SARUGECCHU 2 (JAP) MINI-GAME MINI-FAQ for PS2 Version 0.02 Last updated 07/25/02 Written by: Mike Maraldo daimao mike For comments, corrections, contributions, etc. send a succinct email to: mike_box@hotmail.com (I receive, daily, junk mail in numbers that need to be expressed in powers to the ten. If you want your mail to make it to me make the title "FAQ" anything else stands a good chance of getting erased without being read.) ********** CONTENTS *********** 0) Introduction 1) Dance de Bon! 2) Dodge Soccer, Footsaru 3) Gekimuzu, Ukki-Climber ******** INTRODUCTION ******** You will unlock the possibility to receive mini-games from the toy machine as you complete certain percentages of the main game. There are three mini-games in all. This mini-faq contains everything you need to play the mini-games. ******** 1. DANCE DE BON! ******** The first mini-game that you unlock is "Dance de Bon!" Unlocked at 40%? ***Concept*** The game itself consists of two saru on a stage and arrows fall from the top of the screen, you must input the command that the arrows dictate when the arrows fall near the drum at the bottom of the screen (like beatmania). Too fast, two slow, or an incorrect command will result in a lower score. Once the song ends the judges will grade your performance 1-10 and you will either pass (saru plays a little song) or not pass (saru just hits one chime). Once you clear a level you will unlock the next step, go back and play the next level until you clear the entire song (three levels per song). Once you have cleared all the songs for normal then move on to hard core and do it again. ***Menus*** The first option on the first menu is "play the game", second option is for "instructions for play", third option is for "options", fourth option is to "exit" the game. (option menu will bring up two pop-up menus. Vibration On/off and then Hidden mode (display arrows) On/Off.) After selecting the "play the game" option the second menu that pops up is how many players, again select the first option for 1p. (Second and third options are for 2p and "back"). The next menu is to select what kind of game to play: in the beginning you will have only two options normal dancing and fake dancing. Normal is just that, and this is the mode you will have to beat to unlock the third dancing option. Fake dancing is just for fun: no arrows, no score, just music and freedom to play around. When you get bored press start to exit. The third (unlockable) option on this menu is "hard-core" dancing and is identical to normal mode except for the music and arrows move at about twice the speed. The last option will be to move back one menu. The next pop up menu will be to select the song title. At first there will only be one song available but as you complete all three levels you will unlock the next song, there are 3 songs in total. The last option will be to move back one menu. The next menu will be to select the level. At first you will be able to select only the first level. But as you complete the level you will unlock the next one. There are three levels to each song. (Each level is the same song the only thing that is different is how much of the song you play. The first level is the first 1/3 of the song, the second level is 2/3's of the song and the third level is the entire song.) The last option will be to move back one menu. There is a final menu to select you character (from the normal saru or pink) before the game begins, but you need to unlock this option by first beating all levels then getting the option from the toy machine. ***Strategy*** It's not that hard, but in the hard core dancing mode there are some parts where if you're not a beatmania technician, you may not be able to keep up. Don't panic, and just concentrate on one hand. If you get one hand right and one hand wrong you will not be getting any points but you wont be loosing any either. Once the hard part passes, bring up your score in the slow parts of the song. All in all, this game is fun once through and the extra option to use pink is interesting, for about ten seconds. But clearing all the levels is a pain and you really stand nothing to gain, except unlocking pink (but by then you've already beaten all of the levels and would have no motivation to go back.) ******** 2. DODGE SOCCER, FOOTSARU ******** The second mini-game that you unlock is "Dodge Soccer, FootSaru!" Unlocked at ?% ***Concept*** A five on five game of "dodge soccer" basic soccer rules (none of the technical stuff.) with a good dosage of violence. Get the ball into the enemies net or if they're in your way, knock them out by kicking the ball into enemy players at high speeds. After a player takes some damage all of his stats will drop, status is visible by the color of the light on the helmet. (Blue = good condition, yellow = tired, red = bad shape). Special balls with different attributes are added into the mix to create some variety. The team with the most points wins the game. If you loose you have an option to re-do the match. Win all 5 matches and receive 500 coins as your prize for winning the tournament. ***Menus*** The game has only one menu really the options are: 1. Play 1p game 2. Play 2p game 3. How to play 4. Options - Vibe on/off 5. Exit game When you start the 1p game you will see the camera pans-by the enemy team, press circle and then move on to the player assignment screen. You have five players on the field: 4 strikers and one goalie, which the computer controls. Each saru is in a box for it's position and when you cursor is on him you can see his stats. Press circle once when your cursor is over a saru that is in one of the field positions, then it will begin to flash, move your cursor to another saru on the field or press down a few times to access the saru menu at the bottom of the screen. In the saru menu you will be able to select every single saru you have ever captured, all 300 of them if you have captured that many (use the L and R buttons to scroll quickly through the list). Once you have the saru highlighted that you want to substitute in, press circle for the second time and the switch will be made. The computer will automatically make a team for you but you will be able to do better if you edit the team yourself. A balanced set of stats is not always best, strikers will never use their catching stat (only for goalie) so choose wisely. After you are done with position editing press start and the game will begin. ***Stats*** each stat is between 1-9 (from what I've seen so far, have yet to get the last 3 saru) 1.Speed (running speed) 2.Kick power (kick power) 3.Heading (heading shots are done with high passes then pressing shoot when the ball is close to the targeted player) 4.Sliding (slide tackles) 5.Technique (stopping the ball with feet, catching passes etc.) 6.Stamina (how big your stamina gauge is) 7.Physical (bump saru out of the way when you are fighting for the ball) 8.Catching (skill for goalie's hands) ***Controls*** The controls are: Right stick - On offence, Kicking (press in the direction you want to kick it, hold down to build up power, then release to shoot) On defense, push the stick in the direction you want to slide-tackle. Left stick - movement Triangle, Square, Circle, and X - Used for passing, and for selecting who to throw-in to. (passing to yourself will pop the ball up in the air) R1 - Turbo button, (slowly drains your stamina meter) L1 - Press and hold then kick or pass for a high kick that will move slower but fly over the heads of the defense saru. ***Balls*** When a ball goes out of bounds it will be thrown in by a "zooka" creature. Choose which player to throw to the same way as you pass the ball to players. At the bottom of the screen a roulette will be spinning, when you press the button to pass you will stop the roulette and the highlighted ball will come out. There are 6 types: 1.Normal soccer ball 2.Bannana (a banana will pop out and come to a quick stop, first saru to grab the banana will get a big stamina refill, and be super fast for as long as he is flashing (about 30 seconds?)) After a saru gets the banana he will stop for a few seconds to eat them and a normal soccer ball will appear where the banana was. 3.Bomb ball (a bomb will pop out behaves like a normal ball but after a few seconds the ball will explode knocking down anyone nearby after the explosion a normal ball will be in its place. You can keep track of the countdown by the beeping the bomb makes.) 4.Spike Ball (heavy and deadly. When you get this ball forget about goals, just slam the ball into enemies, does major damage.) 5.Rubber Ball (a small pink bouncy ball, get it in the goal for 2 points! Really hard to stop (players will often be unable to catch passes correctly) really high bounce. You can high kick it from the other side of the field and if you distance it right it will bounce right over the enemy goalie's head into the goal. 6.Beach Ball (a big, light, slow ball that will give you 3 points for a goal! This ball does no damage, is really slow and easy to control which means making a goal with it is really hard.) All balls will be reverted to normal after a goal, also the ball type will be subjected to the ball roulette if it goes out of bounds. So the only way to keep a ball of one type is to keep it in continuous play. ***Strategy*** The first half has you starting with the ball but you will need to run a few steps to get it. The second half the ball will be closer to the enemy player, just charge forward and you may be able to steal the ball before he passes it away. Each saru has a stamina meter that is drained by turbo running and by taking hard hits from the ball. The current status of the saru is viewable by the color of the flashing light of his helmet. At half time you will see a horizontal bar beneath each saru's box. This is a readout of their stamina. If a saru is in bad shape all of his stats will suffer, so substitute out any weak saru during halftime. They don't call it "dodge soccer" for nothing slam that ball into enemy players goalie included (he wont always be able to catch fast balls)! After a few good hits they will be flashing red in no time after which you will be able to run circles around them! As for your players using the Turbo meter is different from other sports games, it does not regenerate when you are not using it. But just because of that you shouldn't be afraid to use it a lot, taking a ball hit will drain A LOT more stamina than turbo running a lot. So avoid taking unnecessary hits and charge the competition. Slide tackling will either knock the ball away from the enemy or knock the enemy player down doing some damage. Only do it when you have a backup defender or the time it will take for your player to get up will leave the path to the goal wide open. Some of the later matches involve you facing off against tougher teams, while they may seem strong in the first part of the game lay into them with a few power kicks and they wont be running so fast! It goes without saying but the strongest players are the last few saru you catch as you near 300. Stronger players ='s easier win so you may want to hold off on your Championship attempt until you have some stronger saru to compete with. ******** 3. GEKIMUZU, UKKI-CLIMBER ******** The third mini-game that you unlock is "Gekimuzu Ukki Climber!" (which means "super-hard ukki-climber", you've been warned.) Unlocked at ?% ***Concept*** This game is HARD, if you are one of those people that have ever thrown your controller across the room due to game related frustration (even if it was during rain level in Karate Kid) this game is not safe for you. The game play consists of one saru climber as he navigates a bunch of ropes, avoiding the tomato birds, climbing, swinging, doing whatever he needs to do to get the five bananas that are floating in each level which is hard. Movement is done by controlling his two hands manually with the two analogue sticks and gripping with L & R, did I mention that this mini-game is hard? After all your hard work you will be treated to... NOTHING! Ho-ray! I guess the designers didn't expect anyone to waste the time necessary to beat this mode. ***Menus*** The first option on the first menu is "play the game from the beginning", the second option is for "continue game", third option for "how to", and the last option is to "exit" the game. After selecting the "play the game from the beginning" you will be tutored on how the game works. Then you will be allowed to start the first level. If you select continue you will start automatically on the level you left off on. If you die on any of the levels, after being taunted in Japanese, you will be given a chance to continue, the first option will allow you restart the level, the second menu will move you back to the level select screen. The level select screen has 5 worlds and for each world 6 levels. After you beat a level you will unlock the next one until you have beaten all 6. Then you can move on to the next world. Each level has two times on it, one for the time you need to beat to qualify, and another for the best-recorded time. Beat all 35 levels and you get... NOTHING! ***Mechanics*** Gotta get 5 bananas to clear a level. Fall outside of the map and it's gameover. When you get the final banana you can be on your way to your doom falling but it's ok, the game freezes you midair the second you get the fifth banana. Left stick controls left hand position, right controls right. Pressing L1 will allow you to grip with the left hand, pressing R1 will allow you to grip with the right. Let go and the saru will let go as well. Easy enough right? Now as you are moving across an area with multiple ropes you will reach out and grab a new rope (for example) to the right. Then another rope to the right with your other hand, again and again. Now because the Saru's head and feet are on a swivel they are always pointing towards you so you can't tell which stick controls which hand by looking at the saru. If you loose track of which stick is currently left or right the only way to tell is by moving a sticks one at a time to see which is which. (hard to explain but you'll get it if you are playing the game) This technique is useful when you just propelled your saru across the map and you pressed both buttons to grab a rope and only one hand has a grip. Make a mistake and your saru will fall. You can only hold one rope in each hand, i.e. max of two ropes being held at one time. Also you cannot grab the same rope with both hands at the same time. If your saru has momentum and you let go of the ropes then he will fly according to his launch trajectory, i.e. if you are swinging on a rope to the left and let go your saru will fly to the left. Finally when you are holding on to two ropes you will be able to swing and pull ropes around with one hand while the other stays static on the other rope. Which hand is able to do the swinging is dependent on the order that you grabbed the ropes. Grab rope A then Rope B and you will be able to swing rope A, if from there you let go of rope A and grab it again you will now be able to swing rope B. There are Bee's which hold the ropes in place, (the ropes hang from their butts). You can touch the bees with no problem. The only enemy in the game is the tomato bird, they do not move and you can defeat them by letting go of the ropes and landing on them from above. They will bounce you up with any previous momentum that you had. If you touch a bird while holding a rope you will loose your grip and fall. ***Strategy*** This game is hard. But if you want to pass the levels you will need a few techniques that aren't in the "how to section". Swinging is easy, alter your grips so that the swinging hand (call it hand A) is on the rope you want to give momentum to and start swinging it. You can then release your other hand and ride the rope from there. If you want a bigger swing on the rope you should swing the rope from the top portion of the rope, (swinging from the bottom will result in weak swings). After the rope is swinging at a good speed lower yourself down and then catch the bottom of the swinging rope as it swings by and let go of your other hand, you will take off with the rope. Sometimes it will be necessary to swing and then propel your saru out to reach a banana or some new ropes. Get a rope swinging then let go when he is moving in the right direction (take into account gravity). When you're going for a banana your head and arms are good for catching but your feet may touch the banana but you might not get it. You can't grab the same rope with more than one hand at the same time but you CAN climb it. Simply grab a rope and move your free hand up as high as it will go and as close to the rope as possible (you wont get it to overlap but don't worry). Let go with your bottom hand and at the same time grab with your top hand. If you didn't fall, you just gained some altitude on your grab. Reach up with your lower hand and continue the process. Other than swinging then propelling your saru in a direction you can also do a "saru slingshot" to do this find two ropes allow you to grab close to one of the beginnings of the ropes (close to the bee's butt). Make your swinging hand the hand holding that rope and then pull it down and in the opposite direction you want to fly. When you release your other hand the rope will retract and if you time the release of the second hand correctly you will launch your saru up up and away. With a little experimentation you will learn to control the power by how close to the bee's butt you grab the rope.