SWITCHBLADE 2

LEVEL ONE

Introduction:

This leader-section will allow you to get a feel for the control of Hiro and learn 
about the hit-points needed to kill some of the early monsters. The little armoured 
walkers are best dealt with by stabbing them with a knife, since you won't be 
powered-up enough to crouch down and shoot them rapidly enough.

The armoured bugs which fire rockets take three hits with the sword and fire laser 
blasts, whereas the insect-like bugs only take one hit with the sword to kill.

Underground:

It's here where the player comes into contact with the flying brains which shoot 
deadly diagonal lasers. It's best to kill these first, since they're a real pain. Further 
learning is necessary on this level, although it's pretty minimal. Always have a go at 
flashing the walls with your knife, since there may be hidden rooms which you 
can't find even by the usual tell-tale cracks in the walls. Exploration and 
experimentation is vital if the end of the level is to found, let alone the secret 
rooms. Electric beams must be taken out with the sword, since you simply can't 
kneel down far enough.

It's the level that the player also encounters the big punching robots, which, true to 
their name, are big and punch. The only policy with these guys is to attack him 
with the sword, as they'll run up towards you. Spikes emerge from the floor when 
you expect them least. Don't worry about this, but once you've gained a moment's 
invincibility after a hit, make sure you use it to get past the obstacle.

LEVEL TWO

Here the player leaves the unpleasant and claustrophobic underground levels for 
the clean open spaces of overland. The aim here is to work up the screen as rapidly 
as possible, exploring the secret rooms and collecting power-ups.

Little tanks trundle along the tops of the platforms. These track your movements 
too and fire in a direction, which will generally accurately predict your position by 
the time they have travelled the distance.

Here we find ourselves in a less maze-like, more straightforward arcade situation, 
and the player must adopt the style accordingly, being far more free and easy with 
his fire. Obviously this means that the quest for ammunition must be more intense.

Use the little stone platform to reach the higher levels, but beware when you're 
jumping that you don't bounce too high because you can burn your head on fires 
on the levels above.

Care must also be taken when dealing with the cannon which fire in three (count 
'em) directions. Stand in front of the fire zone (i.e. somewhere where you don't get 
hit) wait until the gun has fired and then jump up and shoot it in the eye till it 
explodes. Hooray!

This level is especially evil when it comes to luring players to their deaths with the 
promise of exciting power-ups.

Whenever it looks as if there's nowhere left to go, make a leap into space and the 
chances are you'll find a platform floating in space. Make your way up to the 
platform and you'll be able to avoid the flight patterns of the spaceships and pick 
them off.

LEVEL THREE

Ever onward and upward. Leaving behind the earthy platforms of level two, the 
player finds himself up in the mountain ranges in a level which looks surprisingly 
like Strider. Again, we have more platforms in the air and continued attacks from 
punching robots.

The particular problem here is that because the whole level is on a slope, it's tricky 
to avoid the advances of the aliens since they slide up behind the player and do 
him in. Crouching down in the best policy when coming of the bottom of a slope, 
but it's vital the player doesn't run down the sections too swiftly.

Planes will strafe the player with bombing runs. It's imperative that you don't get 
stuck in the situation of lanes bombing you down a hill onto oncoming enemies.

Use the airborne platforms to travel around, as making any serious sort of headway 
on the ground is pretty tough.

LEVEL FOUR

It may all be desperately pretty but the caverns are a dangerous place for all but 
the toughest Switchblades.

The parachuting bombs are particularly annoying, since it's so difficult to tell when 
they're going to detonate.

As well as the usual problems, players must face spikes in the walls which are only 
to easy to walk into in the hurry to pick up a power-up.

Indeed, power-up problems are a bit of a motif for this level. The rooms which can 
be accessed through the little doors are always absolutely full of floating brains or 
tanks, and the player stands a good chance of getting his energy severely sapped 
simply by entering the room. For the most part it's a waste of time, since the 
amount of energy gained is far outweighed by that lost just getting in and out. 
However, in the top right area of the level there's a room with no aliens in it and 
an extra life in the right-hand side. Now this is worth going for.

The end of this stage pits the player against a big green swirling dragon. This guy 
is pretty easy to kill by simply keeping a reasonable distance between Hiro and the 
dragon and blasting away like there's no tomorrow when the dragon is on the 
bottom of his swirling pattern, nearest the ground.

LEVEL FIVE 

The rainy docks are so realistic it's quite depressing. But there isn't much time to 
feel glum, since the most demanding drain on the players energy are the huge 
rockets which launch out of the water without any warning. Again, these are pretty 
harmless, but they will cause all manner of problems if they scare the player into 
standing still and staying on a platform for too long, because it's here that the 
planes will make their strafing runs. If the player ends up down in between the 
wooden platforms, then it's curtains.

LEVEL SIX

And not it's onto the final 'leg'. This rather cosmic level is actually fantastically easy 
and needs only a bit of jumping around in order to reach the end-of-level bad guy. 
He, all brown face and spitting deadly Clorets, moves left and right on the screen, 
dropping two plasma bolts from his side-mounted laser portals. Also he pauses 
when firing the green bombs. Finally he drops down and tries to kill Hiro.

The best policy here is to simply high-jump up and down and continuing to fire, 
running away at the appropriate moment. Hooray!

LEVEL SKIPPING

Fed up with having to battle your way through stages you've already completed 
before? Right then, on the title page, type LEVELN where the N is the level number 
(from one to six) that you wish to attempt.