MONSTER FORCE For Game Boy Advance Guide written by Shadowruler All trademarks and copyrights contained in this guide are owned by their own respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2003 Neil Edwards This Guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal or private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. If you wish to use this guide on your site, you may, but contact me before doing so. Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business shall we? CONTENTS =-=-=-=- 1. Introduction 2. Game Controls 3. Story 4. Characters 5. Tools and Relics 6. Useful Strategies 7. Walkthrough 8. Boss Strategies 9. Final Words 1.Introduction =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-- This guide was written with the intent to provide as much help as possible in the different areas of this game. Keep in mind, this may or may not be the fastest route through the game, but rather, it is intended to help you get the most out of the game. I chose to write a guide for this game because I believe it to be a wonderful game, and I don't think people give it the attention it deserves. So without further ado, let's begin. 2.Controls =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Controls for this game are not hard to learn by any means, but familiarizing yourself with them before playing the game is always a good idea. -Directional Pad: Up, Down, Left, Right, Diagonal Up+Right, D-Up Left, D- Down+Right, D-Down+Left. These are the directions in which the character can be moved on the screen. Menu Screen, used to move through options -B Button: Used to fire weapons. Hit B once for a Normal Shot, hold B down for a Force Combo, and tap B repeatedly for Triple Shot. On Menu Screen, used to go back to the previous screen. -A Button: Hold A down to run, combine with directional buttons to run in different directions. You must hold A down after you start moving to run. You cannot run from a stand still. Also, if you release the directional pad while running, you will stop running. On Menu screen used to select options -L button: Used to cycle through available tools by pressing this button -R button: Activate selected tool by pressing this button -Start: Pause the game and view statistics and available tools, On Menu screen, used to select options -Select: Alternate control to cycle through Tools 3.Story =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Long ago, there lived 2 brothers, Percy and Victor Frankenstein. Both of these brothers loved experimenting with living creatures, and creating new living creatures. However, the creatures would scare the people in the land they lived in, so they moved to Monsterland, where they could continue creating monsters. But one day, 3 of these such monsters, Frank, Drac, and Wolfie, awoke to find their master, Victor, missing. Together they headed across Monsterland to find Percy, who they hoped would help them find Victor. You, playing as one of these three monsters, will navigate through 36 levels, broken up into 9 stages, and try to find Percy, who can help find Victor. 4.Characters =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -FRANK- Frank, better known as a teen version of Frankenstein, is the first of the three characters available to you at the start of the game. Frank is the strongest of the trio, however, his lack of speed makes up for his incredible strength. Frank will have a very easy time defeating enemies, but will have to dodge a lot, as he moves slow, and fires slow. -Drac- Drac, a teen version of the famous Dracula, is the second character available at the beginning of the game. Drac is not very fast, yet not slow. Likewise he is not the most powerful, and not the weakest. Drac is the definition of the all-around character. Drac moves at an average speed and has average attack strength as you might guess. He has an ok response time for firing, and can evade enemies easily enough. -Wolfie- Wolfie, a.k.a Wolf Man, is the last character available at the start of the game. Wolfie is extremely fast moving, but his attacks are rather weak. If you don't want to spend time looking at the scenery, or just want to whiz right through some areas, Wolfie is ideal for speed. However, his attacks are quite weak, but very fast moving. You will spend the most time defeating bosses and enemies with him, but will easily run around enemies and whip right through some levels. -Secret Characters (SPOILERS)- -Mina- Mina is a mummy-like monster that you will encounter in the first few levels of the game. Mina is fast, and very powerful. Since she is a secret character, it's obvious that she is the best of all the monsters, but she can be very unfair to play with. If you play through the game with her you will have a much easier time, and ultimately you would only be playing through for the enjoyment you have while playing the game again. Mina is unlocked after beating the game once. -???- (more information soon) Unlocked after beating the game with Gold Status on every level. Tools and Relics (to be updated) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -Tools-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- These are the items you can buy through Igor's Shop. Igor is Victor's assistant throughout the game and will provide many helpful hints and information about areas and things seen in the game. N addition to that, when you beat a level, you will appear at his shop, where you can buy tools and relics (more info on relics later) Throughout the game, depending on the stage you are on, the tools will be upgraded, and will be more powerful. However, Igor's shop is different on every level, so you need to know which level you will play through in order to get certain tools. HEART ------------ -Heart Lvl.1 Restores a portion of your health. -Heart Lvl. 2 Restores a large portion of your health. -Heart Lvl. 3 Restores huge amount of your health. MAGNET SHOT ------------ -Magnet Shot Lvl. 1 Force Combo Grabs Atoms. -Magnet Shot Lvl. 2 Force Combo Grabs Atoms, Farther -Magnet Shot Lvl. 3 BOMB ------------ -Bomb Hurts all Enemies on Screen -Bomb Lvl. 2 X-RAY SHOT ------------ X-ray Shot Lvl. 1 Force Combo Shoots Through Walls REFLECT SHOT ------------ Reflect Shot Lvl. 1 Force Combo Bounces off Walls Reflect Shot Lvl.2 Force Combo Bounces off Walls, stronger, longer duration INVICIBILITY ------------ Invincible 1 Gives Short Invincibility Invincible Lvl.1 Gives Medium Invincibility DOUBLE SHOT ----------- Double Shot Lvl.1 Force Combo Shoots in 2 Directions -RELICS------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- These are the items that can only be purchased via Igor's Shop after beating a level. Relics affect attack power, luck, and health amounts. Relics are essential for attack strength, and some levels will be impossible if you have no relics. So purchase new relics whenever you see them, provided you have enough atoms. ATTACK RING ------------- Attack Ring 1 Normal Shot Power Up Attack Gauntlet Large Normal Shot Power Up FORCE RING ----------- Force Ring 1 Force Combo Power Up Force Ring 2 LUCK RING ----------- Gives a Luck increases ARMOR RING ----------- Armor Ring 1 Gives a Health Increase Armor Gauntlet Gives a Large Health increase (more soon) 6.Useful Strategies =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=--=-=-=-=-=- -Hints and Strategies to Keep in Mind While Playing- ----Running---- -Learning how to navigate the different kinds of areas throughout the game through running is essential. In some Trials in stages, you must practically run the entire time, and running into a wall can be the difference between succeeding and failing. Perfecting your running skills is best saved for regular levels, as there is no time limit. So learning how to run around corners without hitting walls is very important. Failing a Trial because you had 2 seconds left and were about to get to the exit, and ran into a wall is quite frustrating, and will happen again and again until you learn how to properly run. Keep this in mind when you are playing. ----Atoms---- -The best way to earn atoms in levels is to kill your enemies in clusters all at once. Killing groups of enemies will yield tons of atoms, but killing them one at a time is not good. The same goes for pumpkins that need to be destroyed. Do your best to destroy pumpkins in lines and groups as well, because blowing them up one at a time will only give you minimal atoms per pumpkin. In some areas, pumpkins will change from an X to a number. This means you must hit the pumpkins after the x is gone. If there are large groups like this, if you time it right, you can gain massive amounts of atoms. Remember, destroy pumpkins and enemies in groups for the best amount of atoms. ----Enemies---- -In the first few levels of the game, you will learn about a lot of different types of enemies. You will learn of the ones that require a lot of hits to kill, and the ones that die in one shot. When gaining atoms is your best interest, killing the harder enemies will net you more atoms, and the weaker enemies will give you less. However, usually the weaker enemies will come out of generators, and will keep coming unless you destroy the generator. If you are looking for an easy way to gain atoms, do not destroy the generator and just keep killing the hordes of enemies in groups and you will gain a lot of atoms. Another very important strategy to remember about enemies while playing is this: If you know that one enemy is very hard to kill, and not worth the atoms it gives you, and there are easier enemies in the room, ignore the harder ones. They won't follow you to the next room, but do your best to avoid their attacks. If you keep these things in mind while playing, you will learn that you do not have to kill every enemy to beat a level, not to mention save a lot of health. ----Staying Alive---- In this game, health is the most important thing to keep in mind. Pumpkins will leave Health Increases sometimes when you destroy them, and you should use these sparingly. You can sustain getting hit around 3 times before you die, so if you get hit once, do not immediately use a Health Increase. If you know you will die if you are hit once more, definitely use these. Do not charge headlong into a group of enemies, shoot them from afar to insure you are not hurt. Later in the game, you will come across different Heart Increases, that give you more Health. If you need to use a Heart increase to heal yourself, use the lowest level possible before using powerful ones. Heart Lvl.1 only heals a little energy, where as Heart Lvl.3 heals almost all of your health. So, when using items, make sure you use the lower level items before the higher ones. Easy enough.