Forgotten Worlds FAQ Version 1.0 By edwithgames Created: August 2012 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Introduction ****** This walkthrough was created because at the time of writing it I could find no walkthrough for Forgotten Worlds and although it isn't one of my favourite games for the Sega Master System I feel I have a lot of experience and knowledge of the game that I want to impart to others. Forgotten Worlds is a side-scrolling shooting game and which is quite different from others because the player automatically shoots the weapon and there is no way of stopping it. Instead, the player uses the controller to move and to rotate the player clockwise and anti-clockwise which means the player can shoot enemies in all directions. The player has a health bar too which makes the game a lot easier than other shooting games wherein the player dies as soon as he's hit. This walkthrough is split up into sections. These are: -Technical Information -My Experience With The Game -Story/Object Of The Game -How To Play -Lucia's Shop -Weapon Upgrades -Miscellaneous Upgrades -Difficulty Levels -Walkthrough -Final Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Technical Information ****** Forgotten Worlds was originally released as an arcade game by Capcom in 1988 and released in Japan and the USA. The game was ported to various systems such as the Commodore 64 and the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1989. The Sega Master System version is basically a scaled down version of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version. Because the Sega Master System controller only has two buttons compared to the three buttons on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis controller, there is no shoot button on the Sega Master System version. To overcome this, the designers decided to make the player shoot automatically. Because of this, and the fact the game is scaled down, this version is easier than other versions of the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** My Experience With The Game ****** I first got this game in 2001 from a second-hand shop. It didn't take me long to complete it but I had a lot of fun doing so because of the varied enemies and weapons that can be found in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Story/Object Of The Game ****** Long ago, aliens invaded Earth, enslaved humanity and turned the Earth into a desolate dust world. In hiding, several humans were born who were raised to be mighty warriors one of whom would be chosen to drive out the alien invaders and restore the dust world to Earth again. You control that warrior. To accomplish this task, you will acquire several weapons, defeat various enemies and bosses and explore five levels. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** How To Play ****** The controls are very simple. Remember that the warrior will shoot automatically and continuously without your having to press a button. The controls in the game are merely for positioning the warrior on the screen and for aiming the weapon. Since you haven't to worry about shooting, the two buttons rotate the warrior both clockwise and anticlockwise enabling the player to shoot within a complete circle. All one has to do is make it through the rounds, kill as many enemies as possible, defeat the end of level guardians and stay alive till the end. -Use the D-Pad to move the warrior in eight directions across the screen. -Use the D-Pad to select an item in Lucia's Shop. -Press Button 1 to rotate the warrior anticlockwise. -Press Button 1 to choose a selection in Lucia's Shop. -Press Button 2 to rotate the warrior clockwise. -Press Button 2 to choose a selection in Lucia's Shop. -Press Buttons 1 & 2 simultaneously to perform the Mega-Crush attack. Remember that you must have enough power to do this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Lucia's Shop ****** During each round, a door will appear above which the word SHOP is displayed. manoeuvre the warrior to the door and he will enter the shop. The shop is run a woman presumably named Lucia. In this shop one may purchase assorted upgrades and power-ups such as weapons and shields. One thing to note about Lucia's Shop is that the items available become much more expensive with each visit to Lucia's Shop. To purchase something, simply highlight the item you choose and press Button 1 or 2. To leave the shop after either buying something or nothing, highlight END and press Button 1 or 2. Zennies: As explained earlier, killing certain enemies will cause blue and white tokens to be dropped. These tokens are called Zennies and they are the currency accepted in Lucia's Shop. The small tokens are worth 500 Zennies and the large tokens are worth 1000 Zennies. Try to grab every Zenny you see. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Weapon Upgrades ****** The warrior has two weapons: a rather weak gun which is always present and can't be upgraded and a satellite which can be upgraded to any number of different weapons. Some of these weapons are excellent, while others are a waste of Zennies. The only way to upgrade them is by buying upgrades at Lucia's Shop and once purchased, the player must wait until the next shop appears before he can change it so it's important to choose the right weapon. Luckily for you I will list all the weapon upgrades that can be purchased here and describe their strengths and weaknesses. Only one type of satellite is permitted in the game and so when you buy a new one, you automatically trade in the old one for half its retail price. If you don't have enough Zennies to make a purchase but do with the trade in price, you will be able to purchase the satellite. This only works for purchasing satellites though as the warrior must have a satellite. -V Cannon: The player starts off with this weak satellite that shoots two white shots forward at a slight V angle (hence the name). This weapon is the default weapon and thus costs nothing; it is however very weak and I highly recommend upgrading as soon as possible. -Auto-Tracking Missile: This costs 5000 Zennies from the first and second shops and shoots missiles that seek out the enemies and damages them. Although the missiles are weak, this is still a recommended purchase over the only other option in this shop, the Rear Blaster. -Rear Blaster: This costs 2000 Zennies from the first shop and shoots four little brackets behind the warrior. While more powerful than the Auto-Tracking Missile and cheaper, it is quite difficult to use since the shots fire towards the rear of the warrior and so to shoot forward, one must face backwards. Not recommended at all. -Fire Bomb: This costs 5000 Zennies from the second shop and shoots small fire bombs at a very low firing rate. Avoid getting this upgrade because while it's quite strong, the low firing rate will cause you to miss some enemies and put you at a higher risk of getting hurt. -Multi-Directional Shot: This costs 3000 Zennies from the second shop and fires projectiles in eight directions at a reasonable firing rate. This is another one to avoid because the projectiles are quite weak and it's difficult to aim for a particular enemy. -Bounce: This costs 30000 Zennies from the third and sixth shops and shoots reasonably powerful shots that bounce off walls. This sounds good but it isn't: the low firing rate makes this weapon quite awful. -Burner: This costs 20000 Zennies from the third shop and fires a constant flame at medium range. The flame is quite powerful and because it's constant, the firing rate is therefore extremely fast. By this time the Auto-Tracking Missiles would seem quite weak so I recommend upgrading to this. -Laser: This costs 20000 Zennies from the third and fourth and fifth shops and is a decent competitor to the Burner. The laser beams penetrate enemies which sort of makes up for the low firing rate. It's good but I still prefer the Burner. -Rolling Barrier: This costs 50000 Zennies from the fourth and fifth shops and consists of two brown spheres that orbit the warrior hurting/killing anything they touch. Simultaneously, two extra shots will be fired from the warriors gun. The spheres are quite powerful yet cannot be aimed which means luck is involved with whether you kill anything with it. The two shots are quite weak and useless. Do not be tricked into thinking this weapon is in addition to your satellite: if it were I'd recommend it; as it happens, it replaces your satellite and thus I recommend avoiding it at all costs. -Vulcan Cannon: This costs 50000 Zennies from the fourth shop. This shoots powerful shots forward and is almost a worthy replacement for the Burner if it weren't for the low firing rate which can make it slightly more difficult to kill enemies with. Still, it's a good weapon nonetheless. -Vulcan Spreadshot: This costs 80000 Zennies from the fifth shop. This fires four projectiles in a wide range. The shots are weak and it's difficult to aim but the firing rate is quite high. I don't recommend this. -4-Way Laser: This costs 30000 Zennies from the fifth shop and shoots two laser beams forwards and two laser beams backwards. The laser beams are very powerful and I recommend getting it for the short time between the fifth and sixth shops. -Fragmentation Ball: This costs 99900 Zennies from the sixth shop and shoots a large sphere which upon impact, shoots four smaller spheres that home in on enemies. This sounds great but isn't. The spheres have a low firing rate, are slow, aren't that powerful and the homing spheres are next to useless. Avoid. -Fire Ball: This costs 99900 Zennies from the sixth shop and is the most powerful weapon in the game. It's very similar to the Vulcan Cannon except it looks like small orange balls and is much more powerful. Unfortunately it has the same drawback as the Vulcan Cannon which is its low firing rate; the power more than makes up for it though and I can't recommend this enough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Miscellaneous Upgrades ****** Unlike the Weapon Upgrades, some of the Miscellaneous Upgrades can be found in the game rounds and are therefore free when obtained this way. In the Walkthrough section I will detail the known locations of these free upgrades. These upgrades increase in price from shop to shop but not by much rendering the price increase fairly pointless. I guarantee you that you'll have enough Zennies to cover the extra cost. The difficulty level has a small effect on which Miscellaneous Upgrades are available to purchase. This is explained in more detail below. -Life Potion: This can cost between 3000-10000 Zennies and will revive the warrior when he dies. This is effectively an extra life and unlike other games you are resurrected immediately without having to restart the level. Get them whenever you can. -Protector: This costs 5000 Zennies and will allow the warrior to sustain five hits without taking damage. These are also located in the game rounds; the locations are in the Walkthrough section. -Repair Kit: This costs 1000 Zennies and will repair your protector. It's cheaper than a new one but you'll have a hard time keeping your Protector between shop visits as they seem to go very quickly. Once your Protector is used up, you officially have no Protector and have to buy a new one so one is only permitted to buy one of these if the Protector has between one point and four points of damage. Needless to say, I've never managed to buy one. -Power Pack: This can cost between 600-5000 Zennies and will increase the size of the health bar allowing you to hold more health. I'd recommend buying this whenever possible. -Flying Stone: Buying this for 100 Zennies will open a small menu in which you can choose a bronze, silver or gold stone. The bronze stone (Normal Speed) is not recommended and will cause the warrior to move extremely slowly across the screen, the silver stone (High Speed) makes the warrior slightly quicker and the gold stone (Super High Speed) makes the warrior extremely fast. Although it makes the warrior slightly difficult to handle, I'd recommend the gold one as some enemies can only be outrun with it. -Treatment: For between 300-10000 Zennies you can restore all the warrior's life up to his maximum. This is pretty essential unless you're a pro at this. -Booster: For 10000 Zennies, this will increase the power of your firepower. You only need get it once so get it as soon as you can. -Super Booster: For 30000 Zennies you can increase the power of your firepower even more. Like the regular Booster, you only need get this once so get it as soon as you see it for sale and you'll mow the enemies down with your shots. -Aqua Stone: This is only 300 Zennies and is only available in the fourth shop (the one in Round 4) and is absolutely essential to stop the water from making the warrior move extremely slowly. With this, the warrior moves at his normal speed underwater. -Dress: Purchasing this for 99900 Zennies in the sixth shop will give you an extra 1000000 points once you complete the game. This is fairly useless and if you have the Zennies, purchase the Fire Ball. On the off chance that you've been saving your Zennies and you have a spare 99900 Zennies, then get it since Zennies are only good for points after the sixth shop. -Yellow Star: This upgrade is only found in the game rounds and is worth 5000 Zennies when picked up. -POW: Three gold letters spelling POW can only be found in the game rounds and restores some health. -Star In Red Circle: I've only found one of these in the game rounds. It completely restores the warrior's health. -Treasure Chest: This upgrade is only found in the game rounds and I believe is worth 5000 Zennies when picked up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Difficulty Levels ****** Before I begin the walkthrough I will explain about the difficulties and the general level design. The game is split into five rounds and at the end of each round is a boss. Upon defeating the boss, the next round will start after a very short cut scene. The game itself is a side-scrolling shooter and thus the screen will move automatically right, up and down but never left at different points throughout the game. It is possible to die instantly by getting caught between the edge of the screen and the floor/ceiling so be careful. There are three difficulty levels from which to choose: Easy, Normal and Hard. There isn't much difference between the three except that on Easy the player starts with 5000 Zennies, there are fewer enemies, the enemies shoot less, their projectiles travel more slowly and the enemies and bosses die more easily. On Normal, the player starts with 2500 Zennies, there are slightly more enemies, the enemies shoot a bit more, their projectiles travel a bit more quickly and the enemies and bosses need more firepower to die. hard is quite a challenge: the player starts off with no Zennies, there are more enemies, they shoot a lot more, their projectiles travel very quickly and the enemies and bosses need a lot more firepower to die. Also on Normal and Hard, the opportunity to purchase Life Potions decreases since fewer shops sell them. The enemies are pretty generic. In my other FAQs I go into detail about each type of enemy because they each need a certain strategy to defeat. In this game the differences between the enemies are very minor. Every enemy except a couple will zoom into the screen, shoot and then either zoom off or stay put, shooting till the screen goes past them. The basic strategy for killing nearly all of the enemies is to shoot at them until they die while avoiding their projectiles. If any further strategy be needed I will discuss it in the Walkthrough section. Generally, the more firepower a type of enemy needs in order to die, the more chance of dropping a Zenny token. The enemies that need the most firepower will leave a large Zenny token. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Walkthrough ****** Round 1, The Metropolis We start the game in The Metropolis. Shoot the formations of aeroplane-like enemies and collect as many Zenny tokens as possible. it's tough to kill all of them with the V Cannon but try your hardest. A new weapon will come soon. Next, dispatch the green reptile enemies while avoiding their projectiles. Do the same with the flying rats with guns (kill as many as you can for the Zenny tokens). When the tough ground enemy arrives, the shop is close. Try to kill these as they drop large Zenny tokens. Manoeuvre the warrior to the door and you'll go inside. In the shop, get the treatment as you'll almost certainly need it. If you don't need it, Lucia won't let you buy it (an honest shopkeeper, a rarity these days). Get the gold flying stone (Super High Speed), the Power Pack, the Life Potion and then the Auto-Tracking Missile too. If you have enough left, get the Protector as well then leave the shop. Back outside, more green reptilians will be firing. Use them to practise your rotating shooting technique as you'll need this mastered for the later levels. The enemies should be much easier to defeat with your new weapon. Kill more flying rats and collect the Zennies before heading into an are with pipes, cogs, guns turrets, liquid metal in the background and blue flames. Avoid the flames if you can as they do damage and try to kill the cogs as they drop large Zenny tokens. If a large Zenny token gets stuck in front of the pipes and you have plenty of health, get hurt and while flashing because of the damage, go through the pipes, grab the Zennies then get back to normal foreground. Kill the blue and orange barriers for easy Zennies. Repeat all this until you get to the first boss, the Paramecium. The Paramecium will shoot orange projectiles at you which can be destroyed but will prevent your firepower from hitting the Paramecium's core which is annoying. As well as this, the Paramecium will have several items of rubbish orbiting it. There are two ways to deal with it: if playing on easy and you have plenty of health, simply barge straight in and shoot till it's dead, job done; if playing on normal or hard, you'll need to avoid the rubbish and the projectiles and try to get the odd attack in (the core will flash when it's been hit). Rinse and repeat until it's dead. You'll get a small cut scene before Round 2 starts. ******************************************************************************* Round 2, The Doomed Harbour From the start, kill the aeroplanes for Zennies again and tackle the yellow gun turrets to stop them shooting relentlessly. Green reptilians come next; dispatch them like before. A new enemy makes an appearance here: some sort of giant worm with teeth comes out of the sea. Don't try to kill it, as it's too fast, avoid getting on top of it as it hurts quite a bit and has a strange suction effect that will pull you downwards and disorientate you. After more gun turrets, pale purple balls will come out of the sea and morph into flying grey robots(?); dispatch them for Zennies and move on. Mushrooms will come next and they're fairly easy. Avoid another giant worm and another shop will appear. Enter it. In here, get the Life Potion if it's available. Also get the Treatment, the Repair Kit if you need it (unlikely) and then get the Booster. I'd recommend keeping the Auto-Tracking Missile but if you really want to, get the Fire Bomb. It's more powerful but has a lower firing rate. Avoid the Multi-Directional Shot at all costs! Leave the shop after you're finished. Once back outside, kill more green reptilians and gun turrets. Between the two islands on which the gun turrets lay, shoot, a Protector will appear. Pick it up and bingo, a free Protector! Further on, kill more purple/grey robots for Zennies and then more mushrooms. Avoid the giant worm before the screen starts going up. Here, there are lots of gun turrets. Try to get them all by rotating your satellite. A thing that resembles a giant tooth shooting laser beams is up ahead. Try to kill it for a large Zenny token. When the screen gets to the top, shoot the area just below and to the left of the topmost gun turret fora POW upgrade. Grab it to restore some health. Kill more guns and then shoot all the orange and blue barriers for easy Zennies. Kill another few teeth, guns and barriers until you see a man praying in the background and the screen stops going right and starts going upwards. The boss will come soon and he's tough. The boss is the Iron Warlord and he's tough if you don't know his pattern. First of all, don't bother trying to kill the arm, it's invincible; just avoid it and wait for the Iron Warlord to appear. Once he does you have to aim for his face. His face is protected by two shields: one below his face and another below that shield. Take out the shields while avoiding the arm and his firepower. Keep the satellite pointing upwards for this and just dodge left and right. Once they're destroyed they'll shoot blue projectiles once: just avoid them and then take out his arms. To do this aim for the cone-like objects on the left and right of the screen. I usually go for the right one. Keep the satellite pointed up-right and just move left and right to dodge. Once the cone has gone, the arm will no longer appear on that side of the screen so stay on that side for now. Position yourself on the right of the screen so you're just below parallel with his head and his projectiles will shoot to the right, missing you. From here, take out his left arm by aiming at the left cone. This could take some time as the arm blocks your shots a bit. Once that's gone, go for his face. It is possible to position yourself just by his chest and under his horn so that his projectiles miss you while yours hit his face. If you can't manage this, just avoid his shots and hit him until he explodes and you'll be treated to another cut scene. ******************************************************************************* Round 3, The Pyramid Of Terror From the start, take care of the new enemy: the flying archers. They're quite tough. After a bit, you'll come to two barriers. Shooting one will render the other invincible and will decide your path. Shoot the top one and the screen will start going upwards; shoot the bottom one and the screen will start going downwards. The top path is easier but I'll describe both paths. Top path: After the flying archers are dead, flying pyramids will dart swiftly across the screen. Stick to the bottom and avoid or kill them - it doesn't matter. Once the screen starts going right again, a shop will appear: go inside. Inside, get the Treatment and Power Pack and change your weapon if you wish, I recommend the Burner. Exit the shop now. Once outside, kill gun turrets and kill easy green enemies for Zennies. After a short time, you'll get to another split in the path. This is the same split that comes after taking the bottom path earlier so I'll describe that first. Bottom path: This is tough because more flying archers come. Take care of them as best as you can. Once at the bottom, a shop appears. See above for the shop description. Once back outside, a lot more flying archers appear with a few gun turrets. Another tough new enemy appears here: the brown skull. These dart quickly and shoot too and can be quite tricky which is why I recommend the top path! At the next choice, I recommend the bottom path but I'll describe both again. Top path: Defeat the orange flames and then avoid the white, flashes. If you want to kill them, they drop large Zenny tokens. More archers next followed by the boss. Bottom path: Kill/avoid the orange flames until the bottom. Once at the bottom, there will be six grey and blue scarabs electrocuting each other. They can be killed but they take a lot of hits: I've only ever managed three. Large Zenny tokens are your reward for each one killed. Move past the rest and avoid their electricity and kill some more orange flames. More archers follow before the boss comes. The boss here is the Sphinx. First, his head will come off and shoot a bit. Avoid a direct confrontation with it and attack from above and below; the Burner really helps here. Once it's gone, the body will attack. It will sit there spitting out centipedes from it's neck hole. To kill the centipedes shoot the head but if you do, another one will come to replace it so it's best to avoid them while attacking the Sphinx's neck hole; again, the Burner is really useful here. Once it's dead, a cut scene will appear and then it's on to Round 4. ******************************************************************************* Round 4, The Ocean Floor. At the start, you will move very slowly because of the water. Don't panic, you'll get the Aqua Stone shortly. Try your hardest to get the enemies and the Zennies they drop. To the right of the first pillar a Protector appears if you shoot there; get it. Beige seahorses will dart in next. They're quite tricky if you let a lot of them surround you. Grab their Zennies and continue on and remember not to get trapped between the screen and the pillars! Kill the purple discs next and when the jellyfish appear, go inside the shop. Once inside, buy the Aqua Stone, the Treatment and the Power pack. I recommend the Vulcan Cannon as a weapon and if you can afford it, the Super Booster but don't worry if you can't afford the Super Booster. Leave the shop. Back outside, enjoy being fast again and kill more purple discs. When the screen gets to the bottom, the game gets quite tough - especially if on hard or normal mode. There are quite a few speedy white things that turn into orange dragons. You will almost certainly get hit by them - it's unavoidable. Also notice the weird gun turrets: shoot them to turn them into harder gun turrets; shoot them again to kill them and they leave behind treasure chests which I believe give 5000 Zennies but I'm not sure. Get through this if you can and you'll reach the fourth boss which is a Giant Crab. He will jump and throw his claws at you. Try to take out both claws one at a time while avoiding the various things he spits out. Shoot at his middle repeatedly to kill him and you'll see another cut scene before Round 5. ******************************************************************************* Round 5, The Cosmic World At the start, shoot the first statue you see to get a Star In Red Circle. Kill enemies for more Zennies, avoid a giant Chinese dragon that pops out of the ground at super speed then enter the shop that appears. Inside, purchase the Treatment and the Power Pack. I recommend also buying the 4-Way Laser too. Leave the shop after you're finished to face some flying green things. Once you reach the yellow brick walled area, easy blue splodges appear. Kill them all and move on. The screen will move up eventually and this bit can be tough. Try to kill the huge guns at the side for large Zenny tokens. The 4-Way Laser makes this easier. Kill the rockets and the little missiles the guns shoot too. The wall snail things are easy but leave no Zennies. When you see two yellow platforms appear, shoot above the right one for a POW upgrade. The screen will then stop after a few more guns as a barrier blocks your path and shoots yellow rings. Kill it and get the Zennies. Kill more guns and destroy the red snake thing before another shop appears. Enter it. I never have enough Zennies for everything I want here so I just get the Treatment and the Fire Ball weapon Upgrade. If you have enough, by all means get the Super Booster and the Protector too. Anything extra is useful against the final boss after all. The Fragmentation Ball and the Bounce are both awful so make sure you get the right one which is the Fire Ball which is the best weapon upgrade in the game. Leave the shop after you're done. Once outside, be sure to grab the Protector which is on the left yellow platform above where the shop is. Kill more guns, red snakes and barriers before meeting the final boss which is the War Tyrant at the top of the tower. Any Zennies you grab before the boss are purely for points now as there are no more shops. Before the War Tyrant, fish will come out of two opposite walls. Shoot them or avoid them as best as you can (it gets tricky) and then you face the War Tyrant himself. Simply shoot at him to hurt him. He has two attacks: homing brackets which are easier to avoid and five lasers shot at once which are hard to evade. Try to keep moving and it makes him less likely to use the lasers and remember that you can shoot the homing brackets. If playing on easy and you have enough health, just ignore his projectiles and just barge in and shoot till he's dead. If playing on normal and hard though you'll have to perfect your dodging technique. Once he's dead Lucia thanks you (why didn't she aid your quest by giving you the upgrades for nothing?) and the inhabitants rebuild the city (I thought you were saving the whole Earth not just one city?!). The valiant warrior was never seen again but his legend apparently lives on. Congratulations on completing the game! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****** Final Notes ****** This guide can be found on the following sites: www.gamefaqs.com www.gamewinners.com If you wish to post this guide on your site, please send me an e-mail first to the address below. I hope you enjoyed this. Although not as good as its Mega Drive/Genesis counterpart, Forgotten Worlds provides a unique experience on the Sega Master System. Having trouble? E-mail me at edwithmj (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk and I will respond. Thanks for reading. Good Day.