Pinocchio for Sega Genesis Tips, Walkthrough Version 1.0, 10/29/00 William Walker email J-D-Walker@worldnet.att.net This document Copyright 2000 William Walker. Reproduction and distribution without permission is okay, as long as (1) I am given credit for my work, and (2) it's not done for commercial purposes. Hello! My name is William Walker and I'm going to give an FAQ for the Sega Genesis game, Pinocchio. A few notes before we get started: Notes on the violence factor: on a scale of 1-10 I'd rate this game at 3. Pinocchio uses a spinning kick to defeat his enemies and some throw bricks and other things at him, but it is not graphic and many enemies aren't human. It should be okay for kids over eight years old. Difficulty: on a scale of one to ten I'd rate it at 4. Pinocchio can take a lot of damage before dying, but there are some things that kill him immediately and these things make some levels tough. Most kids should be able to beat it, but it is no pushover. Other games based on Disney movies include Toy Story, Lion King and Aladdin. They're violence factors are: Toy Story 2, Lion King 5«, and Aladdin 7. There are probably others I don't know about. Story: Pinocchio is a puppet given life by a blue fairy. He wants to be a real boy but can only be one after proving himself worthy by getting the badges of courage, truth, and unselfishness. Now we'll get down to business. At the beginning go to options to choose (among other things) the difficulty level. Easier levels give you more starting lives, make it easier to get bonus lives and continues, and make some levels easier. Goodies: magic wands increase your health, but you probably won't need them as you can take (indicated by the wand in the upper left corner) about twenty hits of damage before dying! Pinocchio hats will give you bonus lives if you get enough of them, and you need more on higher difficulty levels. Red school books give continues if you accumulate enough, but it's tougher on higher difficulty levels. There are goodies everywhere in every level and it's fun to see how many you can get. Buttons: (you can change this in the options screen). C makes you jump, B does nothing and A does Pinocchio's spin attack, which disposes of most enemies. Walkthrough Level 1: An actor's life for me This level is very short and easy on easy mode, but much longer on normal or hard mode. Things to avoid: geese, boys who throw things at you, Honest John and the cat, who tries to sneak up on you, smoke from chimneys, and gulls. You only gain access to the spin attack once you get the red page, so before then avoid your enemies. If you jump on the handle of water pumps you go flying in the air. You also go flying if you touch a sign. You'll start spinning fast. Press on the D- pad the direction you want to fly off in and press C to fly off. A few more things: some blocks on the roofs of houses collapse, making you fall back to the lower level. Also some window sills collapse. If you ever miss a ledge but manage to grab on to it press up to climb onto the ledge. Also press up to go through doorways. The only other very important thing is to collect all the floating colored pages. Each one gives you one of the following advantages: access the spin attack, a higher jump, ability to stay on balloons longer in level 4, and ability to stay on the floor longer in level 6. The order in which you should get the pages is: white, yellow, blue and red. If you have the white page and then find the blue page, you'd better backtrack until you find the yellow page. These pages are very important to get. Oh, one more thing. At the end you'll have a choice to go through two doorways: one marked school and the other easy street. Going through the easy street one results in having to restart the level, so go through the school one and you get the badge of truth. That would be the end of the game, except that Honest John comes and tricks you into doing something else. Level 2: Lampside Setting This level is fun. It's weird because it's the only level you play as Jiminy Cricket. To control him: press C to jump, A to swing his umbrella, and B to open it to protect yourself. If you press B while jumping you'll open it and it acts like a parachute, letting you fall slower. The lamppost you're on has three levels. At the top, which you can reach by jumping on the round things on either side, are two wands. There are no other goodies, however. The middle level, which is where you start and I think is the best place to be. And you can go to the bottom, but here you have limited space and might fall off the edge, which kills you (duh!) If you see a bug flying far out off the lamppost, wait for it to come back in rather then jump and swipe it, as you could jump too far and fall. To finish the level, you have to kill all the yellow moths. The number and difficulty to kill increases with the difficulty level. You can only hurt them when they're out from behind the lamppost. Often only one or two is out, kill it and another comes out, etc. They cannot hurt you, except when they change they're wings to look like a dragonfly and charge at you. Use the umbrella to protect yourself. Other bugs include: ones that dive-bomb you and cannot be killed, ones that land and then roll at you (use the umbrella to deflect them) and ones that land and bother you (use the umbrella to kill them). Kill all the moths and you beat the level. Level 3: Puppet Show I hate this level. Pinocchio will have puppets next to him and he must copy their moves. If you make a mistake you get pummeled with tomatoes and will take damage. To do the moves: left for move left arm, right to move right arm, C to kick right, A to kick left and B to spin. On later routines puppets may do a kick while squatting, called a crouch kick. This never happens on easy mode. To do one yourself, press down + A to do a crouch kick left, or down + C for a crouch kick right. At first the puppet on the left will do a move. Copy it and she repeats it and adds another move. Copy both and she adds another and another, then after 4-6 moves the routine is complete, you get some goodies and move to the next routine. The goodies you get and the length of the routines depends on the difficulty level. This one has two puppets but they both do the same thing. After completing this one you move on to another. There are four routines. On the last one, expect some crouch kicks. After finishing this last routine you beat the level. Level 4: Pleasure Island This is a pushover with a capital P in easy mode, using the spin attack on any boys other then Lampwick, for him just dodge the firecrackers he throws and stay ahead of him, dodging things thrown by boys on balloons. At the far right jump an any balloon's string as it rises, kick back, and enjoy the ride to the end (at the upper left). If you're desperate for the goodies that float high above the ground, make sure you know that only blue balloons fly high enough to reach them, and only will fly high enough once. You'll have to use many balloons to get the goodies and I think they're more trouble then they're worth, even on easy mode. On normal or hard modes, this level is pretty hard. The same things hold true on the ground, only on balloons you not only have to avoid the things other boys on balloons throw which will knock you off, but balloons will pop. Blue balloons take a while to pop, green balloons pop faster and pink balloons pop even faster. The moment you grab a balloon a timer will start going inside the game, even if you jump off immediately, and it will eventually pop. To exit, jump on one balloon, then jump on the one ahead of it when they stand in a favorable position. After playing a few times you'll know whether or not you can make a jump, but this requires precise maneuvering in midair. You should only backtrack to the balloon behind you if you absolutely have to. As for the goodies, since you don't (at least you shouldn't!) get hit in this level you may want to grab a few if you can, but this requires a lot of backtracking and patience. Level 5: Pleasure Island II Guys and gals, this is a hard level. You fall into a roller coaster car, and it's pretty obvious that there should be a LOT more safety features. A few basics: never jump out of the car except at breaks in the track, always hold down to avoid the poles just above the track that knock you out of the car. There are a lot of these and it's difficult to follow the arrows or signs. Just keep ducking and you should be okay. There are also places where the track has broken. In this case, know that it's coming by memory, or use arrows or signs. When you come to it jump out of the car when you're about to fall in and land in the car that's always on the other side to continue. That's probably enough to get rid of some lives. But you also have to change the direction that you go in so you can reach the end. To change the direction that you go, you must jump out of the car and ring some bells. You must ring the bells or you just keep going in a circle. After you ring 3-4 bells you'll go on the track leading to the end. There's a part with four gaps that are close together. Just keep jumping to get through. At the end you'll fall out of the car but will be able to stand on the tracks, but cannot go back. Below you Lampwick lights the fuses of rockets that explode just above the tracks. You must avoid the explosions but grab the goodies that sometimes appear. (As for the goodies above the tracks before you got here, all I can say is only go for them if you have plenty of lives and/or are very sure of yourself). As you do this watch out for other cars now they hurt you! The signs of one coming are shaking of the track and the sound of wheels. You must jump at just the right time to avoid taking damage. Once you grab enough goodies from rocket explosions you finish (only the programmers know why!) Level 6: Escape from Pleasure Island This level is dark, spooky and not much fun. Ignore donkeys and Pinocchio's own ears and tail. First go left and spin attack the evil coachman to knock him into the water. The rest of the level is a long series of rocky ledges and pathways leading up. If you can't jump to a ledge jump to the edge of the ledge (great, I'm a poet now) and Pinocchio will grab on. Press up to pull him up to the ledge. Things to avoid: gulls (shriek before diving at you and can be killed by a spin attack) rocks, thorns and lightning monsters, the name I gave to the black creatures who appear out of nowhere and then walk back and forth on a ledge. They are the biggest menace in the level. They can't hurt you, but if they grab you they'll knock you to a lower level. Kill them with a spin attack, but some take more then one hit to kill. Some paths collapse, so be careful. There are plenty of goodies here, giving the player skilled at noticing different paths plenty of opportunities to cash in. There are plenty of wands here so you probably won't die by running out of health. To finish go to the upper right corner, where the sky is darkest and you run into the evil coachman again. His whip causes a lot of damage so don't expect this to be a pushover. Stay back as he swings at you and misses. Then run in and do a spin attack. If hit, he'll grab his foot and jump back. The best place to hit him is the edge of him. After he's at the edge of the cliff a donkey comes. Stay back as he whips it, but the donkey bites him first and makes him jump up and down holding his foot. Spin attack him again to knock him off the cliff and get the badge of courage. Level 7: The Search for Monstro This level is fun. It's rather easy as nothing can kill you instantly and your enemies aren't high in number. A few important things: in this level only there is an indicator telling you how many clams you have. When you start you'll float on the ceiling because you have none. First go right collecting clams (the things that look like white bubbles) and when you collect five you will fall back to the floor. Most clams are on the ceiling but some are on the floor and you can collect the ones on the ceiling by grabbing them in midair when they jump around, but they move erratically and often don't move at all. You can never have more then five and as you play the level they sometimes float away. If you run out you go back to the ceiling until you collect five again. Stay on the floor if you can, most of the goodies are down there. Other things to avoid: crabs which a spin attack disposes of, pits of spikes, blasts of rocks and electric eels. The last two are the worst. Blasts of red rocks appear on the ocean floor and knock you back, often into a spiked pit. Watch out after spiked pits for tiny bubbles on the bottom which signal their presence. Electric eels hurt you, and bounce you off. This is more annoying then you may think. Lionfish following you can be ignored (I think). If you jump in a sea flower you'll spring out when you press C. Press right to fly into the next one, do this again and again to cross spiked pits. Oh, and you can ride on the backs of manta rays. Use this to climb up or cross over danger. Streams of bubbles push you up or down. At the far right a stream of bubbles pushes you down to a black area. A giant eye opens and it's on to the next level. Level 8: Fish Kind of a weird name for a weird level. On easy mode if you want to get through ASAP, just allow yourself to fall to the back of the screen and you win. On normal or hard mode, it's not so simple. If you fall to the back you die, until you see a fish hurry across the screen, he's golden brown and will be in a hurry. Once this happens you will finish the level if you fall to the back. To avoid falling you must use the fish in the foreground. Unless you grab one you'll die very quickly. Quickly grab one, but you can't just stay on one, as you will again fall back. You must swim from fish tail to fish tail, as you get a burst of speed just after letting go. Controls are: up and down to move that way, and C to let go of a fish tail. You should quickly grab onto another tail after letting go of one, this way you can stay ahead of Monstro. You'll see his mouth after that fish swims across the screen that allows you to finish if you get caught. That's about it, except: if you do really well it speeds up so you can't go on forever, don't try to grab lionfish as they won't let you grab they're tails, and if you see a turtle or a greenish fish grab it and you'll be pulled forward. Enjoy the ride and if you grab a greenish fish, swim a little above where you grabbed it to grab the hat that it burps out. Level 9: Inside Monstro This is a hard level. Well maybe not too hard, but it's a very long level! You're playing on a shipwreck, red in color with a background that makes it look like you're inside a whale. Things to watch out for: crabs which are easily disposed of by a spin attack, and spikey wood. In one spot platforms collapse. This level is huge and extremely difficult. If you can make a map it makes it a lot easier, but other then that, this level just rots like old wood. Oh, yes, see all those crates that are scattered around? Every time you smash one (spin attack) you'll get a plank of wood. On easy mode you only need one plank. On normal mode you'll need 15. On hard mode... well, just don't use hard mode until you've got plenty of experience. Once you have enough planks you must make your way to the far right. You can push the red barrels and use them for a boost. One way to get to the far right is to go along the top. This will take forever but will help you get the necessary planks. Or you can go along the bottom. At the bottom is a pool of water with plenty of floating barrels and crates (needless to say, don't smash these). Falling into the water kills you immediately and some most barrels and crates move left and right. Jump when they're closest. To compensate for the fact that one false jump will be your last there are goodies above about every three barrels or crates. At the far right jump up, grab onto the ledge and pull yourself up. Continue up until you reach a golden lantern. Touch it and it smashes, creating a fire. Now you must find your father. You can either slip down into the water and make your way back left, or if you die you'll be at the start and will be able to make your way down to the water by heading left and down. Whenever you jump into the water you must pray that you land on something, but here's a little tip. At the place where you can get down to the water at the far left jump in and pull left or right, things are usually floating to the left or right of the middle. Once on the water proceed to the far left. When you see the raft jump on it and you're outta here! Level 10: Escape from Monstro Ohhh... this level is evil. That can be expected as it is the last level of the game, though. You're on the raft, rowing left. The main danger are the rocks. On easy mode there are arrows pointing up or down telling you whether to jump over a rock or duck under a rock. The controls are the same as always, only the raft will always be under you. On normal or hard mode there are no arrows and you must choose whether to jump or duck. Only duck under rocks that you think you can fit under. Otherwise jump. Ignore your father, as he will never get hurt. Press left or right to slow the raft down or speed it up. Later the rocks are closer together. Ducking under rocks is much easier then jumping over them and after playing a few times you'll be able to tell them apart. Hitting a rock kills you (duh!) When there are no rocks and you see Monstro behind you make sure he doesn't catch you by staying on the left and using the whirlwinds that pop out of the water to speed up. The hardest part is jumping over rocks. You have to do this a lot and one false jump kills you. After you clear all the rocks there is one final test. The raft speeds up, smashes into a rock and breaks apart. Your father faints and you must save him before Monstro gets you. The moment you hit the rocks slam on left and hold it until you reach your father. The level ends, you get the badge of unselfishness and win the game. If you have any further questions, comments or further tips e-mail J-D-Walker@worldnet.att.net Note: Please do not use this FAQ without giving me credit for it, and do not use them for commercial purposes without my permission.