With Pharaoh Man's stage, you could tell that Capcom was still doing some fun stuff with the NES.
Pharaoh Man
Ooh, boy. Pharaoh Man is one of the better Robot Master designs in the series, in my opinion, and the music for his stage shows how far the series has come to this point. It's just amazing what leaps and bounds Capcom had made in just four years with the Nintendo Entertainment System!
The flying bugs here at the beginning fly around and shoot bullets down at you, which can be pretty easy to avoid if you're paying attention. They always shoot down once on the first pass, two on the second pass, The scorpion robots move in at you, and dive in and out of the quicksand. The quicksand will definitely drag you down, but you should still be able to move around fairly quickly if you just keep jumping.
If you use Rush Coil to jump over the pit leading into the pyramid after the start, you can keep going right and get the Balloon power-up. Using it will give you the ability to produce balloons that you can use as platforms, much like Item 1 in the second game. You'll then teleport into the pyramid.
Once you get into the pyramid (the seemingly normal way), you'll start dealing with mummy robots that pop in and out of their walls and launch their heads at you as part of their attack. They can easily be dealt with with a charged shot. The energy can near the beginning of the whole pyramid area is really easy to get with Rush Coil.
The platforms that take you over the spike pits also shoot bullets in two directions, so be careful when you get close so you don't get shot at.
If you have the Flash Stopper, Pharaoh Man is easy, as he leaps around very quickly and throws the Pharaoh Shot at you constantly. He has a charged version that also goes left and right across the room, too. Just activate the Flash Stopper, then keep blasting him with the Mega Buster until he falls. Just keep pressing the B button and you'll keep activating the Flash Stopper when necessary, as it last for about five seconds.
Beating Pharaoh Man gives you the Pharaoh Shot. Remember, you can charge the Pharaoh Shot up by holding the B button, and as long as you have it held down you'll have a huge Pharaoh Shot above your head that can also damage anything that touches it, which proves to be rather interesting. When charged, you can throw it in eight directions.
Ring Man
Not only will you have red turrets sticking to the walls tracking your every move and shooting at you, you'll also have rainbow-colored platforms that disappear from one end to the other you step foot on them. The best thing to do with these platforms is to jump onto the middle and try to jump to the end whenever necessary in order, since there's no way of knowing which direction they disappear in until you step on them.
When the background turns black, you'll be fighting a hippo on a platform. Shoot down the column holding up the platform, then hit the hippo with everything you've got while avoiding its missiles, which have homing capabilities. The platform will start coming back up, so alternate between shooting the column and the hippo every so often.
The ring monster that blocks your path exposes its defenses when it shoots its six rings out in an asterisk-shaped pattern. Hit the eyes when they're exposed. You'll then fight another hippo.
Once you beat the second hippo, the rainbow platforms now have a completely different look. As a matter of fact, they don't look like rainbows at all. They'll all disappear from one end to the other, too, so jump either on the center of it or close to the center as you can, and jump to the other end.
If you use Rush Coil or Balloon to get to the ladder after the second hippo, you can climb up and meet Eddie, a red flip-top robot who will give you a random power-up. If you don't like what he gives you, leave the room and re-enter without taking the power-up. You can get extra lives and Energy Tanks from Eddie, too.
You'll fight another ring monster before taking on Ring Man.
Ring Man throws a Ring Boomerang, then waits for it to return to him before jumping up and throwing another one. When he hits the ground, he runs to the right and starts the attack pattern over, and he'll run to the left after the second time. He'll then alternate between running right and running left. This is yet another easy attack pattern, which adds to the haphazard "level is harder than the boss" pattern that the game seems to have.
You can destroy him with charged-up Pharaoh Shots, but you can just as easily beat him with the Mega Buster.
Beating Ring Man gives you the Ring Boomerang, which works much like Ring Man's version of the ring.
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