PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 1 of 6

After not touching this game for 25 years, I finally played this one for the channel. Glad I did; it's a little better than I remembered.

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The game begins with Garfield watching television when Odie scares him so much that he lands on the TV. Garfield fixes the TV, but an evil being known as Glitch comes out of the TV and drags him in, trapping Garfield in TV land.

When you start the game, you'll find out what everything does. Pizza and hamburgers will refill health. There are ammunition that you can find and throw at enemies. The coffee cup makes Garfield temporarily invincible. The Garfield head is an extra life. Pooky the stuffed teddy bear is a checkpoint. The mallet key unlocks a second bonus stage after finishing the level. The TV remote will teleport you to another area.

A throws ammunition forward, B attacks and C jumps. You can look up and down with Up and Down (which also ducks), and Left and Right move left and right. At the start of the game, jump from platform to platform and jump into the coil in the ceiling to grab it. You can then move left and right on it. Move to the right to get to the portal leading to the first level.

Your hit points are in the upper-left corner. The maximum is ten, and when you go to zero, you lose a life and you get an animation of a TV with teeth clamping down in front of Garfield when Garfield tries to press himself against the screen, which is pretty creepy and nightmare-inducing. When you get hit, you don't have a lot of invincibility frames, so you'll need to get yourself out of danger or else you're going to quickly get hit again.

Count Slobula's Castle

The ammunition in this level is a skull.

At the left, you can enter your first underground enemies. Jump onto the coffins to open them up and find power-ups - or enemies - and grab the Odie tongues on the ceiling to find a way out.

Enemies here include hands that grab at you, skeleton cats that throw bones at you, ghosts that fly out at you and bats that fly around haphazardly. The hands can respawn, and the skeleton cats can nail you from off-screen. The skeleton cats also take two hits to defeat, as they crumble after the first one. The ghosts make a "whoo" sound whenever they are nearby.

The fences that are in your way will hurt you if you land on them.

You can easily avoid the underground sections, but you'll need to explore them once in a while, to 

There is a long tunnel that you can go to for invincibility and a ton of health pick-ups, but you'll have to backtrack in order to go through a wall, enter another underground burial chamber and get back aboveground.

At the end, there is an underground chamber you'll need to drop to that has a TV remote. Get the remote to face Count Slobula, who is basically Odie in a vampiric robe flying around. Slobula will send three bats at you as he flies around, and after a while, he will dive at you. You'll need to stay away from him as he dives in order to try your best to avoid the attack, and after the dive, he will stand there for half a second. This is when you need to hit Count Slobula. Slobula will briefly hide in a coffin, and you'll need to leap on that coffin, then leap up into the blinds to raise them up and let sunlight in, which will damage Count Slobula. This also damages the coffin Slobula was in, making it unusable. Sometimes there will be food in the coffins, but more often than not, they will be empty. You'll need to do this three times, and you may lose a life or two just to beat Count Slobula, but when you do, you'll get a TV remote that takes you out of this Halloween special.

If you find the mallet key, you'll play the mallet mini-game. You'll be told not to hit a certain character. The holes in the circuit board correspond to the buttons on the six-button controller, but you can also use Up in conjunction with A, B and C to hit things. The longer you last in the game, the faster it gets, and the more letters you can find that spell the word "Garfield." If you can spell "Garfield," the game gives you a continue.

You'll always get the tube mini-game no matter what. Here, you'll move Garfield around with the D-Pad while picking up Pookys. If you get enough, you can earn an extra life, and if you can get a lot, you can get a continue. You start with three continues, which is enough to get through the game with if you know what you're doing. If you run out of continues or choose not to continue, you can get a password so you can start back where you left off. Touching a coffee cup will make you go faster, while the blue orbs will slow you down. For some reason, I keep touching the coffee cup when I don't want to.

To get to the next portal, just jump on the yellow platforms on the circuit board in the background (use the spring if you need to), then use the next spring to get on the coil and head to the right. Jump over the electric charge, then wrap around down and to the left to enter the next level.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 7 of 7

In this entry, the Game Boy Mega Man games come to a close.

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After the last section you'll finally be able to take on the real Boss Rush sequence. Clockwise from the top-right to the top left is Uranus, Mercury, Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Same strategies apply.

You can also use Electric Shock (JU) on Mars and Neptune to deal major damage, now that you have it.

I'm also starting to think Neptune, Jupiter and Saturn were originally Wave Man, Star Man and Gravity Man from the fifth NES game respectively, due to their sharing stage hazards with their respective stages (and Neptune's head looking somewhat like Wave Man's) before they switched from a rehash from the rest of that fifth game and half of the sixth to the whole Stardroids idea. Neptune and Wave Man both have the water theme and the steam blast obstacles, Jupiter and Star Man both have the low gravity space-jumping going around, Saturn and Gravity Man had the gravity fields (which were handled differently in both games).

After beating the Boss Rush teleporters, you'll be able to grab a whole bunch of pick-ups (and two Energy Tanks!) before dropping down and meeting Proto Man, who hands you one last power-up before opening up the teleporter hatch that leads you to Dr. Wily.

Dr. Wily's first form in an extending hand. At the wrist is a pair of eyes. Stay on the move, and when it comes down, shoot at the eyes when they open with the Mega Arm. You'll then face another hand. It's a little faster, and it opens its hands, fires a homing missile at you, and tries to grab you before heading back to the top. Destroy the missile, then slide under the hand so it doesn't grab you. If you need to, use Grab Buster (ME) to hit the wrist and also get some of your energy back as you do.

You'll then face another of Wily's machines. Go to the right and slide away from the missiles, then destroy the robot that causes the gravity field that sends you into the spikes to activate with the Mega Arm. When the bombs show up, slide under them when they jump at you and keep shooting them when they're right next to the machine to keep them there. When it explodes, it damages the machine. Be careful with the bombs with higher numbers, as they can jump. Stay to the right so you can get those bombs to stay closer to the machine.

You'll face yet another boss after this after the ceiling drops down: Wily. Jump low over the floor lasers so you don't hit the spikes, and use Spark Chaser (EA) or Grab Buster (ME) to destroy Wily.

You'll chase Wily until you find out that he has activated the ancient weapon Sunstar (Sungod in the Japanese version). When he commands Sunstar to destroy Mega Man, Sunstar turns on Wily before facing Mega Man.

To beat Sunstar, equip Terra Chaser (EA) and shoot it at him while jumping over the fireballs he shoots. Some of them will destroy the floor below you, but you'll still want to jump over them anyway. They do a load of damage, so if you get hit a few times, use an Energy Tank in your inventory.

As you fight Sunstar, he has other attacks. Be ready to jump in order to avoid the giant laser, and when he rolls around in a circle, jump over him, then slide under him. The sparkle shot will bounce low twice before bouncing high, allowing you to move or slide under it.

When Sunstar is down to one unit of health, the fight is over. Mega Man tries to save Sunstar, but his fusion reactor goes critical, and he tells Mega Man to get out before he explodes and destroys the entire Wily Death Star. Mega Man gets out of there just in time.

After Mega Man returns to Earth, Dr. Wily tries to fight Mega Man once again, but his UFO blows up and Mega Man chases after him. Oh, Wily...

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 6 of 7

In this entry, we defeat Terra again, then we find out that Wily is behind everything again.

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Terra Again

Now that you've beaten all the Stardroid underlings, you'll face Terra again. Since he knows about this, he asks himself how he can face his master now.

Equip Deep Digger (UR) and throw the blocks on the floor at him. Avoid the balls of light that he shoots forward, and stay on the move to avoid the Spark Chaser that he fires off.

Beating Terra gives you Spark Chaser, which homes in on enemies.

Once you beat Terra, you'll find out who the "master" he referred to is: Dr. Wily. Turns out Wily has his own Death Star. Cool.

Space Shooter

You get to control Rush and Mega Man in space! Nice!

Avoid the asteroids. You won't be able to destroy them at all. Avoid the flying robots and shoot them down. Instead of the Meg Arm, you'll get a Mega Buster-style projectile when you fully charge the arm cannon up.

Move up and down to avoid the giant lasers that cover half the screen.

Rush and Mega Man will shrink down to half their usual size, but this is because you're facing the defenses of that huge Death Star. Wait for the mouth to open and fire the laser, then shoot at the mouth before it closes. Avoid the shots that home in on your current position by moving around.

Once you destroy this thing, you'll finally be in.

Wily's Starbase

There are some new enemies even here. The lightning men from Jupiter now have Skull Joe heads, but they attack the same way.

There are multiple paths here, but you'll reach the same destination every time regardless of which paths you take. Be ready to use Pluto's dash attack to break some walls.

You'll start seeing capsules of Enker, Quint, Punk, and Ballade from the first four Game whenever you near any of them. Yep, you've got a Mega Man Killers boss rush, with Quint being the odd one out due to being Mega Man from a possible future turned bad by Dr. Wily and not one of his actual creations. That, and Ballade is back as a mini-boss despite sacrificing himself at the end of the fourth game. Sadly, you don't get their weapons when you defeat them, but they practically fight the exact same way as they did in their respective games, with Ballade using the tactics from his first form.

Run under and jump over Enker as necessary when Enker runs to the other side of the room. When he lifts his sword up, shoot at him. Your Mega Buster shots will fly right into the sword, but this actually damages him. Your bullets will be converted by the sword into an energy beam which are easy to jump over.

Now, we could just do this the same way we did it in the first Game Boy game, word-for-word...but you've got the Mega Arm, and if you're smart, you'll have the power-up for it that lets you latch on and do extra damage. Use that against him instead.

After facing Enker, Punk and Ballade, you'll find some extra rooms and power-ups as you drop down, assuming you can steer Mega Man towards them.

After leaving the room where you fought Enker, Rush Jet all the way to the right as you drop down to find Proto Man and get something cool. From there, go back and jump all the way to the left to get a 1-Up.

Slide under Quint as he tries to crush you with his pogo stick, and hit him in the head with the Mega Buster as he stands still. After beating Quint, stay in the middle on the way down.

Watch out for platforms that fall when you get near them or walk on them as you make your way towards Punk.

Slide or jump over Punk as he goes from one side of the room to the other. Strangely, he seems slower here than in the third Game Boy game. Hit him with fully-charged Mega Buster shots and avoid the Screw Crusher he throws.  You can also use Salt Water (NE) when he's not rolled up in a spiky ball to do even more damage. Those Screw Crushers not only do some good damage, but they also cause your Mega Buster shots to bounce off.

After beating Punk, stay in the center as you drop down so you have the best chance of avoiding the moving platforms and the spikes.

The moving platforms from Uranus' stage come back with a vengeance...and there are also moving spikes, too.

Despite sacrificing himself to help you escape in the last Game Boy game, Wily has decided to remake him one last time. Ballade fights according to the same strategies that he had the first time you met him back then. Slide under Ballade when he jumps and jump over him when he runs at you. He'll toss bombs at you, but you can easily destroy them with the Mega Arm.

Once you beat Ballade, Rush Jet to the right on the way down to get some energy. If you need more, jump to the left and stay on that side for two screens to get even more enemies. From there, stay to the right as you drop down and avoid the moving platforms and the spikes to meet Proto Man again and get something cool again. From Proto Man, jump to the left to avoid the spikes below.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 5 of 7

In this entry, we take down the last Stardroid, then get the last crystal so we can get the Power Generator.

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Uranus

The spinning platforms will send you dropping down if you stand on them for too long.

The one-eyed robots that jump around can be defeated easily with the Mega Arm. Ditto with the seal robots that hop around and send balls flying at you, especially if you have the ability to do extra damage by jamming on the B button.

The cracked walls near the start can be destroyed with Break Dash (PL). Use it, and you can get a free Energy Tank at the other side of the next room.

To beat the Pharoah mini-boss, use the rocks that show up from the opening at the bottom and jump off of those to shoot the Pharoah in the eyes with the Mega Arm. As long as you can hit the jaw, you're solid. Watch the top-left part of the screen and watch out of the rocks that drop down from above. The chambers they come out of seem to track where you are before they drop the rocks. Be sure to stay on the platform as you dodge everything.

The bird's nest robot will spawn bird robots until you destroy it.

You'll be dealing with moving platforms on your way up or down in some sections. Watch out for spikes!

There are some breakable walls just before you head back outside. Break them with the Break Dash and you'll be able to find another gem.

To beat Uranus, slide under the rocks he tosses as well as his jump attacks and attack him with the Mega Buster. Avoid the remnants of the rocks when they hit the wall. Watch the ceiling when he jumps over to the other side, because the ceiling will crush the side he jumped away from. If that ceiling hits you, it's instant death.

Beating Uranus gives you Deep Digger. It lets you get rid of the cracked blocks by picking them up and throwing them.

From here, go back to Pluto's stage. After the first mini-boss, go down instead of up by grabbing the block that is blocking the ladder with Deep Digger. If you have the ability to grab stuff with the Mega Arm, the gem at the bottom is yours. You'll need all four gems for a power generator that will cut the energy consumption of your special weapons by 50 percent.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 4 of 7

In this video, we take on two more of the Stardroids. Needless to say, the stages we go to are pretty interesting.

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Saturn

Drop down from the right at the start to use the Mega Arm and get some extra P-Chips.

Some parts of the stage will have different types of gravity. 0.5g will send you flying upwards like in Jupiter's stage, while 2g will weigh your jumps down considerably. Watch the arrows, too. They're an even better indicator of how your jumps will be affected.

After the first 2g field, use Rush Coil or Rush Jet to go left. You'll find the gem for this stage there. After that, go right when you drop down for extra P-Chips.

The robot with the swinging tails will drop bombs downwards. They'll also cause the screen to blink brightly, sometimes making it more difficult to see where you're trying to go.

The slinky robots will jump towards you.

The spiked robots on the ceilings will try to drop down on you and even stab at you. Take them out with the Mega Arm.

The short flying robots will fly towards you will fire homing missiles at you. Shoot them both down with the Mega Arm.

To beat Saturn, equip Electric Shock (JU) and fire it at him. He goes down in four hits with it. Jump over him so that you can stay above him but below the ring that he tosses around as he slides back and forth. He will also freeze you in place and shoot bullets in a circular pattern around the room. If you get hit with it, keep tagging him with Electric Shock.

Beating Saturn gives you Black Hole, which kills any nearby enemies. You'll also get Rush Jet.

Pluto

Wait for the robots with the shields to uncover their faces before shooting at them. When you destroy the treads, open the shield up with the Mega Arm and shoot at them before the shield comes back down.

The steel girders will fall when you get near them or land on them. Get where you need to go quickly. If you need to, use Rush Jet.

The wheeled robots with the visor over their head will rush at you when they see you. Hit them with the Mega Arm and watch out for the explosion that occurs when you destroy them.

The flying magnet robots fire a shot downwards, which then travels through the floor towards you.

When you reach a rocky dead end, you'll meet the drill robot mini-boss. Avoid the rocks that come out as it digs in and out of the ceiling and the floor while you shoot it down. Jump around so that it doesn't hit you before coming out of the ground. The mini-boss will appear on one side of the room and then come back on the other every time it disappears into the floor or ceiling, which makes it easier to keep track of where it goes.

There is a block blocking the ladder leading down after the first mini-boss. We won't be able to pick it up and get what's below yet.

As you progress through the level, you'll find out that the steel girders will drop down when you're under them, too.

To break the cracked blocks, you'll need Deep Digger, which you'll have to beat Uranus to get.

Proto Man will give you an energy refill after the second mini-boss and before you face Pluto.

To beat Pluto, you'll need Grab Buster (ME). You'll be able to steal energy from him [b]and[/b] do the most damage. Just avoid the fireballs and projectiles that he tosses at you. If he jumps up to the ceiling, use Bubble Bomb (VE) to hit him. He'll eventually come back down, but you can get energy from him with Grab Buster when he does.

Beating Pluto gives you Break Dash. It's a dashing attack that lets you force your way through enemies as well as cracked blocks.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 3 of 7

In this entry, we encounter Terra again, then we head further into space to fight more of the Stardroids.

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Dark Moon

When you beat the first four Stardroids, you'll be able to enter a new area.

Mega Man will enter a base and come face to face with Terra. Instead of destroying you directly, he sends out Dark Moon.

Dark Moon is much like the Yellow Devil of the first Mega Man game ever. Avoid all of the segments as they fly to the right, then hit him in the eye when he shows up and opens it as he fires at you. You can use Photon Missile (MA), but you'll need to fire it before the eye opens, so use the fully-charged Mega Arm if you're not patient enough. When he teleports to the other side of the screen, the top half of him will bounce to the other side instead of just moving to it.

When you beat Dark Moon, you'll be able to go to the other stages...in space! Rush becomes a spaceship and takes Mega Man out of this world. There's something we had yet to see in the series.

If you need to return to the first four stages for P-Chip farming, just press B.

Jupiter

Be careful when you're outside. You'll be performing some pretty high jumps in outer space here due to the low gravity.

The crab-like enemies on the ceiling will drop down and temporarily shock the floor before firing in three directions. They then drop down again and repeat the pattern if you're close enough while under it.

Shoot down the enemies that bounce off the walls and ceilings at 45-degree angles with the Mega Arm. Speaking of which, there's a wall after that first one that you can break with the Break Dash (PL). On the other side is Proto Man, who will hand you a random pick-up.

The men that send electricity at you from their bodies can only be attacked after they've thrown their shot forward.

Watch out when you're outside later in the stage, as the area will become slippery. When that starts happening, go right, then drop down. Instead of going down a pit, you'll go two screens down. Stay in the center as you drop down so as not to hit the spikes on the right, drop down again, then go left. If you can grab items with the Mega Arm, the gem in this room is yours. The last four stages in the game have gems that you can collect, and if you collect all four, you can get something cool.

You can also go up the ladder and get everything on the way up, then go back down and go into the pit. When you go down the pit, hold Left until you land. The room with the gem will be to the left.

To beat Jupiter, equip Bubble Bomb (VE) and avoid Jupiter's downward blasts and four-way shots. He shoots lightning downward, then a four-way shot, and then dives downwards. Stay close but not directly under him. After the lightning stops, get directly under him to avoid the four-way shot. After the four-way shot, move away immediately so he doesn't divebomb you.

Beating Jupiter gives you Electric Shock, which fires an electric blast forward from Mega Man's hands. It goes through shields, too!

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 2 of 7

In this video, we beat down the rest of the Stardroids that are here on Earth.

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Mars

You can walk on the pistons. They're part of the floor.

Watch out for the mines. If you step on them, you'll trigger them into detonating a few seconds later. 

Take out the rockets and the jumping missile pods with the Mega Arm. The rockets explode when they're destroyed, and they fly up and come down with a parachute if you get close enough.

The stegosaurus robots fire homing missiles. Shoot down the missiles as you kill this thing. When it goes down, the missiles do, too. It will be invulnerable when it hides in its shell and spins around, moving back and forth.

Use your Mega Arm at the top of your jump with the ape-like robots that jump up and down so you can have an easier time hitting them. They throw bananas at you, but they will jump when you shoot and will also jump like crazy if you're close enough. Use that to your advantage.

The small rocket platforms rise slowly to the top of the screen, and they can also send you into ceiling spikes if you're not careful. Wait for them to launch out of the pipes in the ground if you need to.

Tango the Cat (TA) attacks enemies when summoned. Of course, the more he stays on screen, the more energy he will use.

The mid-boss is a large cannon that spits out bouncy, explosive balls. Jump from platform to platform avoiding the balls and keep hitting it with the Mega Arm. Three fully-charged arms will do it.

After following the small energy pick-ups on the drop, move right and away from the wall to avoid the spikes.

The robots with the spinning bodies will spit small, bouncy bombs at you before leaping forward. Take it out with the fully-charged Mega Arm when they're not spinning (they're invulnerable when they do).

To beat Mars, equip the Mega Buster and shoot at the regular bullets and homing missiles.  Slide or jump over the Photon Missiles. When he fully hides his head into his armor, he's about to charge to the other side. Jump over him and avoid the mines he drops. If you have Salt Water (NE), you can either hit him with the big bubble or hit the wall just above him and then have one of the smaller bubbles do damage. Either way, it hurts.

Beating Mars gives you the Photon Missiles. They're much like the missiles that Mars Man has: quick yet powerful after standing there for a second.

The CL icon is the Clobber Hand, which allows you to grab an enemy and attack them repeatedly with the fully-charged Mega Arm. I get this later.

The MH icon is the Magnet Hand, which allows you to grab items with the fully-charged Mega Arm. I get this now.

The Energy Balancer refills the weapon with the lowest amount of energy if you pick up a weapons pick-up with the Mega Buster equipped. I never get this.

Venus

Some of the bubbles are a lighter shade and will drop down when you get close enough. After that, they'll jump around trying to throw themselves at you.

The crabs shoot bubbles that will envelop you and push you back. Take the crabs out from a distance. You can also shoot the bubbles down, too.

The waterfalls will push you into the bottomless pits, so wait for them to drop down before jumping ahead. If you see a drop of water, a whole waterfall is about to come down.

The floating robots with the rotors on their head split in two when hit. These two clones split up into even smaller versions once more before they are finally destroyed.

The owls with the fans on their stomachs will suck you towards them, then blow you back with their wings. Hit them with the Mega Arm.

You'll finally meet Eddy midway through, proving he's in the game. 

The bubble floors will take you all the way to the ceiling when you jump, so watch for spikes before you jump. If you're on a small bubble, you won't go as high; if you're on a big bubble, you'll go all the way to the ceiling.

To beat Venus, equip the Photon Missiles (MA) and fire them at him. Venus is pretty slow, but he jumps a good distance and leaves Bubble Bombs that you'll want to stay away from when he jumps around. He also jumps when you fire the Photon Missile. He usually stays to the ground, though.

Beating Venus gives you the Bubble Bombs, which will travel upwards and explode upon impact with an enemy.

You'll also Rush Coil, which works much like it did in previous games. Yep, Rush is in this game, too.

PrinceWatercress plays Mega Man V for Game Boy - Part 1 of 7

...and now for something completely different.

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A few months after the events of the fourth Mega Man game for Game Boy, Mega Man and Roll go out for a walk when a robot named Terra shows up and plans to make Mega Man his slave en route to taking over the world with his evil Stardroid army. Mega Man fights, but his Mega Buster has no effect. After he is knocked out, warrior robots attack the world.

When Mega Man comes to, his arm cannon is upgraded to the Mega Arm, which allows him to do real damage to the enemy that his regular arm cannon wouldn't be able to do due to their alien armor. Now that Mega Man is back in action, who are the Stardroids? Where did they come from? What do they want?

When you start the game, Dr. Light will explain the P-Chip system to you. You'll learn about the Mega Arm, which replaces the charged shot from the Mega Buster. You'll also get Tango the Cat, who is exclusive to this game and can take down enemies by bouncing around the screen for as long as you have weapon energy for him. The P-Chips act as currency, and they can be exchanged for useful items such as Energy Tanks, extra lives, Weapon Tanks and more. Small P-Chips are worth one, big ones are worth 5. You'll be finding them pretty often. Whenever you beat a stage or make it to the exit of a level you've already completed, you can head here instead of straight to the stage select screen. You can also press Select on the stage select screen to go to Dr. Light's Lab.

When you head to the map screen, you'll have four Stardroids to choose from, from left to right: Mars, Mercury, Venus and Neptune.

Mercury

The small and large circles with the flashing cores recover your energy, while the small and large rectangles with the flashing cores recover weapon energy. The large ones obviously replenish more than the smaller ones.

There are conveyor belts here, and they'll switch direction every few seconds.

Watch out for the birds that fly at you when you get close enough. Kill them from afar with the Mega Arm.

You'll also have to deal with metal cans that move across said conveyor belts. Stay on the move and they shouldn't affect you. You can also shoot them down with the Mega Arm.

Take out the face turrets that spit shrapnel at you from a distance. It takes about two or three shots to take out the shrapnel, but they split into four smaller pieces of debris when you do.

After that first face turret, watch out for the spikes as you dropped down.

There will be robot on wheels with a buzzsaw in front of them. That buzzsaw will come off when the robot is destroyed, and you'll want to stay out of its way when it moves forward.

There are also short robots on treads that will float up and teleport, reappearing somewhere else on the screen. Use the Mega Arm to deal more damage in less time.

You'll soon be in a section where the floor moves up and down. Stay as high as possible, and if you have to hide in the little areas between walks, so be it. Being crushed, as always, leads to instant death.

The robots with the hammers on their heads will strike the floor in an attempt to hit you with the four pieces of debris that fly around. Shoot them down from a distance.

The robots with the claws pointing straight up will catch a block, crush it, and send out shrapnel in an 8-way attack. It's easier to avoid the further away you are.

The slides with the spikes are easy if you position yourself correctly prior to going into the slide. Just be careful not to run into the spikes, and the Energy Tank is yours.

To beat Mercury, equip the Salt Water (NE) if you have it and fight him from a distance. Otherwise, use the arm cannon. Avoid the projectiles he shoots out, as that is his Grab Buster and it will cause you to drop items such as P-Chips and Energy Tank Fragments (more on those later). When he splits into three, jump over the blobs that make up his essences and head to the other side of the room. If the blobs bounce to the other side, slide under them. If you run out of Salt Water, use your Mega Arm.

Beating Mercury gives you the Grab Buster. This allows you to grab items from enemies, such as health. You'll usually get health, but it's better than nothing.

Neptune

Neptune's stage takes place on a battleship, and it's awesome.

Get close to the turrets to get them to stand up and rush at you so you can damage them. The larger ones with the shield in the front will require the charged-up Mega Arm.

When taking on the helicopters, wait for them to come down a bit so you can do some real damage. Get rid of the homing missiles with the Mega Arm.

Watch out when you get inside the battleship. There is water that will slowly push you back, much like the water in Toad Man's stage in the fourth NES game. You can also shoot the big pipes in the wall and cause water to come out of the elbow joints or shoot the small rips in the pipes steam to come in and out of the broken parts of the pipes, much like in Wave Man's stage in the fifth NES game. For something that forces you to be more careful with your arm cannon, this is a rather nice touch and I wish Capcom did this more often.

The one-eyed flying robots will explode when you destroy them.

The swimming robots with the two wings that move up and down to help it move just move towards you. They're pushovers.

You'll see a huge ladder on the way up to the last section before the Stardroid room. On the way up, you'll see a large energy pick-up and an extra life. You'd think you can use the Mega Arm to grab them, since it works like a short-range boomerang, but you can't. You'll have to get a power-up from Dr. Light's workshop that allows you to do that. If you still want them, climb to the top and avoid the steam on the way up, then drop down from the top and hold Left on the D-Pad. 

Neptune is the easiest to beat with the Mega Arm. Slide under him when he jumps up and down. If he keeps jumping in place, avoid the water droplets that come out of the ceiling. He'll also throw a big ball of salt water that split into three smaller balls upon hitting the floor. Stay far away from that attack. When he jumps from one side of the room to the other, he will do two small hops, then one big one, followed by a small one. Slide under him on the big hop.

If you have Mars' Photon Missile (MA), you can use it on him as well.

Beating Neptune gives you the Salt Water, which works much like the big water ball that Neptune threw at you.

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 5 of 5

I thought there would be more to the game than what we got in this part, but here we are. We've made it to the end.

First | Previous

The Base

If you see any tracks on the background walls, there are turrets moving across them. Be ready to shoot them down. Also, wait close to the barriers that phase in an out so you can easily pass through them when they are down. Robots will shoot at you. Hit them with your gun with A if they get too close.

You'll soon face a pterodactyl while riding an elevator platform. Stay on the move and keep shooting at it, and stay away from the bombs that it drops, as the explosions have a little bit of range as they spread across both sides of the floor. There is some food underneath the elevator afterwards; get it as soon as you see it, because it is too easy to go far enough to the left that the game does not allow you to go back to it.

You'll soon fight some sort of lizard creature. Shoot at the head, and avoid the flame shots that fire out of its mouth and the green acid projectiles that fire out of the tail end.

You'll then have to shoot down a door and ride on rotating platform while shooting down turrets. If you're at the lower half of the screen, shoot at the lower-left corner; if you're at the upper half of the screen, shoot at the upper-left corner. If your firepower is good enough, you'll be taking down these big, globe-shaped turrets, and some will go down before they can really show up.

You'll then fight another mechanical monstrosity. Avoid the claws as they come down, and shoot at the claws. Thankfully, they alternate, and you can shoot the claws down even when they're in the ceiling. You'll then face another robot that moves around the track in the top center of the screen. Shoot down the eyes to keep them from firing at you, and stay away from the lighting blasts when the center part opens up while you fire at it. Thankfully, the beam can't get you at the extreme sides of the platform, which you don't want to fall off of. After this, the center part (which looks much like an insect face) swings back and forth. Jump over it as it swings towards you while getting shots in on it. You'll eventually expose the face, which will then move on the track again. Attack it from an angle, and refrain from standing underneath it so the fireballs that spill out don't hit you. Fireballs will only spill out of it when you hit it, so keep your distance when that happens. After this, the battle is over; head right, take care of the robot enemies and get the food out of the crystal before going down the ladder, as you're probably needing it at this point. If a second player needs food, there will be another crystal with food to the left of the bottom of the ladder.

After jumping a gap and riding down on a platform while avoiding the laser turrets, jump to the left. You'll face one more boss. It will move around on the track in the background wall, and you'll want to take out the metal claws first, preferably the one on the right. Once the arms are down, the face will open and shoot two lightning beams as well as some fireballs out of the center. Go all the way to the left and shoot at it, then stay away from it as it moves towards you. Jump to avoid the fireballs. Keep doing this, and you should have enough health for the final battle coming up.

Final Boss

You'll need to avoid the green fireballs that jump in and out of the bottom of the screen as you take out the clone creators - the purple things with the red and yellow stuff on them on the bottom of the screen. When you take one out, columns of the green stuff from the bottom rush out at you while moving up and down, and you'll need to jump over them to avoid them. The green fireballs themselves will also cause more trouble, as they turn into evil versions of the main characters and rush at you. The Cygnus clones are the worst, as they split into two smaller clones when you shoot them down.

Once you shoot down all four clone creators, the room will spin around. A metal sphere will rise out from the bottom, and two claws made of the green lava will come out from the side. You'll need to jump over and avoid the claws while shooting at them to take them down. Once the arms are down, the top of the metal sphere will open up, and you'll need to shoot at it. There will be two attacks to avoid at this point: the laser beam that will shock you, and the small blue fireball that shoots upwards towards you after that. Never, ever be directly above this metal sphere if you want to avoid getting hit here.

Once you destroy this final boss, you'll beat the game! Congratulations!

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 4 of 5

This was an interesting set of levels to play, as was the "a-ha" moments for what I needed to do to get through them.

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Toy Factory

The conveyor belts here will move you around, but they are the least of your worries here. The fire pits will instantly kill you if you fall into them, and the rotating platforms, as much as a help as they are of keeping you out of them, rotate fairly fast, so pay attention.

The openings in the background will produces boxes and enemies that will fire at you. Keep firing as you go and you won't have to deal with them for very long.

When the game provides you a ladder here, use it. It is possible to fall too far and die in this place.

After some fire jets, you'll need to drop down and to the left towards some crushers that you will have to avoid. After the crushers, fall down and to the right, and stay to the left as much as possible while fighting the claw so you don't get burned or grabbed. Once the claw is down, be ready to jump over the gap.

There is a yellow elevator platform that you will have to ride near the end. As you go down, there will be a crystal with an extra life inside. If you're going for it, you'd better be ready to jump off the edge to the left back onto the elevator, because if you do it before you reach the edge, you'll hit your head on the platform above and you won't make it.

Toy Factory Mid-Boss

Avoid the balls that the boss shoots at you as you shoot at the big red hand on the right side of the boss. When the boss' mouth opens, shoot at it to destroy the slug that jump out. Once the big red hand goes down, you'll be shooting at the cannon arm. After the cannon arm goes down, you'll go for the face. After that, the boss will be unable to move or do anything as you shoot at the panel in the center.

Japan

Jump over the tornadoes as you shoot down the small samurai. The big samurai will shoot projectiles at you, so take them down as soon as you see them. The further away and the more firepower you have, the better. 

You can ride on the turtles, but if you stay on them too long when they come to a complete stop, they will dive into the water and take you with them, and it will cost you a life.

If you see a gap in any of the wooden bridges that you cross, jump over them! Failure to do so will result in a plank falling down and you falling into the water with it to your death.

You'll face a few mini-bosses as you go through this level. The first is a cannon. Once you shoot the door down, the cannon will alternate between high shots and low shots. Duck the high shots, jump the low shots and keep shooting at the cannon no matter what. 

The samurai you'll face after the cannon has a mastery of fire. Start shooting at him, and when he gets in the air, get under him and shoot. If any of your shots bounce off of him, he is invulnerable at the current time. When you see the fireballs rotating around him, go all the way to the left side of the screen and duck to avoid getting hit. Once the mid-boss flies to your side and back again, get under him and fire at him again. When the shots start bouncing off, go all the way to the right and duck to avoid as many of the raining fireballs as possible. There is a third attack where the mid-boss shoots two fireballs that land at opposite ends. When that happens, avoid the fire spread when the fireballs hit the ground. The mid-boss will then cycle through the three attacks in the same order, but the mid-boss dies before we even see the third attack.

You'll soon face another samurai mid-boss that flies around and creates tornadoes. Get under him and shoot him at the start, and when he starts making tornadoes, get all the way to the left and jump over the tornadoes when they come at you. The mid-boss will then bounce around the screen at 45-degree angles; move around so you don't get hit by this guy. Once he is done, he will teleport to the top center, where you can get under him and shoot at him again. He'll do the same attacks again, but you'll need to be ready to jump over the tornadoes the instant they hit the ground. After more bouncing around, he will teleport to the left side, where it's easier to not get hit again. I destroy this mid-boss before he can do much there.

After jumping onto some rocks and small bridges while taking out large samurai, you'll get some food and one more samurai mid-boss. He will fly to the top center and start shooting thunderbolts down. There are gaps between the bolts, and whenever a bolt hits, walk to where it struck after the thunderbolt disappears. You'll be able to inch your way back and forth across the screen and get your shots in on the mid-boss from underneath as you do this. After this, the boss will teleport everywhere into random locations. Stay on the move to avoid him, and when he is at the top center of the screen again, get under him and start firing once again. This mid-boss has an attack where he fires down two thunderbolts - one on the left, one on the right - that move towards the center. If you've done enough damage by the time you reach this attack, you more than likely won't have to deal with it.

After this battle, you'll get more food, then you'll need to keep firing to shoot at the gears and raise up the wooden log platforms that you'll have to jump on to clear some gaps. After a few instances of this, it's time for one more mid-boss: an alien statue. Keep shooting at the head. The big pink projectiles that come out of the eyes will simply freeze you in place, and they will not damage you. The smaller pink projectiles that come out of his back, however, do hurt, and you want to stay away from those. If you know what you're doing, you can find a gap in the pattern in which the big projectiles fly so you can keep moving back and forth to shoot at the statue as much as possible and make this battle go faster.

Mega Lizard

There are three platforms to the left; you'll need to stay on the lowest one. The Mega Lizard will shoot its flame breath either high or low. Wait for the Mega Lizard to duck its head down and shoot low before jumping to the top platform and shooting at the red button in the upper-right corner of the screen. When you hit it, go back down to the lowest platform. The more you shoot the button, the more you will bust up the nearby liquid nitrogen tanks, and when the Mega Lizard is light blue, the battle is over.

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 3 of 5

I really did not want to lose all of my firepower here. While the game isn't super difficult, going down a single-shot pea shooter after you lose all your health isn't fun.

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Jet Ski Adventure

To get big air on the ramps, you'll need to hold Right on the D-Pad and move towards them. The faster you're going, the more air you'll get. You can also change where you are by moving with the D-Pad while in flight. There are also fire pits, and you'll need to spend as little time in them as possible. Strangely, the fire pits after the ramps can still hurt you, and because of that, I jump over some of the fire pits while trying to shoot down the first crystal I see for the food so I can stop running around with low health like I did when I got here.

There will also be mines on the ground as well as a few of the platforms you can jump onto. You can avoid them, but you can also shoot them down. 

Near the end of the level, there are soldiers you can shoot at as well as some crystals. The crystals will provide some useful power-ups, including more food and an extra life.

There is a mid-boss to take down at the end. Shoot down the manned cars at the side as the boss flies around, and stay away from the center so you don't get hit from above. Once you take out the cars, it's on to the next area.

Hollywood

This part is pretty easy to blow through with heavy firepower. You'll have tanks on the ground, helicopters in the air and a bunker with a turret near the end of the monster movie set that you're stomping through. They all shoot at you, but the bunker turret takes quite a bit of punishment before it goes down.

After taking out that turret, grab the shield. You'll be facing a mechanical Triceratops. When you reach the end, go all the way back to the left. The Triceratops tank will have a lot of points to shoot down, but you definitely want to take out the turret on its back while avoiding its shots as quickly as possible while shooting down everything else. There is also another turret on the ceiling that will shoot energy rings at you, and you'll need to down it as well. When the Triceratops tank rushes at you, go all the way to the left side and jump to avoid being rammed.

Blue Line Train

If you see a hatch on the ceilings of the train cars you're walking on, stop, duck down and shoot at them immediately. They will definitely get in your way, making getting around harder and doing a good amount of damage, and they can even knock you into the bottomless pits between the train cars. There are also worm-like enemies crawling around, but if you've got some good firepower and you're shooting as you go, you'll more than likely take them out before they do very much.

The flying robots that fly back and forth shoot energy rings down like a three-way shot only fire at the sides of the screen. When they move towards you, walk under them while shooting upwards at them and get to the other side.

You'll get an extra life before the boss. The boss will fly in, and you'll need to shoot at the rear of the flying machine. When the boss splits into two parts, you'll fight the flying part first. Fight it just like you did the flying robots from earlier, and wait for it to stop shooting the laser beam down before walking under it. The other part will soon show up after you destroy the flying part. Shoot at the globe at the top and watch where the rings that it shoots go. When it approaches you, it will kick at you. Stay away from it when it kicks and keep aiming at the globe. You'll take this thing down in no time.

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 2 of 5

Hey, it's that boss again! And this time, we have to put in more effort to destroy it without getting destroyed ourselves.

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Cavern

For this level, you're going up the whole time. Be careful not to fall down too far, as the game will automatically kill you if you fall for long enough even if there is a platform directly below you and you're able to land on it. Fall damage is a thing in this game if you fall from too high a height, but if you fall way too far down, the game just kills you instantly.

Enemies include worms that pop up from the sides and can't be killed, bullet-spitting spiders on web, weird looking plant things with teeth that also spit bullets and brown fuzzy creatures that will teleport onto the screen and leap at you.

There are a few platforms that will fall down when you land on them, and one of them even has a crystal with health-replenishing food above it. If you still need foot when you reach the top, go all the way to the left and shoot the crystal there. You'll find food.

Beneath Hoover Dam

When you start, immediately go to the left after you slide down so the turbine doesn't kill you. Shoot down the turbine to destroy it, as it will be instant death if you move into it. Make your way to the left. The steam will open up a path leading down. Head right, them make your way up. You'll be dealing with electric enemies that fly around and throw projectiles at you to zap you, and they will keep appearing, so keep shooting where they appear so you don't get hit.

Go right and down the slide, then head left away from the turbine when you approach it and shoot the turbine down. All the turbines contain power-ups, but this one contains food. From here, jump up the nearby platforms towards the top of the maze as you head left. There is an intersection in the pipes where you need to hold Down and press C to drop down. Do that, then head right.

Drop down and to the right with the help of the platforms towards the Tesla machine. Shoot down the nearby crystal for food, but don't get electrocuted here so you don't get hurt. From here, go down to the platform to the right, then head left. Go through the wall, and you'll end up at the slope below. Grab the invincibility shield and hurry right to get past the steam, then jump to the right and then to the platform with the ladder and the crystal (which contains more food).

Climb up the ladder and keep going up. The ladder at the far-right leads to a weapon power-up, while the pipes to the left lead towards the exit. Past the pipes is a long platform leading to the exit. Just shoot down the turrets and jump the gap after the electricity has passed, then climb up the ladder to get out of here.

You'll then face the boss that you met at the beginning of the game again, and this time, he is harder. Stay on the platform and shoot down the arm while avoiding the fire that the monster spits out. When the arm is gone, the right edge of the platform will fall into the water. Ride the platform to the right and get as many free shots on the other arm as you can before you jump to the other platform. Once you take out the other arm, you'll need to take out the head while avoiding the fire that it breathes and the fire that gathers on the platform when it touches ground there. You'll want to take as little damage as possible so that the next level isn't extremely painful to get through. Once you do enough damage to the head, the boss is down and it is on to the next level.

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 1 of 5

Yep, it's another Contra/Gunstar Heroes clone. 

Next | End

Believe it or not, Tom Mason's Dinosaurs For Hire started out on Eternity Comics and went for nine issues. When Eternity was absorbed into Malibu Comics, it went for a full year between February 1993 and February 1994, with the game coming out in October of 1993.

In the options menu, you have three difficulties (Easy, Normal and Hard), and you can choose between having zero, three, six and nine continues.

The D-Pad aims in seven directions, ducks, looks up and moves (left and right). A attacks enemies up close with the butt of your weapon, B fires the gun and C jumps.

When you start the game, you'll be able to choose between the three main characters of the series: Archie, Lorenzo and Reese. Left and Right switches between the three characters, and Up and Down let you read the character bios. To confirm your selection, press Start. Despite the different appearance between the three characters, they all control and perform the same.

When you start the game, you'll see a giant dinosaur climb up Hoover Dam, and you'll need to shoot it down. Climb down the ladder a bit and shoot the hand down, then get back on the platform, jump up and shoot at the head. If you're fast enough, you'll take the boss down. If you go down before the boss does, that's okay; this is the only battle where it does not matter if you win or lose. After the battle, you get a little bit of the credits, then the credits stop, Cyrano the pterodactyl shows up, and you'll find out this is a fake ending and that the real beginning of the game starts now.

Tenement House

You can fire the gun to get rid of the ninjas and the bikers, but if the ninjas get too close, press A.

The green crystals contain power-ups. Shoot the crystals to get the power-ups. The three fireballs will give you a two way shot and eventually a three-way shot, while the big fireball will increase the size and power of your shots. The food and drink will recover your health all the way to full regardless of how much or little you have left.

If you die at any point, you'll go back to the single shot with the weakest power level, and you'll need to get power-ups to power up your shot again.

At the bottom of the screen, you'll have your energy followed by your lives below it. To the right is your current amount of smart bombs and your current score. If you press A, B and C simultaneously, you'll set off a screen-clearing smart bomb. While it works on enemies, it does not work on bosses.

By climbing the ladders, you can get on the balconies. Use Up and Down to climb the ladders. Some of the windows will have guys with flamethrowers burst out, and you'll need to take them down so that their upward-arcing shots don't hurt you. From the balconies, you'll want to get to the left, then get to the top of the building. Be ready to take out any ninjas that drop down from the hang gliders.

On the right side of the building, climb your way down to face your first mini-boss. Avoid the hole in the right side of the ground, and be ready to avoid the shots that come out of the turret that you need to shoot at while taking out the ninjas to reduce their numbers. It is is possible to stand in the right spot so the shots from the turret don't hurt you, but it can be a bit tough.

Subway Part A

Here, you'll deal with skateboarders throwing Molotov cocktails, parts of the ceiling coming down to block your path with live wires ready to shock you, battle cars of death on the lower level ready to shoot you down and giant mutant cockroaches that can spit acid projectiles you'll need to jump over.

Hold Down and press C to drop down to the lower lever. Hold Up and press C to switch back to the upper level. Make sure there is not a column in your way while jumping your way back up.

You're better off being on the upper level and following the battle cars while shooting down at them to take them out. The more powerful your shots are, the faster this will go. Keep firing to take out the skateboard dudes and the cockroaches, and keep a look out for parts of the ceiling that will collapse.

The dinosaur icon in some of the crystals give you an extra life.

Subway Part B

For this one, you'll want to get as high as you can and stay there. If you see any platforms moving around in mid-air, ride them. If you see any turrets or their shots, stop advancing and take out the turrets, whether they are in the walls or on the platforms.

Hold Down to climb down ladders from platforms.

The dinosaur footprint with the S is a shield that gives you temporary invincibility.

You will always move while aiming diagonally, so be ready to move back and forth while also simultaneously avoiding things.

When you make it as far right as you can go, drop down and head to the right to get out of this section.

Subway Mid-Boss

The mid-boss is an even bigger car that shoots flames upwards while moving back and forth. Be ready to follow it while shooting diagonally downwards at the car as much as possible. The more damage you do, the faster the car will go. There are two power-up crystals, the left contains a mushroom cloud that gives you a smart bomb and the right contains food to fully refill your health; break them and get the food when you really need it.

Empire State Building

Jump on the platform to get it moving. Shoot down everyone that you can, and when you see enemies coming down from the top, be ready to move back and forth while shooting straight ahead to ensure they all go down. When you see smoke coming out from above, be ready to aim forward so that you can take out the ninjas when they land. When you reach the top of the building, jump to the door.

To beat the Mega Minotaur, stay to the left of the door where you show up to avoid the laser, then head to the left and be ready to avoid the mace when it is thrown. Shoot at the throwing hand before the mace returns. Once you do enough damage to the hand, stay to the left of the door to avoid the lasers and shoot upwards to shoot at the Mega Minotaur's head. From here, go all the way up and keep jumping as the Mega Minotaur switches positions so you don't get knocked down and - if you're not careful - off the lowest level and off the building, costing you a life. You still have health and lives here, even if you cannot see them in these battles.

When the other hand starts shooting missiles, avoid the lasers as well as the missile, then shoot down the other hand and try to shoot down the missile, which will home in on you. If it shoots any more missiles, shoot them down as you shoot the arm. Once that arm is down, it's time to shoot down the head and avoid the lasers. Once the head is done, you've defeated the Mega Minotaur.

PrinceWatercress plays Barbie Pet Rescue - The Longplay

Presenting...the whole game in its entirety in one video, minus commentary. Enjoy!

First | Previous

A huge thunderstorm has passed over the community of Green Arbor Park. Many of the family pets and wild animals who live around the are have run away! Even the young animals from the Island Reserve have been set loose by the storm. The residents of Green Arbor Park know what to do: call Barbie's Pet Rescue Center.

Barbie listens to each call for clues to where the animals were last seen and may be hiding. Barbie leaps into action! She must rescue the animals before they get into trouble.

When you start the game, you'll be in the Pet Rescue Center. While you can take a call to rescue an animal, there is already an animal in the play room. If you go in, you'll find an orange cat.

In the play room, you can check out the pet care records and hints, take the animal to the care room, and can also play with the animal, which has you playing one of three mini-games.

In the care room, you can feed the animal, give the animal vitamins, brush the animal, bandage the animal if you have to, and bathe the animal if you have to.

With the pet care hints, which gives out general pet care advice, you have gauges. The more filled up the gauge is, the better the animal will respond to it. You should not bathe the animal or use bandages or vitamins unless the pet car record, which tells you specifics about the animal you're helping, hints that you should.

If you press Start while at the rescue center, you'll get a password. You can input this password to start back where you left off.

Cinnamon the Kitten

Cinnamon arrived at the Pet Rescue Center in pretty good condition. Her fur needs some attention, though, and she isn't as peppy as she normally is.

Kittens

They are sweet animals that love to play and receive affection. It's important to feed them on a regular basis.

Bandage: 5

Food: 3

Bathing: 2

Vitamins: 4

Brush: 5

There are two gauges in the upper-right corner: a green health gauge and a brown happiness gauge. You'll want to feed and care for the animal to fill it up, and you'll need to play mii-games to 

Thankfully, Cinnamon is pretty easy to nurse back to health. You can either brush or feed her. This will increase the green health meter to maximum. Watch the lower-right corner to see what your actions will do, as you can also accidentally decrease the meters if you do the wrong thing.

To fill up the happiness meter, you'll need to keep playing mini-games. There are three in all, and you'll only get special, animal-specific mini-games with certain animals in the special rescues, which I will mention

For Rascal Run-Around, you'll need to hold the Control Pad to guide the white paw prints to the arrow at the end. Once you get used to how this works, it's pretty easy to do.

For Snacktime Challenge, you'll need to use the Control Pad and the A button to match the animals with their favorite foods. Thankfully, the animals and their fave foods both share the same colors, and once you memorize the cards, this gets easier. You'll have a few seconds to memorize where the cards are before the game begins, and you can only miss three times before you are forced to try again.

For Critter Keep-Away, you'll be moving the paws at the bottom with Left and Right on the D-Pad while pressing A to bat the ball of yarn as it bounce around. If the yarn touches the cat on the upper-right corner, the cat will bat it back. Once again, you can only miss three times, and you'll have to bat the yarn ball at the cat ten times in order to complete the mini-games.

When you fill both of the gauges, you'll need to return the animal home. In the areas where you have to rescue animals and/or return animals home, you can move in eight directions with the D-Pad and jump with the A button. You'll need to jump to avoid some obstacles such as bumps, cones, logs, rocks and other objects, but you'll have to move around to avoid other things, and sometimes you'll have to move and jump.

When you get back to the animal's home, you'll have to play the Parent Match mini-game. You'll get a picture of the animal's mother, then the three segments of the animal will be shuffled. You'll need to use Up and Down to switch sections and Left and Right to change the segments to the animal that you want. You'll only get a few seconds to look at the animal's mother, so pay attention. Press A when you are done.

If you succeed, you'll get a certificate for rescuing the animal. There are fourteen certificates, and if you get them all, you will beat the game.

If you fail any part of the return home or the parent match, both gauges will go down by one and you'll need to fill them up before you can return the animal home again.

After heading to where an animal has last been seen, use Left or Right to walk around and switch screens. When you find the animal, walk up to it and hold Down to pick the animal up. You'll then head back to the play room in the Pet Rescue Center and do what you need to do.

Wendy the Koala

Wendy is homesick and needs extra attention - maybe if we play with her, she'll start feeling better.

Koalas

Koalas eat leaves and plants which gives them the vitamins they need to grow up and be strong!

Bandages: 1

Food: 2

Bathing: 3

Vitamins: 4

Brush: 2

For Wendy, you can do either the food or the vitamins. As for the happiness gauge, you'll need to play a lot of mini-games.

Rosie the Tortoise

Rosie is pretty healthy, but she is also very shy and needs your help coming out of her shell.

Tortoises

Tortoises are gentle and sensitive animals. They need lots of vitamins, but over feeding them is not good.

Bandages: 4

Food: 1

Bathing: 3

Vitamins: 5

Brush: 5

You can use the food or the vitamins, but you'll also need to play a lot of mini-games with Rosie. 5

Brush: 5

You can use the food or the vitamins, but you'll also need to play a lot of mini-games with Rosie.

Penguin's Ice Cream Chase

Meredith the Penguin is one of three special rescues in the game. To rescue her, you'll need to play a game of Breakout in order to break the blocks surrounding her, then get the ball to Meredith to perform the rescue. Left and Right on the Control Pad will move the paddle. You also have three tries.

Meredith the Penguin

Meredith looks like she hasn't been swimming in a long time. What can be done to make her feel better?

Penguins

They spend a lot of time in water and become unhappy if they're out for too long. They love sweets.

Besides feeding Meredith, you can also bathe her to increase her health. You'll also be playing plenty of minigames.

Bandage: 2

Food: 4

Bathing: 5

Vitamins: 2

Brush: 1

Diane the Fox Cub

Diane has a small tender spot on her paw and is very scared. How can we comfort her?

Fox Cubs

Fox cubs are spunky and playful and they eat all the time! The one thing they don't like is baths!

Bandage: 2

Food: 3

Bathing: 2

Vitamins: 2

Brush: 2

Since Diane has a small tender spot on her paw, you can use the bandage here in addition to the food.

Jimmy the Bear Cub

Jimmy is very hungry and his fur coat looks very dull. He might need to be brushed.

Bear Cubs

Bear cubs spend most of their time eating and playing. Note: They don't like wearing bandages.

Bandage: 0

Food: 4

Bathing: 1

Vitamins: 1

Brush: 1

Since the game tell you that Jimmy's fur might need a brushing, go ahead and use the brush in addition to food.

Belle the Piglet

Belle seems very happy, but looks like she's been playing in the mud again. Is that her stomach rumbling?

Piglets

They enjoying playing in mud. They also love warm, sudsy baths! They become unhappy if they don't eat often.

Bandage: 2

Food: 5

Bathing: 5

Vitamins: 5

Brush: 3

Besides giving Belle a ton of food, you can also try bathing her for a health increase.

Jan the Deer

Jan is very sleepy and tired - she may just need something to eat. Her hoof needs treatment as well.

Deer

Deer are shy but love to play in areas with lots of trees. They like to eat often. 

Bandage: 2

Food: 4

Bathing: 2

Vitamins: 3

Brush: 2

Besides the food, you can also use the bandage. You'll have to do a lot of work with Jan, though, as you'll be playing more than your fair share of mini-games before you can take her back home.

Brandywine the Pony

Brandywine loves being groomed every day, but she is very tired and hungry.

Ponies

These ponies are very small, but have big appetites! They like lots of affection and love to be brushed.

Bandage: 2

Food: 5

Bathing: 3

Vitamins: 2

Brush: 5

You can use the brush as well as the food to nurse Brandywine back to health in addition to the mini-games.

Owl Photo Safari

To play the Owl Photo Safari game, you'll have to use the D-Pad to move the camera and press A to take pictures. The camera flash must touch the owl, and you can only miss three times. Once you complete this mini-game, you'll get Patty the Owl, one of the game's three special rescues.

Patty the Owl

Patty can't fly very far. Are her wings OK? She is quite sleepy, day and night. What could be wrong?

Owls

Owls dislike being touched or covered up. They are moderate eaters and dislike being wet. 

Bandage: 0

Food: 4

Bathing: 1

Vitamins: 2

Brush: 0

Whatever you do, do not use the bandages. Use the vitamins to fix the wings. At least you won't have to play a lot of mini-games.

Puppy Apple Turnover

For this mini-game, Ginger the puppy has gotten into the apple orchard and has started knocking apples everywhere. Move the basket with Left and Right on the D-Pad and catch the apples. When you fill up the basket, you win. If you miss three apples, you'll have to try again later. When you win, you'll get Ginger the puppy, one of the three special rescues of the game.

Ginger the Puppy

Ginger is scratching a lot - sometimes brushing her coat will help. She might enjoy one of her favorite treats, too.

Puppies

Puppies love to play - it's their favorite thing to do! They love being brushed and enjoy their treats.

Bandages: 1

Food: 4

Bathing: 4

Vitamins: 5

Brush: 5

Thankfully, all you have to do is brush and feed Ginger before you can take her home.

Zippy the Bunny Rabbit

Zippy is scared...what can be done to gain her trust? She also has a sore paw from her long journey...

Bunny Rabbits

Bunnies love to hop around, but they do not like taking baths. They make great pets!

Bandage: 4

Food: 3

Bathing: 3

Vitamins: 3

Brush: 4

Thankfully, Zippy is receptive to the bandages, so you can use that.

Leonardo the Lion Cub

Poor Leonardo! He's usually very playful and happy, but today he has a limp...he may also need a little snack...

Lion Cubs

They are frisky and eat a lot. They aren't very patient and don't like being groomed.

Bandage: 0

Food: 5

Bathing: 0

Vitamins: 1

Brush: 2

Use the vitamin for the limp, as the bandage will only decrease happiness. Other than that, you'll need to feed Leonardo a lot of food.

Smokey the Wild Kitten

Smokey needs our attention. He hides in his basket and spends a lot of time licking his fur. He also seems small for his age. What would help?

Kittens

They are sweet animals that love to play and receive affection. It's important to feed them on a regular basis.

Bandage: 5

Food: 3

Bathing: 2

Vitamins: 4

Brush: 5

Take care of Smokey like you did with Cinnamon. Vitamins will also help here, too.

Once you rescue all fourteen animals, take care of them and take them back home, you've beaten this game! Congratulations!

PrinceWatercress plays Barbie Pet Rescue - Part 4 of 4

...and that's it! That's the last of the rescues! Well, that was a Barbie game.

First | Previous | End

Puppy Apple Turnover

For this mini-game, Ginger the puppy has gotten into the apple orchard and has started knocking apples everywhere. Move the basket with Left and Right on the D-Pad and catch the apples. When you fill up the basket, you win. If you miss three apples, you'll have to try again later. When you win, you'll get Ginger the puppy, one of the three special rescues of the game.

Ginger the Puppy

Ginger is scratching a lot - sometimes brushing her coat will help. She might enjoy one of her favorite treats, too.

Puppies

Puppies love to play - it's their favorite thing to do! They love being brushed and enjoy their treats.

Bandages: 1

Food: 4

Bathing: 4

Vitamins: 5

Brush: 5

Thankfully, all you have to do is brush and feed Ginger before you can take her home.

Zippy the Bunny Rabbit

Zippy is scared...what can be done to gain her trust? She also has a sore paw from her long journey...

Bunny Rabbits

Bunnies love to hop around, but they do not like taking baths. They make great pets!

Bandage: 4

Food: 3

Bathing: 3

Vitamins: 3

Brush: 4

Thankfully, Zippy is receptive to the bandages, so you can use that.

Leonardo the Lion Cub

Poor Leonardo! He's usually very playful and happy, but today he has a limp...he may also need a little snack...

Lion Cubs

They are frisky and eat a lot. They aren't very patient and don't like being groomed.

Bandage: 0

Food: 5

Bathing: 0

Vitamins: 1

Brush: 2

Use the vitamin for the limp, as the bandage will only decrease happiness. Other than that, you'll need to feed Leonardo a lot of food.

Smokey the Wild Kitten

Smokey needs our attention. He hides in his basket and spends a lot of time licking his fur. He also seems small for his age. What would help?

Kittens

They are sweet animals that love to play and receive affection. It's important to feed them on a regular basis.

Bandage: 5

Food: 3

Bathing: 2

Vitamins: 4

Brush: 5

Take care of Smokey like you did with Cinnamon. Vitamins will also help here, too.

Once you rescue all fourteen animals, take care of them and take them back home, you've beaten this game! Congratulations!

PrinceWatercress plays Barbie Pet Rescue - Part 3 of 4

We get another shot at the owl rescue, and this time, we nail it. We're getting pretty close to the end of the game at this point.

First | Previous | Next | End

Belle the Piglet

Belle seems very happy, but looks like she's been playing in the mud again. Is that her stomach rumbling?

Piglets

They enjoying playing in mud. They also love warm, sudsy baths! They become unhappy if they don't eat often.

Bandage: 2

Food: 5

Bathing: 5

Vitamins: 5

Brush: 3

Besides giving Belle a ton of food, you can also try bathing her for a health increase.

Jan the Deer

Jan is very sleepy and tired - she may just need something to eat. Her hoof needs treatment as well.

Deer

Deer are shy but love to play in areas with lots of trees. They like to eat often. 

Bandage: 2

Food: 4

Bathing: 2

Vitamins: 3

Brush: 2

Besides the food, you can also use the bandage. You'll have to do a lot of work with Jan, though, as you'll be playing more than your fair share of mini-games before you can take her back home.

Brandywine the Pony

Brandywine loves being groomed every day, but she is very tired and hungry.

Ponies

These ponies are very small, but have big appetites! They like lots of affection and love to be brushed.

Bandage: 2

Food: 5

Bathing: 3

Vitamins: 2

Brush: 5

You can use the brush as well as the food to nurse Brandywine back to health in addition to the mini-games.

Owl Photo Safari

To play the Owl Photo Safari game, you'll have to use the D-Pad to move the camera and press A to take pictures. The camera flash must touch the owl, and you can only miss three times. Once you complete this mini-game, you'll get Patty the Owl, one of the game's three special rescues.

Patty the Owl

Patty can't fly very far. Are her wings OK? She is quite sleepy, day and night. What could be wrong?

Owls

Owls dislike being touched or covered up. They are moderate eaters and dislike being wet. 

Bandage: 0

Food: 4

Bathing: 1

Vitamins: 2

Brush: 0

Whatever you do, do not use the bandages. Use the vitamins to fix the wings. At least you won't have to play a lot of mini-games.