_______________________________________________________________________ -+-+- B U C K Y O ' H A R E A R C A D E -+-+- _______________________________________________________________________ -+-+- In-depth Walk-through 1.0 -+-+- ____________________________ GAME SPOILERS THROUGHOUT +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents: i) Contact Info & Disclaimer ii) Version History 1) Intro part 1: Quick Plot Summary & Overview of Stages 2) Intro part 2: Player Heroes (Controls & Weapons) 3) The Meat part 1: Complete List of Minor Enemies a. Storm Toad Troopers b. Small Enemy Droids c. Enemy Vehicles & Large Machines d. Obstacles e. Other Toads f. Other Enemy Characters 4) The Meat part 2: In-depth Stage Walk-through (w/ Boss breakdowns) a. Stage 1: Planet Warren . . . . . Al Negator b. Stage 2: Planet Punk . . . . . Toad Borg c. Stage 3: Climate Converter . . . Total Terror Toad d. Stage 4: Asteroidbelt [sic] . . (large unique spacecraft) e. Stage 5: Planet Rat . . . . . . Cyborg Spider f. Stage 6: Mother Ship . . . . . . (a "Void Droid") g. Stage 7: Toad Star . . . . . . Air Marshall h. Stage 8: Planet Life Force . . . KOMPLEX-2-Go 5) Miscellany 6) Credits +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- i) Contact Info & Disclaimer ------------------------------- This walk-through is the property of Mike R. H., "Welly" < welly.rook[[at]]verizon.net > All rights reserved. 2006. The only website given permission so far to host this file is: http://www.gameFAQs.com/ If you are a fan of the Bucky fictional continuity or wish to host this file for some other reason, send an e-mail to my address below: < welly.rook[[at]]verizon.net > (remember to replace the bracketed area with the "@" sign) ... to let me know you are hosting it. I will not deny anyone the ability to host this file if they mail me, so please do me the courtesy of letting me know that you wish to post it. Thanks! If you wish to play this game, and do not own the arcade itself, check out "MAME", a computer program that runs arcade games, and do a google search for "ROMs" (the little bits of data that you download which duplicate the arcade software). Just remember: this is not quite legal... but nor is it terribly illegal, either. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ii) Version History ------------------------------- 1. Version 1.0 Began on 2006 Jan 11, forgotten about for about 5 months, then completed on June 17th. Even though it has been fourteen years since the release of this game, it is never too late to write a walk-thru for such an excellent video arcade. 2. (Future version, if any, to address the 4 minor areas I believe currently lack detailed treatment: pistol upgrades, enemy hit points, what the other goodies do [besides upgrades and bombs] that come from Willy's door, and whether or not you gain more bombs or some other reward after a certain high score.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Intro part 1: Quick Plot Summary & Overview of Stages ------------------------------- In a reality named the Aniverse, planets are populated by intelligent and technologically advanced animals like hares, toads, baboons, cats, ducks, et. al. A computer called KOMPLEX was built by the toad race to help simplify their lives. Unfortunately, KOMPLEX became a military dictator and forced the toads to become an expansionist colonial empire. Every planet they invade is turned into a swamp by means of a diabolical "climate converter", and needless to say, this does great harm to the other species of the Aniverse. Such is the story behind Bucky O'Hare - captain of a spaceship called the Righteous Indignation - who flies in the name of freedom & seeks to put an end to the Toad Menace. It was originally in graphic novel format, a one-season TV cartoon series, then later spawned the famous toy line by Hasbro, a Nintendo game by Konami, and the video arcade game for which this walk-through was faithfully written. (See section five of this guide ["Miscellany"] for some of my personal rants.) STAGES: In this arcade game, Bucky's home planet Warren is invaded by the toads. You free this world (level 1), then liberate the hares themselves from another planet called Punk (level 2). In the next stage, you buy time for Willy DuWitt the human boy to disable the Climate Converter on that same planet. Then, the crew answers a distress beacon on an asteroid belt (stage 4), followed by the liberation of another planet, this one called Rat (stage 5). From there the crew enters a massive toad Mother Ship (stage 6) and blows it up. Stage 7 brings the crew to the "Toad Star" - which was supposed to be called "Toad Homeworld" or something - then to the Planet Life Force (stage 8) where you personally face off with KOMPLEX, the supreme leader of the toad empire. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Intro part 2: Player Heroes (Controls & Weapons) ------------------------------- Compared to other shooters and side-scrolling action games, the controls in this arcade are pretty standard fare: BUTTON 1 .................. Fire weapon / close-quarters punch BUTTON 2 .................. Jump BUTTON 3 .................. BOMB special BUTTONS 1 + 2 ............. "Gimmick weapon" BUTTONS 2, then 2 ......... Jump with slowed descent BUTTONS 2, then 2 + 1 ..... little-known jump-kick Up to four players can play in the U.S. release of this arcade. You can choose from Bucky, Deadeye Duck, Jenny, and Blinky. Bruiser and Willy show up in the cut scenes only, however their lines are spoken by their actual voice actors. So far as I can tell, there are no significant differences between the four play characters besides their appearance (of course) and the nature of their "gimmick weapons" or so the game calls them. ------ PRIMARY WEAPON ------ Button 1 discharges your laser pistol. When standing very close to an enemy, your character will punch them instead of shooting. The punch seems to do the same damage as a pistol blast. ------ PRIMARY WEAPON UPGRADES ------ Every so often, a pistol appears on the screen, having been delivered by a "door" that must be Willy's hi-tech closet door. Touch it, and your pistol fire changes appearance and does more damage. A later update to this walk-through will hopefully have more information on what each upgrade does to your hit point power against enemies. But it is not critical information, so, for now, I will not be fussy. ------ 1 JUMP ... 3 LANDINGS ------ Pressing Button 2 one time makes you jump normally. Pressing it again, however, while you are still in midair, slows your descent somehow (perhaps a jet-pack we cannot see? antigravity boots?). This is useful if you want to command more airspace, or need more reaction time to avoid landing smack onto an enemy. There is also a little-known jump-kick attack in this game. If you are in mid-air, and press buttons 1 and 2 together, your character will fly downward, foot extended, and strike any enemies on the landing area. You know you have done this 3rd type of landing correctly when your character lands much more quickly, a brief flash of light / energy is seen where you land, and enemies react to being struck. Be careful, as you can still land on enemy fire just as with the other two types of landings. ------ "GIMMICK WEAPONS" ------ These seem to be unlimited in supply, and there are no deductions from your score if you use them. Compare the different ones: Bucky: he throws an explosive charge in the direction he faces. When it bursts, it makes a rather large ball of energy that harms any enemies who are in it or who walk into it. Its primary disadvantage is that it is only for one area and is immobile. However, it deals multiple "hits" to anything it touches. Deadeye: he lets loose a swirling energy blast of 3 connected balls, which circle with increasing speed about the screen while moving outward from the point where he threw it down. It covers more area than the Bucky attack, and hits enemies behind you too. In fact, in terms of area, it practically covers the whole screen if & when you deploy it while standing in the center of the screen. Jenny: she uses her magic and throws a crescent shaped-blast similar in appearance to Deadeye's, but hers roughly seeks out enemies like a heat-seeking missile, as opposed to Deadeye's, which follows a pattern every time. As such, hers is not as broad as Deadeye's, but is great for hitting more enemies in a more specific area that Deadeye's may miss. Blinky: this is the most unique gimmick weapon. Blinky's backpack shoots over his shoulder a sustained chain (it looks like four connected balls of glowing energy). Unlike the other gimmick attacks, Blinky's remains for a long period. You can move around with it, striking anything within range. The disadvantage is that it is short-ranged, and you basically need to walk over to your target for them to be struck by it. This is my favorite, however, as it delivers numerous blows to the target and remains for something like 4 or five seconds, even when in midair. ------ THE BOMB ------ Much more effective than the gimmick attacks described above is the "bomb" that each character can deploy. It is the same for all four characters; a well animated, screen covering blast that kills most enemies and destroys most obstacles on the screen. Anything it does not obliterate outright is left hurting (with the exception of bosses, who can take tons of hits in this game). Unlike the gimmick attacks, these come in limited supply. You can see how many you have by counting the number of pale blue balls which can be found directly underneath your life bar at the top of the screen. Unlike real life, your blue balls in this game hurt your enemies. Hehehh. You start with two, and regain them after you lose a life. Like pistol upgrades, you can gain more BOMBS from Willy's door which opens to deliver goodies. It may be possible that high scores earn extra BOMBS too, since I have found myself carrying five of them without recalling having seen 5 doors open. Something to clarify for a later update, it seems. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) The Meat part 1: Complete List of Minor Enemies ------------------------------- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + a. ["STTs"] S T O R M T O A D T R O O P E R S (18 varieties) These toads are the cannon fodder of this game. I have tracked down a total of 18 distinct storm toad troopers [STTs]. They fill every level except stages 4 and the KOMPLEX showdown stage. They can be divided up into 3 broader categories: STT version 1: green face & blue clothes .......... (12 types) STT version 2: red face & violet clothes .......... (3 types) STT version 3: gold face & very dark clothes ...... (2 types) The 18th STT is so rare that he makes only a single appearance. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Storm Toad Troopers version 1: green face & blue clothes The STT v1 types: 1. v1 Trooper FLEEING ------------------- levels: 1,2,6,7 These troopers run around in fear & will harm you if you bump into them. They may enter as normally armed soldiers. 2. v1 Trooper RIFLE --------------------- levels: 1,2,5,7 3. v1 Trooper RIFLE [jet-pack] ---------- levels: 1,2,5,7 Basic cannon fodder. The flying ones are harder to hit. It is easy to dodge their slow-moving projectiles. 4. v1 Trooper KNIFER -------------------- levels: 1,2,5,7 5. v1 Trooper KNIFER [jet-pack] --------- levels: 1,2,5,7 These quickly lunge at you with blades in hand. 6. v1 Trooper BOMBER -------------------- levels: 1,2,7 7. v1 Trooper BOMBER [jet-pack] --------- levels: 5,7 The ground based ones stand in place and periodically toss large grenades. They are easy to spot but are usually located in hard-to-shoot places. The fliers are more difficult to hit, for obvious reasons. 8. v1 Trooper ELECTRO [flight] ---------- level: 3. 9. v1 Trooper ELECTRO [carted] ---------- level: 6. The flying ones are only found on level 3, the carted ones on level six. They blast electricity in constant, direct lines across the screen if given time to aim. The carted ones on level six can also actually drop grenades. 10. v1 Trooper MACHINE-GUNNER [flight only] - level: 5,6,7 This type of trooper pelts the ground with rapid fire. Let them accumulate on screen and you are in trouble. 11. v1 Trooper LASER BAZOOKA -------------- levels: 5,7 12. v1 Trooper LASER BAZOOKA [jet-pack] --- levels: 5,7 They will fire speedy laser lines that are relatively hard to dodge across the screen from cumbersome bazookas. They appear before level 5 but only if you stop moving; essentially they are sent in to kill you quickly so another kid can insert more quarters. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Storm Toad Troopers version 2: red face & violet clothes 13. v2 Trooper ------------------ Found on levels: 1,2,5,7 14. v2 Trooper [jet-pack] ------- Found on levels: 2,3,5,7 15. v2 Trooper [in-cart] -------- Found on level: 6. Each v2 Storm Toad Trooper carries a rifle with a bayonet. They shoot numerous blasts at once and can take 3 hits, and are thus more dangerous than the green and blue (v1) troops. Just look for the red highlights on their uniform, and target them early. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + STTs version 3: bright gold highlights & very dark clothes 16. v3 Trooper ----------------------- Found on levels: 5,7 17. v3 Trooper [jet-pack] ------------ Found on levels: 7 The v3 Storm Toad Troopers, the rarest, differ from v2s only in color scheme (their bright orange / gold colors distinguish them), resilience to damage (they take 5 hits), and one added attack (they can send out an extremely quick-moving crescent-shaped blast by swinging their bayonet, which I discovered only by letting them walk around the screen for an unusually long time). A land bound one appears briefly on stage 1; you fight them only on stages 5 and 7, and the jet-pack ones show up on stage 7. When fighting, remember their extra resilience. 18. And the 18th ... Storm Toad Trooper UNIQUE [inside combat vehicle] The final, trooper variant, and 18th, is a unique toad trooper who appears only once; at the end of the ramp on Stage 2: Planet Punk, he arrives at the helm of a large combat vehicle with two regular STTs riding in the rear seats. He mans a mounted machine gun and spews a large number of rounds every few seconds; the rounds are staggered in direction so they are difficult to dodge and usually require careful jumping to avoid being hit. The large gun at the "nose" between the eyes of his combat vehicle will pelt the ground if you try to hide at the bottom of the screen. Just keep jumping his shots and hitting him, and he and the vehicle will detonate, & you will not see him again. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + b. S M A L L E N E M Y D R O I D S (2) Toad-cannon A (immobile, purple) Found on levels: 1, 2, 4, 7 These stationary turrets begin appearing right on stage 1 and are littered throughout the game. They are inactive at first and cannot be harmed until they activate (they rise up on their single leg and begin firing). Their "heads" will track you, and they advance from single shots to long streams of fire as you move through the levels. They also become more resilient to your fire. Toad-cannon B (mobile, green) Found on levels: 4, 5 These walking annoyances may appear in groups of 3 or more, & are adept at leaping through the air. Thankfully they only start appearing on level 4, and explode after just one shot. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + c. E N E M Y V E H I C L E S & L A R G E M A C H I N E S Level 1: green chute (spews trash) Level 2: combat craft: see Trooper #18, section a. Level 2,4,5,7: "Double Bubble" space fighters Level 2: rocket launchers (mounted on curved wall) Level 3: 8-Turret guns (mounted on climate converter) Level 3: SUB-BOSS: giant rock-spewing fish Level 5: ground turret (large, multidirectional) Level 5: barracks (Troopers come out of these) Level 5: Large Ship guns (2 pairs, manned by troopers) Level 5: SUB-BOSS: the Bridge of the Large Ship Level 5: SUB-BOSS: gear-tossing wheeled vehicle Level 6: SUB-BOSS: Lava Shark Submarine Level 7: green ground cannons (3 varieties: yellow-energy round; seeking rockets; straight yellow laser beams) Level 7: wall of turrets (large, purple) Level 7: SUB-BOSS: Giant KOMPLEX screen face Level 7: SUB-BOSS: small KOMPLEX screen faces Level 7: laser cannons (mounted on the side walls) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + d. O B S T A C L E S Anything that stands in your way that can be blown up (and a few that cannot) which does not belong in any of the above categories: Level 1: barrels of explosives Level 2: flame jets (from pipes) Level 2 and 8: flaming "axle" debris Level 3: airborne rocks Level 3: electricity traps (invincible) Level 4: asteroids Level 4: mobile spiked mines Level 5: flame jets (in-ground) Level 6: immobile Guardroids Level 6: mini-shark mines (swims in the lava) Level 6: empty trooper carts Level 6: obstacle with directional arrow Level 6: obstacle with a "fork" shaped structure Level 6: flame jets (unseen source) Level 7: flame jets (in-ground) Level 8: stationary floating mines + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + e. O T H E R T O A D S (4) Some of the toads in this game are not storm troopers. I have pointed out this seemingly insignificant distinction because it draws attention to the careful detail put into this arcade. ------ Level 5: Frix and Frax ---------------------- These twin subordinates of Air Marshall make an appearance with him on the Bridge of the Large Ship. They do not do much besides react to hits, & flee with their leader in a "double bubble" soon after you take out that Bridge. They are a nice detail added to make fans say "hey, I remember those two idiots." ------ Level 5: a toad mechanic -------------------- Like the totally unique storm trooper in level two, this guy appears only once. Your hero surprises him while he is working on the GEAR-TOSSER VEHICLE sub-boss, and, most of the time, he simply flees from you. But upon further investigation, I have found that if you meander at the bottom of the screen, he will cautiously advance along the top of the ship with his wrench extended, and you can actually be harmed by him if you are careless or curious. (Damn I love details like this!) ------ Level 7: toads trapped in tube -------------- Toward the end of this level, you will find nude, terrified-looking toads trapped in glass tubes. This seems to be a look at the brainwashing (or cloning?) process that the evil KOMPLEX has forced the toads to undergo. When the glass breaks by itself or after a good deal of hits from you, a fully clothed v1 storm trooper (with knife) comes out. ------ Level 8: toad technicians ------------------- The final level is the showdown with KOMPLEX. Replacing the regular soldiers are these guys: very disgruntled-looking toads in suits and white lab coats who ride floating platforms. The platforms are large, so even three or four of them can crowd your airspace in this level. Each will periodically pull out a pistol and fire several rounds at you, making maneuvering even more difficult. They take numerous hits but plummet after you nail them. Besides these and the Level 8 Mines, the only other enemy you will to face is KOMPLEX himself. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + f. O T H E R E N E M Y C H A R A C T E R S (2) This category was made just for stock enemies other than troops who are not even toads, of which there are only two varieties. ------ Level 4: asteroid-aliens (6) -------------- On level 6, special enemies make an appearance. They arrive as golden boulders with a single eye looking out, then unfold into humanoid shape. There are only six of them, and they can only try to roll into or punch you, but are difficult to nail because they cannot be hurt in boulder form. Hit them in humanoid form 1x and they will roll up; after they unfold, hit them once more and they are cooked. After the first pair, four more will appear. Once these are dead, you have rescued the "Mouse" character. ------ Level 5: Sly Leezard ----------------------- The corrupt iguana from the cartoon series appears on this level. He teleports onto the scene, and tries to knife you with a short, color changing blade. Sometimes there are more than one of him on the screen, leading me to believe that some of his appearances are holograms. He blocks your hits with the blade and when doing so, takes an extreme amount of shots for such a minor enemy. He "phases" out on his own or is knocked away by your blasts. Thankfully, he only appears on this level, since he and his holograms are quite annoying during game play. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) The Meat part 2: In-depth Stage Walk-through (w/ Boss breakdowns) ------------------------------- Stage 1: Planet Warren The Righteous Indignation lands on Warren and drops off the character you selected. The Air Marshal makes an angered appearance; by the time he leaves, it is show time. This level is fairly easy; you will blast past mobs of Storm Toad Troopers of various categories (see The Meat Part 1, section a.), the immobile purple cannons, and some minor obstacles. Toad ships crash in the background of the action; soon you see the loading door of a troop transport ship, it unloads a few waves, then the first Boss makes his grand entrance. ------ BOSS: AL NEGATOR ---- --- Attacks: jump with landing kick, roundhouse tail-whip, ground blast, horizontal weapon fire Al Negator blows out the door to the transport, and after he treats you to some lines from his actual voice actor, your first boss fight begins. His four attacks are listed directly above; he begins with the first three as far as I can tell, then starts shooting horizontally across the screen after he has taken a few hits. The exploding round he shoots at the ground takes up a lot of space but is predictable and easy to avoid. He is dangerous only if you let him control the center of the screen; if you let this happen, he will jump onto you or use his tail as a whip and you will not have room to maneuver away. He flinches 3 times in a row, keep firing and keep him on the screen edges and before you know it, he will fall, defeated. Watch the cinema, then get ready for lev 2. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 2: Planet Punk On this stage you must rescue the hares from a prison planet; maneuvering is annoying here because you must advance in a diagonal, not a horizontal line, and there is limited space. Watch out for the 2 fleeing troopers, they might slam into you. As you move down, you will be forced to avoid flame jets that spew from pipes on the sides of the screen. Shoot the toads and blow up the 4 or 5 prisons to free those brethren hares. Right after you finally reach a horizontal path, a large combat vehicle with enter and unload 2 troops. Use Gimmick weapons and bombs to blow this thing up (see description of the 18th Storm Trooper in The Meat Part 1, section a.). Next, after this, as you advance toward the right, jump to avoid some very quick moving vertical flame jets. You will then walk across some oddly shaped platforms with purple turrets, but only start worrying when the 3 "Double Bubble" fighters try to ram you. You can send them exploding down but only with numerous hits and carefully timed jumps. After more troops, you will ride a diagonally oriented elevator that will conveniently pause in front of wall mounted rocket launchers. Then, giant, bouncing, flaming debris starts falling; these look like orange axles, you can shoot them away but they take a ton of shots. Eventually you will have to blow up wall rocket launchers while simultaneously avoiding the debris and the speedy rockets. After this and some more troops, the elevator will take you to your second boss. ------ BOSS: TOAD BORG ---- --- Attacks: jump with body-slam + landing punch, arm extend + grab + throttle combo, close quarters downward punch, extend-o-punch Toadborg (spelled as two words in this game) will mostly try to body slam you or walk into you at first. He can be knocked down three times in a row, and although he can still register hits, he will not flinch while taking them for another few seconds. Simply stay away from him and change direction after he has jumped into the air, hitting him all the while. Eventually he will break out his annoying attack, what I call the arm extend + grab + throttle combo. He will extend his robotic arm for great distances to grab you, and if he does, he will throttle you and slam you onto the ground when finished. If you have been grabbed, press all your buttons rapidly to escape with less damage. He can still hurt you, though, and it is hard to avoid being grabbed when he extends his arm your first few tries. Just remember that he almost certainly will grab you if he extends while you are standing anywhere near him. When defeated, he collapses and is rescued by a "Double Bubble" toad space fighter (he is the only boss who returns [as sub-boss, in stage 7]). Then your character exits to the cheers of the rescued rabbits. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 3: Climate Converter Now you must stop the Climate Converter from changing the planet Punk into a swamp for the toads. This level is fun because you are flying in a jet-pack for most of it. First, get hit by the airborne rocks that are dislodged from the Converter hitting the ground (it is too much effort to avoid it, if you want to try, set of a BOMB quickly to blast them all or something). As you descend, you will try to knock electricity-firing troopers out of the air; some do some impressive evasive maneuvers, but keep shooting away. Large turrets with eight barrels will come from the background; they are resilient but destroy them or be faced with dodging their numerous laser beams. Type 2 Storm Troopers with jet-packs will harry you as well, and during the descent you will be faced with stationary balls balls that share electric charges. Stay in the center and time your descents right, but remember that the last line of balls has a more active center, so head to the left to avoid the larger amounts of electricity. The sub-boss here is a hideous fish shaped robot that takes up the whole left side of the screen. It sucks rocks into its mouth and spits them out at you; you can be struck during both operations but not if you blast the rocks first. This sub-boss is vulnerable only when its mouth is open. Stay too far to the right and the rocks that it sucks will hit you, stay too far to the left and the robot will swallow you for a few seconds, causing a good deal of damage. Hit its mouth while avoiding getting eaten or struck by rocks, some of which are gigantic and indestructible, and it will go crashing down. You now land in the foreground of its wreckage, and the jet-pack will turn off. Get ready... ------ BOSS: TOTAL TERROR TOAD ---- --- Attacks: single / multiple rapid crushing jumps, close quarters punch; ax throw; double ax throw After you finally land and your jet-pack shuts off, Willy DuWitt jumps off the Righteous Indignation and says he will turn off the Climate Converter. Simultaneously, the boss of the stage leaps out of the flaming wreckage of the giant fish sub-boss & uncovers his face. After the predictable words of introduction, the Terror Toad will follow you around and throw punches, and occasionally jump, attempting to crush you. Each jump is preceded by a comic shouting sound which warns you. After only a handful of hits, he takes out an ax which he will throw boomerang-style at you. It blocks your shots if thrown between you and him; it is not "transparent". Worse, he increases the speed and number of his crushing leaps. Just keep to the edges of the screen, and do not let him control the center. After some more hits, he whips out a second ax, and, between more jumping, will throw them at you in quick succession, so that both are in the air at the same time. As before, do not get too close to him, or you will not have enough reaction time when he throws the axes; it is always best when he is on one side and you on the other. When he is defeated, he will comically fly "onto the screen" to the foreground, complete with a comatose expression and drool pooling from his mouth. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 4: Asteroidbelt [sic] First: there are no storm toads on this level! Hooray! But, hopping from asteroid to asteroid, you will find yourself attacked from the front and the rear by new mobile green toad cannons. In addition to the now-familiar immobile purple cannons, you are now expected to deal with a virtual screenful of enemy fire from all angles. It gets quite crowded and you are bound to take a rough amount of hits. Then, two, followed by four asteroid-aliens (see section "f. Other Enemy Characters" of The Meat part 1, above, for description) enter and must be defeated. After those six are gone, you have freed an effete "Mouse" character who will facilitate your mission on the asteroids by building bridges of greenery between them as paths for you. It still heats up however, as quite large and VERY resilient spiked mines flood the screen, and plummeting meteoroids try to crush your noggin (interestingly they also can harm enemies). "Double Bubble" fighter craft try to ram you at one point as well. Just keep blasting only a few mines away - as it is almost impossible to destroy them all - just enough to make a path for movement. The Mouse makes a path using asteroids now, but the green robots still rush at you. Finally, he leaves, and you board onto a toad warship, where a few cannons and a "Double Bubble" stand between you and the new boss. ------ BOSS: (A LARGE FIGHTER CRAFT) ---- --- Attacks: huge laser fire from center and 2 limbs, ramming This large spacecraft will try to plow you over with 3 beams of energy, one from each of its two limbs (which can extend horizontally; jump to avoid), and 1 larger one from its central chassis. It will then try to ram you, sometimes extending its two limbs and taking up huge amounts of screen space. Jump over it as it winds up for a ram, and of course keep firing. Over time you will disable both limbs, then its central laser, and the poor bugger will be left with only ramming as an attack. Once defeated, it satisfyingly falls apart piece by piece, and explodes, leaving behind the two toad pilots to float away in their little bubbles. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 5: Planet Rat The effeminate Mouse convinces you to liberate his planet now. Jump over the flame jets. You will be faced with those green robots, knife and rifle troopers, version two storm troops, and two new troopers. The first new trooper variety flies with a jet-pack and carries a large machine gun, pelting the ground constantly with bullets, not slow moving laser blasts. The second is a ground trooper who wields a large yellow bazooka that shoots a straight, fast beam of energy. Both are hugely dangerous if left to gather in large groups, as their fire, especially the rounds from the machine gunners which are invisible, will eat up your maneuvering space. Several large turrets rise from circles in the ground, take them on individually because each shoots fast-moving laser blasts in all directions. Next comes Sly Leezard, an annoying character who can block your shots (see section "f. Other Enemy Characters" of The Meat part 1, above, for description). He will appear often until the end. Soon enough you will have to fight FLYING laser bazooka troopers and FLYING grenade throwing troopers, and a barracks from which troopers flood out like bees from a hive (destroy the barracks as soon as possible to stem this flow). Eventually you will jump onto a grounded toad ship. Walking on top of this ship, you will realize this level is ponderously long. Toads in bubbles operate two giant laser blasters on the top of this ship; blast each one during the breaks between their lightning-quick shots, watch the toads inside flee from the explosions, then avoid the flame jets that pop up underneath the wreck you made. Now, the actual bridge of the ship, operated by the Air Marshal himself (with Frix and Frax), rises up and shoots laser beams and slow-moving yet heat-seeking rockets. Worry about the rockets, as they take unpredictable paths, and shoot them out of the air whenever they enter the scene. The bridge explodes after enough hits, but not until the Air Marshal and his two subordinates flee (damn!). Good old purple mounted cannons (now spewing more shots than ever) and a Double Bubble are next. As if the bridge with the Air Marshal was not enough, you come upon sub-boss #2, this time the chassis of a large vehicle that rolls gears at you each time it takes a hit (see the first two entries for e. Other Toad Enemies in The Meat part 1). The gears can be knocked away with weapon fire easily; the only real danger this enemy presents to the cautious player is its sudden ram attacks. Blow up this silly thing, and then watch the Air Marshal escape in a Double Bubble. After turrets, another barracks full of various troops, more Sly Leezard, and your first encounter with type 3 storm toads (see the bottom of section a. in The Meat part 1), you must face the next boss. ------ BOSS: CYBORG SPIDER ---- --- Attacks: plasma blobs from abdomen, crushing leaps, spider web summon, forward rush Four impish creatures come from the edges of the screen, jump into a pile, and explode. Somehow a boss emerges, the Cyborg Spider, who is an enlarged version of the smaller creatures. As far as I can tell, this character, like the boss from last stage, is new to the Bucky universe, as he never appeared in the animated series and I doubt that he was in the comic. He will jump around in attempts to hit you, open his abdomen and shoot laser blobs, and summon webs from the air. The laser blobs cannot travel very far from his body, and so if you keep him on the screen edges, those will not be source of harm for you. Avoid the glowing residue that the blobs leave on the ground for a few seconds, as those are harmful as well. The webs he summons cast shadows on the ground, and they can be avoided easily, but things get nasty if the webs linger around for awhile and the Spider starts shooting blobs. This usually means you have to avoid blobs, their residue, and the webs at the same time, which makes the spider a difficult boss to fight at times. He will occasionally point to one side and you can count on him to suddenly rush in that direction. He takes an absurd amount of hits to destroy, but you know he is almost finished when he trails you much too close for comfort; use BOMBS and gimmick weapons to finish him. If you can deal with the voice actor who plays "Ro-dent the Old Mouse" in the next cut scene, then you can deal with anything. You now leave the Planet Rat and enter a Toad Mother Ship. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 6: Mother Ship This vehicle-based level finds you flying about inside the interior of a Toad Mother Ship in your very own Toad Croaker (which was one of the 3 very rare Bucky toy vehicles). Once your character is inside, blast through the groups of fleeing troops and standing "Guardroids" (remember? one of them blown up by Jenny in the cartoon episode "The Good, the Bad and the Warty"?) and be weary of the hovering machine gun wielding troops. Then you come upon the storm toad troops riding carts along tracks. They are armed with the electricity guns like the fliers in level 3; knocking into them actually does not hurt! On this level, making contact with carted troopers actually causes THEM damage. So bump into them, fire away, and keep moving to make sure they do not get the few seconds it takes for them to aim their electric guns. After a taste of those, you will fly over a lava pit, and small exploding mines will swim past you in the form of little sharks. Avoid the concussions when they explode on their own. Soon, a large dorsal fin will reveal the presence of a sub-boss, a larger shark. It can harm you with the rear-and-front mounted laser on its fin and also with the wake it makes in the lava. This wake of lava waves can conveniently be blasted away to avoid flying into it, the problem is that the wake takes the shots you are intending for the sub-boss. It will submerge and reemerge one or two times, between its visits you will need to avoid the small shark mines. After enough hits, it will speed ahead, only to burst in an awesomely animated explosion. More carted troopers will shoot electricity and toss grenades at you, this time with empty troop carts to block your shots, all while flame jets leap up, and obstacles with jutting "tuning fork" shaped protuberances or directional arrows impede your progress. Take your licks, most likely from the flame jets, then finally you start flying over solid ground. ------ BOSS: A "VOID DROID" ---- --- Attacks: laser beam w/ laser ground "rollers", drill extend, heat seeking rockets, ramming; giant gear tossing You may remember this vehicle from the episode "The Good, the Bad, and the Warty" and others where it was referred to as a "void droid". It was also boss of the "Yellow Planet" stage in the NINTENDO game. This arcade incarnation is not too hard to wreck, although it will take more than a simple douse of water to destroy it. It will shoot beams onto the ground, which form into cylinder shaped obstacles that will slowly roll in your direction, launch several heat-seeking missiles, and intermittently try to ram you with two small drills extended. This boss is especially rough since it will crowd your space often, giving you almost no room. Use your gimmick weapon and BOMBS to strip it of its weapon limbs and outer hull. Once you succeed at this, what remains is... you guessed it... the stupid gear-tossing chassis like the one on level five. It can be rough since the gears it now throws at you will add up after each shot you make, but keep dodging and firing, and soon you will reduce it to just a single, bouncing tire. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 7: Toad Star The mother ship explodes, and you now attack the toads on their own robotic world. You will first be faced with rifle troopers and cannons that come up from disguised compartments in the ground. These green cannon platforms shoot either straight yellow laser beams, resilient heat-seeking rockets, or those ovals of energy that spin slowly around. Flying machine gunners and knife troops will join the fun, then you will be faced with a huge purple wall loaded with turrets that fire incendiary blasts. My trick is to go to the far right and bottom, where it does not seem able to hit you, and shoot until it blasts apart. Three laser bazooka troops will try to get you next. Soon you will see a MASSIVE TV screen with the face of KOMPLEX. This will try to slam into you from the left side of the screen. Repel it with shots, and it will burst into numerous smaller KOMPLEX TV screens. These are very tough and will cause a lot of harm, so just use BOMB attacks on them to clear the screen. A wall behind you opens and you now advance diagonally up to the right. Fight off the flying machine gun and rifle troops, along with new wall cannons on the left that periodically shoot slow-moving laser beams. Then come flame jets and v2 troops who guard grenade tossers, and a new enemy: the v3 troopers who can each eat five shots. It gets hairier from here on, of course. After the single v3, the two v2s, and the three bombers (all at once), some fliers come in with knives, bombs, and others with machine guns, while the wall cannons start shooting many more beams. Finally you advance horizontally again (in the background you will see a climate converter under construction). A v3 trooper with v2 troops makes an entrance, followed by flame jets and a turn on the path. More green cannon platforms, flying rifle troops, and those small mounted purple cannons will literally clutter, no... flood, the terrain. ------ SUB-BOSS : TOAD BORG ------ After all that, Toadborg returns, and will try to grab and throttle you almost immediately. Use the techniques described in Stage Two, Planet Punk, to take him down. But now there are 4 jets on the ground that spew electricity, so take that into account as you maneuver around. It will not be as simple as the Stage 2 battle, since there is less room and he fights with more zeal here. Once you do defeat him, he explodes! Yes, that is right: you actually, finally KILL Toadborg. Now that one of the chief villains is dead, the toads send their best after you. A powerful army, including v2 troops, at least one v3, and flying laser-bazookas, will rush at you next. Then you descend diagonally, and there will be a conveyor belt from which "Double Bubble" fighters will try to ram you. There should be a few more fliers, after that, a door opens and you advance horizontally again. Here, FLYING v2 and v3 troops will assault you. Blast them away, take out the green cannon platforms, and then destroy a second giant, purple turret wall (the one that shot flame rounds like before). Next, a huge mob of fleeing troops rushes by; fire away for free points at these easy marks! Following that are tubes with nude, frightened toads in them. They burst to reveal knife troopers. Next comes an army that is so large, I will not bother describing it except that it contains a huge number of flying v2 and v3 troopers. Use a BOMB or two. ------ BOSS: Air Marshall ---- --- Attacks: calling in large forces of troops, rapid heat seeking rockets, out-of-control spins The Air Marshall now finally stays for a fight. He is assisted by untold gads and gads of storm troopers of nearly every single variety, while he circles around in midair in a personal hovercraft. Every once in awhile he will land to spew VERY fast moving rockets at you, and it does not seem possible to shoot them away, so a good deal of jumping around is in order. While he is hovering, do not jump into him as this, of course, is harmful. When he lands, get close and use your trigger finger as quickly as possible to fill him with holes. He may, depending on how much damage you do over time, fall out and the vehicle may spin around, threatening to slap into you. Avoid this and he will get back into the craft. Take out the knifers before their waves double up, and get those bazooka troopers before they cover the screen with that deadly fire. But most importantly, hit the Air Marshall whenever possible. Soon, the craft explodes, and apparently (though I am not certain) so does the Air Marshall! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Stage 8: Planet Life Force This stage begins with a shocker: the Righteous Indignation gets blown up (except the upper bridge portion which survives). Your character begins a slow jet-pack-assisted descent, a la stage 3, where your only obstacles are immobile mines and toad technicians in lab coats who fire pistol rounds at you. The mines are so easy to avoid and detonate that I do not even know what kind of damage would be done if you remained in contact with one; touching one once simply turns on a blinking countdown. Your only worries are the lab coat toads. They take up much space, absorb many hits, and shoot numerous rounds. Just use your acquired dodging skills, blast them, and enjoy watching them free fall. ------ BOSS: KOMPLEX-2-Go ---- --- Attacks: 1) hordes of heat-seeking land-bound blasts, punch, crushing leaps, kick. 2) summon huge flaming debris 3) out-of-control spining, spewing small debris Your descent ends and the jet-pack deactivates. Quickly blow up any lingering mines, then get ready for KOMPLEX to leap down. 1) Though his face looks different from the cartoon depiction, KOMPLEX is still huge and a formidable final foe. This monstrous robot despot will follow you around, trying to crush you with jumps, and shooting an energy which splits up into parts bound to the ground that will pursue you as they glide offscreen. The good news is: it is difficult for your shots to miss KOMPLEX because of his outrageous bulk. The bad news: those land-bound energy blasts are difficult to dodge; they are staggered so simply jumping will only cause you to miss some, not all. 2) After you have hit him enough times, the lower half of the boss will explode, leaving him with just his body and arms. Though he cannot shoot those annoying blasts now, he will instead slam the ground, summoning from above a flood of flaming debris (the same debris found on the elevator on stage 2). Each debris object takes a huge amount of hits, and there are more than a few pieces of this debris, so shooting them is both a total waste of time and unnecessarily dangerous. You should fake KOMPLEX out, so that he summons the debris to roll toward the right side while you jump left... then pummel him until he turns around and summons debris on the left side. Rinse and repeat. 3) KOMPLEX will explode further, leaving just his pitiful head, which spins around erratically. You can force him away by hitting him with weapon fire, but he only moves faster and faster, and his head is bound to slam you a few times. Worse, his attacks now consist of shedding hardware. As the head spews hindering detritus, it will become difficult to hit him, coupled with the speed of his spinning. Use your BOMBs and just hang in there. Eventually, all that is left of KOMPLEX - his rambling head - will burst, and the bridge of the Righteous will rescue your character. The crew flies away as the toad home world explodes in the background like the Millennium Falcon fleeing the Death Star. The ending consists of the planetary life forces returning to the planets it was stolen from, restoring order to the Aniverse. The entire series is actually concluded .. congrats! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) Miscellany ------------------------------- RANT on ARCADE : I love this arcade because its makers took pains to make it faithful to the cartoon series. Even though you cannot play as Willy or Bruiser, they were given prominent appearances in the cut-scenes; each using the very SAME voice actors who played them in the cartoon, just like each other character. Even the immobile robot props in Stage 6 were copied carefully from the "Guardroid" [so he was called in the script] from the episode "The Good, the Bad and the Warty". RANT on TOY SERIES : Some losers at the Hasbro toy company made some bad, bad calls in 1991, and were not happy when stores could not sell the huge surplus of Air Marshall and Blinky figures. So they infamously "pulled the plug" on the whole Bucky O'Hare universe. Neal Adams & others who actually labored over Bucky O'Hare saw this coming. There are a few photos on the web of unpainted prototype figures
 for the unreleased series 2 and 3 Bucky toys. They are Digger (the
 engineer on the ship Indefatigable under Commander Dogstar),
 Tri-bot (a minor villain from the final episode of the cartoon), and
 (take a deep breath)... KOMPLEX, the villain behind the toad empire.
 It is quite disturbing to know they made him and others and
 because of incompetence and lack of accountability I will never get
 to purchase them. Worse, there are COMPLETE toys for those
 series as well: Total Terror Toad, Pitstop Pete, Kamikaze Kamo
 the duck, Rumble Bee, Slyly Zod, Bucky in a Spacesuit with new
 weapons, and, of course, the famous Jenny action figure.

 Ah, well. Hasbro can get on its knees. I hope Bucky comes back, but
 not as a G movie. I see a dark, compelling movie, and I would like
 to direct and help write it. Let me know if you have several million
 dollars sitting around, and I will make you a global blockbuster.
 Although you cannot see it, I am wearing my serious face right now.

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 6) Credits
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 I believe I speak for every Bucky fan when I thank Larry Hama for
 engendering the Aniverse and its inhabitants.

 Thanks also to Neal Adams and all the other men and women who added
 many hours of entertainment to my youth years.

 Much appreciation for the folks on the Web who host Bucky material.
 Without you guys I would not have been able to take this second
 look at this furry little corner of the sci-fi world.

 This guide was written entirely by me (see section 1 contact info)
 but without the folks who made MacMAME I would not have been able to
 play the arcade version from the comfort of my own desktop.

 And thanks to you for reading, playing, and keeping the Aniverse
 alive.

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