1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789 Metal Storm FAQ/Walkthrough For the Nintendo NES Written by Pseudonym Version 1.1 Email: shdwswrm@hotmail.com _______________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents ----------------- Revision History Terms of Use FAQ Introduction Game Basics Walkthrough Closing =============================================================================== Revision History =============================================================================== Sept 18th, 2005-Version 1.0 -Started the walkthrough and the game basics sections. -------------- April 11th, 2010-Version 1.1 -Cleaned up some sections, beefed up the basics and walkthrough a bit. =============================================================================== Terms of Use =============================================================================== This document is licensed for public use according to the GNU Free Documentation License. If you'll read the license, you'll see that it allows for inclusion within another work, provided that the other work in turn maintains the license. Some key parts of the license: This license applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this license. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The "document", below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as "you". You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law. A "modified version" of the document means any work containing the document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language. You may copy and distribute a modified version of the document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the modified version under precisely this License, with the modified version filling the role of the document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the modified version to whoever possesses a copy of it. To summarize, you may use this document in part or whole, without any additional permission from myself, provided that the resulting document is similarly released under the GNU FDL. The latest version of this guide can always be found at GameFAQs. It's the responsibility of any other site hosting this guide to get the latest version. Metal Storm FAQ/Walkthrough, Copyright (C) 2010 TC/Pseudonym. =============================================================================== FAQ =============================================================================== Q: How do you play in expert mode? Normally, you have to complete normal/default mode before you can try expert mode. The password to the first level on expert: 8BF-SMCX-S8L I recommend that you stay away from expert mode until you've finished normal mode a few times so that you know what you are doing. =============================================================================== Introduction =============================================================================== Metal Storm is an unjustly obscure game developed by Tamtex and published by Irem in 1991. Despite getting a pretty sweet spread on the cover of Nintendo Power it just never really caught on with most people until emulators made it cheap and easy to try out new NES games quickly... and on your computer too! The main game mechanic, the "Gravity Jump" as I call it -it's called something else in the manual, but I digress- lets you reverse gravity so that you can walk on the ceiling as well as the ground as it suits you. The game has many unique stages built around this mechanic while building on the idea and throwing some loops your way to challenge you as carry on to the end. This guide is written in mind for normal mode only. ** Now (mostly) grammatically correct, thanks to Word’s insistence on correcting my poor grammar and sentence structure. Ffffu... I mean, thanks Microsoft. If you have any suggestions, comments, or constructive criticism, please email me at shdwswrm(at)hotmail(dot)com with the heading "Metal Storm" or something similar. All flames, threats, childish comments, etc. will be deleted and you're email address filtered. Story ----- The year is 2501 and the dawning of a new century has brought mankind to the brink of disaster. The powerful LaserGun on the planet Pluto's battle station "Cyberg" is wreaking havoc. It was originally designed to protect Earth from hostile aliens, but, due to a computer malfunction, is systematically destroying all the planets in the solar system. Most recently, the Earth nation watched helplessly as Neptune exploded. The system's self-destruct device could stop the LaserGun, but it has been mysteriously jammed and is aimed at Earth. Even if the device can be manually activated, there is only a slim chance that Earth can be saved. Your mission is to enter Cyberg using the most sophisticated weaponry available, the M-308 Gunner, and unlock the self-destruct device! =============================================================================== Game Basics =============================================================================== Controls -------- Start Button: Pause the game. Select Button: Not used. B Button: Fire your weapon. A Button: Jump. Directional Pad: Move the M-308 gunner (your character). Up/Down and A: Gravity Jump. Gravity Jumps and YOU! ---------------------- Using the Gravity Jump is simple, picking up a couple of the subtleties of this game mechanic take a bit of time to learn but make the game easier to play. I use a number of colloquialisms/informal terms for this in place of the real word- which, oddly enough, I’m not sure about myself- like “flip” and “Gravity Jump” throughout the guide. I try to avoid words like “jump” in this way when I actually mean that you should jump. Changing Gravity: UP+A will allow you to walk on the ceiling, the reverse, DOWN+A will return you to the ground. Keep in mind that most "walking" enemies are subject to the gravity change as well, so that you don't accidentally run into one when you use the Gravity Jump. Hang Time: You can also change the gravity back the ground from the ceiling by quickly DOWN+A again immediately after pressing UP+A and vice-versa. Doing this will make the M-308 hang in mid-air for a second or so, useful for dodging enemies and bullets. Distance Jump: Sometimes a ledge is too high for you to reach. The solution: jump as high as you can, and at the highest point of your jump, do a Gravity Jump and press left/right as needed to reach the ledge. Powerups -------- Armor (A): Allows you to take an additional hit before you're destroyed. It's non-stackable, you can't get more than one to allow you to take more hits. Weapon (P): Upgrades your blaster into a wider and stronger laser. Very useful for shooting through platforms that your regular weapon can't penetrate. Shield (S): Blocks bullets from hitting you. You can move the shield to block bullets by looking in the direction of the projectile. Very useful for stopping most bullets but near useless against bosses. Crush (C): Destroys all the enemies on the screen. Only found in stage 4-2 And 5-2. It’s sort of useless in most situations. Fireball (G): Makes you temporarily invulnerable while doing a Gravity Jump. I find that it’s useful in stage 4 to avoid getting hit. Bonus (B): Gives you 5000 extra points. Time (T): Adds 100 seconds to your time. NOTE: When you grab one powerup right after another, the newer powerup will negate the previous one except for ARMOR powerups. That being said, don't grab powerups indiscriminately; you have to pick and choose which ones you think is best for the situation. Obstacles --------- Snappers: Referred to as "defense gates" in the manual, these nasty buggers snap shut when you so much as hop a bit in front of them. It's best to jump in the centre of the two when you can, but there are a few times where you will just have to be extra quick to avoid being squished. Barriers: Barriers prevent you from passing through them (unless you want to get damaged) until you are in the right orientation- rightup side or upside down- to deactivate them. 1-way Platforms: The only way through a 1-way platform is to jump past it in the direction indicated on the platform. UP means you rightside up; DOWN means upside down, you have to Gravity Jump somewhere beforehand. Enemies ------- Most enemies in this game are variations of , others are turrets, and a small number of other mechs that you encounter in stages 1 & 2. Turrets: There are three types of turrets. The white ones in general will aim and shoot at you. These are usually a pain in the butt. Try to destroy them when you see them. The red ones in general will only fire forward from their current position. They aren't as dangerous as the white turrets but they can be difficult to bypass at times and should be destroyed as necessary. Laser turrets appear in stages 5-1 and 5-2 and are there more to impede your progress (and get your zapped by the laser following behind you) than to destroy you. : Most of these types of enemies aren't too difficult to destroy, however, there are three that you should watch out for. First one is the ship at the end of stage 2-1 and 2-2 and later in stage 4-1 and 4-2 that fire bullets at an outward angle from the ship. The second one to watch for is the ship with fins at the end of stage 6-1. The third are the bird-like ships that will appear in stages 5-1 and 5-2 that fire large bar lasers as they appear on the screen. Other Mechs: The other mechs in the game really aren't much a problem at all. Nearly all of them travel along surfaces and are subject to the same change as you when you flip gravity. Just so you know and don't accidentally drop onto something when you use your flip ability. Screen Infos ------------ Score: You will see it in the top left corner. Tells you how much points you have. Time: Found in the bottom left corner. It tracks how much time you have left to complete the stage, but when you run out of time, kablooie, ka-blam, and so on. For most stages this shouldn't be a problem, you should have amble time to finish each one. =============================================================================== Walkthrough =============================================================================== Stage 1-1 --------- Password: Just start the game. Walk to the right and destroy the mechs you see along the way until you reach the orange blocks about halfway between the ceiling and the floor that has the white circular machine moving around on it. Destroy it and the next one that appears on the ground ahead. Further on, there will be several horizontal platforms spaced upwards toward the ceiling. Destroy the mechs on them, jump onto the lowest platform and then jump to the orange block. Here’s where you’ll have to use the Gravity Jump, otherwise you will fall onto the spikes. Walk along the ceiling until you see another mech and a turret on another orange block below you. Destroy them both and continue to the right to enter the second part of stage 1. Stage 1-2 --------- Use the Gravity Jump again to fall to the floor and destroy the turret ahead. Jump into the little nook and grab the ARMOR and FLAME powerups. Use the Gravity Jump here and jump downwards once and jump again onto the orange blocks until you see the turret ahead. Wait until the turret fires and then walk over it and destroy it. Reverse flip here and walk forward a little until you see the turret on the platform ahead. Jump and fire at it until it’s gone and then use the Gravity Jump again to hit the second turret from above. Destroy the mech and the turret below you and then the turret to the right. Just jump and fire at it until it’s destroyed. Easy enough. You don’t have to worry about the turret on the low platform unless you want to get rid of it. You might as well, since they give you points, not that points matter much in this game. Destroy the mech below you when it passes under you and flip to fall to the floor again. Destroy the turret and use the Gravity Jump once again to smash the turret ahead. Stay on the ceiling and jump down to the platforms below. Further on there will be a large blue mech that’s hogging up all the space ahead. Fire at it until it’s gone. You may have to back up once or twice so don’t hesitate to do so. Stay on the ceiling, grab the WEAPON, and trash the two remaining mechs here. Continue to the right to meet the boss. Stage 1-2 Boss: The boss is the pale green piece of mechanical junk that’s --------------- hanging from the ceiling. It’s quite simple to defeat really but you’ll have to use your Gravity Jump a few times to avoid getting blasted. The boss has three potential weak points - one in the middle and one on either side but only when the pink core appears there. The smaller pink orb in the center of the boss fires at you after the dome disappears. The dome should appear in the middle first so wait there and blast it when it appears. It will then appear on either end of the boss and then back in the middle. You can try to hit the dome while it’s on one of the sides and then Gravity Jump back down before the smaller orb fires at you. You should Gravity Jump back down before the dome disappears to be on the safe side since it takes a bit of time to flip over and fall to the ground. If you’re patient, you can just wait in the middle for the dome to reappear and blast it there. It should only take about two rounds of firing at the core to defeat the boss. Stage 2-1 --------- Password: BJ6 H0ZQ BHB This stage is very odd to say the least, but it’s one of my favorites. Try firing upwards or even jumping toward the top or bottom of the screen. The top and bottom parts wrap around to each other. You start the stage in a corridor. Walk right and destroy the two mechs on the platform you see here. Now jump up twice and continue to the right. Continue on until you reach another series of platforms with several green electrified wall traps at either end. Stand between the two wall traps and quickly jump twice to the platform above. If you take too long, the two of them will snap shut and damage you. Walk right and continue jumping up through the platforms and avoiding the snappers. There’s one set of them here and further ahead there will be two other sets above and below you as well as a SHIELD powerup on the other side of a wall. In order to get that powerup, use the Gravity Jump and quickly jump through the platforms below to the bottom. Use the Gravity Jump again, do a short jump to activate the wall traps and then jump to the Barrier powerup. Do another short jump and then jump up past the wall traps. Continue to the right through the corridor, use your flip again and then jump down through set of two wall traps. Destroy the Sentry Ship ahead but watch out for the bullets it fires out from it’s side. You’ll be safe as long as you are on the same level as it, and not above or below it. Reverse gravity here to fall to the ground and then jump through the set of four wall traps. The platforms where the wall traps are staggered to the right so you have to jump slightly to the right every time you pass through one to avoid getting hit. Or at least it will make it easier to avoid them. When you make it to the top, the second part of the stage is right ahead. Stage 2-2 --------- This part is more of the same stuff but there are a few new things thrown at you here. Fall off the side and when you’re on the bottom part jump as far as you can forward over the spiked platform and then do a Gravity Jump to nab the 1-up in the nook on the far right. Don’t allow yourself to land on the spikes obviously and you have to keep pressing right until you land beside the 1-up. This part might be a bit tricky, you have to jump and then Gravity Flip in mid-air to reach the 1-up. You can just ignore it and fall off the side of the tan structure where you started and continue to the right. Do a Gravity Jump to the ceiling and walk to the far right corner to the white/pink door. Do another Gravity Jump to make the door swing upwards, and then jump downwards. Avoid reversing gravity through the door- it will cause it to swing open and hit you. Go to the left corner of this compartment and do a Gravity Jump. Fall off the side and do another Gravity Jump to open the door. Continue to the right, jump up through the platform and destroy the two turrets. You can only get the bottom one when you have the WEAPON Powerup. Just worry about the other turret in case you don't have one. Once they are gone, jump rightward until you get to the spike platform barring your way, but I'm sure you already know what to do. Reverse gravity. Walk right a little more and then fall upwards into the hole. An ARMOR powerup is waiting there. Do another Gravity Jump to get out of there and one more to get back on the ceiling. Now, jump across the hole and do a flip to the floor and jump through the platforms. Whew. The stage is almost done, don’t worry about that. In order to get the SHIELD powerup in the little compartment below, do a Gravity Jump to the ceiling, jump through the hole and then do another Gravity Jump to snag it. To get out, gravity flip beside the door and do a second one to continue on. The next part is pretty neat. Fall down into the hole. It’s an endless loop. You will just keep falling and falling until you do a Gravity Jump... or go into the space on the right. Further ahead it’s more of the same. Reverse gravity in the corners to open the doors and jump through the openings. I’m getting a bit tired of writing gravity jump/flip here as this stage is a little tedious, so I think that you can figure this out. When you get through the two doors, stay on the ceiling and jump through the platform to nab another powerup. You can also avoid going through the platform in order to get a SHIELD powerup a little further ahead. It’s up to you. Continue ahead until you see a whole lot of platforms layered one on top of each other and some Sentry Ships flying around. Stay on the same level as them as before you won't get hit. Try to get rid of them when you and keep moving to the right. The boss is just ahead. Stage 2-2 Boss: A simple enough boss but there’s a chance that you will die if --------------- you don't destroy one of the turrets quick enough or are just careless. There are five laser turrets that have to be destroyed. Each of the turrets will fire independently of each other roughly every 10 seconds of so. Normally it only fires when you are on the same platform as the turret. The blast shield will open exposing the gun inside before it fires so you have some warning to get the hell out of the way. With the WEAPON upgrade you can shoot through the platform to the adjacent turret above/below while it's firing it's laser. Without it, you will have to jump to each platform and destroy the turret before it fires. Stage 3-1 --------- Password: 576 5WHD M7D This is another oddball stage. Did you notice the parallax scrolling in the background? Pretty cool stuff for an NES game. The Tram Cars you see moving along the track throughout this stage are the main obstacle here. They won't attack you but don’t run into one obviously. Beep beep. Walk to the right and destroy the Tram Cars when they get in your way, which will be often enough. You’ll be sick of them by the time you are done this stage. When you get to the spikes do a Gravity Flip and then another to get the FLAME powerup. I wouldn’t recommend getting it however when you already have a WEAPON because that one will negate it. There will be a SHIELD and a second ARMOR powerup just ahead in case you get hit before then so that's nice of Irem. Drop to the floor if you haven’t already and nab the ARMOR and then continue right. When you get past the neon-green blocks there will be a White Turret positioned at the top right side of the screen. You can stand on the edge and hit it as long as you have the WEAPON powerup- while walking right when it fires at you- or just go head to head with it under the track. With the SHIELD, it'll absorb the hits from the White Turret. Once it’s gone, head right to continue to the second part of the stage. Stage 3-2 --------- There’s more Tram Car action ahead. Yee haw. Head right until you see the two powerups. You have a choice here, the ARMOR or the WEAPON powerup. Whatever you grab, jump back through the platform on the other side of the wall and continue right. Stick to the ceiling until you reach the wall of flame coming from the machine below. Doing a Gravity Jump will solve that problem. Jump to the platform above the spikes and onto the ground ahead. You have to time it to avoid the Trams and don’t press jump all the way down or you might hit the spikes on the ceiling. Head right and destroy the White Turret with the WEAPON powerup; without it, jump to the platform ahead and reverse gravity. Do another Gravity Flip when you see the long line of spikes ahead and continue on. Jump across the holes and do a Gravity jump in the corner and jump onto the small platform sticking out of the wall. Jump over the top and grab the Barrier in the corner. Walk right again, jump onto the raised part of the ceiling where the spikes are and do the final Gravity Jump onto the platform below. Go right to start a meet and greet with the boss of this death trap. Stage 3-2 Boss: This boss is considerably tougher than the previous two bosses --------------- that you faced. You should have learned the mechanics of Gravity Jumps by now or you are going to have a hell of a time here. The boss is the round machine surrounded by the two rotating orbs that are its only means of attack. No lasers, bullets, or anything like that here; it'll just try to ram into you. The room itself is divided into four equal areas by the lasers moving vertically and horizontally along the centre of the room. You can't touch those either or you'll go ka-blam. The boss will wait for a bit in its quadrant and then move into the quadrant that you currently occupy. You have to get the timing down right- just as it starts to move, or even just before it moves, you have to move into an adjacent quadrant yourself. Move too soon and the boss will follow you into the quadrant that you are moving to. It boils down this: You have a few seconds to hit him, move into a position to get yourself into another quadrant, move into an adjacent quadrant, and repeat from there until the boss is destroyed. As long as you give yourself an exit route and getting the timing down, you shouldn't have too much trouble. An alternate strategy given to me through email (thanks BM) that I never considered; with an ARMOR powerup, just stand in place and fire at the boss. The first time you will get hit but afterwards the boss (and the orbs) shouldn't be able to hit you. A bit of experimenting on my part shows that sometimes you can stand there or slightly off center from the starting point without an ARMOR powerup and sometimes the boss won't be able to hit you either, or you may blow up. Stage 4-1 --------- Password: 863 9JQZ WQ[heart] Here is where the game starts getting tough. This one in particular is one of the more unique stages in the game. You start and end the stage inside a large box that moves you around. It’s supposed to be an elevator from what it says in the manual but you probably wouldn’t figure that if you didn't read it beforehand. It starts off simple enough; just let it take you for a ride. A FLAME powerup up will soon appear, followed by several Pods to ruin the moment. Grab the FLAME if you want but stick to the bottom because a Rotator Pod will show up there and if you’re on the top you’ll have a tricky time trying to get through it. The Flame is useful on this stage because you can pass through enemies with it. You might want to keep that in mind. Another Rotator Pod will appear at the top. Go to the ceiling and destroy it. More Pods will follow, as well as an Armor powerup nestled amount several Pods and a Weapon powerup. Soon after this, the elevator will start to move upwards. A set of three wall traps are ahead. Since you are moving with the elevator you’ll have to time it. It’s not hard though. Wait until you are almost level with the first set of wall traps and then do a Gravity Jump. You should avoid getting hit this way. Now, stand on the right side of the elevator and wait until the three White Turrets appear above you and blast them all. The elevator will turn right at this point. Two sets of two Pods will form a wall ahead. Walk under the first set and then Gravity Jump over the second set. Further ahead will be the same set of Pods, except that a Rotator Pod will be at the top and another one at the bottom. Gravity Jump to the ceiling and destroy the first one, and then fall back to the ground and destroy the second one. This next part is a little harder. A Blue Turret will appear in the bottom right corner. You can destroy them but you can’t get rid of them permanently. You can also destroy the shots they fire. Blast the first one. The elevator will move upwards again and another Blue Turret will appear in the top left corner. Blast that one and destroy the bottom right one again. A third and fourth Blue Turret will appear soon after. Get the third one and while it’s gone, get the fourth one. The third one will reappear again. Gravity Jump to the ceiling and take care of it. The fourth one will reappear again by this time. Be at the bottom to take it out before it can fire at you. One last Blue Turret will appear at the top. Gravity Jump to the ceiling and destroy it. Now, let the elevator take you to the boss. Stage 4-1 Boss: This isn’t really the boss of the stage; it’s more of a mini --------------- boss to tide you over. The boss consists of four red machines circling around the perimeter of the elevator. They don’t attack but they will gradually speed up and slow down and then speed up again... you get the point. Just stay where you are and jump over them as they pass by while firing at them when you can. While they are slowing down again take this time to blast as many of them apart as you can. They might fire at you but you should be able to avoid it. Once the remaining ones pick up speed again, destroy the stragglers to finish off the boss. Stage 4-2 --------- The stony Romanesque style elevator will be replaced with a more mechanical looking one. The remainder of the stage is also much harder. You will get a SHIELD and an ARMOR right off the bat. Deadly foreshadowing much? Not with this guide! Several Crab machines will appear around the edge of the elevator and and try to run into you. The SHIELD, if you did grab it, will protect you from them when they hit it. Three more powerups will appear not long after- a WEAPON and a FLAME powerup, also a rare as heck CRUSH. Depending on what you grabbed earlier, you will want the WEAPON but you should avoid the other two. The elevator will do a shimmy downwards around the time those powerups appear so you don’t have much time to grab them. Soon the elevator will take you to a round Sentry machine. Stand under it and hit it from there. Watch it blow up. Rejoice. They are simple to defeat but don’t stand on the side of it since that’s where it’s bullets tend to go. Not long after the Sentry is gone, the elevator will go upwards and you’ll run into another one on the left side. And after that, yet another one will appear on the right. The elevator will stop there and start going right again. Destroy the Sentry from the top. Soon after, a new obstacle appears- the Wall Sentry- on the right. It’s weak point is the green part in it's center- you have to destroy it quickly or you will run into it. It also fires missiles toward the bottom so you should continually jump when you see one- speaking of that, another one will show up right afterwards. Yikes. Stand in the middle of the elevator once the first Wall Sentry is gone. Not long after that, two more will appear on either side of you. Destroy the left one first since the elevator will start to move left. Once the left one is gone, destroy the right one. The elevator will start left again in a little bit. But alas, soon it will start going downward again, right through the toughest part of this stage. Several Pods will appear right down the middle of the elevator, effectively splitting it into two. Right after that, a Sentry Ship will appear on the top right. It's best to destroy it since its bullets might hit you while you are on the way down. You can also just Gravity Jump to the ceiling and wait for it on the right and then flip back down later. Either way, once the Pods clear out, move toward the right side of the elevator to make way for another Sentry Ship that will appear from the left corner. This one is easier to destroy. The elevator will start zigzagging left and right, while more Sentry Ships will start showing up and single Pods line the center of the elevator. Destroy the Sentry Ships when they appear so they don't fire at you- if they do, avoiding them might a little tough. One will appear on the top and another on the bottom so you can just wait for them and jump over the Pods as they show up. After a couple of zigzags, the elevator will straighten out and a long line of Pods will appear down the center. The elevator will turn one last time and then you will find the boss. Stage 4-2 Boss: This boss is similar to the stage 4-1 boss but quite a bit --------------- harder. It’s made up of two parts- one is the red core bouncing around inside the elevator- it's necessary to destroy this to continue on. The other part is two guns - one on the top, and another on the bottom - that move horizontally along the elevator. They often will follow you around and will fire a laser beam at you that can be difficult to avoid if it traps you. Obviously, the first thing that needs to be done is to destroy at least one of the guns before you concentrate on the core. This is easy to do with the WEAPON upgrade as it will take apart one or both of the guns in a matter of seconds, without it you'll have to do some fancy footwork to avoid getting hit. There's no real strategy here, you'll need a bit of luck. Try to keep the guns together on one side so that you avoid getting trapped between the two guns or in a corner when they fire. Destroy one or both of the guns and you can get down to business with the core. The core by itself is defenseless, shoot it until it blows up and you'll be finished here. A second strategy to defeat this boss right off the bat is to just jump into it IF YOU HAVE THE ARMOR POWERUP from the beginning of the 4-1. It don’t know why it works but it does. And thank God for that. Stage 5-1 --------- Password: P[heart]S X!R9 X3J Yay! We’re back on old solid ground with no more elevators. However, you have to be quick on this stage because there’s an energy beam moving behind you that will kill you if you touch it. In fact, you will quickly find out that lasers are the theme of this entire stage. Walk to the right until you see the Laser Turret between the two small orange blocks. Don’t walk under it though, just wait for it to stop firing and destroy it. There will be two more Laser Turrets ahead. You’ll have to go on the ceiling to destroy the one on the ground as well as the next one you see. Later on there will two more. Destroy the vertical one and wait for the horizontal one to stop firing and then Gravity Jump to the ceiling to take care of it. With the Weapon powerup, you can destroy the horizontal one easier by standing at the edge of laser and hitting it that way. Continuing to the right you’ll see another Laser Turret on the ground. Get rid of it and then drop to the ground but don’t go any further until then. Now, walk forward until you see the horizontal Laser Turret ahead. Destroy that sucka, do a flip to the ceiling, and then destroy the vertical one while it's inactive. Grab the spoils of war, AKA the ARMOR and the FLAME powerups, and be on your way. The area will open up now and there will be a lone Laser Turret in the middle, as well as a whole bunch more of them further ahead. Destroy the one Laser Turret close to the ground and then grab the CRUSH powerup. There’s a SHIELD inside the orange structure if you want it. You don’t really need it for this stage though. The CRUSH should have taken care of the rest of the Laser Turrets here so just casually waltz to the right to find the exit to this area. The last Laser Turret to the right might still be lingering so you might want to take care of it, or maybe not. Stage 5-2 --------- There’s more of the same here: Laser Turrets, the energy beam of death. You know, the usual. The energy beam will also appear sooner and move faster so you have to be even quicker than before on this part of the stage. If you still have the WEAPON powerup from earlier, it will make this stage a snap, so hang onto it as long you can. Destroy the first two Laser Turrets and grab the ARMOR. Continue right and head through the middle when you come to the stacked platforms. Don’t worry about the flying mechs here, they shouldn’t be able to hit you since they are flying near the ceiling. When you come to the opening in the middle platform, fall off the side and wait at the wall ahead for the flying mech to go across the middle. After it does, jump to the middle platform and keep walking until you reach a group of three Laser Turrets. One last flying mech may get in your way but you can either jump over it, or jump to the top platform to avoid it. Get rid of both of the two closer Laser Turrets and then drop next to the third one when it stops firing and destroy it. Reverse gravity onto the ceiling and continue walking to the right. There will be another group of Laser Turrets here, which are a bit tougher than the last group. With the WEAPON powerup, you can drop the floor again while the bottom Laser Turret isn’t firing and fire at it through the wall. Otherwise, you will have to drop down on the other side of the wall and destroy it. Once that bottom Laser Turret is gone, you will be in the clear from this point on, unless you want to get the WEAPON powerup near the ceiling. In order to get it, you have to gravity flip onto the orange blocks close to the ground, fall into the hole to grab it, and then Gravity Jump back out. It’s a pretty tough maneuver but if you want it you should at least have the Armor powerup. Afterwards, walk to the right side where the Laser Turret is firing through the opening. Wait for it to stop, reverse gravity to the ceiling, and then walk into the boss room. You should have more than enough time to get in there before the Laser Turret starts firing again. Stage 5-2 Boss: An oddity that looks like three clenched fists stuck together. --------------- It’s a tough boss, you will need all your mad skillz so far in order to avoid getting hit. In fact, the ARMOR or the WEAPON powerup is very handy to have during this fight. The boss also comes in three fantastic flavors, each of which has distinctive methods of attack that the boss cycles through usually every few minutes. Blue mode, during which time it will fire angled lasers either toward the ground or the ceiling. Not too tough, but can get hectic later in combination with other attacks. Red mode, during which time it will fire lasers forward but will turn 90 degrees depending on your proximity to the ground or the ceiling when you pass close or under them. Don’t jump through the middle of these unless they are close to the ground, just walk under when you can. The final mode, green, during which time it will fire a wide vertical bar laser. A little tougher than the other two modes IMO. You will need to use your Gravity Jump to avoid these in some situations. When you damage the boss enough, it will start spaz mode, rapidly switching modes every few seconds and firing at a much quicker pace than before. Stay at the back of the room to give yourself some space to maneuver and keep firing. As long as you keep your head and don’t get caught off-guard by the multiple combinations of attacks, you should be fine. Stage 6-1 --------- Password: 2QS Q8R8 KKQ This stage is similar to stage 2 in that the top and bottom of the screen wrap around to each other. The kicker is there are only platforms that slowly move upwards that you can stand on this time. Get your directions straight because you will likely be disoriented the first few times you try this stage. Try not to fall off platforms unless it’s necessary, as falling into infinity is a simple to get hit by various enemies in this stage. There are also a lot of Barriers here- machines that will keep you from passing through them unscathed unless you are in the right orientation, that is, you are upside down or rightside up- in order to deactivate them. Keep in mind that you can't touch the Barriers either or you will be blown into space junk. Make your way to the right until you see the first Barrier. Flip upside down to shut it down and land on the platform beside the second Barrier. A second flip is needed here so that you are on top of the platform and to deactivate the second Barrier. There will be a third Barrier ahead, as well as a SHIELD and a WEAPON powerup on two of the platforms. I prefer the WEAPON powerup to defeat the turrets quickly, but the SHIELD can help prevent damage. Grab the one you think would be best ahead. It doesn’t matter which. The third Barrier will turn off when you are rightside up so you know what you have to do here. A White Turret will show up around the middle ahead- it’s better to attack it from below on the platform to the left of it- as well as a second one close between an orange platform that you won't be able to shoot through. You will have to get under/above it to destroy it. A bit further you should see a long white platform ahead with several Flame Turrets. Get rid of the first one from below and make your way onto the platforms above the white platform. When you are on the second platform above, quickly jump below, onto the white platform and then onto platforms above it again. When done quick enough, you should bypass several more turrets that you would have to destroy otherwise. The white Turret in the center of the platform will likely fire at you but it shouldn’t be difficult to avoid. For the tough guys who want to fight their way through this little trouble spot: destroy the first Flame Turret and slowly make your way left to destroy the second Flame Turret. The White Turret in the center is a little tricky to remove. You might be able to get it from the left or you can get directly above/below it to take it out. Both will leave you in a pretty precarious spot. After more random platforms you will encounter a new enemy here, a green ship with fins on the top/bottom; it flies onscreen quickly, fires a bullet and flies off-screen again. Go rightside up again if you haven't already done so to deactivate the Barrier on the far right and fire to the continuously right/up/down. You might hit a ship or two before it can do anything. The Barrier ahead should be off and you can continue to stage 6-2. Stage 6-2 --------- Here comes the pain. Beep beep. This is the hardest area of the game in my opinion. There will be Barrier right in front of you. Deactivate it and make your way to the right. You will find a much needed ARMOR powerup ahead, close to the spiked platform. Flip upside down to shut down the Barrier and wait on the platform until it reaches the middle of the screen. Jump across the void and fall onto the platform ahead. You can reorient yourself here as necessary. You should see a long platform with more White Turrets on it ahead. It’s even less of a good idea to fight your way through this area than in the previous area- you should just run for your life. Stay upside down on the small platform, jump onto the white platform and reverse gravity onto the larger blue platform below. Mind the White Turrets when they are firing at you- if you still have the SHIELD from stage 6-1, this will be a lot easier- and fall off the right side onto the platform below and make your way across the platforms to the right. You can land on the white platform and quickly run your ass to the right before they fire at you. Watch out for the Flame Turret at the end. When you reach the stacked platforms at the other end, move forward enough to reveal the two Flame Turrets on the long platform ahead. A couple of more Flame Turrets will show up on either side of the platform- again with the SHIELD powerup this part is a piece of cake, just slowly walk into the turrets and they will be destroyed. A couple of fin ships may make an appearance here. Without the SHIELD you’ll have to jump over them after they fire at you, or if you are feeling adventurous, you can Gravity Jump past them. You would have to contend with the fin ship at some point though. So... maybe it’s not such a good idea. When you reach the orange structure, continue to the other end of it where the two spike platforms that block your path. This next part is more intricate- something of a puzzle I imagine- that Irem figured that we needed besides the dick-slamming difficulty. Go upside down here to land on the spike platform above you, now fall off the right until you are on the spike platform was blocking your way before. Jump back onto the orange structure, except this time, you’re upside down of course, and jump onto the platform next to the Barrier. Flip onto the platform below and walk right to the edge- if you leave the tip of your foot on the platform, you won’t get hit by the Barrier when you appear at the bottom of the screen again. This is a good spot to reorient yourself because this next part is tricky and doing it all in one go would be tough. Gravity Jump to the platform above you and walk to the right edge. When the platform is near the bottom of the screen, fall off and hold right until you are above the spike platform ahead. Now quickly reverse gravity again before you are kabob and you will land on the safe end of the spike platform. Another way to do this- I don’t personally like it, but your own mileage may vary- is to step off the edge of the platform and fall into infinity. When you are comfortable enough, you press right and reverse gravity onto the spike platform. Either way, you are in the clear. Walk right to greet the boss. Stage 6-2 Boss: The boss is made up of three blocks that move counter clockwise --------------- around the sides of the screen. Usually two of the blocks are closer together and the third one is further away. They don’t fire at you but I guess they really don’t need to since you can’t touch the ground or the ceiling at all. You need to stay on the blocks to avoid being damaged. There are several ways to approach fighting this boss. The best method I found to survive the start of this fight is to wait on the block you start on until it starts up the right side of the wall. Jump or fall off the side of it onto the block behind it and you should be fine for awhile. You can fire at a block, it will first turn red and then blow up, however, that leaves another problem when the blocks are destroyed. Ah-ha, you lose a place to stand and makes it harder to stay alive. *snap* The only real way to counter this is to hit all three as much as you can before you destroy the first and the second one. When the second block is gone you have to take a couple of quick shots at the last block that will hopefully destroy the last one. When you happen to destroy one before you weaken the other two... it’s still possible to win, but it’s tough. The two remaining block are further apart, you will likely have to do some tricky Gravity Jumps to stay on one when one travels along the top and then drop onto another when it travels along the bottom. ... Yup, it’s a real pain. An ARMOR powerup will make it easier but the first method is best. Whoosh... onto the final stage of the game. Stage 7-1 --------- Password: 94J LZH3 93G You start in a long corridor with one WEAPON, one SHIELD, and one FIREBALL powerup, at the other end. Grab what you need and head right... time for a boss rush mode. Yeah. *shudder* Luckily, they are the same as before. When you get a game over, you will start in the corridor again, but you will fight the boss that lost your last life on instead of starting at the beginning. BOSS RUSH MODE shouldn't be too much trouble though, since you've beaten them before, there's no stage to deal with, and you get some sweet powerups to take into the boss fight. You can’t do the Gravity Jump trick against the stage 4-2 boss here but the stage 6 boss should be easier now because you have access to a readily available WEAPON powerup. After you defeat all six bosses again, you can move on to the final boss of the game. Stage 7 Boss: A pretty lame final boss if you ask me. A large machine will ------------- slowly move across to the left side of the screen, gradually exposing the four cores in its center. The machine won't damage you when you touch it but there's a timer that gives you a short amount of time in order to destroy the cores before you lose a life. Quickly take out the cores and watch it blow up. That's it. Ending ------ The whole thing erupts in a massive explosion and then quietly settles into silence. Presumably the M-308 escapes (somehow) knowing how these old NES games work, and the proceeding text crawl will congratulate you for saving the Earth. "Through your courageous efforts all the people on Earth will sleep peacefully tonight. The massive computer that set out to destroy the blue planet has been eliminated. Leaders from the Earth nation will now bestow upon you a reward greater than any medal. And more valuable than all the gold known to man. You have earned everlasting life. Yes! Your courage has won you immortality: now is your duty to return to the cosmos and protect the more vulnerable Earthlings from future alien attacks. Hang tough!" tl;dr, thanks for saving the Earth, gabba, gabba, now try expert mode so you can really be pissed off. Expert Mode ----------- Password: 8BF-SMCX-S8L Expert Mode is a far more difficult than normal. Good luck! You’ll need it. =============================================================================== Closing =============================================================================== Final Words ----------- Goodbye. It's been fun writing this thing for you all. Well, not really, but I had to have something nice to say since this guide is almost at the end. Heh. Just kidding. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, praise or criticism, they should be sent to . If you're looking for specific information and it isn't in this guide, please tell me about it and I'll fix it. If you’re planning on using this guide, I’d appreciate it if you emailed me first. Thanks. Credits ------- -Irem for creating this game. -NintendoAge for the transcription of the manual. -Wikipedia for some bits stolen (and then verified personally) by me. -Tidegear and Brian Miller for their general help and boss info that I missed the first time. -Not Dave and anyone else who contributed codes for the cheats menu at GF. -Mountain Dew, Pepsi, and Coke for when I'm writing. And thank you for reading. End of Document________________________________________________________________