Shockman v 1.1 11-4-01 author: Dimetric Houston e-mail: dhousto6@bellsouth.net CONTENTS: Introduction Updates Story Controls Screen Description Characters, Smart Bombs, and Super Shockbeam PowerUps Walkthrough Tips, Tricks and Secrets Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: Hello all. This FAQ covers the game Shockman for the Turbografx-16. It is a good old-school action game. I am not going to bother with the copyright stuff. If you are low enough to try to bank a profit off of this, or you decide to plagiarize it, that's your wretched morality. The newest version of this FAQ can be found at Gamefaqs (www.gamefaqs.com) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATES: v 0.5 10-4-01 -First edition(not published). -some information present v 1.0 10-5-01 -FAQ complete v 1.1 11-4-01 -updated Walkthrough section (updates to 7a through 8i) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY Arnold and Sonya were two humans given cybernetic bodies in order to fight an evil army. Now the doctor responsible for their cyborg bodies has called them to his lab so he can give them their original human bodies. However, the doc has now disappeared and another evil force has invaded the Earth. So Arnold and Sonya must once again wield their powers as Shockman to battle this evil force and save the Earth and the doctor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTROLS D-pad: Moves character. Down is crouch. Up lets you aim up. Button 1: Jump (tap for small jump, press for large jump) Button 2: Attack Select: none Run: Pause Additional Moves: Shockbeam: Hold Button 2 for a two seconds until you characters starts flashing, then release the button. Smart Bomb: Hold Button 2 until you characters flashes brightly, then release the button. This uses one Power Bit. You need to hold the button for about seven seconds. Note: It is not actually called a smart bomb. This move is not mentioned in the manual, so I made this name for it. Super Shockbeam(usable only with two players): Have one player use a Shockbeam on the other player. The player that is shot releases a large amount of smaller blasts in the direction they are facing. See Character section for more details. Note: You have infinite continues --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SCREEN DESCRIPTION At the bottom of the screen are some status information that needs a little explanation. The left bar(blue) is your life. The right bar (red) is the life bar of the enemy boss. Although the red bar starts out full when you begin a stage, it doesn't actually come into effect until you reach the boss. In a two player game, both players SHARE the life bar. If the life bar gets emptied, both players die. The life meters (both of them) are 16 units in length. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARACTERS, SMART BOMBS, AND SUPER SHOCKBEAM The playable characters are Arnold and Sonya. Both play exactly the same. However, they have different responses to certain environmental factors. The smart bomb and Super Shockbeam is different for both characters. The respective smart bombs are: (I am making up the names) Sonya: Star Rain -Sonya releases a rain of falling stars which destroy or severely damage all foes Arnold: Laser Slade -Arnold summons four small machines which split up and go to both ends of the screen (two machines to each side). The machines then fire large lasers which go to the other side of the screen. Smart bombs require a bit to use, so use them sparingly or not at all! You need those bits to help destroy particular foes. Super Shockbeam: This is a powerful attack which combines the powers of both players. To use the Super Shockbeam, both players must charge up for their Shockbeam attack. Have one player shoot the other player. The player that is shot must then release the button. The shot player will do a new type of Shockbeam in the direction they are facing. There is a catch to the Super Shockbeam. If the player that is shot is not charging their Shockbeam attack (in other words, one character is glowing and the other is not), when they are shot they will turn into a fireball and careen around the screen helplessly for a few seconds. The same thing will happen if a player never releases the button after they are shot. Here are the two kinds of Super Shockbeams. The person mentioned is the one that is shot: (again, the names are made up) Sonya: Multi-blast ------ Sonya releases a bunch of shots which spread out from her, and head in the direction she is facing. They will slowly converge, but will still be far apart by the time they reach the screen end. Arnold: Explodo blast ------- Arnold fires a bunch of fast-moving exploding blue and white blasts direcly in front of him. The height of the blast area is Arnold's body sprite. I think this attack is stronger than Sonya's Multi-blast, so use this one to pack in huge damage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- POWERUPS Shockman has few powerups to help out heroes. These are described below: Red Battery: Restores a small amount of life. Black Battery: Restores all your life. Bit: Increases your attack power (some enemies can not be destroyed unless you have these). You can carry a max of two. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WALKTHROUGH This section provides some strategies for the stages and bosses of Shockman. Most of the stages are really straightforward, but there is commentary on the stages to help you prepare for what you will face in them. The stages are not labeled in the game, I am just labeling them to aid in reading. Each letter indicates a new screen (ie. 4c means the third screen in stage 4) INTRO: ------ Nothing much here. Proceed to the right until the dialogue commences. The game is taking over your running here. When your character stops running, continue to the right until the game takes over again. You will now fight a boss. Boss: Worker Gang ----- Ok, this is your first battle. You are surrounded here. This boss comes in two parts. The first part starts off with the workers throwing a pickaxe between them. Jump over the pickaxe and attack one pair of workers. Just destroy one pair of workers and the boss proceeds to the next part. Now the other pair of workers will roll across the screen while striking out with the pickaxe. Attack them and jump over them when they come to you. It is really hard (if not impossible) to avoid getting hit when you jump over them. You will always touch them no matter how well you jump. So to avoid losing, use your charge shot to do more damage. As you damage this boss, they will start speeding up their rolling. Just continue the pattern until they die. Now the game will actually begin. Hit Run to start the game. Stage 1a -------- Straightforward stage here. If you get hit any, try to get the pink robots that sit on the ledges fully on the screen before destroying them. Each of them holds a red battery you can use to refill any lost life. The running bots shoot some bombs and normal shots. At the end, press up to go through the open door. Stage 1b -------- Here you want to go up. Flamethrowers will shoot flame out as you go up, so be careful. When you first get here, wait until a foe comes down to you. Destroy it before going up. You don't need extra worries here. After the second flamethrower, a blue bot will come down on the ledge. Also, don't jump on the small ledge just yet. Wait until some bombs land on it. A pink bot is further up and tossing bombs at you. Destroy it in the interval between bomb shots. After the pink bot, continue on past the flamethrower. However, don't jump very high, or you will run into another flamethrower and get it. Use a small jump to get up the ledges. Stage 1c -------- Boss stage here. Start jumping over the buildings and the boss will appear. Boss: Ship ----- Ugly thing, isn't it? Ok, the stage scrolls, and the green buildings sink into the ground once you land on them, so keep jumping to stay up with the boss. You won't die if you fall off the screen. If you do fall off the screen, your character will fly back onto the screen using their jetpack. You can't do anything while your jetpack is on (you can't get hit either, so this can be good breather time if you need it). Press the jump button to land and resume battle. Use charge shots to really damage the boss. Three charge shots should kill it. Stage 2 ------- Underwater stage here. Some squadrons of foes will come at you. They fly into the screen, then come in your general direction. The large black orbs can not be destroyed. After the first wave of black orbs, the walls start moving in. Stay around the center of the screen so you can see which walls are moving and have time to maneuver. Two bouncing foes will appear and shoots spears at you. The waves of black orbs can be destroyed if you attack the black orb with the orange center (there are two such waves). After the second wave, you may see some land at the top and bottom of the screen. Get to the far right, as this land will close in to crush you. After this, back up, the boss is coming. Boss: Bubble Bot ----- Attack the body (the part with the green in it). Avoid the bubbles that the head shoots. To put a quick end to this boss, get about three character lengths away from the center, put the turbo switch to max and blast away. The boss should die in about 5 seconds. Stage 3 ------- Sewer stage. There is water along the surface which continually pulls you to the right. To make this easy, get to the far right side of the screen. Now all you have to do is attack everything to your left. All attackers will come from the left. Some bats will appear at the top of the screen occasionally. They go to the far left side of the screen, then drop all the way down to your head level and come at you. Duck under them if you can't kill them. When you get to the long stretch with no sewer holes in the background, get ready to move to the left side of the screen. After three enemies pop out of the water, move to the left. Soon you will face the boss. Boss: Serpent ----- The boss first will appear from the right side of the screen. It will swoop to the left side when the head reaches the top of the screen, so start going to the right side of the screen when the body fully appears. Get to the far right side of the screen. After going to the left side of the screen, the boss rises out of the middle part of the screen. It will coil up a while while firing. Jump and attack. Your target is the head. After a while, the boss starts uncoiling. The head will come really close to you before the boss goes out of the screen (the boss will go down out of the screen). To avoid a hit when the head comes to you, just jump. Now when the boss is out of the screen, go to the far left side of the screen. The boss will rise out of the middle of the screen again and repeat the coiling pattern. When it goes away this time, it will rise out of the right side of the screen (like when the fight started). Now the pattern will repeat. So what you need to do is this: Left side of screen Right side of screen Left side of screen Every time the boss leaves the screen, you will switch screen sides. There may be a time when you will do well off in the middle of the screen. This may occur after coming from the left side. However, the above pattern should suffice you well enough. After you win, just relax and the game will take over after a while. Stage 4a -------- First off, destroy the gray wall on the right. Pretty long stage here, with two bosses to boot. The glowing green floor will hurt you, so don't touch it. There are pink bots on the gray ledges. There is one bot after the first gray ledge. Try to destroy the bots before you see them (just fire off the screen), so you don't have bombs to worry about while jumping. The worm-like things that come out of the glowing green stuff can not be destroyed, so just avoid them. They don't attack, they just get in the way. Take the elevator at the end. Stage 4b -------- A pink bot with a worm monster in front of it. The worm blocks your shots. If you stay on the ground (not on the gray ledge), you will be safe. Wait until the worm goes down, then jump to the ledge to destroy the pink bot. When you jump onto the platform, jump up when the platform goes over the worm if the worm is up out of the green floor. The worm can still touch you on the platform. The large floating ball enemies may house a bit, so be sure you get it. Watch for blue bots that shoot missiles while you are jumping over the platforms. After a few of the gray ledges, you will be jumping on platforms the rest of the stage. Get to the edge of a platform if it appears that there is no further way to go and you will see the next platform. For the platforms that move vertically in simultaneous movment, wait until the platforms are going down before jumping. It's easier to catch a platform on the downward path. When you get to the gray wall coming from the ceiling, prepare for the boss. Boss 1: Dinosaur ------- Use charge shots to the head. Jump to avoid the head thrusts. After the boss releases three orbs, it will jump to one side of the screen (the side where you are), so move to the other side quickly. This pattern repeats. You can destroy the orbs, but you should really concentrate on the head, as the orbs will disrupt your ability to avoid the head thrusts. When you are on the right side of the screen, you can not dodge the head thrusts. Just continue to use your charge side to do more damage. Stage 4c -------- More jumping here. Watch for those blue missile bots. Stage 4d -------- Yeah, it's ridiculous to call this a "stage," as it is only one screen, but for completeness sake it is done this way. The pink bot tosses bombs as usual. You can not be harmed if you get on the gray ledge. You have to get on the platform in order to be able to hit the pink bot. After destroying the bot, take the elevator, then run to the left. Stage 4e -------- Boss stage here. Boss 2: Flying Robot ------ This boss is not hard at all. Use your charge shot, jump and attack the face. The boss attacks with hand lunges and triple shots which spread out. You can destroy the shots. It will do a hand lunge first. Stage 5 ------- Flying stage here. You will mostly encounter stage 2 enemies here, with the addition of flying eyeballs and laser drones. Later on some large machines will materialize and fire 3-way blasts at you. When you destroy these machines, the explosions fly by you. This does no harm to you, but can be disorientating. Boss: Flying Machine ----- Ok, you will be trapped inside this thing. You target is the circle area on the right. However, you can not harm it until it opens. First get used to the vertical movements of the machine. Now, stay to the left side of the machine. Eventually, the machine will change forms. A portion of the middle section will be filled, dividing the machine into two chambers. Keep a steady hand and just avoid touching the machine. Here is a diagram of the two forms: Form 1 Form 2 ------------ ----- ----- / \ / \ / \ | | | | | | o | | o | | | | | \ / \ / \ / ------------ ----- ----- o -- the core Now, the machine will change back to Form 1. When it does this, the circle area on the right will open and fire missiles at you. Now is when you attack. Dodge the missiles and attack the core. This will naturally be difficult to do, but it is possible. Put the turbo switch to max to do more damage and get more hits while you concentrate on dodging. The core only opens after the machine changes from form 2 back to form 1. Stage 6a -------- Really long and difficult stage here, with three bosses to boot. First you will face falling sections of the ceiling. You will notice all ledges you have to jump on. the ceiling sections fall at each drop off a ledge. This starts after the first ledge you see. The only enemies you face in this section are walkers. They are located on the ledges. So before you fall off a ledge, do a small jump and fire while pushing to the right. If done correctly, you will fall into the space between ledges (and avoid the ceiling) and your fire will destroy the walker on the other ledge. The walkers thrust a green tongue at you, but they move speedily toward you if you are horizontally parallel with them. Using the above tactic destroys them without them ever causing you any trouble. One of the walkers has a red battery. I think it's about the fifth one you come to. Continue on and fall off the final ledge to go to the next part. Stage 6b -------- Here you face more falling ceiling, although not until much later. Your foes here are ninja-like enemies that throw three shurikens in spread fashion. You will face one after you jump over the first ledge and come to the next ledge. Use turbo fire to destroy these foes quickly. After going over the ledge here, a ninja will drop behind you. Destroy it before going on. Further on another ninja will appear in front of you. After destroying this ninja, the legdges before you contain the falling ceiling parts. You will see them ahead of time (there are two such parts). After these parts, you will face one more ninja. Kill it and continue on off the ledge. Some dialogue will commmence. Go to the right if the game doesn't take over. Stage 6c -------- Straight part here. Only two enemies to worry about. A new type of walker will appear. They move really fast. One comes from the right at the start. They come at you really fast, then stop. The gray part moves up and down a while. When the gray part starts moving really slow, it is about to fire a laser at you, so get ready to jump. They usually fire when the gray part just about hits the floor, but they may fire earlier. The gray part is your target. Use a Shockbeam and do a small jump so you can fire at the pointed part of the gray center (the top of this enemy). Two Shockbeams will destroy the walker. After you destroy the first one, continue to the right (go quickly, as this walker has a red battery which you will lose access to if it goes off the screen). After going right for a while, the second walker comes from the left. Destroy it and go right to go to the next part. Stage 6d -------- You are on a long elevator. Flying blue bots will be your foes in this part. They swoop onto the screen from above and below. Stay near one side of the elevator. Don't go all the way to the edge, or you will get hit by foes that come from the bottom of the screen. If some bots drop and rise onto the screen quickly, they are about to fire a stream of shots horizontally across the screen. You will be safe by ducking down when they appear. Four such foes appear early on. They appear in pairs after this. At about the third pair of such foes, the one on the left fires a stream right along the elevator surface, so you will need to jump over this stream. You can try to do a Shockbeam up while near the edge of the elevator. This can help by destroying some foes before they appear. The bots usually fire single slow-moving shots at angles. Once the elevator stops moving, go to the left to face a fairly tough boss. Boss 1: Jeeta Shockshade ------- Along with the final boss, Jeeta is the toughest boss in the game. Here you will see a portion of his power. The easy way to handle Jeeta is to smart bomb him. Do this only if you are about to lose and don't want to use the Health trick. You won't have to completely drain the enemy meter to win this fight. Get it to eight units and Jeeta will leave. Jeeta has two attacks. First is the normal shot similar to yours. His other attack is a charge shot where he lifts his hand and four orbs appear around it. He then throws the orbs at you. This attacks does a lot of damage to you, so this is the one to avoid. Jeet ducks and jumps your shots, so this will be a tricky fight. What you want to do first is run up to Jeeta. He will come right at you. Now run to the right side of the screen (make sure Jeeta is right behind you). Now jump over him and run to the left side of the screen. Jeeta will trail you. Now what you do next depends on what Jeeta does: 1. If Jeeta runs after you all the way, jump over him again and run to the other side of the screen. Repeat this running pattern until he does number 2 (no, no, not THAT number 2 ^_^ ). 2. Jeeta will stand still and fire a few shots at you. Jump over these. Then Jeeta will do his charge shot. You can not hurt him while he is doing it, so just charge your own charge shot. When he throws the shot, jump over it. Now Jeeta will run toward you. Crouch and wait until he gets about a half a character length away. Now fire. Jeeta will jump, but if your timing is good, you will hit him in the foot. Now run to the other side of the screen and repeat the pattern. Continue this until you drain his life meter to about 8 units. Then you will talk a while and he will leave. Go to the left and fall off the ledge. Stage 6f -------- Here you will be jumping over ledges. Your enemies are ninjas. One appears at the first hole you see. I have counted a total of seven ninjas in this part. Here are their locations: One at the first hole One at the third hole One at the fifth hole One at the sixth hole One after the ledge composed of three columns One at the second hole after the three column ledge (this one has a bit) One at about the fourth hole after the ninja with the bit. Press up in the door to go on. Stage 6g -------- This is a fairly tough part here. Here you want to jump up the platforms. Your enemies here are walkers and flamethrowers located in the walls. The flamethrowers may be hard to see. They are located in the mouth of the blue faces on the walls. You will see the first flamethrower spew its flame after you jump on a ledge. Start by jumping onto the far left ledge. Use small jumps as you go up. The flamethrowers on the left wall are positioned so that if you do a large jump, they will hit you, so use small jumps. Flamethrowers only shoot flames if you are jumping either toward or away from the ledge they are nearest. They don't fire using any time interval. At the top, go to the left. Stage 6h -------- Just run to the left. You will eventually face a boss (no, not the little robot standing there). Boss 2: Bouncer Bot ------- Super easy boss here. The boss will appear in the middle of the screen. It will squat down and release a swirling flame stream which it whips around in a circle (or oval to be more precise) Use Shockbeams and jump and hit the boss in the head. Just jump straight up to avoid the flame stream. Get as close to the wall as you can, but not directly on it, as this will prevent you from doing a full jump. Some time after whirling the flame steam around, the boss will jump to another part of the screen. When the fight starts, it will jump straight up. Next, it will jump toward you. Get out of the way and continue the assault. I suggest you get to the far right side of the screen. Now the boss will jump to the middle of the screen, then to where you are again. Keep alternating sides while continuing to attack to finally defeat the boss. Stage 6i -------- Here you come across these rising and falling stacks that emit smoke. The smoke can hurt you, so time your jumps carefully. You must jump from stack to stack and ledge to ledge. Your foes are the flying bots from stage 6d. There are a total of five occurences of these foes: One after the 2nd stack Two after the 3rd stack (there are two ledges close together here) One after the second lower ledge (ledges of a smaller height) One after the above mentioned encounter The bots appear when you hit the ledge, so this will prepare you for their arrival. At the part where two bots appear, one comes from the left, the other from the right. One good way to get these foes is to fire as you fall off a stack. Stage 6j -------- This is repeat of 6g, but there are more walkers and the flamethrowers (especially the ones on the left) are more dangerously positioned to hit you better. Use small jumps with some precision here. Jump carefully and don't rush. Start with the far left ledge to begin this precarious journey. Again, at the top, go left. Stage 6k -------- Boss here Boss 3: Samurai Bot ------- This boss has two attacks: 1. Fire Stream: The boss has two streams of fire on both sides of its body. The streams start by going up and down slightly. Eventually they start making circles of increasing size, so get to jumping to avoid them. 2. Laser Bits: The boss summons two machines which go to the top of the screen. These machines go back and forth firing deadly lasers vertically downward. As time goes on, they start firing more lasers and firing them quickly in succession. After a time, the laser bits go away and the boss uses attack 1 again. You can not destroy the laser bits, so just avoid the lasers as best you can. You must hit the boss in the shoulder (those round parts near the head). Use Shockbeams to speed things up. The boss disappears between attacks. It also disppears when you kill it, so keep an eye on the enemy meter to be sure it is dead before you go on. Stage 7a -------- Another flying stage, this time in space. First up are asteroids. Shockman's slow movement will definitely be a bane here in trying to avoid the asteroids. You can not destroy the rocks, so avoid them as best you can. Staying near the bottom of the screen is safer than other areas, but you still need to do a lot of dodging. You will face more of the laser bots and flying foes from stage 5, although this time laser bots come from the upper left side of the screen as well. New foes here are the pincer enemies. They open their pincers and charge a laser blast. Avoid this and get close to them. Aim at the area closest to the lower pincer and attack. This will damage them. Aiming directly in the center will not harm them. After this, you will face these large green machines that fly into the screen. They usually appear in pairs or more. Once positioned, they fire permanant lasers between them. The lasers only take the four cardinal points (up, down, left, right). Lasers can right angles, so be careful. You will be damaged if you hit a laser. Destroy the machine to break the connection. The machines also fire slow balls at you. Avoid these. It is best to stay on the left side of the screen, and in the middle of the screen so you can have good reaction time. Put the turbo switch to max and get close to these machines to pack on the damage. Below I am showing how these machines approach you. Each number shows what machine will enter the screen. So for machines 1, 2, and 3, the first machine that will appear is 1. About a second later, the second machine (2) will appear beside machine one, then a little later, machine 3 will appear near the screen bottom. The length of the arrow shows how far the machine travels before it stops. The machines tend to appear in groups, so the long line of +'s show the grouping of machines that appear on the screen at a time. The = in the line of +'s shows where the middle of the screen is. This is so you can see the relative positions the machines take and how they move. | | + | + + | + | | | | + | + 7 + | + | | v v + v + ^ + | + | v 1 2 + 5 + | + | + v 10 + + | + v + 9 = = | = 8 = + + | + + 3 + 4 + 6 | + + 11 ^ + ^ + ^ | + + ^ | + | + | | + + | | + | + | | + + | 12 | + + 16 | + | ^ | + + ^ v + | | v + + | 17 + | 20 | 13 + + | + | ^ | + + | + | | | = = | = | | | + + | + | | | + 14 + | + | | | + ^ + | 18 + | | | + | + v ^ + v | | + | + 15 | + 19 | Notes: *As you can see, there will be a total of 20 machines. * If you leave any machines on the screen, when another machine enters the screen, the former machine will fire a connecting laser to the new machine. If you destroyed machines 1, 2, and 3, when machine 4 and 5 enter, they will connect to each other. However, if you destroy machine 1 and 3, but leave machine 2, when machine 4 comes into the screen, machine 2 will connect to it with a laser. So, in short, be sure to destroy all machines. Leave none of them alive. *For machines 15 and 16, they cross each other. Machine 15 comes from the top of the screen and goes to the bottom. Vicer versa with machine 16. They are in the same vertical path. Decide which one you will destroy and get to that screen side. Follow the machine in its travel while shooting it. The 15-18 machine quartet will be a problem if you let all the machines get on the screen. Stage 7b -------- Here is one of those "dodge the walls" stages. As you fly, you will see protrusions of ledges at the top and bottom of the screen. You must avoid hitting these. As you keep flying, you will notice that things will start speeding up. Keep the dodge skills up to avoid a collision. The ledges normally appear in threes before changing screen sides. The stage starts with three ledges appearing at the top of the screen. Each ledge will be further on the screen than the previous. After this, three will appear on the bottom of the screen. They alternate like this the remainder of the stage. Note: There is one point where you will see two ledges close together. This setup is done sporadically. Stay in the middle of the screen. Don't hang out at the left side of the screen. You will see why shortly. Now, this would be quite easy if this all there was to it, but there are more surprises waiting for you. In time, you will notice a ship slowly approaching from the left. This ships gets parallel with you and tries to stay parallel with you (it moves slower than you). In time the ship opens its front part and fires a laser. So now you have to dodge the ledges and the laser from the ship behind you. Well, the situation would have it that you won't be given the priviledge of eternal dodging, as eventually the timing of the laser and the ledges will have you running smack into one of them. So you must get rid of the ship. There are two ways to do this. One way is to have the ship run into one of the ledges. This will destroy it. This is a lot harder than it sounds, as the slow movements of the ship prevent it from really colliding with a wall, plus you have to basically collide with the wall yourself to ensure the enemy ship does the same. This is not a highly feasible method. The second method is to get behind the ship and attack it until it explodes. This too is quite difficult, as the ship tends to speedily move in vertical movements, plus trying to get behind it while not colliding with the ledges is quite impossible. So you must take the damage of either hitting the wall or the ship. Whichever choice you take (or if you manage it without getting hit), get behind the ship and attack until it explodes. There are three such ships (including the one you just destroyed). Once you have destroyed all three ships, the boss appears. Boss: Eye ship ----- Well, the boss is actually easier than what you went through to get to it. The boss has one single attack. It fires a bouncing laser. The laser is a light blue and is really, really thin, thus you will have a hard time seeing it. Not to mention you still have to dodge the ledges. The boss always fires the laser at an angle, so you just have to worry about getting hit from the top or bottom. Look carefully to see where the laser comes from and where it is going. It is really hard to see with all the other things you are trying to concentrate on. Here is one case where you want to have the turbo switch at max. Destroy the boss and you will go to the final stage. Stage 8a -------- Another long stage. There are two kinds of enemies you will face throughout this entire stage. The first will be floating gray drones with guns. The guns swing back and forth like a pendulum. The drones fire occasionally and in a pattern you can make out, so they will not be too troublesome. The drone's shots do four units of damage a hit, so try to avoid getting hit. The other foe is a large blue structure that rises out of the floor. Once it reaches the proper height, it fires a fast-moving bouncing energy stream. This stream bounces around the screen like crazy, at times going off the screen and reappearing a good five seconds later. So when you see a stream, stay where you are until a good seven to ten seconds have passed. If the stream does not appear, you are good to go. You may find the time needed before being able to go on to be shorter than 7-10 seconds--this is just a safe count. Ok, now let's get to the stage. After the initial ledge jumping, your first opponent is the aformentioned blue structure. Crouch next to it and fire to destroy it. Now you will notice the red floor that the structure rose out of. This is not a hole, but the red floor will hurt you, so don't touch it. After the second blue structure, the gray drones will start appearing. Near the end, you will see a blue structure rising and falling out of the floor. Get on the ledge to avoid its shots, crouch and fire away. Stay near the left wall to avoid the explosions from the shots. When you destroy the structure, you must fall down the hole (no red floor, so it is safe). Stage 8b -------- No enemies here, but you will notice that the entire floor is red. Here you must jump from statue to statue. The statues have moving hands. Jump on these hands to keep moving. I believe you can jump on the blue shoulder pads also, but the hands will eventually take you off of them. If there is any difficulty here, it's how the hands act with you. When you are on a hand, your character will only move up and down, even though the hand moves in a circle. This is quite disorientating, as you really can't tell if you are in a safe position or not. My suggestion is just to keep jumping; you usually will never fall off a hand. I did once and I can't explain what happened at all (I didn't move either, so I don't know what happened). After jumping off the last statue, fall down the hole. Stage 8c -------- Go to the right slowly. You will see a drone. There are three drones you will come across early on. Destroy each one separately. There is more of the same here as in 8a--blue structures and drones. Destroying the rising/falling blue structure at the end and fall down the hole. Stage 8d -------- Head to the right and the boss music starts up. Boss 1: Platform heads ------ Ok, the floor you are on becomes the boss here. Five heads rise out of the ground. The heads have a single attack, they fire four shots in a diagonal formation. Each heads flashes red before it fires, so you will know which head is about the fire. The heads take turns firing, although they always go in order from left to right. You are safe on top of a head. Just don't get shot and don't let a head touch you from the side. Attack the heads. When you destroy the head a head, it changes to white. This head will no longer attack and is now just another floating platform. When you destroy four of the heads, the last head will keep shooting at intervals of about three seconds. Just jump on the other heads to get room to fire. Once you disable all the heads, they sink back into the ground. Once all of them are in the ground, you will go on. Stage 8e -------- You will see a drone as soon as you enter. Destroy it from where you are by jumping straight up and firing. Drones usually take 9 to 12 normal shots to destroy. After facing the blue structure, you will see a drone that it may seem impossible to destroy without getting hit. There is a ledge directly under this drone. What you have to do is jump on the ledge, fire up at the drone, then jump off the ledge before the drone shoots you. Take some time to see the firing pattern and timing of the drone. Your window of opportunity is not very large, so look carefully. Destroy the drone after this one. Now when you come to a blue structure, you will see that you are on a long stretch of floor. Destroy the blue struture. By this time, it has fired a stream which is headed back your way. Jump straight up and the stream will go under and bounce to the right. Go the left wall and get snug next to it. Wait for a while to see what the stream does. There is a good chance it will come back. If the stream comes to you, DUCK DOWN! Instinct will tell you to jump, but don't do it. The stream will hit the floor directly in front of you and bounce close over your head. If you jumped, you will get hit. Continue on once you think it's safe. The droid you see after this has a bit. The next blue structure you see must be destroyed from the right side, so jump over it before it fires the stream. Now get next to it and destroy it. What this? Yep, this blue structure always releases a black battery, but the battery is smack on top of the red floor. Jump and get the battery if you need to (if you life is full, don't worry about it). You won't lose much life by hitting the floor since the battery fully refills your life meter. Continue on and fall down the hole. Stage 8f -------- Boss stage. Head left to fight Jeeta again. Boss 2: Jeeta Shockshade ------ If you didn't think Jeeta was hard to first time, he can definitely change that opinion in this battle. Jeeta is piping mad and ready to dish out a load of whooping on ya. So let's see what he has up his sleeve this time. Jeeta still has two attacks. Now he will do his Charge Shot as his normal attack. Since it is his normal attack, he will do it successively. His second attack is his most deadly attack. He has Sonya's version of the Super Shockbeam. Jeeta will use this whenever you use a Shockbeam on him. The Super Shockbeam is unavoidable (except in one case), as it has a huge coverage area. It also does a lot of damage (swiping a good 5+ units a hit). Jeeta still has the huge defense he did from the first battle, as Shockbeam attacks only take one unit off his meter. Also, this time the battle is full throttle. Now you must drain all of the enemy meter, not just a certain number of units. Every time you do a Shockbeam against Jeeta, he will counter with the Super Shockbeam. Jeeta is actually easier to hit now, as he doesn't do as much ducking and jumping to avoid your fire. Of course, since he has the Super Shockbeam counterattack, you can see why he doesn't bother dodging your shots as much. So how do you beat Jeeta this time? You have three methods available to you: a. Super Easy way: Sonya smart bomb. Arnold's smart bomb has a lower success rate of hitting and finishing Jeeta, so you risk wasting of a bit trying to use Arnold's smart bomb. Sonya's is 100% successfull, so she is better to use. b. Easy way (long): Ok, get your fingers ready if you want to use this method. Jeeta only does the Super Shockbeam when you use your own Shockbeam. So the best way to beat him is with normal attacks--thus you don't have to deal with the Super Shockbeam counterattack. This method is rather time-consuming. It takes 6 shots to take one unit off of Jeeta's life meter. You definitely want the turbo switch at max for this fight. What you want to do is keep your distance from Jeeta. This way you can dodge his Shockbeams easier. Jeeta starts on the right side of the screen and you are on the left. Crouch and start firing at Jeeta. He will jump your shots. In time he will start charging his Shockbeam. Get the timing for this. Jump straight up to avoid the Shockbeam. Jeeta normally does two Shockbeams, then comes at you. When he comes at you, crouch and fire. If he jumps your shots, try to get under him and get to the other side of the screen. If you manage to get under him, proceed to part A. If you can't get under him, go to part B: Part A: Ok, Jeeta is on the other side of you now. Get as far away as you can. Jeeta should have a Shockbeam charging up and blazing your way. Jump this, turn around, crouch and fire at Jeeta. Keep firing as much as you can while jumping straight up over his Shockbeams. Some of your shots will hit Jeeta, as when he does his Shockbeams, he goes back a distance and is unable to move. He is crouched while moving back, so this is why you want to always crouch. Jeeta will start running toward you after his volley of charge shots. He will try to jump over your shots. Because he is so far away, he will land on some of your shots. When he gets close enough and manages to jump close to you, get under him again, run to the other side of the screen and repeat this pattern. Part B: If you can't, back up as far as you can. You won't have a lot of room now, so keep a steady hand and eye to try to avoid Jeeta's Shockbeams. Keep firing at Jeeta. After two or more Shockbeams, he will jump over your shots. Run under him! MOVE! You have got to get away from Jeeta so you can dodge his deadly Shockbeams. Once you have a distance, go to Part A. So the gist here is to always keep a large distance between you and Jeeta. When Jeeta starts closing in on you, fire at him to get him jumping. When the opportunity appears for you to run under him, do it. Watch for this opportunity carefully--it can slip by you very fast. Make sure you don't get caught in the corner, or Jeeta will mess you up with his Shockbeams. Keep about two platforms or more length away from Jeeta. When the battle starts, you will notice the floor is somewhat divided into panels. Jeeta lands on the third panel when the battle starts. You are on the last panel (or very close to it). This is a safe distance, and you should seek to maintain or increase it. The further Jeeta is away from you, the more shots you can get in on him. c. Hard way: If you want to use your Shockbeam (bad choice), then this method is for you. Now I will tell you of the one place and time Jeeta's Super Shockbeam won't hit you. If you are at the left side of the screen and Jeeta is on about the third or fourth panel from that side, his Super Shockbeam won't hit you. It will just go all around you, but won't do any damage. Now, since you won't get this ideal situation all the time, we need to talk strategy. First, jump over Jeeta's normal Shockbeams. Crouching and firing should insure a hit from you. Now, I suggest you jump when Jeeta does the Super Shockbeam attack. You will get hit, but at least you won't get knocked back, which can save you a few seconds. Try to keep Jeeta in the middle of the screen while you take the corners. This should help get you in the "safe zone." After you defeat Jeeta, you will go to the next part. Stage 8g -------- Still alive? Good. Ok, take a breather here before going on. You will notice that Jeeta follows you on this stage. He doesn't do anything and can't be hurt or left behind, so just ignore him. Ok, a crucial point is right here at the start, so listen carefully. You see the blue structure that has risen out of the floor? DO NOT destroy it! I repeat, DO NOT DESTROY IT!! No, leave it alone! You NEED this structure to get up to the higher ledge. If you destroy it, you will be stuck on the lower floor, with no way to get up! Resetting is then your only option. Ok, now then--hey! Stop firing! Ok, first jump straight up and continously attack the gray drone that you see. The blue structure will have fired a stream that is eternally bouncing from the upper right to lower left. Time your jump so that you don't get hit. It's best to jump when the steam is heading to the upper right. Try to jump when the tail end of the stream is leaving the blue structure. For all the drones you see, destroy them from as far away as possible. Most of the time this consists of staying on the upper ledges with only a small portion of the drone being visible at the screen edge. You don't want to deal with streams and drones together. Continue on. The last drone you see has a black battery. . .which lands smack onto the red floor of the blue structure you just destroyed, not to mention a stream is bouncing all through here. Get the battery is needed, then get to the door and push up to go on. Stage 8h -------- You're in the home stretch now--hang in there! Another elevator stage. There are no enemies here. Your nemesis now is the moving spiked extensions coming from the screen edge. You can not destroy them, so you must avoid them. Here is how they appear: R--right side of screen L--left side of screen R,L (these stay out once they fully come out) R,L (the left one retreats after both come out) R,L (the right one comes out further than the left one) L,R L,R The first letter shown is the first extension that will appear. So for the first R,L you see, the first extension will come from the right side of the screen. Then the second extension will appear a little later from the left side of the screen. When the floor stops moving, go to the right, jump up on the small green part, then push up to go to the final part. Stage 8i -------- The final boss is here. Before we even begin, I'll state your saving ace-- RESTORE HEALTH TRICK!!! Final Boss: Ryo ---------- Ryo rides a huge machine. He will first approach from the right. Stay at the left side of the screen. You will notice a laser continously coming in your direction. Just stay put until more of the machine appears. You will notice a laser gun at the top soon. There are two of them, one at the left and one at the right of Ryo (who is in the center). The machine walks on four legs. On top of each leg is a platform for you to stand on. Initially, your targets are the laser guns. The lasers take four units per hit so watch your life. Take out the left gun first. Jump onto the legs and get under the gun. Now fire up at it rapidly. There is a safe position that totally avoids the laser fire, but it is hard to see exactly. You can get on the platform that is between the two left legs. This will keep you from moving around a lot and let you fire at the gun relatively steadily. If you stand on the part of the platform right above the circle, you can aim even more steadily. Somewhere here is the safe point. You may need to get as close to Ryo as you can. The safe point lets you hit the gun without getting hit by the laser fire. Destroy this gun and now go to destroy the one on the right side. I have not seen a safe point for this gun. Just get on the leg under it and fire on the gun as much as you can. You can be harmed by getting crushed by the legs as well. Getting squished between two legs may harm you. Sometimes it does damage, sometimes it doesn't. With both guns destroyed, there is a small orange core that opens up under Ryo, so now get down in between the legs to get to it. As you attack this core, you will notice that Ryo's life meter is finally dropping. When you get this meter to half its length (9 units), this core will explode. Now another core appears above Ryo. So now you must get on the leg platforms and continously jump and attack this core. Once you destroy this core, the machine will have explosions appear on it, although it will still be moving. Get to the left side of the screen and put your controller down. The game will finish the rest. Beat Ryo and you win! Enjoy the ending and the hilarious credits! ^_^ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
TIPS, TRICKS, AND SECRETS
Note:  1 and 2 are Buttons 1 and 2 respectively.

Restore Health:

Pause the game, then quickly press Left + Select + Button 2.

To make this easier, put the turbo switch for button 2 to max, hold button
2, then keep pressing Left and Select until the trick works.

Sonya's smart bomb is better than Arnold's, as Arnold's smart bomb still
gives the enemy time to hit you (bosses can still hit you, normal enemies
die).  So if you are playing duo, and want to smart bomb, let Sonya get her
fill of bits first.

Stay on guard after destroying a boss.  You can still be damaged by stray
boss shots even after a boss dies.

Except for when you want to do Shockbeams (which is usually just on bosses),
you will want to keep the turbo switch for button 2 at max throughout the
game.

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CREDITS
God--for the strength, life, and intellect to do this FAQ
GameSages--for the Restore Health trick.
Carl Batchelor (shockman76@earthlink.net)--clearing up some questions about
                                           the game.

I hope you have enjoyed this FAQ.  If there are any corrections, additions,
etc. that you see that need to be put here, please e-mail me and let me know.

Thanks for reading.

dhousto6@bellsouth.net
Dimetric Houston

The End