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.
All right, we're up, we've got the water turned off, and we've drained the house! We've gone to the cellar and killed some giant snake we found. Now it's time to look at our treasure. IT'S GONE!
Wario has finally found out that his treasure from last game is gone. He chases after the goons, but they cause even more trouble in their wake! Now Wario has to find the hen and return her to her nest!
Chapter 2: SS Tea Cup
Story 1: Return the hen to her nest!
0:57 - You don't want to run into this spiky guy and risk losing your coins. Instead, run into him from below and toss him into the enemy blocks surrounding the door.
3:45 - The door to the treasure room is here. Match the card to get what looks like the Pegasus Boots from A Link to the Past.
4:34 - After going through this area...even more coins! The hen is in this area. All you have left to do is take the hen back to her nest at the start of the level. If you throw her into an enemy or lose her, you'll have to come back here to find her again. You can also throw her into enemy blocks if you need to.
5:42 - When you toss the hen into the nest, she lays an egg.
5:58 - We get another picture piece, but it still doesn't do much. Maybe we'll have an even better chance of figuring out what we're looking at later in the game...
What's this giant snake doing in our cellar, anyway?
Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning
Story 5: Defeat the giant snake
0:17 - There is an arrow of coins leading down here. Make your way to the top and break through the wall to the right to find even more coins as well as...
1:04 - ...the treasure room. Now go win the card game and get the glove.
2:18 - Going through the door at the top of the room leads to a rather nifty treasure trove. Break the wall to the left and get the coins, then make your way to the right and tackle through the corner of the ceiling to find a door leading...
2:47 - ...here. This is the secret exit...but we're not going in there right now. Instead, we're going to get the normal ending.
3:02 - Ground pounding these blocks leads to the boss, but also even more coins. If you see a gap in the wall, ground pound that area. You'll find a lot of coins.
3:36 - After finding that treasure trove in the ground, bust through the wall at the end. You'll be back in the room you came from. But there's one more we forgot about, and it's to the right of the boss door, signified by the skull above the archway. Tackle through the wall to find some more coins.
3:42 - Alright, time to go through the boss. Stand on the snake and walk up to his head to trigger the boss fight. Jump on his head three times, and don't let him bite you!
All right, we're up, we've got the water turned off, and we've drained the house! Now it's time to start the day! But first, to the cellar.
Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning
Story 4: Go down to the cellar!
You'll be right under that stupid bat with the weight tied to its feet again. When you get squished, you turn into Flat Wario. Flat Wario can gently fall to the ground and sway from side to side, giving him the ability to collect all the coins in this room. To change him back to normal, just get one of the water droplets falling from the ceiling to drop on Wario.
1:01 - Stand on the weight after this bat drops it, and you'll be able to get all these coins! Just remember that Wario is knocked into the air slightly when the weight hits the floor with a heavy thud, so be in midair every few seconds before it lands so you can maintain control of Wario.
1:47 - There's only one way to get all these coins: being flat. Get the bat to flatten you, then go up the platforms and leap into the narrow corridor. Since you're flat, you'll be able to fit into this very narrow slit of a corridor. Even if you could walk to it, you still wouldn't be able to crawl through. Luckily, being Flat Wario allows you to get to the other side and collect these coins with the greatest of ease.
2:19 - There are a few platinum coins in these blocks. Be sure to get them all. Also, you can defeat the regular bats by jumping into them.
3:03 - Well, this is interesting. If you crawl forward from here, you'll fall into an unavoidable hole in the ground that leads to a lot of coins but also sends you back. If you're flat, however, you'll be too wide to fall in.
3:29 - There's a set of platforms before the exit, but before you leave, get flat, go up these platforms and fall to the left. Once you go through the narrow corridor, the bat on the other side will make you normal again. This is the treasure room, and if you win it, you'll get a vase.
All right, we're up and we've got the water turned off! Now it's time to start the d- Oh. The house is still flooded. Riiiiiiight.
Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning
Story 3: Let the water out!
Go to the left at the beginning to find some more hidden coins.
0:11 - You won't be able to damage these swordfish. Instead, all you can do is push them away from behind or stun them.
0:30 - Break the pots just by accelerating into them. This will allow the bubble to travel upwards.
0:55 - There's an opposing current that you won't be able to swim through. Let the bubble hit you, and avoid hitting the platforms to make your way past the current. When you hit a ceiling, the bubble will pop and (hopefully) you'll be on the other side of that current.
Also, you can tackle through the wall on both ends of the room to get some more coins.
1:33 - This time, you'll be breaking pots so you won't run into the bubbles. Also, I can figure out that the air bubbles come from cracks in the wall. At least you can tell the air bubbles have a source.
2:19 - We're not on the other side of where we began. There's a switch here, and we can trigger it by hitting it with our head.
3:14 - Oh, so that's why. One room doesn't have to be flooded, but one room does. Nice to see something that's this simple yet interesting so early in the game.
5:05 - It's a platinum coin! I think. If you collect it, you'll gain another 100 coins! You'll always hear an audio cue when one comes out of a pot you've destroyed, so pay attention and be ready to go get it! You'll also get these from enemies at random every once in a while, so be on the lookout!
5:28 - In case you didn't know how to do it sooner, here's the "slide down the stairs tutorial." Just press down on a flight of stairs or a sloper and you'll slide downwards. You'll also roll into a ball, which can get you through some narrow areas.
5:41 - Let's destroy this block by tackling it, giving the water room to flush out of the house.
All right, we're up! Now it's time to start the d- Oh. The faucet. Riiiiiiight.
Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning
Story 2: Turn off the giant faucet!
Pay attention to what direction the water moves at the start. The current is strong, and you won't be able to swim against it.
1:01 - After breaking through a all-too-easy not to miss wall to the right of the door, we finally enter said door and see a literal Firefox. This fox runs around with a candle in it's mouth that will light Wario on fire. After a few seconds, he flashes and turns into a human fireball. With that, he can go through the Fire Blocks. Water extinguishes the flame and makes Wario normal again.
1:37 - The fish come out of the water and dive at you very quickly! Be ready to tackle them when they surface!
2:03 - Inside this door is the next treasure. Guess where the card is correctly and you'll get the treasure: a bed. I think that's what it is. Maybe it's a platinum bed?
3:22 - Here's a nifty new move. Wario can slide down slopes much like Mario can. The difference here is that Wario can do a somersault mid-slide that takes him pretty far and also through breakable walls.
3:37 - We take out this blue blob and ram through another breakable wall to find more coins.
3:56 - Here's the last room. Here, there's another room to the left that you can break through the wall to enter. From there, go all the way to the left and hit your head on the wall. Then, go to the right of the door and keep jumping to find an easy-to-miss platform. Go to the left to reach the upper half of this alcove. You can now drop back down and turn off that enormous water faucet by tackling it three times.
It's been a long time coming, but I've finally covered the entirety of the second Wario Land game. My main problem is that there aren't a lot of maps out there in the most reliable of sites. As a result, I'm covering this game much like I did with Thunder Force IV and the Turok games. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, here's the second game in the series...with EVERYTHING.
The game begins with a few pirate goons with pitchforks breaking into Wario's castle, stealing his treasure and flooding his house. Meanwhile, the alarm clock (which is probably on the other side of the house, for all we know) wakes up Wario...and it's really, really loud.
Remember all of Wario's moves from the last game, such as the tackle and the ground pound? Well, they're back, and they'll be more useful than ever!
The main thing that sets this game (and its sequels) apart from the first one is that you can't die or lose energy from touching an enemy. Instead, Wario just loses some coins. He can sometimes gain their powers from touching enemies, which is crucial to solving puzzles in this game and ultimately finding everything there is.
Chapter 1: One Noisy Morning
Story 1: Turn off the alarm clock!
1:47 - Wake Wario up so you can explore the house just by getting a move on. Ground pound through the pots to the left to find a hidden room. Through the pots to the right is a hidden room full of coins, as well as a run-of-the-mill Pirate Goon.
2:13 - Before going through the door here, go through the pots to the right to find another hidden coin area. When you go through the door, bust through the wall on the left to find...yep, you guessed it...more hidden coins. The rats can be tackled.
2:40 - These shelves are your only clue to the hidden attic that's full of coins. Man, it's amazing what these guys didn't try to take. Bust through the wall to the left with your shoulder tackle attack to find even more coins.
3:00 - Ground pound to the left of the left table to find yet another hidden room. Of course, you'll notice there's a room to the right of it, so get back up there and ground pound near the right table to find an entrance to it. From there, you can bust through the right wall to find a shortcut to a door.
3:40 - This basement door leads to a fireplace door. Make your way to the right. Avoid the bats as you get there. Enter the doorway to find five giant coins worth 10 regular coins each. From there, make your way back out and don't let the second bat shake you out of some coins. If you get squished by the first bat (which carries a weight), let the second get you to return you back to normal. You'll be needing this flat state later, so make note of this.
4:08 - Go up and shoulder tackle through the wall to the right to find more coins. Enter the nearby door.
4:21 - Shoulder tackle this old stove a couple of times you can jump to the left. From there, you can break the ceiling at the upper-left corner to find more coins.
4:42 - Go to the right and break through this dresser by jumping on it. Go inside the revealed doorway and you'll play your first minigame. Pick the speed of the card flips (the easier the difficulty, the more coins you're going to have to pay) and you'll be able to play the game.
Here, you'll have to pick the card at the bottom that matches the card at the top. You only have a very short amount of time to remember where it is, so you'd better find it. Pick the right one and you'll get the very first treasure of the game: a viking helmet.
5:23 - Tackling the right wall leads to more hidden coins. You're done here, so go through the door.
5:35 - The blocks with the bandages can be destroyed with your shoulder tackle. Break through the left wall to find more hidden coins. Then go to the right.
5:58 - When you go through the first door, you'll have blocks with a picture of the pirate goon on them. You've obviously seen these just earlier, but these are enemy blocks. Throw an enemy through them, and they'll break. Do just that so you can get the coins on the other side.
6:16 - Break through the wall to the right of the second door to find more coins, then enter the second door.
6:25 - Break through the first set of pots with the ground pound to find yet another hidden room. The football helmet guys will punch at you, but that's about it. The fireplace contains some more 10 Coins.
6:55 - From there, get back up there and go right. You'll finally find that stupid alarm clock. Tackle it to destroy it and turn it off. Story complete!
7:11 - Your coin total for the story is tallied up, and you'll have the treasure for the story as well (hopefully).
7:22 - It's time to guess the number. For 50 coins out of your grand total, you can turn one of the tiles. When you think you know the number, you can answer. Guess correctly, and the treasure is yours! Inside is a sliver of a picture. I wonder what happens if you find them all...?
I apologize for the quality, but I can't find anything else. The meteor bonus stage is the hardest of all. You have seven seconds per punch to hit the meteor that is on a collision course towards Earth. As you can see, you'll have to store power very quickly on all three punches in order to get a really good score here. At least Sonic Blast Man is doing something constructive with his powers for once.
At the end of the third section, after fighting a lot of aliens, you'll meet the final boss: Heavy Blast Man. This is basically Sonic Blast Man's evil twin, who has curved shoulder pads, darker armor, and the ability to fly with jet boosters located underneath said shoulder pads.
The only way to hit Heavy Blast Man when he's moving around is to use your special attack. Of course, you're definitely going to get hit afterwards, so you want to do this for the final shot as he's moving around if necessary.
Heavy Blast Man can do the uppercut projectiles at will. If you can walk past the projectiles and get close enough to either grab him or, better yet, put him in a punch combo, do it. You want to be able to do the most damage whenever you can.
Speaking of which, use your three super punches whenever you can. You regain them every time you lose a life, so use them as early as possible.
Every so often, Heavy Blast Man will fly into the air and eventually come back down. You'll want to stay on the move, and if he just so happens to land near you with landing on you, go in for the kill and try to land a full combo. Otherwise, just grab him and hit him from there.
Other times, Heavy Blast Man will activate his barrier if you're near him. He looks like he's about to fly upwards before he does this, and you don't want to be anywhere near him when he activates the barrier, as it will damage you.
Whenever you throw Heavy Blast Man, you won't be able to knock him down. You'll be able to damage him, but he will land on his feet and he'll get back on the warpath. Still, throwing him is worth it as you can still damage him with throws.
When you beat Heavy Blast Man, you've beaten the game! You did it! Enjoy the credits!
The fourth bonus stage allows you to punch out a giant crab. It's so big, you could easily sic a Megazord on it. Again, you have eight seconds per punch. As you strike at it, you'll take one claw off of its body and then the other, before ultimately punching the thing in the face.
You've redeemed yourself, Sonic Blast Man. For now.
Stage 5
If they're not punching at you from close range, the robots will shoot guns at the floor and hit you from a little over halfway across the screen. Most of them will transform into aliens when weakened, and can hit you with either a second head in its chest similar to the second mouth of the Xenomorph in the Alien series or a vicious bear hug (if they walk around), or with a powerful somersault (if they leap around). The big alien forms that leap around look different from the ones that don't, so you can tell what they're going to do.
At the end of the first section, you'll have a choice between two doors. They're both pretty much the same in terms of what's inside. Ditto for the end of the second section.
At this point in the game, we're fighting nothing but robots. You'd better be ready.
For the next bonus stage, Sonic Blast Man has to destroy a building before it comes down itself...and crushes who-knows-who or what below. I assume that, for his sake, everyone is evacuated from the building. It's a pretty big building.
After three punches, the building comes down without taking out several city blocks. Yay!
This time around, you only have eight seconds for each punch instead of nine. You'd better be faster with the rotation here.
Stage 4
This stage's music is why I love the bass patterns in the game.
You're fighting nothing but robots from this point on. For the ones here, you'd better be ready to move around. The robots with the "tail" that float around are much like the aliens with the tails from Stage 3, as they have that attack in which they leap at you and latch on, sucking your energy from you. also shoot missiles in the air. The missiles' positions are marked with lines indicating where they are with the word "Danger" above them, and you'd better be out of their way when they hit the floor and explode.
The robots that walk around with the gun for an arm will kick you to the floor, then rush up to you and shoot at the floor with their flamethrowers, burning you for additional damage. They can also toss grenades onto the floor from behind. Even though these grenades don't travel very far, they'll still spell danger if you're near them when they explode.
The flying robots can fire a machine gun similar to the commandos in Stage 2, and they'll also accelerate into you with their jet boosters. They'll also try to jump into the air and come back down on you much like the muscular aliens from Stage 3. If you get them in a grab combo, do not use the uppercut with the projectile (Up+Y). They will block it instantly.
You'll have an overhead hazard again. This time, it will be a set of lasers that move back and forth and stop every so often to fire lasers down at the floor. Sadly, these things don't hurt the enemies at all, but at least they have a linear pattern.
Part of the way through the level, you'll take a ride on another lift. Once you finish off all the enemies there and get off, you'll notice some robots in the background. Some of them will activate and fight you, but they're all of the gun-armed, two-legged variety. They also have numbers above their holding units, too, so here's the ones that come out to crush you: 02, 04, 05 and 08.
The boss here is a giant robot. To beat it, get close and punch at it until you grab it. From there, do the wind-up punch that knocks the enemy backwards (Forward+Y), then diagonally sidestep out of the way so it doesn't fly into you. When it walks back out from the other side, repeat. This robot will also shoot at you with the missiles and the machine gun, but as long as you're quick and you don't grab it (which leads to the robot smacking you in the chest), you should be good.
The human enemies finally stop showing up and start getting replaced, first with some strange aliens.
The next bonus stage involves saving a baby from rolling into the path of a tractor-trailer that won't be able to stop in time...by punching the front of the truck and destroying the inner workings inside the hood until the thing is completely ruined and inoperable. What in the world does Sonic Blast Man have against truckers and train conductors? It's even worse when all the mom cares about is that her baby is safe. What about the trucker, dammit? I swear, there are evil intentions behind that corny smile on Sonic Blast Man, and if this is the end result of having a man with punches more powerful than that of an atomic bomb, then humanity's sliding completely downhill.
Stage 3
This time around, you'll be in the sewers while fighting off some sort of strange, see-through humanoid creatures that look like they could have been made out of Jell-O. Or acid. Or water and food coloring. I dunno.
The first type you'll meet are the normal-sized, muscular variety. These guys will attack you with a double axe handle if you let them, yet the main attack to watch out for involves them sinking down to the floor and traveling towards you as a mess of bubbles that shoot out an electrical current around them. If they touch you in this form, you're going to take damage, so back away until they return to their humanoid form. If you're far enough away from them, they'll throw a piece of their own body forward, hoping to hit you.
You'll then meet two other forms. The first of these is the less muscular but slightly taller variety, which has the ability to jump into the air and land on top of you. They can extend their arm for a close-range scratch attack and can also squeeze you with a bear hug attack, so be careful. The other one is a ghostly wraith with a thin tail at the bottom instead of legs. Get this one before it gets you, because it will lunge at you and wrap around you, sucking your energy dry. If that happens, mash the Control Pad and the buttons to break free as quickly as possible.
The boss here seems to be the queen of this alien sewer colony. There are only two ways to damage it: jump kicking it or throwing the aliens at it. Throwing the aliens is quicker at the beginning, but you'll eventually be doing some jump kicks eventually. Whatever the case may be, fight efficiently, and remember that the queen can't damage you.
After checking out a bonus stage, we get to look at a factory and beat up more people.
After every stage (except for the last), there is a bonus stage, where you can play one of the five stages from the original arcade game. Since you can't replicate the action by punching your system (or TV) in the face as hard as humanly possible, Taito makes up for it by having you rotate the Control Pad and having a moving glove indicate where your first is going to go.
This makes the bonus game harder even on the easiest game, as rotating the Control Pad as much as possible to fill up the bar is the hardest thing in the world to do. The fact that you have to do this three times means that your hand will be tired by the time you reach the third attempt. Unless you have one of those fighting sticks with the arcade-style joystick, you are effed.
One of the worst things about the bonus stage is the power bar itself. If you're able to fill it up fast enough, it is possible to overfill it and empty it, powering your punch down and robbing you out of much-needed points and extra lives.
You get three chances with ten seconds each at going for the most powerful (and accurate) punch. The three chances are added up, and your grand power total indicates how many points you're going to get at the end. If your total is high, you're going to get a lot of points...about 500,000 to be exact. That's a really good total to shoot for, as it makes netting extra lives through your score a lot easier.
It appears that you get an extra life every 200,000 points. This makes doing well on the bonus stages vital to having enough lives to beat the game. You have only three continues, but it's possible to burn through all of them.
For the first game, you'll be fighting off a thug. He just stands there as you power-up your punch. You'd think he'd be smart enough to at least get away, but no. He just stands there. As you keep punching him more, the swelling on his cheeck just increases. After three punches, he slowly falls to the ground and Sonic Blast Man saves the woman the thug was mugging.
Stage 2
Environmental hazards make an appearance here! Watch out for the jets of fire shooting out of some of the pipes above you. As long as you keep an eye on those pipes, the flames shouldn't be a problem. They'll hit you if you're on the ground or in the air.
This is supposed to be a factor, but it's impossible to figure out what they make. It's even more confusing that most of the enemies you fight are martial artists. The tall guys (some with berets, some without) are easy to take care of, even though they have a standing combo as well as a ranged attack where they throw hand grenades at you which explode after a few seconds.
The women, however, are the worst as they can somersault and hit you when you don't expect them to. All you have to do is just give them the first possible chance and they will quickly rear back and lean forward with that double palm strike. Holding onto an enemy? You're gonna get smacked. Right in front of them when they land on the ground after a somersault? You're gonna get smacked. Walk right up to them with your slow self like you're at Central Park? You're gonna get smacked. (The women were changed to men in the American/European version, once again due to censorship from Nintendo. Strangely, they're still wearing women's martial arts robes due to Taito doing the bare minimum to achieve compliance with Nintendo of America censorship demands, and it looks slightly awkward.)
If you can get the women in a punching combo, do not do the punch that sends them flying backwards, as they will instantly block it. Use the uppercut with the projectile or the monkey flip throw instead.
Since it shows up here, I might as well mention (and complain about) the special attack. Pressing Y and B causes Sonic Blast Man to perform a rising spinning double lariat, much like Zangief from the Street Fighter series. When Sonic Blast Man lands back on the ground, he'll be dizzy and will kneel there stunned for a couple of seconds, and he will do this regardless of whether you hit anyone with it or not. Of all the special attacks I've seen in beat-em-ups, this is the absolute worst simply because of the stun period. Am I playing as a superhero or some run-of-the-mill sack of crap John Q. Public with a clock and a portable black-and-white TV monitor on his chest? I'm confused here.
About halfway through the stage, you'll meet another new enemy: the machine gun commandos. These guys will either shoot directly at you, throw grenades or aim at the ground and shoot at your feet if you're close enough.
You'll then come across a lift that takes you upward. You'll be fighting a lot of enemies before it reaches the top.
When you die, the enemies get knocked back as soon as Sonic Blast Man lands on the ground, much like in Streets of Rage.
The boss here is a pair of guys with sunglasses and claws, and they remind me very much of Zamza and the other clawed guys from Streets of Rage 2. Aside from the claw swipes and the jumping around, they also have that slide attack much like Zamza did. Jump kicks do the trick somewhat, but see if you put one of them into a combo and use a grab attack that hits both guys.
Definitely showing the intro here, since the LP doesn't begin with it. This is the intro for the English version. It should be noted that "Take that!" was added during the translation and localization process, as was the rest of the sampled speech that makes up Sonic Blast Man's dialogue.
Why couldn't the woman roll out of the way? It's not like the ropes were tied to the tracks? And did Sonic Blast Man really have to punch the train all the way back until it got crushed like a can off-screen and ultimately destroyed? Super powers aside, I think Sonic Blast Man is an absolute jerk.
Yes, the game came over to the West. So why am I showing the Super Famicom version? Because censorship issues and the fact that I love how I somehow found a SFC version playthrough out of dumb luck. That's why.
Believe it or not, the original arcade version was actually a game where you put on a pair of gloves connected to the machine and punched at the target as you could, and the screen showed a couple of scenarios such as punching out a giant monster crab or stopping a meteorite in space...all with your own two fists. The arcade version serves as the basis for the mini-games between stages.
The game was eventually recalled in the States because players would injure their hands trying to get the best possible scores, and because Taito never put so much as a warning sticker telling people of the risk of injury on the machine. (I'm guessing they underestimated the stupidity of man.) There was an arcade sequel to this version of Sonic Blast Man, but it only showed up in Japan, probably because of what happened in America.
Stage 1
The game begins downtown in some unnamed city, where Sonic Blast Man has to defeat the bad guys (or in the English version's case, the "villians").
The first thing you're going to notice as soon as the game starts is that Sonic Blast Man is one of the slowest characters in a beat-'em-up ever. Even Adam Hunter from Streets of Rage (or better yet, Max Thunder from SOR2) moves faster than Sonic Blast Man. Only one playable character, and we get this slowpoke? C'mon, Taito.
The only time you'll fight bad guys is when the screen stops as you're moving to the right. Since there's almost no hazards between enemy fight points save for certain parts of the game, you can just jump to the right until the screen stops and you can fight enemies. Jumping to the side is strange, as you cannot control what direction you're traveling in mid-jump and it covers a lot of the screen in seconds. That's nice, but I'm just trying to avoid an enemy, not teleport myself across the screen. That's pretty contradictory, in a way. In the air, he's almost Samus Aran from the Metroid series. On the ground, he moves around as slowly as some guy with debilitating athlete's foot.
Fighting enemies is pretty interesting. You can grab enemies and perform one of two moves: shaking them before throwing them in the opposite direction, or hitting them with a multi-jab combo. You can also punch enemies in the face a couple of times instead of grabbing them, and when you do that, that's when the real fun begins. After a couple of punches, you'll grab your opponent and have even more options than before. Y does the multi-jab and Back+Y does the shake and throw, but Up+Y does an uppercut that knocks your opponent into the air while shooting a projectile forward that attacks any other enemies around your target. Forward+Y shoots your target forward with a mighty punch and mows down enemies in his path, while Down+Y lets you voraciously throw an enemy backwards and hit someone unsuspecting enough to be near the target when it drops down.
When you do enough damage to your enemies, they will eventually be kneeling down after they getting up and will be stunned. When that happens, you can walk up to them, grab them, and put them in a throw where you swing them around a little bit before tossing them in the direction you were facing, knocking other enemies around you back in the meantime.
Fighting enemies is done decently, but trying not to take damage from them feels...weird. It's like an exercise in "What did I do to deserve this bullshit? Oh, wait. That." Every time you get attacked, it's always at the most convenient time and you can't help but think you just walked into a knife stab or a open-handed palm slap to the chest. It doesn't help that you can get hit again a couple of seconds after the first time and still feel like you somehow walked into it, regardless of whether it was intentional or not. The only way to minimize damage is to fight efficiently, and you'll have to be able to make decisions on the fly as to which throw you should use when and what strategy to use to take out all the bad guys.
Hitting two enemies at the same time is rather interesting. There are three ways to have your standing combo broken: get whacked, miss a punch or fight two opponents at once. You can alternate between sides and punch two guys at once just by using the Control Pad with the Y button as you punch repeatedly, but if they're both overlapping with each other, you can just press Y indefinitely and keep punching both of them until you're able to automatically grab one of the guys, which usually happens after you finish one of them off (or get extremely lucky). Useful strategies if you're in a situation that let's you take advantage of them.
Enemies here include punks with knives, fat guys that will hit you with either a palm shove or a belly flop and girls who will back up and jump kick forwards once they line themselves up with you. The girls were replaced with African-American guys that just hop around as they move. Like the girls, they stop moving before the forward jump kick.
Sometimes enemies will drop items at random in between barrels and crates that also carry items inside. Picking these up takes a little bet of getting used to, but not much. You have to press Down and Y to pick up items. Even worse, when an item shows up, you have to pick it up as quickly as possible or else it will disappear after several seconds. Why would they have made this any more inconvenient than just the whole Down+Y thing that I've never been a big fan of?
Items are random. You may get apples, cookies and chickens that restore your health (apples and cookies are partial, chickens are full). You may also get Sonic Blast Man helmets that act as 1-Ups, or blue punch gloves that act as super attacks (or "Bomb Punches" as the game calls them).
At certain points in the game, Sonic Blast Man will automatically move to the right and go further into the level automatically. You won't have control over him again until he stops moving.
The first boss is a bigger thug than the ones you've recently seen. He'll jump up and hit you out of the air if you jump, so jump kicks are automatically out. You'll have to be able to throw enemies into him or somehow manage to get him next to you without getting clobbered in the side of the face and punching him until you can put him in a combo. Avoiding his punch is harder than it should be, as it has more range than it appears to have and knocks you down instantly. If he's close enough to you when and if he knocks you down, he'll pick you up and throw you for even more damage. You'll have to play keepaway, avoid using jump kicks, and use the range of your punches to get the jump on the guy, since you'll eventually run out of flunkies to throw at him and fight him indirectly with.
You may have to use a Bomb Punch to attack everything on screen if you're low on health. To do that, press L or R and Sonic Blast Man while flash white. While he's flashing, press Y and he'll use the Bomb Punch. The screen freezes and enemies stop moving as he does it, but it's a bit on the slow side. C'mon, just punch the screen already. (I can understand how long the Super attacks from Streets of Rage, but it was actually pretty cool and I didn't mind waiting.) Now, keep in mind that the reason it seems slow is that you're probably playing the version that came out in America/Europe and had the Anglicized dialogue. He just says take that and you're waiting an extra second for him to punch the ground. In the Super Famicom version, he stops speaking just before he punches the ground, so the wait isn't that bad.
Just keep moving to the left in Stage 16. If any of the giant bats hit you, just keep going.
At the beginning of Stage 17, just let the skeleton come to you. This makes it easier for you to kill it.
Once you go up the stairs from here, you'll be in the clock tower - yet another Castlevania mainstay. You'll want to go down, then left, then left again. All the while, you'll be dealing with hunchback-dropping eagles...again. (The first staircase is kinda hard to see if you're not paying attention, but it's there.)
When you reach Stage 18, you've made it. There's no turning back.
Dracula has two forms. The first one, he keeps disappearing and reappearing and throwing a three-way fireball out of his cape. His only weak spot is his head. For best results, jump as soon as his arm is extended and position yourself so that you can hit him in the head, jump over all three fireballs before they fan out and not take damage. You also want to be careful, as sometimes he can reappear right where you're standing. If that happens, move out of the way before he stops flashing.
As soon as the first form is over, you'll take on the second: a snarling, fanged monster that leaps up into the air as he's coming at you. This is where the Holy Water comes in. Keep stunning Dracula with Holy Water and keep hitting him in the head with the whip (hitting the body does very little if any damage). He'll still jump forward (sometimes high, sometimes low) and spitting fireballs at you, but if you have enough Hearts to stun him with, this won't be much of an issue. (Sort of.) When you beat Dracula, hats off to you! You just beat this awesome game.
The game loops when you beat it, and it gets harder when that happens. But this guide only covers the first loop, so enjoy the ending.
This is why you stop before you pick up what's in that candle or before you move on after destroying an enemy, kids.
Stages 13-15
You're going to be seeing a lot more of the skeletons in this area.
The red skeletons - also known as blood skeletons - break apart when you hit them, then come back. They can't be killed, so be sure to temporarily off them when you see them.
The part after the red skeletons in the second section of Stage 13 has a pork chops. Before jumping onto the platforms before the door, strike the wall below all the platforms with your whip.
The Axe Armors have shields, and they also throw axes straight ahead. You can destroy the axes with your weapon, but keep your distance so you don't get hit by one of them. It takes even more hits to take out the Axe Armors, and to make matters worse their axes will come back to them like boomerangs after they travel a certain distance. They can throw them either high or low, and you'll have to duck down to hit the low ones.
If you have the Holy Water and the Triple Shot at this point, then whatever you do, be when you destroy the Skull Dragon Cannon at the top of the first section of Stage 15. You definitely don't want to trade in Triple Shot Holy Water for anything else due to the fact that sometimes enemies can randomly drop sub-weapons every once in a while. That's just a doozy of a dick move by the game right there.
Also, before you go up the stairs that lead up to the second section, attack the wall to the right. It's another Pork Chop. The next part combines both the Axe Armors and the Medusa Heads, which is a nasty combination if you don't have enough hits to beat Death without the Holy Water...and since Death can kill you in four hits, that's not good.
At the end of Stage 15 is Death himself, who would become a powerhouse of a Castlevania mainstay. If you have the Holy Water and at least the Double Shot, he's really easy. All you have to do is throw the Holy Water at the platform to the top right, where Death will instantly show up. Just keep jumping and throwing the Holy Water onto that platform. Death will be taken down before he even has a chance to attack you.
If you don't have it, well...you're in for a fight. Your best alternate weapon for this is the boomerang. Pay close attention to the screen as Death just flies around, summoning scythes to come out of the air and spin around, slicing at you if get too close. If you have the Stopwatch and a whole lot of hearts, that really helps, since he can be kept in place no matter what.
Here it is: the Angry Video Game Nerd Castlevania quadrilogy, which covers everything from the first game on the NES to Bloodlines and Symphony of the Night.
This is where the game gets somewhat interesting...
Stages 7-9
The Fleaman makes his debut in this part of the game. Sometimes his jumps are high; other times they're long. Hit him with your whip as soon as he's in range.
You'll also see the skeleton as well. He walks back and forth, throwing his bone into the air much like Simon would with the axe.
The birds will slowly fly into you, so hit them as soon as you can when they're not moving.
The block to the right of the left mummy will give you a Pork Chop if you need the health.
The boss here is a pair of mummies. If you have Holy Water, you should be in for a time. If you have the health and hearts to spare, get them together and plow into them with the "Holy Water, whip, whip" pattern.
Stages 10-12
The problem with Stage 10 is not just the platforms or the bats, but the fish men. They can leap out from under you without warning. Also, if you jump straight up while on one of the moving problems, you're going into the water on your way down. Also, you'll want to duck under the low red ceilings of the cave if you want to get to the other side.
In Stage 11, you'll be heading ot the right while dealing with eagles dropping Fleamen down at you. Take care of the Fleamen so that they don't become a problem. At the end is a Skull Dragon. Attack its head when it reaches your level. When it dies, it turns into a bunch of small Hearts that you can use for your sub-weapon.
Sometimes enemies will drop a yellow jug of water. If you pick it up, you'll become invisible, allowing you to pass through enemies for a short time.
The block directly behind the Skull Dragon at the beginning of Stage 12 has yet another Pork Chop. The block directly behind the one after it has a large Heart.
The boss here is a Frankenstein's Monster with a little Fleaman for a friend. If you have the Holy Water, you can get on the second platform and just throw Holy Water at the boss until they both die. They both share a health meter, so if you can deal damage to the Fleaman and not the Monster, do it. If you don't have the Holy Water, you'll have to avoid both the Fleaman and the Monster's fireballs. It's not that bad, but the Holy Water route is much easier.
Oh, 1987. Not only did it bring us some good music, but it also brought us the English-language port to the first game of one of the greatest series of all time: Castlevania.
The first game takes place in 1691 and centers on Simon Belmont entering Castlevania to destroy Count Dracula. That's pretty much the gist of it, really.
Stages 1-3
The torches here contain power-ups. To get them, strike at them with your whip. There are quite a few things you can get out of them:
Hearts are used to power-up your sub-weapons, which you can use by holding Up on the Control Pad and pressing B. Different sub-weapons consume a different amount of hearts. Small hearts are worth just one heart, big ones are worth five.
Chain whips are power-ups for your whip. You can get up to two before your whip is fully powered-up. The first makes your leather whip a more powerful chain whip, while the second makes the whip even longer.
Money bags give you points.
Crucifix necklaces destroy all enemies currently on the screen.
Here are the sub-weapons:
Knives can be thrown straight ahead until it either goes off-screen or hits an enemy.
Holy Water is thrown to the ground and cause a small flame to burn where it was thrown for a second or tow, burning any enemy it touches. Despite the fact that it doesn't seem that useful at the beginning of the game, it becomes very useful later on, making it worth getting and keeping as soon as possible.
Stopwatches stop all enemies for a few seconds.
Axes can be thrown into the air to take care of enemies above you.
Boomerangs extend to the other side of the screen before they come back.
Don't forget: enemies can drop sub-weapons at random.
With that out of the way, let's get down to business.
The zombies just move towards you. The black panthers will leap at you before running in the other direction. The bats will fly at you.
Once you go through the door, you'll have to go down a bit and go down the stairs to the left. The wall to the right has a pork chop that refills your health.
When you go down the stairs, watch out for the fishmen as they can knock you into the water and, if you're in the worst possible spot, to your death.
There is a platform at the bottom of the screen below the stairs leading back up on the other side. If you break the blocks above it and stand there for a few seconds, you'll get a flashing, hidden money bag worth a ton of points.
When you make it to the end, you'll meet a giant bat. It will come at you, but if you back off a bit and use the whip, you should be fine. The axe works very well against it. One of the blocks near the exit door may contain a square with the Roman numeral "II" on it. If you pick it up, you can have two of your sub-weapon on the screen at any given time. There is also a "III" as well, which allows you to have three of your sub-weapon on the screen at any given time. The more you use your sub-weapon, the more quickly these icons will show up. If you collect another weapon or die, you lose that ability and you'll have to hunt for it all over again, so be careful.
After beating the giant bat, you'll get a crystal. Pick it up and you'll restore your health and head over to the next set of stages.
Stages 4-6
The living armor just patrols the platform it stands on. You'll also see more bats, and they'll wait on the ceiling until you come close enough to warrant them coming after you.
Stages 4-6 is where the platforming elements of the game come in. Remember that once you jump, you won't be able to change your direction or control your jump while in mid-air. This can be a killer if you're dealing with enemies as you jump. As mentioned before, if you run into or are hit by an enemy, you get knocked back. This is worse with the platforming elements of the game, as you just might be sent down a pit if you're unfortunate enough to get hit in mid-air in the wrong place or time.
The Medusa heads are widely considered to be one of the most annoying video game enemies of all time, due to their sine wave movement pattern and the cheapness that is involved with it in certain areas.
The candle leading up the stairs at the end of the first section of Stage 5 gives you a Double Shot or Triple Shot if you don't have either item.
One of the blocks to the left of the door at the beginning of Stage 6 contains a Pork Chop if you need it.
The crushers at the beginning of Stage 6 are instant death! Thankfully, you can duck under the second one. For the rest, you'll have to run by them as they rise up to the ceiling.
Another new enemy: the Dragon Skull Cannons. These things will shoot fireballs at you from one of their skulls, as the two skulls face a different direction. Just hit it a few times with the whip while targeting the one that's spitting fire at you, and you'll be able to take out the fireballs and the cannon. If your whip is at maximum strength, they take six hits to kill. Talk about a steeper learning curve.
Sometimes tiny ghosts that fly around the screen will materialize. They go down after a few strikes from the whip.
The boss here is a giant Medusa head. The Holy Water is the best sub-weapon for this fight, as the fire from the Holy Water can freeze the boss in place. The more hearts you have, the better. It's pretty easy, too. Just get in range, then Holy Water, whip, whip, Holy Water, whip, whip, Holy Water, whip, whip, repeat until dead. Even though the first boss is easier to beat with the Axe, you're better off just keeping the Holy Water the entire game as it's so overpowered.
We finish this game off with an entire walkthrough of all five minigames!
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
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
If you get Hamton on the Wheel o' Games wheel, you'll get the junction game. 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
If you get Babs Bunny on the Wheel o' Games Wheel, you'll get the maze game.
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
If you get Plucky Duck on the Wheel o' Games Wheel, you'll get the bingo 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.
Seesaw
If you land on Sweetie Bird on the Wheel o' Games Wheel, you'll get the "Mystery Weight Challenge" game.
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.
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 still 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!
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?
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. (Be sure not to fall into the pit below once you get that Buster Bunny doll, as it does not respawn.) 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.) Be sure not to let Buster be pushed past the side of the screen, as it will automatically kill him.
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. Use your drop kick to slow down your fall for a second and move Buster around to grab more of the balls at the sides of the screen. 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 - all twelve of them - and get out of dodge. You're done with this level.
Babs, Find Your Friends!
If you get Babs Bunny on the Wheel o' Games Wheel, you'll get the maze game.
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.
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.
