PrinceWatercress plays Quartet (SMS) - Part 3 of 3

This game is short, but it can be difficult.

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Round 5

Grab the medicine and get past as many of the balls as you can, and make sure you grab that clock to freeze the enemies, too. You need to get to the underworld as soon as possible.

The underworld is a maze. When you enter, keep jumping in place and shooting to the left. One of the blocks will contain the final star that you need to pick up to enter Round 6.

From here, fight your way to the jetpack and make your way to the left. You'll find the boss above the exit. You'll need to shoot him in the head while avoiding not only the projectiles that the boss spits out, but also the balls that are bouncing around. Don't be surprised if you lose a life here. At least you'll have 10,000 energy points again if you die.

Once you beat the boss and get the key, you'll then have to back up a bit and make a path to the exit below. With the balls from the high road bouncing around and the rest of the enemies moving about, that's not easy. You'll have to off-screen the walls that you have to shoot through on the high road just to keep the balls from chasing you, then fight your way across the low road to get there.

Round 6

There are four statues that you'll need to destroy in order to enter the boss door on the far-left side of the underworld. The surface world has a gray wall, while the underworld has a light blue wall.

There are two statues in each world: a left statue and a right statue. You'll need to destroy these statues in the following order:

1. Underworld, right statue

2. Surface world, right statue

3. Surface world, left statue

4. Underworld, left statue

When you shoot the correct statue, the head will fly off and fly around in a figure-eight like pattern while the body shoots flame projectiles that will track you. If you shoot the body six times, the head will freeze in place and the body will stop firing briefly, and you can take the opportunity to destroy the head. With all the enemies that are flying around, this isn't easy.

When you destroy the left statue in the underworld, go through the door on the far-left side of the underworld. Grab the jetpack if you don't have it and fly up and down on the right side of the screen. You'll need to keep firing at the security system in the center while avoiding all of the projectiles that fly to your current position when fired, and you'll also want to stagger your movements to give yourself more room to maneuver as well as avoid the projectiles.

Eventually, you'll destroy all five of the turrets and destroy the security system. You'll recover the princess'  casket (even though the princess is called the queen in the manual) and beat the game. You just beat Quartet!

PrinceWatercress plays Quartet (SMS) - Part 2 of 3

The second half of the game is where things get much harder.

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Round 3

In the regular world, you'll need to blast your way through a maze. Get the jetpack, then head all the way to the right. You'll need to avoid the boss' head as well as its shots as it moves its head around around wildly, which is easier said than done. You can use the platforms leading to the underworld as cover, but don't be afraid to get out of there to the other side if the boss gets too close. When you beat the boss here, get the key, then head to the underworld.

In the underworld, grab the clock to stop the enemies. The three black balls on top of the jars will shoot out in various directions if you shoot them. The Hyhofailokes, which are the skull enemies, take a lot of shots to take down and they will slowly fly towards you if you hit them enough times.

To get the star here, shoot twice at the top of the pot immediately to the right of the exit to the exit. 

Round 4

In the regular word, head to the right and get the jetpack; you're gonna need it. Make sure that you take as little damage as possible in this world, and take the upper part of the screen to the exit. If any enemies are chasing you, try to lose them; turning around to hit them will cost you energy.

The butterfly enemies with the faces in the middle are called Abukutsus. There are nine of them in the level, and you'll want to shoot them all down. They will fly around in a bit of a figure eight pattern when you attack them, but they can only go so far. If you can keep away from them, you can easily shoot them all down and get the Star that pops up in the middle of the first (regular) part of the round.

Be careful with the snail enemies, or Hodates. If you shoot them from behind, your shots will ricochet back at you off the shell and hurt you. Also, the turtle enemies, or F.T.'s, will rush at you at rocket speed if you shoot them once. Unless you have the distance to plug away at them with enough shots to defeat them, don't even bother fighting them.

Line yourself up with the yellow turrets from a distance before shooting at them. It will make it easier to avoid their shots.

In the underworld, which has a gray background instead of a blue, you'll want to stick to the low road. When you reach the boss, you'll want to stay low and close enough to it so you can fire at it and avoid the boss' projectiles while the boss itself bounces low. If it goes high, it will fly back and forth for a little bit before returning to where it was. If it does that, avoid it until it comes back, then start firing away and avoiding enemy fire again. When it goes down, take the key.

When you destroy all of the Abukutsus, take the doorway near where the boss was back to the surface world and head to the right. You'll find the Star.

PrinceWatercress plays Quartet (SMS) - Part 1 of 3

This one is hard, but it's fun.

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Believe it or not, not only is the Master System version of this game different from the arcade version, but it has a completely different story, too.

It's thousands of years into the future. And by now mankind has established space colonies throughout the galaxy.

Most of them are peaceful, productive places to live. Most of the time. But once every few centuries or so, something somewhere goes amiss.

This time it happened on the beautiful Colony Number Nine, renowned for the contributions of its late, great ruler, Queen Cynthia.

What's happened? The colony has been invaded by a group of awesome ALIENS of the nastiest kind. Despite state-of-the-technology protection, the ALIENS have entered Queen Cynthia's tomb, confiscated her casket, and are about to destroy the rest of the colony.

There's very little time left.

But there's still a lot of hope. Hope placed in the spiritual powers of the famous MARY and her partner, EDGAR.

Together only they can wipe out the ALIENS. And purge the colony of their vicious evil. For good.

Round 1

Player 1 is always Mary, while Player 2 is always Edgar (spelled "Edger" in-game).

Left and Right let you move left and right. Down crouches. Down-Left and Down-Right let you duck walk. Button 1 shoots. Button 2 jumps.

You start out with two lives and 10,000 units of energy that go down in units of 10, and you'll lose quite a bit of energy if you touch an enemy in any way. If you get sent to zero from an enemy hit, you'll lose a life. 

Stay low at the beginning and defeat the enemies by shooting at them. By shooting enemies, they will leave point balls; always collect the point balls, as you'll need them for skill upgrades and bonuses. Get the jetpack as soon as you see it; you'll want to keep the jetpack on you to make it easier to get around and more easily avoid and shoot things, as there will be a ton of fireballs being shot into the sky by the mushroom-shaped turrets in the stage. You also won't risk falling into pits, either. Make sure you don't get hit with the jetpack, as you will lose it and have to get it back.

There is a yellow star out in the open. Pick it up, as you'll need all five starts in the game to enter Round 6 and beat the game.

The yellow clock freezes enemies for a brief amount of time, allowing you some easy shots to increase your score and get to another rank. (More on that later.) A good amount of the enemies are pretty easy, though some are a bit difficult; the more difficult enemies will get a mention.

The Phoenix-like bird at the exit door flies up and down, and it will shoot eight bullets at you at various angles if you shoot it. Take it out from a fair distance so you can avoid the projectiles. When you shoot the bird down enough times, you will get a key, and you can press Up at the exit door to go through the exit and enter the next round. If you have the jetpack equipped, you can press Button 1 instead, but only if you're wearing the jetpack.

When you complete a stage, you'll get a medal for defeating the boss, then see your current and total score. 

Round 2

From here on out, there are two worlds in each round: the normal world and the underworld. You'll start out in the normal world, and you'll have to make your way to the underworld.

You'll need to head to the far right to get to the underworld at the start. Along the way, there are a few enemies worth mentioning. The eyes with the red orbs in the corners are called Mabacks; they will open up and fire immediately when you are lined up with them.

The brown medicine bottle gives you temporary invincibility, but certain ones can also increase your energy level.

The yellow item that looks like a water bottle is really a screen-clearing bomb; grabbing it will get rid of all enemies currently on-screen.

When you see the ventilation shaft at the far right end, press Up to enter the underworld. The normal world has brown walls here, while the underworld has blue. Go left and stay low. Get the jetpack and fight the boss. You'll want to fly around and shoot it down while also avoiding the many projectiles that the boss spits out. When the boss is defeated, grab the key to unlock the exit. 

Near the boss are three Mabacks. You'll need to carefully take out the ones at the top and middle, then head left to get some more energy from the medicine bottle as well as the second star. You must take out at least the top Maback in order to get the star. I just get rid of two to make it easier to move. From here, you can head back into the normal world and then head for the exit.

Before I leave, I bring my score to 40,000 points to go from Sergeant to Captain. At Captain, your gun's range is extended.

At 80,000 points, you'll reach Major and earn an extra life. At 120,000, you'll reach Colonel, and your gun's range will be extended again. At 200,000 points, you'll reach General, which increases the speed of your bullets. I don't get all the rankings in this game, as I want to keep my energy high.