The Music of TaleSpin for NES

The Baseball Stadium

Bonus Stage

Boss Battle

The Cave

The City

The Clouds

Cutscene Theme

Game Over

The Haunted House

The Iron Vulture

The Jungle

The Mountain District

The Sea

Title Theme

Wildcat Shop

corona180 plays TaleSpin - Part 5 of 5

It's the final video, and we take it to Don Karnage's domain!

Stage 7

For the penultimate stage, we enter the dark jungle.

The Pygmy Tribe shows up in this area as enemies, and surprisingly they're actually from the show. The guys on the ground throw spears upward whenever you're directly above them, and the catapults definitely give them some range in the air.

The totem poles act as turrets that shoot at you regardless of whether or not you're behind them, but thankfully they go away after a few hits.

The aerial part is like Joust, except you can actually fly without effort and you have a gun. The natives actually ride on giant birds and throw spears at you as soon as they stop moving.

To beat the boss, shoot down the gem in the statue, and avoid the natives' spears. Thankfully, you can shoot down both the native and the fireballs that come out of the statue's eyes.

If you keep going in a clockwise motion, you can easily avoid both the natives and the fireballs (the latter of which seem to follow you) and shoot just about everything you come in contact with out of existance.

Stage 8

This is it! We're in the mountains for the last delivery of the day!

There are no money bags to grab, no bonus stages to get into and no crates to collect, so just worry about shooting down everything in sight and making it to the end in one piece.

The guys that drop rocks on you don't take very much damage before they fall.

The boss here is Don Karnage in his tri-plane. Yes, there's three wings. You can only shoot him in the propeller and nowhere else, so avoid his bullets as he flies around in a circle and shoot at him when he's on the right side of the screen.

When you beat him, you instantly go to the Iron Vulture! To beat it, avoid the enemies as well as the bombs that fall from the sky (pay attention to the top of the screen to see where they'll be dropping from) and shoot down all the propellers. When you finally take down the propeller at the back, you've won!

Enjoy your ending cutscene where Kit Cloudkicker looks like he's been hit in the face with pepper spray and Baloo looks really sad for some reason. I thought the ending to Karate Kid was hilarious...

corona180 plays TaleSpin - Part 4 of 5

What kind of shortcut is this? And why are there guys on hang-gliders with a death wish swooping right into us? This makes no sense!

Stage 5

This stage takes place in the city. Gee, Rebecca's advice to take a shortcut through the town would be great if there weren't a whole bunch of guys on hang-gliders trying to outright kill us! You'll have to time your movements so that they completely miss you.

The helicopters that shoot out miniature clones from the oversized stadium come back with a vengeance. Wonderful. Get behind them and take them out.

When you reach the bottom of the vertical section, you'll be dealing with ice cream men from hell. These guys will fire anti-aircraft missiles at you, so you'll be shooting planes and dodging enemy fire from the highway at the same time.

The second vertical section has you shooting down construction workers. Zoom past the steel beams that they drop and go in for the kill.

You'll take on turrets before you reach the end. They shoot in three directions and go down in a few hits.

To beat the boss, take out the wrecking ball first. It isn't required, but the wrecking ball is annoying, so you're better off. From there, avoid its bullets and shoot the guy in the driver's seat. That the machine's only weak spot.

Stage 6

After a grammatical error and a far joke, it's off to the caves.

The guys in the mine carts may bring back fond memories of Super Mario Bros. 3. Whenever the men in them pop up, they'll throw bones at you. They go down in a few hits but they tend to follow you.

Wait for the snakes to come all the way out of the walls before you hit them. They're invulnerable until then.

The green tanks that move around on the walls follow the rope paths in the background. They go down in a few hits, but they shoot bullets at fairly regular intervals.

To beat the boss, shoot down the guy in the compartment when the door opens. If you press Up against the pipe on the bottom, you won't take damage from touching it in that area. You're still likely to take damage from the rocks that come out of the machine, but the only ones that have a chance at doing so in that spot are the ones that shoot straight up.


The other rocks will bounce off the rocks in the wall, and don't really go in a completely random pattern at all.

TaleSpin - The Cartoon Intro

I can't think of anything else for an intermission, can you?

corona180 plays TaleSpin - Part 3 of 5

Well, now that the baseball stadium is out of the way, I won't have to make any more perspective jokes...

Wait...Level 4 is what?

...

Never mind.

Stage 3

Boy, is it ever rainy. At least this stage makes much more sense than that ginormous baseball stadium.

The grey birds (I'm guessing that's what they are) are out in full force, but they can be taken out easily.

After the first vertical section, you'll see the bombs. They're easy to take out, but they pop up rather suddenly. Stay away from the ceiling and you won't get hit out of the blue.

The spiked balls are indestructible, and they shoot lightning in four diagonal directions. You'll have to time your movements carefully to keep from taking unnecessary damage.

The boss, or rather, bosses here are Mad Dog and Dumptruck (probably the most well-known of Don Karnage's Air Pirate goons. You'll have to avoid their attacks and wait for them to combine into one plane, then shoot them before they separate again. While you're doing that, back up so the missile they shoot as well as the resulting shrapnel won't hit you.

Stage 4

Well, here's a derp moment for you. A haunted house that's big enough for the Sea Duck to fly around in. I thought I would never see this in a shmup.

Anyway, the chandeliers fall when you get under them, but they can be easily be avoided. The hats on the coat racks can be taken down as soon as they come off and attack, making them all too easy. They come towards you when they rise into the air, but they stop tracking you after that.

The ghosts not only home in on you, they also split into smaller ghosts when you hit them. Thankfully, their miniature clones go down rather easily. It's just their homing capabilities that are annoying.

The fireplaces shoot out small flames into the air, and those flames have some range. You can't take them out, so stay well above them and move on.

The hands that come out of the wall are very annoying and throw balls at you. They go down in a few hits, but they're small enough to almost not notice. When they come out of the wall, they punch part of the brick wall in the background out and into the air, and those portions of the wall can cause damage if they touch you.


The boss here is a giant invisible man. Avoid his fists and aim for the bowtie.

corona180 plays TaleSpin - Part 2 of 5

In this episode, we shoot the crap out of anything and everything in what is probably the largest, most over-sized baseball stadium known to humankind. It's the most perspective-violating six minutes in gaming, I know.

Stage 2

The helicopters that spit out numerous miniature clones of themselves are really annoying. The faster you can take them out, the better. Shooting down the miniature clones can be a pain unless you give them some distance before turning around and taking them out.

After a huge metal baseball opens up a giant pit in the floor, avoid the mines (thankfully, they can be shot down) as you make your way to the other side. By the time you do just that, it's night.

The copters that throw baseballs downwards are more easily destroyable when you meet them head on. I wouldn't want to be anywhere under them, as the baseball attack is pretty fast.


To beat the metal baseball, wait for it to start flying around and shooting at you, then avoid fire as you shoot at its cannon.

corona180 plays TaleSpin - Part 1 of 5

What's this? A Disney Afternoon classic made into a shmup by Capcom? And it's TaleSpin? No surprise there.

I should have played this when I was a kid, I would have shat my pants from the pure awesome.

Stage 1

The game begins with Rebecca Cunningham and her daughter Molly waking you up, telling you she's got eight assignments lined up for you. Your first assignment is to get some cargo while dealing with Don Karnage and the Air Pirates.

In case moving around feels weird, just remember that you have to be in the center in order to move around like you would in an ordinary shmup. You'll be doing this quite a bit, as you pick up money bags and boxes of cargo to add to your bankroll at the end of a stage.

Unlike other shmups, you can go upside down with the push of a button to go back in case you miss anything important.

Shortly after the beginning, you can find the icon for a bonus level (which looks like the opening to a cave) in one of the chests. In the bonus level, you'll play as Kit Cloudkicker on an air board that auto-scrolls to the right. Pop the balloons and get the fruit inside. Some of them contain 1-ups, so keep your eyes peeled. The clock doesn't start until Kit comes out.

The boxes with the balloons that pop out of enemies contain fruit that give you bonus points.

If you ever find a heart and you have less than three hits on the health meter in the upper-left hand corner, grab it. A small heart will refill one hit while a large heart will completely refill your health.

The boss here is a submarine. Avoid the missiles it sends at you as well as its other firepower as you fire at the periscope. The plane is pretty slow, and you can only fire one shot at a time, but as you progress through the game, you'll be able to make upgrades, as you'll soon see.

Shop

Just like in the show, Wildcat is at the wrench, and not only does he help fix the ship as always, he also upgrades stuff this time around.

Parts for the engine make the plane faster.

The continue memo gives you an extra continue.

Parts for the body adds more hearts to your maximum health.

Parts for Super Rapid Shot lets you fire three shots at a time.

Parts for Rapid Shot lets you fire two shots at a time. You'll most likely be buying this first.


Extra lives are self-explanatory.