Battle Storm (Famicom) Guide by E. Phelps, ver. 1.0 (aka LastBossKiller) - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Disclaimer === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission by the author. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Copyright 2015 E. Phelps ---Viewing This Document--- This document contains Japanese text. To view it correctly, set your browser or word processor to view "Shift-JIS" format. For example, if you are using Internet Explorer, using the dropdown menu, go to View -> Encoding -> More -> Japanese (Shift-JIS). You could, instead, open this document with Microsoft Word, and it will ask you about the encoding automatically, allowing you to select Shift-JIS. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = ====== Intro ====== = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - Battle Storm is an NES/Famicom game developed by Bullet Proof Software and published by Yonezawa PR21 in 1991. It's a strategy game that takes place in real time, sort of like Command & Conquer, where you tell your units who to attack, and then they go fight the battle while you give other units commands. It's pretty horrible though, but it will be easy to beat and knock off your list. A really strange aspect of this game is the character select screen. You can choose to be Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Eddie Murphy, Bruce Lee, or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Weird. Although the game is only in Japanese, it doesn't have much text, so you should be able to play it just fine even if you don't speak Japanese. - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = = Getting Started = = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - When the game starts up, you will have four menu options: 1 プレイヤー - "1 Player" 2 プレイヤー - "2 Player" デモ - "Demo". Watch the computer play against itself. ゲームのつづき - "Continue game". Use a password to continue a previous game. Whether you choose a one or two player game, the following game setup options will be the same. First, one player chooses the character he/she would like to use. The options are: らんぼ - "Rambo" (Sylvester Stallone) ちゃあく - "Chuck" (Chuck Norris) えでい - "Eddie" (Eddie Murphy) あちゃー - "Archer" (Bruce Lee. Anyone know why he's called Archer here?) あーのろ - "Arnold" (Arnold Schwarzenegger) After choosing a character, the second player (or the computer) will choose a character. Next, each player needs to decide how much money they will be able to spend during the battle. Money is used to generate units, so the more money you have, the more tanks and stuff you'll be able to create. More money also means the game will take longer. The computer can have a minimum of $100 (this is actually $100,000,000 as signified by the symbols 百万). After both players have settled on a dollar amount, each player will then have to decide on their skill level. The options are: ビギナー - "Beginner" ノービス - "Novice" アドバンス - "Advanced" エキスペリエンス - "Experienced" ベデラン - "Veteran" The difference in skill level only affects which units you will be allowed to use. So if you are a beginner, you can only use two kinds of tanks. If you are a veteran, you can use all of the different types of units. Next, you will choose one of nine possible battlefields. You will eventually have to battle in each location, and the winner will be the player who won the most out of the nine battles. After choosing a battlefield, choose which side of the map player one will play on (left or right). - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === How to Play === = = = - - - - - - = = = =================== = = = - - - Press "Left" and "Right" to move the arrow around at the bottom of the screen (on your side of the screen) to select one of your units. At the same time, a blue box will highlight that unit on the battlefield. To change this unit's behavior, press "A" to select the unit. You will then freely control the blue box on the map. Move the box to a place that you want the unit to move toward and press "A". Next, the blue box will highlight an enemy unit. Press "Left" and "Right" to change which enemy unit the box is highlighting (you can also watch the arrow at the bottom of the enemy's screen to see who you are targetting). Press "A" and your unit will then start attacking that enemy. In this way, you will tell a unit where to move and who to attack. If you have a blank space on your side of the bottom window, then you can generate a new unit. To do so, place the arrow over the blank space and press "A". Then push "Up" and "Down" to cycle through the possible units that you can generate. Below the unit will be shown the dollar amount that you have to spend to create the unit. If a unit is blocking the part of your base that new units exit from (because you just generated a new one that's still in the way, for example), then you won't be able to generate a new unit until the exit is unblocked. Helicopters and jets are generated from a different part of the base, so you can generate an air unit and a ground unit at the same time. The amount of money you have left to spend is shown at the center of the bottom window. If you are on the left side of the screen, an "L" will be next to your money, and an "R" will be shown for the person on the right side. To win a battle, you must destroy the enemy base. The health of each base is shown as the grey and white bars at the center of the bottom window. These are depleted as the bases are damaged, and when they reach zero, the base explodes and the battle ends. You can also self-destruct your base, in which case the enemy will instantly win. If you are playing against the computer and the computer runs out of money and units, it will self-destruct its base. To self-destruct your base, press "A" over a blank unit space as if you were about to generate a new unit. But choose the skull and crossbones symbol instead. Press "A" to select it. You will see the words "OFF" above the skull. Press "Up" to change this to "ON", then press "A" and your base will self-destruct. You lose! Why did you do that?! You gain more money during the battle by destroying enemy units. Different units have different abilities. Below, I list information about the units: UNIT COST SKILL LEVEL ABILITIES Small Tank 3 Beginner Weak armor and long distance attack. Medium Tank 5 Beginner Medium armor and short distance attack. Anti-Air Missile 6 Novice Can only damage helicopters and jets. Heavy Tank 8 Novice Heavy armor tank with short range attack. Ground Missile Tank 6 Advanced Medium armor and long distance attack. Long-Range Tank 12 Advanced Heavy armor and long range attack. Helicopter 10 Experienced Can only attack ground units. Cannot be damaged by ground units. Cannot attack the enemy base. Jet 40 Experienced Can only attack air units. Cannot attack the enemy base. Missile 22 Veteran A single attack that has a large blast radius. Barrier 30 Veteran A shield envelopes your base for 30 seconds. Every time you win a battle against your opponent, you will gain a promotion and a medal. Here are the ranks you can achieve: VICTORIES RANK 1 しょうい (Second Lieutenant) 2 ちゅうい (First Lieutenant) 3 たいい (Captain) 4 しょうさ (Major) 5 ちゅうさ (Lieutenant Colonel) 6 たいさ (Colonel) 7 しょうしょう (Major General) 8 ちゅうしょう (Lieutenant General) 9 たいしょう (General) - - - = = = ================ = = = - - - - - - = = = === Strategy === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================ = = = - - - First of all, you can make this game super easy by giving yourself a lot more money than the computer or by setting the computer's skill to "Beginner" and setting yours to "Veteran". But let's say you don't want to win cheaply. Also, let's assume you are using "Veteran" skill for both players so all units are possible to play. You will find the helicopter to be devastating to the enemy. The helicopter cannot be damaged by most ground units. Only the anti-air tank and the jet can damage the helicopter. So, as long as neither of these units are on the map, your helicopters can lay waste to everything. I use three or four helicopters as soon as I can generate them. But before long, the computer will generate some anti-air tanks to counter your helicopters. At that point, have most or all of your helicopters focus their attacks on the anti-air tank(s). Usually, your helicopters will destroy the anti-air tanks before they can destroy any of your helicopters. When the coast is clear of anti-air tanks, resume your helicopter's devastation of the enemy units. Do you best to destroy any ground units that are approaching your base. Your base can take a lot of hits, so it's not an emergency to have a few enemies approach your base, but keep an eye on your base's damage. At times, the enemy will generate a jet that will wipe out your helicopters pretty easily. This is unfortunate for our helicopter-heavy strategy. At that time, stop generating helicopters. Keep using your helicopters for attacking ground units while you can, but when they're destroyed, start creating more normal tanks (whatever kind you want). The jet can't attack your ground units, so the computer has now wasted $40 on creating a jet that doesn't have much use anymore. Also, create some anti-air tanks (maybe two) and hope that they destroy the jet. It's rare that they actually destroy the jet, but if they do, it's game on! Recreate your helicopter assault squad and the victory is practically yours at this point. If your anti-air tanks never destroy the jet, your chances of winning the battle are pretty weak since it's difficult to defeat the computer on a tank on tank battle, but that's what you'll have to hope for. I found that it's usually easiest to win by using the above techniques and waiting for the enemy's money to drain to zero. At that point, the enemy will self-destruct its base and you win. The alternative is to attack the enemy's base and destroy it earlier. I found this tactic to be very difficult, so I never focused on attacking the enemy base. For the record, I never found the missile, barrier, or jet useful. They are too expensive. Maybe the jet would be good if the computer uses helicopters a lot, but I only saw the computer generate one helicopter during my entire playthrough. - - - = = = ================ = = = - - - - - - = = = === Password === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================ = = = - - - This password will start you in the final battle as Chuck Norris versus Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both teams are set to have $100 and have a skill of "Veteran": 5541913550C040 - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - - - - = = = === Conclusion === = = = - - - - - - = = = ================== = = = - - - I hope you found this guide useful. If you have information that you'd like to contribute or other suggestions for how the guide can be made better or if you find any mistakes, please send it to lastbosskiller@gmail.com. I will give you the proper credit for your help. Thanks to the NES FAQ Completion Project regulars for providing a fun environment for exploring old, obscure games!