the most.

Small hearts refill a little bit of your health, while the big hearts completely refill your health meter. Since I'm playing on Mania, hearts you may see in certain parts of the game on Easy through Special difficulties won't appear in certain spots. I think there's only four, five or six hearts in the entire game if you're playing on Mania.

Section 2 (side-scrolling)

Unlike the Final Fight-style segments, here you'll be moving left and right only. You'll throw Batarangs with the Y button, but you can use the grappling hook with A. Since you can use it to hang around but not attack, you won't have to sacrifice energy to use it. Of course, you can still punch enemies if you're close enough to them.

The Thin Clowns will come out in an endless stream, so go ahead and take advantage of that if you need to get another extra life, since you don't have a time limit anywhere in the game.

The Tall Clowns juggle torches, and send some to the floor in an attempt to burn you. The torches won't hurt you after they've touched the ground. To defeat these guys, you'll have to hit them anywhere from the waist up, meaning that you'll have to respond with Batarangs after they throw torches sometimes. The Tall Clowns will only appear in the side-scrolling segments of the game.

The Fat Clowns just bounce around from one side of the screen to the other. There's only two in this segment, but they're annoying for something that takes only two Batarangs to kill.

When you stop seeing the Thin Clowns coming at you, you're near the end of the level. The boss here is the Stun Gun Clown. He'll move toward you and jump at you before shooting out the stun gun after he hits the ground. Hit him with Batarangs as he comes at you, then walk under him when he jumps. He'll miss with the stun gun completely, giving you more time to pelt him with Batarangs, particularly if you duck down to throw them after he lands. After doing this twice, he'll do a rolling attack. You can't jump over it, so hit him out of it by blocking and pressing X. This lets you use one of your Bat Test Tubes, which works as a screen-clearing attack in both the beat-'em-up and side-scrolling segments. From here, he'll repeat the attack pattern again. He'll be close to dead at this point if you've been piling on the Batarangs.

Believe it or not, you can shoot the grappling hook forward by holding Left and Right and then pressing A. While this could probably be used to avoid the Stun Gun Clown's rolling attack, you're better off just using the Bat Test Tube to hit him out of it anyway. At least it lets you make a hole in the wall at the right end of this area.

When you complete a scene, you'll get 5,000 bonus points no matter what.

Batman will meet Selina Kyle, while The Penguin gets together with department store tycoon Max Shreck to discredit the Mayor, setting the stage for some hardships in Batman's newest quest...

THE SPYRO 2 GLITCH BLOG

ulillillia, classic gaming YouTuber extraordinaire, shows us 50 things you didn't think you could do in the game...until now.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 Also, here's the epilogue, as promised.

Here's a GameShark exploit that allows you to run around in the cutscene area at the beginning of a new game.

angryponcho plays Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! - Part 41 of 41

For beating the game, you get rewards.

The first one of mention is the door that requires you to have 10,000 gems and 64 orbs to open. Inisde is a Superflame power-up...with lightning emanating from it! If you walk through, nothing seemingly happens...until you press Circle. It's a permanent Superflame, and you can even keep it when you save the game afterwards!

What's also interesting is that if you start a new game immediately after saving, you can play the game all over again with the permanent Superflame! It's really awesome!

Also worth mentioning is that when you beat the game and go to the Guidebook, you can now scroll past Winter Tundra. If you do that, you'll be able to check out all the Skill Points. If you have 8 or more, you can press X to access the epilogue. That reminds me...next time! If you have all 16, it'll say "Well Done!" at the end of the list in big black letters. Nice.

This was an awesome game, but just like any other, this has an ending. Check back after tomorrow's epilogue, where I show off the epilogue for the game!

angryponcho plays Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! - Part 40 of 41

Now that we've beaten the game, we can go to Dragon Shores whenever we want! Nice!

Dragon Shores

Now that we're here, it's time for fun and games. If you get ten tokens, you can watch any of the cutscenes in the game whenever you feel like it.

The first thing covered here is the dunking booth. You can get three tokens from this one easy. Just pick up the baseball, use Triangle to aim, and shoot. Just talk to the showman and he'll give you a baseball.

The Dragon Shores Coaster is the hardest of them all. You'll be popping balloons while avoiding obstacles. You'll have to press Left or Right at the right time to take the forks in the road (it's kinda picky, so you might have to press it repeatedly until it moves like you want it at the forks). In the second track, you may have to jump with the X button to get some of the balloons. The last track has you armed with a cannon, which lets you take down the balloons with the targets at them. You'll have to press Circle at the right time to take those balloons down, since you can't aim the cannon at a different spot (kinda like the trolley in Breeze Harbor).

The tunnel of love only nets you one token, but it's still hilarious to either see who you get paired up or see Spyro still being alone on the boat. foreveralone.jpg

The target practice area gives you two more. Here, you have to hit all the targets with the Superflame power-up before the timer on it runs out.