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Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa (Arcade)
Game Guide/Walkthrough
By: BareKnuckleRoo
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Contents:

1.*** Foreword
2.*** Version Differences
3.*** Controls
4.*** Items
5.*** Walkthrough
5.a*** Stage 1: Cowtown
5.b*** Stage 2: Niagara Desert
5.c*** Stage 3: Sheeza Butte
5.d*** Stage 4: Ghost Town
5.e*** Stage 5: Mine
5.f*** Stage 6: Jane Meadow
5.g*** Stage 7: Cowtown Bank to Skull Mountain
6.*** Afterword

•••••••••• 1.*** Foreword ••••••••••

Wild West C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa, often referred to as Moo Mesa for
short, is an arcade game based on a kids television series of the same
name. It was made by Ryan Brown, who did a lot of work on Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

Konami was well known for making a lot of games based off of licensed
franchises, such as beat 'em up games based on X-Men, The Simpsons,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and more. Many of Konami's arcade
releases are also infamous for making their North American releases
considerably different than the original Japanese version, namely for the
worse to make them more of a credit feeder with unfair mechanic
changes. Life bars turned into continuously draining numbered health
bars, health items removed or rendered useless, additional enemies
added, etc. Generally speaking, if you want to play an arcade game
that's difficult, but still remains fair, play the original Japanese version.
Some companies such as Capcom had fewer regional gameplay tweaks
in their games, and the differences vary from game to game, but Konami
tended to be one of the worst offenders for regional tweaks.

Moo Mesa however is an unusual rarity; it's a run and gun game that
could be considered a spiritual successor to their earlier game Sunset
Riders. Unlike Sunset Riders which had different arcade boards for 2 and
4 player versions, Moo Mesa allows you to set 2, 3, or 4 player based on
a dip switch setting. It also features relatively minor regional tweaks, so
regardless of what version you play, the game is very enjoyable. Sadly, it
has never had an official port to console or PC, and only the arcade
version remains playable.


•••••••••• 2.*** Version Differences ••••••••••

Four known versions of the arcade game exist, identified on the boot
screen and board markings: AAB, EAB, UAB and UAC. The AAB and EAB
appear to be identical in gameplay as far as I can tell (input replays
synchronize perfectly). Based on naming conventions for other Konami
arcade games, the AAB version presumably is the original Japanese
version of the game, and the EAB is probably the European release. UAB
and UAC are presumably the USA releases. Unlike other Konami
releases, the USA versions aren't too drastically altered, although there
are some silly changes. This guide applies to all versions of the game,
and differences will be noted where applicable. Specifically, these are
the differences to be aware of:

* AAB/EAB start you with 2 extra lives, UAB/UAC start with 1 extra life.
* AAB/EAB have level select enabled, so after the first level you can play
the levels in the order you like. UAB/UAC have a fixed level order.
* AAB/EAB are set to a 2-loop game. After beating the game once, you
play through the game again in a slightly harder second loop. UAB/UAC
loop endlessly and never ends until you game over. The difficulty
appears to max out at the second loop though.

These changes can actually be adjusted under the test menu's options.
You can adjust the lives, level select, and the looping in the UAB/UAC
version to be like the AAB/EAB version.

There are two changes that CANNOT be adjusted under the options
though:

* AAB/EAB allows you to use the joystick to select your character in 4
player, UAB/UAC version forces you to use the character associated with
the joystick slot (1 = Buffalo Bull, 2 = Marshal Moo Montana, etc).
* AAB/EAB have a few less enemies in the first level than the UAB/UAC
version.
* The enemies that crawl on the ground and roll bombs at you can be
hit by simply ducking and shooting in the AAB/EAB versions. In the
AB/UAC versions, your shots will pass over them if you duck and shoot.
To hit them, you need to jump (or be close to them) and fire downwards
at them.

That last change is significant enough to change how you approach
certain segments, but it doesn't change the difficulty of those sections
considerably, so for all intents and purposes, the UAB/UAC version isn't
too much harder to beat on a single credit.

Under the test menu for the game, you can find the dip switch settings
which show you what they do, as well as an option menu for the Game
Options where you can change settings. These are the default settings
for AAB/EAB version and the recommended settings if you're playing the
UAB/UAC version:

Player's Life: 1 credit=3 lives
Stage Selection: Available
Loop Setting: Game over after second round

There's also a Difficulty Level setting in here but I'm honestly not sure
what this adjusts. Enemies may perhaps be a bit more aggressive? But
for the most part I haven't noticed anything significant in terms of
changes when I tried setting it to the hardest setting. The 4/Medium
setting is the default on all versions. The number of players you play
with also doesn't seem to adjust the difficulty/number of enemies.


•••••••••• 3.*** Controls ••••••••••

Joystick: Aim and move in 8 directions! Press down to duck and avoid
attacks, or when you're near a detonator to set off dynamite.

Button 1: Shoot. Tap this to fire rapidly. When you get a Rapid Fire
powerup you can hold this to shoot, but you fire faster if you tap
manually, so plan on mashing shoot during boss fights.

Button 2: Jump. You can't control your jump height and will always jump
at the same height. Hold up while jumping to grab onto higher ledges.
Hold down and jump to drop from a ledge to the ground.

Hold Up + Shoot + Jump (while standing on ground): Close-range
jumping attack. It's not documented in the game manual, or in-game. It's
a melee spinning jump attack that instantly kills weak enemies and does
a small amount of damage to bosses. It's an amusing novelty that's
never worth using.

Shoot + Jump (while standing on ground): Dash attack. You'll start
running forward, ramming into enemies until you bounce off a solid
barrel or enemy. You need this to destroy certain stationary barrels. If
you tap the joystick in the opposite direction you're running, you will
immediately cancel the dash attack and go into the spinning animation
as if you hit something. While you're in the spinning animation, holding
left or right on the joystick will adjust where you land. Dash attacks
generally do not do much damage to bosses and will simply
momentarily stun a boss.

The dash attack is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to playing well, because you
are 100% invulnerable to damage when you're in the spinning recovery
animation. You can be hit/shot out of the dashing animation, but what
you can do is dash in the opposite direction you want to move, and
immediately cancel the dash to dodge. So, to dash cancel to the left,
dash right, then push the joystick left to cancel the dash and dodge
through anything to the left. Any bullets you touch will disappear
harmlessly, and no enemies can touch you. This technique will be
referred to as a "Dash Cancel".

Dash cancels are an essential technique to learn for dodging since you
can evade everything with it, and will be referred to extensively in this
guide.

Shoot + Jump (while carrying an item): Use item. If you want to use a
dash attack, you have to first use up whatever item you're carrying.

NOTE: The majority of the levels are standard run and gun levels,
however there are two flying segments where a bird inexplicably carries
you, and it plays more like a shmup. Moving and shooting is fairly
intuitive, but your regular jump becomes a flipkick attack, and your dash
attack becomes a mostly useless forward dash attack that can't be used
for dodging since you can't cancel it.


•••••••••• 4.*** Items ••••••••••

Money Bag: Gives you points depending on the size of the bag.

Detonator with Explosives (barrels with skulls wired to a detonator):
These can be found in a few stages. Press down when you're standing
next to the detonator to cause all the barrels to explode, damaging
nearby enemies.

Every so often you'll encounter flying chickens who can be shot to drop
an item. These items are NOT randomized and as long as you
successfully shoot the chicken that appears you will find the same items
in each stage every time you play:

PowerUp (egg with a red P): Your shot changes from one bullet to three
bullets. It makes it wider and easier to hit with, but doesn't seem to
actually increase the damage you do. Lasts until you lose a life.

Rapid Fire (egg with a blue R): You can hold down shoot to fire rapidly.
You can still shoot more quickly if you tap the button yourself, which is
recommended during boss fights. Lasts until you lose a life.

Sarsparilla Soda (green bottle): Recover 1 unit of health. If you are at full
health when you shoot a chicken carrying one of these, it'll instead drop
a large money bag for points. Note: your health is fully recovered
between levels.

Horseshoe (a blue horseshoe): Flies around you for a short period of
time, damaging enemies it hits while making THE MOST ANNOYING
SOUND IMAGINABLE.

Star Shield (light blue star): You are invulnerable to damage while this is
in effect. Be aggressive until this runs out!

1UP: Gives you an extra life! Only 1 to be found per loop in the Ghost
Town.

The following items are ATTACK ITEMS; when you grab one it'll float
above you, and you can use it when you like by pressing shoot + jump.

Punch (a boxing glove with a spring): Fires a giant boxing gloves left or
right.

Axe: Throws an axe that then boomerangs back towards you. Pretty
useful.

TNT (stick of dynamite): Throws a stick of dynamite that explodes when
it hits the ground. It's hard to use effectively, fairly rare though.

Lightning Bomb (blue orb): Looks cool and pulsates while carrying it.
Instantly hits everything on screen for a fair bit of damage. You are NOT
invulnerable while using it, and it makes it difficult to see for a few
seconds, so careful when using it if there's a bullet about to hit you!


•••••••••• 5.*** Walkthrough ••••••••••

Unlike Konami's earlier arcade game "Sunset Riders", all the characters
in the game play the same. The only differences are their appearances.
Also, Marshal Moo Montana fires star badges as opposed to bullets.

This guide will follow the same stage order as the default setting on the
UAB/UAC version. The order you play the stages in slightly affects the
difficulty of the levels, generally in terms of the number of enemies that
appear. Bosses also are slightly more aggressive if you select a level
later.

The goal of this guide is to teach you strategies for beating the game
with a single credit, as opposed to pumping credit after credit into the
game. The game is difficult, but fair, and is entirely reasonable to beat
on a single credit (the game's actually relatively easy compared to other
run and gun style games thanks to the ability to dodge with the dash
cancel).

Generally speaking, you can safely touch enemies without taking
damage. You'll only take damage if the enemy actually shoots or attacks
you, except in cases where touching the enemy is the hazard itself (like
the barrels that are rolled at you in some levels).

If level select is disabled, the stage order is:

Cowtown

[five selectable stages]
Niagara Desert
Sheeza Butte
Ghost Town (there's a 1UP located here)
Mine
Jane Meadow

[final level]
Cowtown & Skull Mountain -> proceed to loop 2

The second loop is similar enough to the first loop that I'll simply make a
note at the end of each stage about what changes in the second loop.

Insert credits. Hit start. Pick a character. Let's rodeo!


•••••••••• 5.a*** Stage 1: Cowtown ••••••••••

If you haven't played before, take the time to get used to the controls. If
you dawdle for too long in one spot you'll get a Hurry Up warning. A few
seconds after it appears for the 4th time a bull-tornado (inexplicably
with the letters "Andrew" flying around it) will appear and kill you. It's
the only thing that technically can hit you during the invulnerable
spinning recovery on your dash attack, but the time limit is extremely
forgiving in this game, so you should never have to worry about it.

Proceed right, grab the PowerUp, dash attack the barrels. Watch out for
the wanted poster here as it will actually attack you. Grab the axe item,
use it if you like.

UAB/UAC versions have a cactus enemy here as well as an extra wanted
poster to the left of the explosives in front of the building. Set off the
explosives, grab the cash for points. Points don't give you extra lives or
anything though, so you can ignore the money bags if you want.

Shoot the chickens that appear; an invulnerability Star Shield shows up
along with another powerup. None of the black bull enemies are
particularly difficult and if necessary you can duck under their shots, or
dash cancel across the screen. In front of the church a chicken will drop
a sarsparilla soda or a money bag depending on if you're hurt or need
health. Watch out! As you walk in front of the church the bell will drop
and bounce off the ground. Avoid it, collect the Rapid Fire item from the
chicken, quickly shoot the larger bull with the giant mace. He'll take a
swing if he gets close. The large bull takes a lot of hits, but if he gets
close you can dash cancel to get some distance from it.

BOSS: Sheriff Terrorbull

He has a lot of health, but is very slow. His two fastest attacks can be
avoided by simply ducking (his basic punch and the gun he fires). When
he pulls out a knife and starts spinning, he'll fly up off-screen; simply
watch for the shadow on the ground to see where he'll land. If he makes
a jumps straight up he'll use a slide kick when he lands which is easily
avoided by jumping or dash cancelling through him.

If he taunts you by punching his palm (makes a clapping sound), he'll
use a really fast punch that travels across the screen. This is his most
dangerous attack, but it can easily be avoided by timing a jump, or by
dash cancelling behind him. Just keep shooting and he'll drop without
much difficulty.

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

In the second loop, lots more enemies appear. In particular, the end of
the stage is quite tough, as bomb-rolling enemies appear in a swarm, as
well as several large bulls at the same time. Saving the Axe you can get
near the start of the level can help deal with this.


•••••••••• 5.b*** Stage 2: Niagara Desert ••••••••••

Flying levels are a nuisance, and not as much fun in my opinion. You can
jump to do a flipkick, and your dash attach is a short-ranged bull charge
that boomerangs back to the bird that's carrying you. Simply shooting
away is usually the best way to deal with the flying levels though.

Remember; you can safely touch the enemies without taking damage
here, so be aggressive and shoot down all the bulls being carried by
bats. If you're playing multiplayer give the Rapid Fire powerup that
appears to someone who hasn't got it yet. Next, a Lightning Bomb will
appear (the blue orb). Grab this and DO NOT USE IT UNTIL THE BOSS.
Do not accidentally do a dash attack or you'll use the bomb instead.
Saving this until the boss will make the boss much easier.

Your hitbox is pretty big; when the missiles appear, if you're worried you
can't shoot one in front of you down in time simply move out of the way.
The missiles go down in one hit though, so even though they move
quick they're pretty easy to deal with.

Stay low as the train appears so that you can deal with the enemies on
the track that appear in front and behind you. Keep firing so that your
bullets will score a hit as soon as they're onscreen! Next, bees will
appear onscreen. The bee swarms take a surprising number of hits to go
down; you'll have to be aggressive to deal with them quickly, but you
can evade them if necessary. Just watch for the bees that are launched
at you from the swarm.

A couple of hot-air balloons appear after the bees. Stay at the top of the
stage and simply keep shooting the bulls that try to drop bombs. As long
as you're not hit by a bomb you can fly safely in front of the balloons.
There's a horseshoe item that appears after the first balloon, and a
couple cannons dangle from the back of each balloon. You can totally
ignore the cannons as if you're high enough they're totally harmless.

There's a mini-boss here, the IDA 1. DO NOT USE THE LIGHTNING BOMB
YET. Stay at the left hand side of the screen and fire away at the body.
When the gun winds up, get out of the way! As long as you're at the left
side of the screen, you're safe. You'll have to shoot down the exploding
balloons it launches at you, but that's not too hard. At one point a
chicken will appear with a health soda - it's easier to grab if you let the
chicken float halfway across the screen.

Don't be too aggressive; as long as you're patient and wait for an
opening to take shots, this boss is pretty trivial.

BOSS: Saddle Sore

A scorpion cowboy appearing with an even bigger scorpion cowboy!
You can jump onto the scorpion claws as ledges, but this usually isn't
that helpful.

Start shooting directly up at him; as soon as he's done taunting and your
bullets start making contact with him, fire off the Lightning Bomb you've
been saving. It will damage him as well as destroy the giant scorpion's
stinger, taking out something that could have attacked you as well as
giving you an item at the same time. Unusually, the item the stinger
drops appears to be randomized; I've seen PowerUps drop as well as
Star Shields.

When Saddle Sore launches giant poison orbs, they only hurt when they
actually explode. The smaller pellets he fires as a spreadshot are more
dangerous; carefully maneuver through the gaps or dash cancel
through them.

When you deal enough damage, Saddle Sore will jump to the ground.
Keep away from him as he can do a quick melee swipe on landing. Dash
cancelling can avoid the pellets he fires, and ducking will avoid his claw
when he fires it like a boomerang. If it goes a short distance stay
ducking; if it travels a long distance, the claw will stretch out and hit you
on the way back even while ducking. You have to be ready to jump over
it or dash cancel through it.

Saddle Sore's somewhat tricky until you become comfortable with dash
cancelling, but he's still among the easier bosses. The next two bosses
we'll face are probably the toughest ones aside from the final boss.

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

The mini-boss is much more aggressive and uses its attacks much more
frequently. You have to be very patient with how you attack it so you
don't accidentally get hit. Over-aggressiveness on your part is the real
danger here. Other than that, the level appears to be more or less the
same in loop 2.


•••••••••• 5.c*** Stage 3: Sheeza Butte ••••••••••

The bull enemies here can hide in the plants on the ground. If they point
their guns they can't be hit; you have to wait for their head to poke out
or for them to jump out. In the UA versions or if you pick this stage later
on in the rotation, a large enemy with an axe can appear at the start.
Shoot it rapidly or, stay away from it by jumping up to the ledge when
he drops down.

Watch the barrels in front of the wall. Just behind the wall, there are
bomb-rolling bulls you need to deal with here. It's easiest to stay on the
ledge and jump up, firing diagonally down at them. Be careful of the
bomb explosions!

Past the conveyor belt are red barrels that get thrown at you. Shoot
them while advancing slowly. If you're having trouble getting an
opening to get on the ramp, do a dash cancel on the ramp. At the
broken section of the ramp you can jump and fire down at the enemies
below. Once you get to the waterfall, get ready; this is probably the
hardest part of the level aside from the boss. To get up the waterfall you
have to alternate between mashing the shoot and jump keys (don't tap
them together, doesn't seem to work as well). Avoid the debris! My
recommendation is to stay low, and then when the log at the top of the
screen appears, quickly get up to the top. The debris comes down pretty
quickly, so be careful.

Carefully inch forward to the right, shooting the three barrels that
appear. Just past the barrel at the bottom of the screen a chicken will
come from the left of the screen. He's got a health item if you're hurt.
Keep going right, enter the skull cave.

There's snake mini-boss here. It telegraphs its attacks by yelling and
opening its mouth, which are easily dodged by dash cancelling. It has
one fairly quick bite attack that it alerts you to with a different sounding
hiss; if you have trouble, simply get ready to dash cancel when it stops
moving. At the start of the fight if you run underneath its head and
shoot up you can do a lot of damage, speeding up the fight significantly. 

Note that jumping on top of the snake's head lets you ride it (until it
attacks again!).

After the boss, another wall you have to shoot through. Chicken drops a
Rapid Fire here if you need one. The bomb-rolling bulls are the big
threat here, but there's platforms you can jump up onto a fire at them
from above. The platforms are also the perfect height to fire across at
the gatling gun bulls in the towers.

Past the three barrels to knock down is an enemy shooting at you from a
barrel. You can jump straight up and fire at him to safely hit him without
getting near. Another gatling gun, and then there's a set of sand bags
here. As you approach the sand bags be ready to deal with bomb-rollers
coming from behind you on the left. After, quickly fire up at the gatling
gun in the next tower and take out the barrel gunner. Dash cancel out of
the way if you're fired at! One last gatling gunner before the boss (make
sure you deal with it before the boss fight starts or it'll be able to fire at
you during the boss).

BOSS: ??? (Strangely, the pre-level screen doesn't identify him, unlike
the other levels, and I don't recognize him from the TV show, though a 
similar spider named Sid shooting webs does show up in episode 4)

This spider boss is pretty tough. It jumps between two platforms (which
you can't reach) while either firing webs in a spreadshot, or throwing
knives directly down. Do NOT stand underneath the platforms! The
knives come out super fast, so keep firing diagonally up at it when it
jumps around. If you have to evade its shots, you can dash cancel
through them, just make sure to get back to the middle of the screen.

When the spider boss decides to drop to the ground it uses two attacks.
The first is a high jump where it tries to land on you. This simply requires
walking or dashing out of the way. The much more dangerous one is
where it makes a short hop and rolls in your direction, bouncing off the
screen. DO NOT dash cancel here! If you dash cancel, you're likely to be
hit after you land as the spider boss bounces off the edge of the screen.
The easiest way to dodge it is to jump straight up or towards whatever
side of the screen you're closest to. In between its attacks the spider
boss is very vulnerable when it's on the ground, so keep firing away!

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

An axe-wielding large bull shows up at the start of the level, and the
various red barrels that bounce and roll at you contain bull enemies that
you need to shoot after breaking each barrel. The waterfall might be a
bit more aggressive about debris too? The mini-boss and boss are both
unchanged from what I can tell.


•••••••••• 5.d*** Stage 4: Ghost Town ••••••••••

If you do this level later on (or in loop 2), enemies will show up in the
coffins at the start of the level. If you start firing up right away you can
deal with a couple of them, or you can simply go right and ignore them
altogether. Watch out for ghosts - they take a couple shots to kill, and
will grab you if they touch you (quickly wiggle the stick to break free).

Around the corner of a building is a wagon in the background with
barrels. Be careful here! When you approach, the barrels will fall off the
wagon, hitting you if you're in front. The hitbox for this is pretty sizeable,
so either approach carefully or dash cancel past it. One of the chickens
here drops a TNT which is helpful for the mini-boss coming up. Watch
out for the pink buzzard enemies that fly past and dive down at you
around here.

In front of the horror house is a ghost mini-boss. If you have the TNT,
stay on the left side of the screen and throw it at the boss as it appears;
the blast should detonate on the pedestal in front of the horror house,
doing a bit of damage. The boss has only a couple means of attacking.
The first is it will float up and down, and try to stretch out to attack you.
As long as you're on the opposite side of the screen, the stretch will just
barely miss you.

The other way it attacks is by flying at you. It'll go offscreen and back
onscreen a total of three times before it stops again, each time it
appears onscreen it'll pick either high, medium, or low to fly in at you.
You can eliminate the guessing by simply dash cancelling through it as
it flies at you, so you're as far away as possible each time it appears on
screen.

Just past the mini-boss is a chicken with a punching glove, and more
coffins with bulls inside. The coffin lids block your shots, but if you jump
up and fire the glove, it'll go right through all the enemies. Or simply run
or dash cancel past them. Once you're at the flaming crate, make
absolutely sure to shoot the chicken down here as it drops a 1UP item!

The flaming crate launches spooking flaming jack-o-lanterns at you.
Dash cancelling them will cause them to vanish midair and is
recommended to avoid them to give yourself breathing room. When
they touch the ground the jack-o-lanterns take a second to fade away,
and are safe to walk through. Depending on if you're playing this stage
later in the game or not, you will have to deal with skeletal bulls here,
who take several hits to destroy and eventually respawn.

As soon as the screen lets you go right, make a run for it. Keep firing like
crazy, diagonally up as you pass two barrel-gunners by (who can be
killed before they shoot at you). Grab the Lightning Bomb that appears if
you can and save it for the boss. When you reach the third wooden
pedestal, jump on top of it so that you can then hop over the red barrels
below! Several chickens appear before the boss, and at least one drops a
Sarsparilla Soda item if you need health.

BOSS: Boot Hill Buzzard

This boss has two forms it alternates between. First, it starts the fight off
by flying, or rather being carried by a bunch of vultures. The goal here is
to quickly shoot up at the vultures as soon as possible. When flying,
Boot Hill Buzzard either will drop bombs directly below him (so never
ever get below him while he's in the air!), or he'll throw feathers at you.
You can shoot these feathers down, but there's a lot of them. My
recommendation is to fire away at the buzzards, and when he throws
feathers, use the Lightning Bomb which will damage the boss as well as
get rid of any feathers!

When he's on the ground he has several attacks:

* He'll try to roll bombs at you which you can either hop carefully over
or simply dash cancel behind him. The number of bombs rolled depends
on how early or late in the game you are and can be as few as 2-3
bombs or up to 6 bombs! Yes, they roll uphill.

* Boot Hill Buzzard will pull a pistol out and fire erratically at you. The
shots are slow, and you can block them with short dash cancels.

* He'll lift his rifle-shovel and fire a huge blast. This can be ducked under
if you're standing at the same height as him, otherwise you have to dash
cancel or jump over the shot.

* On rare occasion he'll try to swing the shovel at you. Be careful not to
use your dash attack on him! If you hit him with a dash he'll be knocked
back slightly, and there's a small chance he'll immediately retaliate with
an incredibly fast, nearly unavoidable flurry of shovel swipes where he
slams left and right. The hitbox on this is massive, but the only way to
trigger this flurry is at random when you accidentally dash attack him.
There's never any point in the game to using the dash attack for offense
against any of the game's bosses, so don't waste time hitting him with
dashes.

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

Difficulty is always maxed out here, so the coffins at the start of the
enemies always have enemies, even if you play this stage as the second
stage of loop 2. Yes, the 1UP appears in the loop, but the green crate
where the 1UP appears fires two to three times the flaming jack-o
lanterns as in the first loop! It's pretty dangerous and requires dash
cancelling to deal with the spooky pumpkins. The boss of the level, Boot
Hill Buzzard, rolls 6 bombs at a time towards you, making it a pretty
lengthy attack; you could dash cancel behind him and fire away if you
want!


•••••••••• 5.e*** Stage 5: Mine ••••••••••

Jump from mine cart to mine cart, firing away at enemies. Be careful not
to fall from a cart to the bottom of the screen or you'll take damage!
Occasionally, a boulder will fly down and destroy a cart; be careful if it's
headed for a cart you're standing on. This level's actually pretty trivial
though, as there's tons of chickens that drop health sodas, as well as
bonus weapons such as TNT and Punches.

At one point there's a miniboss train cart that appears above. It has a
small turret that fires at you, it can make a giant read ball that bounces a
few times before popping (you can shoot this) and it has a set of spikes
it uses to ram through a boulder that appears now and then on the
tracks. The debris from the boulder can hit you, and is probably the most
dangerous attack here. Be aggressive and quickly fire up at it, using
dash cancels to dodge either the giant red ball or the boulder debris as
necessary. It doesn't take too many hits to go down though.

After the mini-boss, there's about 3 health items before the actual stage
boss. Nothing difficult about this segment, just keep shooting everything
as it appears onscreen. Then enjoy the show as the mine cart flies off the
tracks, sending you crashing into the bar and the boss fight.

BOSS: Five Card Stud

My favourite boss. He's pretty easy, but a lot of fun to fight nevertheless.
He stands on a platform above you, and you're on a chandelier sort of
thing that will swing more and more as the boss takes damage. Five
Card Stud will throw cards at you constantly, which you can shoot down.
Stay below the boss and shoot upwards, focusing on any cards he
produces while being careful not to fall off the platform as it starts to
swing. When the boss is up there, do NOT jump up to that platform or
you'll get hit by cards!

Occasionally, Five Card Stud with don a red cape and vanish, only to
reappear as a gigantic playing card that drops down. Don't let the card
touch you, and simply move out of the way as it appears. Five Card Stud
can also jump down and do a handstand on the lower platform, firing
cards left and right. Avoid this easily by jumping up to the upper
platform and back down again when the boss comes up. Or, you can
walk over to where the boss handstands - if you're standing immediately
next to him his cards won't hit you and you can fire at him point-blank.

Five Card Stud's a very flashy, cool boss, but he's really not too tough
with a bit of practicing.

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

Nothing really noticeable in the stage. I think Five Card Stud launches
more cards at you, meaning you have to shoot down more cards with
each attack during the boss fight, but that's about it. Still just as easy as
the first loop.


•••••••••• 5.f*** Stage 6: Jane Meadow ••••••••••

The level starts with a lower ledge and a train track above you.
Immediately jump up to the train tracks; it's far, far safer up here than it
is below. Keep moving right, while firing away. You'll eventually
encounter a couple large bulls (one with an axe, one with a flaming
torch). You can either rapidly shoot them down, but it's actually
probably best to avoid them by simply dash cancelling past them.

Keep going right, shooting through the barrels. Health drops before the
explosives you can set off here. There's no need to set the explosives off
though as, shortly after you reach them, you'll be carried off by an eagle
for the game's second flying stage segment.

Stay near the bottom of the screen. Fire away at the bats. When the
screen shifts and the train tracks are at the bottom of the screen, two
biker enemies appear from the left - shoot them. Another wave of bats,
and then bikers approach from the right. You CAN'T shoot the ones
from the right; the seats deflect the shots. What you can do is dash
attack them as they appear onscreen, which will score a hit on them!
Dash attack the three bikers on the right, then go back to shooting down
bats until you reach the mini-boss.

It's... a duck plane balloon thing...? Do NOT get directly in front of it
because the bombs it spits out tend to go at awkward, unpredictable
trajectories, especially in the second loop of the game. Instead, get
directly above the spinning propellor. Here, you only need to worry
about one attack: the missiles it fires up from behind. They slowly float
up at you, and then travel left when they're lined up with you. Get used
to having to fake these out (jumping as they approach can help you
avoid them as you move out of the way). Keep shooting downwards
when there's an opening between missiles, and the mini-boss will go
down. It's arguably the hardest mini-boss in the game, particularly in the
second loop where it fires more frequently! Then, it's straight on to the
boss of the level.

BOSS: Wagon Train

Easiest boss in the game. Shoot off the bucket and canvas roof to reveal
the barrel gatling gun. Move to the right of the screen behind it and
pound away with shots as it fires snakes harmlessly.

Stay on the right side of the screen as the rest of the train comes in view.
When you're on the right here the only bit that can attack you is the bit
on the body that launches the pink balloons (you can shoot them down).
Once all three segments are shot down, QUICKLY move to the top left
corner of the screen as the train's chimney starts spinning like a top. This
is where it actually gets dangerous.

The chimney will fly towards you as every so often a bouncy gold
spikeball will be launched from the center of the train. Staying at the top
of the screen helps avoid the spikeball. To dodge the spinning chimney
while shooting it down, you have to fake it out. Move down as it
approaches, then quickly move up and out of the way. You can also
jump as you move past it, which helps to go above it and avoid touching
the chimney. The chimney takes a fair number of hits, but with a bit of
practise it's really not difficult to deal with it. Be careful, you can get hit
by a spikeball before the stage ends, so stay at the top of the screen
even after destroying the chimney!

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

The mini-boss here is incredibly dangerous in loop 2, attacking much
faster and firing two missiles instead of just one. You have to stay
directly above the propellor, firing down when it's safe while luring the
missiles that float up into attacking and missing you. Don't get in front
of the duck plane - the grenades it launches fly at wildly unpredictable
trajectories and it's way too easy to get hit.

There's also a few more enemies at the start of the level, but they're
easily avoided if you keep to the train tracks higher up.


•••••••••• 5.g*** Stage 7: Cowtown Bank to Skull Mountain ••••••••••

The last stage in the game, and fittingly the most difficult one. The last
portion of the stage is pretty tricky even when you know what you're
doing. The bank's been robbed by The Masked Bull! Proceed across the
rooftops, firing away. Grab the cash on the rooftops, then do a dash off
the rooftops which should destroy the first three red barrels. A couple
more dashes will destroy the remaining barrels, just watch for any
bombs thrown by the bulls here.

Shoot the barrel-gunner on the next building, grab more cash, take out
the second barrel-gunner. Drop down and stay low, firing away like
crazy to take out the brown barrels and enemies here. Be careful - if
they fire the pink wall may make it hard to see their shots, in which case
jump back up to the roof here.

At the next building you have a choice of an Axe, TNT, or a Lightning
Bomb. Doesn't matter which you get, you'll want to use it immediately to
get rid of it so we can dash in the next building. In the next area, jump
over the tables; they block you from moving. A chicken will appear,
baiting you into grabbing a Horseshoe item. See the chandeliers? They
drop down to do damage. Dash under them, and cancel the dash as
soon as they drop to spin harmlessly through them. There are two
chandeliers and a large bull with a mace, followed by a large bull on the
left. Dash off the second table and cancel when the chandelier falls, be
ready to deal with two more large bulls. As long as you fire aggressively
on them and dash cancel (or dash at them to bounce off them) when
they get close you shouldn't take any damage here.

As soon as the scene shifts back outside, immediately duck and start
firing to hit as many of the enemies in the plants as possible. Jump or
dash cancel to avoid any shots. As soon as you jump up the steps into
the building, a large bull appears with an axe. You may need to get back
outside to get enough distance to shoot him safely. Don't go in too far
before the first large bull's dead or a second one will appear from the
left. The one from the left can be dealt with from in the building by
ducking and shooting.

As soon as you pass a doorway, a large axe bull appears along with a
chicken carrying health soda. Don't miss the chicken if you're injured!
Duck and fire away on the axe bull (if he throws the axe you'll avoid it as
long as you duck). One more large axe bull to shoot as you see a few
explosive barrels. Once the detonator's clear, move to it and WAIT a
split-second before using it. If you use it immediately, it won't hit all the
large axe bulls that appear, whereas you can clear them all with the
detonator if you wait a second to use it when they appear.

Down the secret staircase! Careful, the perspective is weird here. You're
on a slope, and the enemies on either side are harder to hit because
your shots still go straight forward. Do NOT attempt to walk or dash
under the cactus trap - you can simply shoot it to blow it to bits! Aim
your shots up diagonally when it's raised to kill it quicker.

Move forward, firing up to the right to kill the bat that appears on
screen, then either fire at the second bat, or dash cancel through it
when it swoops. Another cactus pillar, shoot it, then again, fire up to the
right. A black bat appears as you're surrounded by barrels. If you hit the
bat you can try and rapidly shoot the barrel on the left, then dash cancel
through the ones on the right. Otherwise, dash cancel through the left
barrel, then though the barrels on the right. This is a very tough wave of
enemies because you have to react quickly to avoid damage.

Soon after as you walk right, three barrels appear from the left with a
bat, and one barrel appears from the right. Jump over the right hand
barrel, wait for the left barrels to move near the middle of the screen,
and dash cancel through them (making sure you don't land on the first
barrel you jumped over!). Careful - the bull enemies here through
bombs at you, so you'll need to keep an eye on them and keep firing
away and dodging if a bomb is thrown.

One last set of barrels to avoid here, these ones don't bounce and can
be jumped over or shot. As you reach the end of the slope and walk past
the chair pay attention to the ground. In front of the jail cell door, one of
the stones on the ground will glow yellow before a trap launches two
stones at you! Dash cancel through the stones to avoid damage. When
you reach the second cell door, barrels appear on either side as another
spring trap activates. Dash cancel to the right so you land on the spring
that just triggered, and fire on the barrel approaching you. Quickly get
to the left as the large axe bulls appear from the jail cells. The order they
appear in is right, left, left. Dash cancel through them if they get close
enough to take a swing, but with rapid button mashing it should be no
trouble.

Two more spring traps appear very quickly, along with more barrels.
Dash cancel through the traps while firing on the barrels (or dash cancel
through those too). The next set of cells let out large fire-breathing
bulls. Again, one on the right, then two on the left. Duck while firing as
they are aggressive about breathing fireballs (if they're close they'll use
a melee fire attack that can hit you while ducking).

As soon as you're done with them, another barrel comes from the right,
and a wall appears with a living door knocker. It randomly breathes a
fire ball that will hit you if you jump up into it, or a bomb (the same the
bomb-rolling bulls use). There's an easy way to beat it without worrying
about dodging its attacks: simply run underneath it and fire straight up
into it. Every time it growls, dash cancel to the right (so you're hugging
the wall). Time it so your spin is touching the door-knocker as it opens
its mouth, and you'll either cancel the fireball harmlessly, or detonate
the bomb in midair, which will explode too high up to hit you when you
land. No need to guess which attacks it uses, either way you easily avoid
both, although you'll have to get the learn timing for when it attacks
(which isn't too hard). Deal with it quickly, as the last cell door gets
knocked down, and two large mace bulls appear. If they appear while
the door-knocker is still alive you're in trouble!

After you take care of the large mace bulls, inch to the right slowly,
firing like crazy. A bunch of barrels appear (four in total in the group)
along with a bomb rolling bull. Either shoot out as many barrels as you
can, moving to the left to give yourself space to run or dash cancel
through any that you haven't destroyed, or simply dash cancel through
the group and quickly shoot down at the bomb roller. Another door
knocker is here as well, but the same strategy as before applies: dash
cancel into it every time it opens its mouth to block its attacks. The
group immediately before the door-knocker is the real threat.

As you finally reach the stolen gold and the kidnapped Lily Bovine,
several black bull enemies appear, but they're trivial to deal with. Shoot,
dash through them, whatever. On to Skull Mountain to fight The Masked
Bull!

BOSS: The Masked Bull

This boss is extremely difficult, far more than any other bosses in the
game. This is the make-or-break fight here if you want to beat the game
in a single credit. He takes a lot of hits to defeat, and his attacks are all
fast and unpredictable! There's two pillars you can hop onto, but
generally speaking I recommend staying on the ground.

The Masked Bull hops around frequently, and can use these attacks:

Shoryuken - He uses a Street Fighter style jumping uppercut. Comes out
extremely fast. He'll use it at melee range or when you're up on a pillar.
One of his more dangerous attacks.

Knife Throw - The Masked Bull tosses a wide spread of knifes. Very
dangerous, and among his fastest attacks. You can shoot the knives to
avoid being damaged. Careful, they hit the upper platforms if he's far
enough when he throws them.

Flying Dash - Flies forward headfirst, going across to the far side of the
screen. He can jump up and use this if you're on one of the pillars.
Dodge by jumping over or doing a dash cancel.

Cactus Guns - Lifts a pair of guns that fire spiky cactus bullets. You can
duck under these.

Grenade Launcher - He only uses this when he's at the far right or left of
the screen. He winds up for a second, then launches an orange
projectile that makes multiple explosions (same as the bombs bomb
rollers use). Stay near the middle of the screen to avoid the blasts. Only
the blasts can hit you, not the orange projectile he fires initially.

The Masked Bull appears to be unpredictable. Every time he jumps he'll
turn to face you after landing and either jump again or attack. And after
every attack, he'll do the same thing, turning to face you and jumping or
using an attack. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to what attacks he
uses, and the trick to beating him is to stay as close as possible
(touching him won't hurt you when he's not attacking). There's a sweet
spot where if you are close, you can bait him into attacking one direction
and have time to run past him while shooting, safely avoiding the attack.
You want to time it so you're always walking past him as he attacks, not
too soon or he'll turn to attack you, and moving just past him in time to
avoid the hit. If he jumps, or uses a shoryuken uppercut, reposition and
be ready to move past him when he lands. Learning the spacing for
this technique is tricky, but when you get reliable at it it's entirely
possible to beat him only taking a few hits.

Don't move past him too quickly; you want to time your movement so he
tries to attack in one direction just as you move past him and behind
him, all while firing away point blank. The only time this doesn't work is
if he reaches the edge of the screen. When this happens, you have to be
prepared to dodge and wait for him to leave the edge of the screen in
order to be able to safely bait him into attacking. All of his attacks can
be dodged by staying close to him and walking past as he starts the
attack, but the hardest ones to avoid are his shoryuken and his knives.
They come out the fastest.

If you're having trouble with the stay close trick, you can either keep
your distance and fight the hard way (duck to avoid the cactus shots,
and be ready to dash cancel or jump if he uses his own dash attack). It's
also possible to hide on one of the pillars and fight him from up there
by jumping to avoid his shoryuken, but I've found both these less
reliable than simply keeping close to The Masked Bull.

After you beat him, gasp! He was Sheriff Terrorbull all along (something
they never discover in the TV series in spite of how obvious it is...). On to
the next loop (unless you're on the last loop, in which case you win!).

LOOP 2 CHANGES:

There's an extra barrel that comes from behind after the last set of
cactus traps, but that's about it I think. The stage and final boss both
seem to be more or less the same in both loops.


•••••••••• 6.*** Afterword ••••••••••

I hope this guide was an informative, interesting read, or at least helpful
if you were just looking for a specific piece of information. It was
originally intended to go on GameFAQs, but you have my full permission
to post this guide whereever you want, as long as you don't go posting it
without doing the right thing and, y'know, crediting me as the author. If
you're looking for me you can send a private message on GameFAQs to
user account BareKnuckleRoo, or to: bareknuckleroo [at sign] gmail.com

Thank you for reading this.

- BKR