Dynamite Headdy FAQ and Walkthrough Final Version Completed on 13th November 2007 Written by Minty Fresh Death ************************************************* TABLE OF CONTENTS ************************************************* I Table of Contents II Introduction A Version Updates B Preface and Legalities C About the Game D Game Characters III Playing the Game A Game Basics and Movement B Power-Ups C The Heads D Intermission Bonus Game E Damage / Health Calculation Tables IV The Scenes V Cheats VI Misc Stuff A Movie References B English / Japanese / Beta Version Differences C Other Tidbits VII Frequently Asked Questions VIII The Final Word (Thanks Section) ************************************************* INTRODUCTION ************************************************* --------------- VERSION UPDATES --------------- 25/09/09 - Updated Preface and Legalities section as I am now allowing sites other than GameFAQs to host this FAQ / Walkthrough. See that section for more details though. Final - The final version. The links to the comparison pictures have now been removed, as my website no longer exists. Subsequently, Misc Stuff section B has also been rewritten. Various minor updates and corrections throughout sections. Redone the Final Word section. 1.55 - Corrected the dodgy date issue on the second line. :D Info on the Beta version of Dynamite Headdy added. Corrected info on the Scene 9-2 bonus point. A bit more text has been put in the Walkthrough. Exclusive to GameFAQs. 1.5 - Added English / Japanese version differences to Misc Stuff. All round minor text changes / discrepancy clean-ups. Exclusive to GameFAQs. 1.45 - Entered extra info in Misc Stuff section. Entered third code in Cheats section. Miscallaneous text changes in various sections. Exclusive to GameFAQs. 1.41 - Slight format edit before the FAQ section. Exclusive to http://faqs.ign.com. 1.4 - Added a Misc Stuff section. Made some additions and corrections on the Damage / Health Calculation Tables. Added some tips on Scenes 8-3 and 9-2. Exclusive to GameFAQs. 1.3 - Added info on Super Bino. Added Damage / Health Calculation Tables. Cleaned up a couple of errors regarding Sparky and the Scene 6 heads. Added some more info for the Bonus Game. Added a FAQ section. Still exclusive to GameFAQs. 1.2 - After much internal debate, I have decided to add info on ALL of the secret bonuses within the game. Added a walkthrough to the Final Final Scene. Exclusive to GameFAQs. 1.1 - Updated a year after intital release for GameFAQS. Contains much more detail, wrapped to ruler length. Exclusive to Delta Strike. 1.0 - The very first version, completed Tuesday 19th July, 2001. Contains most of the information about the game. Exclusive to GameFAQs. ---------------------- PREFACE AND LEGALITIES ---------------------- Yo there. After feeling bored one Tuesday night, I decided to write the lowdown on one of the greatest Genesis (hearafter referred to by it's European name 'Megadrive', cause I'm British) games I've ever played - Dynamite Headdy. The two other (Internet mainstream) FAQs out there, by Bob Tomasevich and Micheal Sterns, did a pretty fine job at uncovering the secret bonus points in the game, but didn't provide anything else in terms of how to beat the game. Having beaten it many a time now on my Megadrive, I felt it deserved a complete walkthrough. After many a persistant arguing, I felt it necessary to add all the secret bonuses that have been uncovered in the afformentioned FAQs, simply because they weren't available for viewing on GameFAQs. This version of the Dynamite Headdy FAQ / Walkthrough (Final Version) used to be exclusive to GameFAQs. As of the 25th of September 2009, I will allow hosting on this FAQ / Walkthrough on any website that asks PROVIDED that (and ONLY on this stipulation) that you first e-mail me asking for permission. My e-mail is under "The Final Word" section if you wish to contact me. You may not copy any of the things you see in any version of this FAQ / Walkthrough and stick it into your own. You are also not allowed to plaguerise this FAQ / Walkthrough (don't steal the information and type it up in your own way) and you are not allowed to use it in any way to gain profit. This FAQ / Walkthrough is not property of Treasure or Sega and was not written or supported by them. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2001-2009 by Dan Gallagher, AKA Minty Fresh Death. -------------- ABOUT THE GAME -------------- Dynamite Headdy was released for the Sega Megadrive sometime around late 1994. It was the third game (credit goes to Ryan Schmidt for telling me that McDonald's TreasureLand Adventure preceded this game; it was never released in Europe so I was unawares) produced by Treasure, the company responsible for the very successful Gunstar Heroes about a year earlier. Sadly, it never really gained much critical acclaim overseas due to it's incredible difficulty level (bounced up from the Japanese version) and general obscurity amongst the long line of platform games available at the time. That and the Megadrive cover picture absolutely SUCKED! (The Genesis cover picture looked about 50 times better though.) --------------- GAME CHARACTERS --------------- Headdy = The main puppet. The star. This is the guy you play as throughout the game. Headdy is somewhat of an oddity - his head hovers above his body, and can be regularly swapped about for a new one. As you may have guessed, his incredibally strange head does all his dirty work for him (in other words, you defeat enemies by headbutting them. Happy?) Heather = There's always a mysterious woman in every plot that's ever existed, and Dynamite Headdy is no exception. What's her motives? Why does she want those keys? How do her hands hover in midair? That's up to you to find out. Trouble Bruin = Either this strange bear is the Dark Demon's right hand puppet, or he's jealous that Headdy got the center stage. Whatever it is, he took it personally, and stops at nothing to dispatch Headdy with whatever methods and contraptions he can muster. (NOTE: Trouble Bruin is a bear, and NOT a cat puppet as I originally thought. In the Japanese version of the game, Bruin is purple with cuter eyes and goes by the name of Maruyama, which only refers to his head, strangely. His body is called "Kuma Body", meaning "Bear Body". This also explains why you can hear "Kuma" being rapped later on in the "Maruyama" theme tune, should you listen to it in the Options screen.) Headcase, Hangman and Beau = The 3 friends of Headdy. Headcase provides Headdy with extra heads, Hangman gives a lift up to various platforms when needed, and Beau points out Keymaster weak spots. More on these guys later. The Keymasters = They come in all different shapes and sizes (well actually, they all come in one size - BIG) and each of them has their own different way of being defeated. More on them later as well. Dark Demon = This guy is the force that took the Puppet World by storm and tried to rearrange it to his liking. In other words, he's the Big Bad Guy. Destroy him and free the world. Lose to him and it's Game Over. Bino = This funny little maintenance guy has an annoying tendancy of popping up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seems to be like he's always in the way... Smiley = Well, I'll spoil the (little) plot provided for you if I tell you who Smiley is, but let's just say he's the reason why the Puppet World ended up in the mess it was. If you want to know more, read the section about the Japanese / English version differences. ************************************************* PLAYING THE GAME ************************************************* ------------------------ GAME BASICS AND MOVEMENT ------------------------ Headdy's health is displayed in the top left corner of the screen by a stagelight. As you take damage, the stagelight changes colour and the "H" in the middle decreases in size. The colour changes from green, to yellow, to orange, to red, and finally to black. When the stagelight turns black, you will die and be forced to start the level again. The only times this will not happen are in the Practice Area and the Intermission Bonus Game. Through careful playing of the game, I have determined that Headdy has 16 hit points when he is at maximum health. My definition of these hit points are given as the lowest possible damage that any attack can do which isn't zero. 1 hit point is equivalent to being hit by Headdy's normal head. Keymasters, when you face them, will also have a stagelight representing their health. It will be displayed in the right hand corner of your screen and has an "E" in the middle. If their stagelight turns black, the Keymaster will be destroyed. Falling off the edge of the level will not kill you instantly. Instead, it will take off a bit of health (2 hit points, to be exact). If you are too low on health, you will be killed. Damage done to you by enemies or hazardous objects varies considerably, depending largely on the type of enemy or object. Generally speaking though, damage done to Headdy will increase in power as the levels become more difficult. If you are at any point squashed between a solid object and a part of the level, you will be killed instantly. Headdy's remaining lives are displayed every time you begin a new level or restart a level. If you run out of lives, it's Game Over. It is possible to gain a continue, but this will be covered later on in the Power-Ups section. As Dynamite Headdy is a platform game, the controls aren't that complex, but I'll explain them anyway: D-Pad = Moves Headdy. If Down is pressed, Headdy will duck. The D-Pad also functions as the head-aimer. Namely, if you press right and up at the same time and fire your head, it will travel in a north-east direction (North referring to Up on the D-Pad.) A = Cancels your current head, if it isn't already the default. Note that some power-up heads cannot be cancelled. B = Fires your head. Your default head can be used to activate switches, grapple onto Hangmen, or attack enemies. You can fire in 7 directions while on the ground, and 8 when in mid-air. Note that not all power-up heads will revolve around your head flying off, and these will be covered in more detail in the section about heads. C = Makes you jump. Pressing Down and C can make you jump down off a platform if you are on one. --------- POWER-UPS --------- Here's a run down of the collectables in the Puppet World. You can collect these by either touching them or smashing them with your head. 500 = Gives you a nice 500 point bonus. Banana = Replenishes half your health (8 hit points). In game terms, this means if your health is in at least orange, you will be replenished to full health. If you are nearly dead (rapidly flashing red light) then you will be replenished up to bright yellow. 1 Up = Gives you one extra life. Continues = Continues are made up of the debris of a Keymaster. When the Keymaster is destroyed, red coloured blocks with "T" on them will be thrown out of it's body. If you collect enough of them, you will hear a voice say "You've got another try!" and will be given the option to continue playing on the Game Over screen should you lose all your lives. Secret Bonuses = These are spread throughout the scenes, but you have to do a whole load of strange things to uncover them. These will be touched upon more in the actual Walkthrough and are denoted by "SECRET BONUS" appearing, followed by a brief explanation of what you need to do to earn the point. Whenever you get one you'll hear a voice say "You've got a secret bonus point", unsuprisingly. --------- THE HEADS --------- Now it gets interesting. Every so often in a level, Headcase will appear and he'll present to you the heads you can use. When one appears to your suiting, hit Headcase and you'll get it. Here is the entire list, in alphabetical order and off the top of my head: Bomb Head = This is a head with a 5 second timer. Set it down wherever you want with a press of B and BOOM! This kills normal enemies instantly and does major damage to bosses. Beware though: if you don't throw it before the fuse goes, you will get blown up and killed. You will not be able to use this head to grab Hangmen or activate switches. Empty Head = This makes you invulnerable to nearly all attacks by enemies. Very useful, but you can still get hurt from falling off the screen. The only attack which will still hurt you with this head is if you attack Heather in "Headdy Wonderland". This head is on offer at several key points throughout the game where there is a good chance of you being hurt, so use it wisely. You can still use this head to grapple Hangmen and objects. Hammer Head = Well, this looks more like a large chunk of rock than a hammer, but it does have it's uses. This deals out double the damage per attack to your foes, making it very useful against Keymasters. Other than that, you can still use it normally. You'll be able to find this head on almost every scene of the game. Liberty Head = Takes you to the Intermission Bonus Game. More on that later. Melon Head = This was actually called "Head Trip" in the instruction manual, but I changed the name because some people may think it's a drug reference. :) As it is, this head clamps on and slows you to a crawl, it's too heavy to use for ANYTHING and you can't jump at all with it. Yes, it's a bad head and nope, you can't cancel it. This head is usually offered at the very worst times possible, and it's the only head in the game you can get outside of Headcase if you do something stupid (you'll see what I mean in the later levels). Mini-Head = Use this and you shrink, allowing you to slip through tight gaps with ease. This head cannot be cancelled, although you can still hit Headcase and exchange it with a different head if you wish, and is only offered a select few times. You can still grab Hangmen and activate switches with this head, providing you can reach them. Pig Head = No, you don't eat your enemies with this, but with a press of B you fire out homing stars from your nose. Truly bizzare, and useful against hard to hit enemies. You will not be able to use this head to grapple Hangmen or switches. Protection Head = This head provides you with a circling fireball ring around your body, killing or damaging any enemies who step too close. Note that these fireballs don't protect you from damage per se, which means you'll still have to avoid projectiles and not get too close to enemies who can't be killed in one hit. Other than that, you remain normal. Sleep Head = This head replenishes all your health with a quick nap. While this occurs, you are temporarily incapacitated for about 5 seconds or so. If you are touched by an enemy or hazard, then you will instantly wake up and get hurt. This head can actually be cancelled, so don't be afraid to do so if you suddenly spot an enemy close by. Spike Head = Smash your head against a wall and you'll be able to climb it with this head. This is a pretty tricky technique, but the best way to do so is to fire the head in a north-east/west direction. You will automatically be pulled upwards. Then, the moment your head is released from the wall, fire your head north and in the OPPOSITE horizontal axis to where you initally fired (in other words, if you fired north-east 1st time, fire north-west.) Repeat the process until you reach the top. There are only two instances in the game where you need to do this, and only one of those is essential. The spike head appears a couple more times though, but I'll save spoilers for the Walkthrough section. Super Head = With this head, you get to move twice as fast, jump twice and high and your head will extend to double it's normal range. Note that there is no increase in the actual damage your head does to your enemies, just like with the Spike Head, and you can still grab Hangmen and so forth. There are only about three or four instances in the game where this head appears, but it is a real joy to use when you do find it. Be warned though, just because it is a Super Head does not mean you are invincible when using it. Don't get too cocky. Ticker Head = A bit of an oddity, this one. Grabbing this head will freeze all enemies and objects within the game for about 8 seconds, including bosses. However, you are still able to move around as normal and attack them. The enemies and hazards will still hurt you if you touch them with your body though, so be wary. You can still grab Hangmen and activate switches with this head. Triple Head = This head allows you to shoot in 3 directions at once. Put simply, if you shoot directly east, two other heads will shoot north east and south east. Shoot north-west, two extra heads shoot west and north. Any of the 3 heads can be used to grab Hangmen or activate switches, and there is no increase in power for any of them. Vacuum Head = This head, when used, will suck in all normal enemies, objects and bonuses in the range of about two screens. The enemies are automatically destroyed while the bonuses are automatically given to you. Certain projectiles fired from enemies will also be sucked in and will not harm you. Objects that may be sucked in will have no effect on you. This head does bugger all good in harming bosses, and you cannot use it to grab Hangmen or activate switches. War Head = In addition to looking cool, this head shoots out missile stars in all 8 aimable directions, practically filling up the screen. This takes all the complexity of aiming your head at enemies out of the window. You can still grapple Hangmen and activate switches using this head. The following heads are only available in Scene 6. If you hold down the B button with these heads you get rapid fire. ALL the heads in this scene do the same amount of damage with their projectiles. In alphabetical order, they are: Biplane Head = This head provides bullet fire in 3 directions, in the same fashion as the Triple Head. It is also the only head capable of firing both east and west (the other two can only fire east.) The problem is that this can be a hinderance at times. Bird Head = This head produces the most potent stream of fire in a massive torrent of birds. The main advantage this head has is the large spread that the birds cover, allowing you to hit multiple targets all clustered together. However, the stream is limited in that all the birds fly downwards and you can't turn backwards. Laser Head = This head's advantage is that it's able to penetrate any force fields put up by an enemy. The problem is the stream doesn't widen like the others and you can't fire backwards. ----------------------- INTERMISSION BONUS GAME ----------------------- If you can grab a Liberty Head from Headcase, then you'll be taken to the Intermission Bonus Game. Essentially, you have to place basketballs that are fired out of two machines in the loops by hitting them with your head. From time to time, the machines may shoot out a bomb. You can either avoid them or smash them with your head. The loops move from left to right, in a sequential order, of which 4 hoops appear on each line. There are two sets of loops and hence two separate sequences. Here's a run down of the different loops and their effects: Star = Gives you a point. This is good. These loops are available on both lines - 3 on the lower and 1 on the higher. 1/4 = Slows down the hoops for a limited time. This is also good. This loop appears on the top line. Basketball = Shoots out more basketballs from the machines. While this is generally good, don't get too cocky with them, or you'll be putting them in the wrong basket. There are two of these on the upper line. Key = Put a ball in here and one of the machines goes boom. This is bad. There is one of them, on the lower line. The bonus game ends when either both machines explode, you take too much damage, press A to cancel it or make the required amount of shots. If you do make the shots required, then you'll be given a number to remember. If you get 4 numbers, wait till the end of the credits for your reward. These numbers are random for every new game you play. There are 6 Liberty Heads throughout the game, namely found in: Scene 2-2 = Toys in the Hood. The Headcase next to the 2nd ball you find in the level will have it. Scene 3-3 = The Green Room. It's right at the beginning of the level. Scene 4-2 = Mad Mechs. Again, the first Headcase you encounter. Scene 5-1 = Go Headdy Go. See above. Scene 7-1 = Headdy Wonderland. See above the above. Scene 8-3 = Fun Forgiven. Go right past the penguins. Freeze one of them and use it to jump onto the unreachable ledge. Headcase will have the Liberty Head up for grabs. The best tactic to use for the Bonus Game is to focus on one ball at a time. Hitting multiple balls is a lot quicker, but it also increases the chances of you getting two in the Key basket and failing. Practice working from the machine on the right if you can. While it is more difficult (because there is less time to tell which basket the ball will go in), it will also mean that if you do get a ball in the Key basket, your flow will not be interrupted (because the leftmost machine always blows up first.) Shoot the ball directly up when attempting to put it in the basket. To reach the higher baskets, you will need to jump and hit a ball upwards in mid-jump. Don't try getting cocky and shoot north-west/east because there is a very slim chance of you actually getting the ball in a basket, so you end up wasting time. In the later games, there is a much stronger bomb ratio than ball ratio, so you cannot afford to waste those balls. Good luck! ---------------------------------- DAMAGE / HEALTH CALCULATION TABLES ---------------------------------- This section of the Walkthrough deals with both what damage certain heads do to enemies and also on how much health enemies have. 1 Damage Point = 1 Hit of Headdy's Normal Head. If a head has a number under "Striking", then it can be used to activate switches and grapple Hangmen as well as attack enemies. ------------------------------------------------------------------- | DAMAGE CALCULATION TABLE | |-----------------------------------------------------------------| | HEAD | STRIKING | SHOT | EXPLOSION | SUCTION | OTHER BONUS | |-----------------------------------------------------------------| | Normal | 1 | - | - | - | - | | Biplane | - | 1 | - | - | Scene 6 only | | Bird | - | 1 | - | - | Scene 6 only | | Bomb | - | - | 8 | - | - | | Empty | 1 | - | - | - | Invincibility | | Hammer | 2 | - | - | - | - | | Laser | - | 1 | - | - | Scene 6 only | | Liberty | - | - | - | - | Bonus Stage | | Melon | - | - | - | - | Hinderance | | Mini | 1 | - | - | - | Reduces Size | | Pig | - |1 x 2 | - | - | Homing Shot | | Protect | 1 | - | 1 x 8* | - | - | | Sleep | - | - | - | - | Restores NRG | | Spike | 1 | - | - | - | Climbs Walls | | Super | 1 | - | - | - | x 2 Abilities | | Ticker | 1 | - | - | - | Freezes Enemy | | Triple | 1 x 3 | - | - | - | - | | Vacumn | - | - | - | Inf | - | | War | 1 |1 x 8 | - | - | - | ------------------------------------------------------------------- * = I couldn't judge where to place the Protector Head's fireballs, so I stuck them under the explosion bracket. That doesn't mean they actually explode, though. And now, the Health Calculation Tables, the 1st for Normal Enemies (enemies you can complete the game without defeating), and the second for Bosses (enemies which you MUST kill in order to complete the game). Enemies appear in approximate order of appearance in the game and are given the same names they have in the Curtain Call at the end of the game (or, if they don't appear there, they are made up by me). Again, 1 Damage Point = 1 Hit of Headdy's Normal Head. ----------------------------------------------------------- | HEALTH CALCULATION TABLE #1 | |---------------------------------------------------------| | ENEMY NAME | HEALTH | SCENE APPEARENCE | |---------------------------------------------------------| | Super Bino | Inf | 1-1 (Occasionally) | | Robo Collector | 32 | 1-1 | | Practice Tintoy | 1 | 2-1 | | Jumping Tintoy | 2 | 2-1 | | Tintoy w/ Sword | 3 | 2-1 | | Tintoy w/ Cannon | 2 | 2-1 | | Test Men | 13 | 2-1 | | Soldiers (All) | 1* | 2-2, 3-1 and 8-1 | | Climbing Soldiers | 2 | 2-2 | | Old McGee | 1 | 2-2 | | Mule McGee | 1 | 2-2 | | Hunter Dog | 1 | 2-2 | | Hunter Joe | 1 | 2-2 | | Caterpillar | 3 | 2-3 | | Unicyclist | 1 | 2-3 | | Dazed Bino | 2 | 2-3 | | Paddock | 1 | 3-1 | | Mario Net | 1 | 3-1 | | Mini Bruins | 1 | 3-2 | | Funky Jeep Man | 1 | 4-1 | | Wise Woman | 1 | 4-2 | | Blind Flying Soldiers | 1 | 4-3 | | Ceiling Grapplers | 1 | 4-3 | | Window Cleaner Bino | 17 | 4-4 | | Balloon Kelly | 1 | 5-3 | | Running Bino | 4 | 5-4 | | Flying Shark | 1 | 6-1 | | Rocket Soldier | 3 | 6-1 | | Hover | 1 | 6-1 | | Wheeler Balls | 3 | 6-2 | | Fly Hard 2 Turrets | 1 | 6-3 | | Balloons | 1 | 6-3 | | Spiders | Inf | 6-3 | | Hog Tied Bino | 1 | 6-4 | | Grabbed Bino | 1 | 7-1 | | Penguin | Inf | 8-3 | | Anubis | 5 | 8-3 | | Moloch | Inf | 8-3 | | Buzzsaw | 1 | 8-3 | | Venus Headdy Trap | 1 | 8-3 | | Oarsman | 3 | 8-4 | | Shogun | 3 | 8-4 | | Bean Head | 1 | 8-5 | | Money Head | 1 | 8-5 | | Bino Head | 1 | 8-5 | | Propellor Head | 1 | 9-1 | | Cocoa Head | 1 | 9-1 | | Julian | Inf | 9-1 | | Tiny Tank | 1 | 9-1 | | Spike Men | 2+ | Final Scene | | Plague Creatures | 2 | Final Scene | ----------------------------------------------------------- * = Some soldiers wear protective armour or have swords to defend themselves. In these cases, they can only be killed when they make themselves vulnerable (either by preparing to swipe or exposing their faces). + = This enemy can only be destroyed with the Hammer Head. And now, the Health Calculation Table for the Bosses. Note that Keymasters have their own unique weak points that will be covered in the walkthrough. Any special cases in the table below will be highlighted and explained at the end of the sheet. All Bosses are invulnerable to Suction attacks. ----------------------------------------------------------- | HEALTH CALCULATION TABLE #2 | |---------------------------------------------------------| | ENEMY NAME | HEALTH | SCENE APPEARENCE | |---------------------------------------------------------| | Trouble Bruin | 2 | 1-1 | | Catherine Deringuer | 9 | 2-2 | | Snake Eyes + | 14 + 8 | 2-2 | | Mad Dog | 17 | 2-3 | | Flying Soldiers | 4 x 3 | 3-1 | | Rocket Grappler | 16 | 3-2 | | Puppeteer | 17 | 3-3 | | Gentleman Jim | 17 | 3-3 | | Wooden Dresser | 9 | 3-4 | | Mons Meg | 24 | 4-1 | | Super Tank Machine # | Inf | 4-1 | | Flying Scythe | 8 | 5-2 | | Wrecking Balls | 5 x 2 | 5-3 | | ArmorDillo | 16 | 5-3 | | Spinderella | 17 | 5-4 | | Sky Battleship * | App 60 | 6-1 | | Wheeler Dealer * | App 50 | 6-2 | | Baby Face ** | 35 x 4 | 6-4 | | Gatekeeper # | Inf | 7-1 | | Nasty Gatekeeper | 17 | 7-1 | | Missile Man | 17 | 8-2 | | Tarot ^ | 17 | 8-3 | | Sparky ^^ | 9 | 8-4 | | Twin Freaks | 17 | 8-5 | | Super Finagler # | Inf | 9-1 and 9-2 | | Dark Demon | 17 | Final Scene | | Hitmen | 17 | Final Final Scene | | Boss | 15 | Final Final Scene | ----------------------------------------------------------- + = The first damage count indicates the scales that must be smashed off Snake Eyes. The second damage count indicates the number of hits that must be made to his head to destroy him. # = This boss is not destroyed by conventional means. * = These numbers are approximations because there are other circumstances which must be active before the boss is defeated. The Sky Battleship will not fall out of the sky until the cloud turbulence has cleared up. The Wheeler Dealer is an approximation because every time I fight it, the number varies by a small amount. ** = Baby Face's hit points are based upon how many shots are needed to kill Grandpa Face. He can be hit more times in his other forms and not take any additional damage. ^ = Before you can destroy Tarot, you must first make his face fully exposed. To do this, hit him with the 2, 4 and 8 balls until the total number exceeds 33 (i.e. Hit him with the 8 ball four times, and then once with the 2 ball). ^^ = Sparky can only be damaged by the three balls that you can drop on him when you flip the switch. The balls all do equal amounts of damage. ************************************************* THE SCENES ************************************************* Dynamite Headdy consists of 9 scenes, each divided into subsections. In the obvious order that they appear in, here they are, written in full. ---------------------- SCENE 1-1 = THE ESCAPE ---------------------- The spikes that appear from the left side of the screen are merely for show, they don't hurt you a bit, so don't panic! The Robo-Collector is intimidating, but he ultimately doesn't swipe you, so feel free to take him apart whenever you want. When the Yellow Baron starts chucking bombs at you, dodge in between them to avoid getting hurt. Ignore Super Bino if he happens to show up as he won't hurt, hinder or help you in anyway. That's it? Well, it is until the backdrop falls on you (you don't actually lose health when this happens) and Trouble Bruin makes his first appearence of the game. To beat him, stay where you are and duck to avoid the energy balls. He'll now jump four times and run at you. Jump over him when he does, and he'll crash into the edge of the screen and fall backward. Dodge in between the energy balls, and headbutt him when he's panting. Repeat this process once more and he's history. SECRET BONUS = Destroy the Robo Collector. -------------------------- SCENE 2-1 = PRACTICE ARENA -------------------------- Well, not much can be said about this other than how to win the practices. Press UP to enter a door containing one of the 3 friends of Headdy. Headcase = Every head comes in handy here, but the order I found useful was = Protection, Bomb, Hammer, War, Vacuum, Empty. Hangman = Make sure you only grapple when you have a good idea of where you're going to go. Master use of grappling while in mid-flight, and watch out for the bottom of the screen! Beau = Hit every weak point as soon as you can. Once the funny man inside the weak point goes green and you smash him he won't reappear again, so concentrate on the other ones. If you have a Rapid Fire controller, I suggest you use it here. SECRET BONUS = Completion each of these tasks will earn you one secret bonus point per task. ---------------------------- SCENE 2-2 = TOYS IN THE HOOD ---------------------------- Kill the soldier coming towards you and go forward. Grab the floating platform with your head and jump on it. Go left, kill another soldier and grab Hangman. Kill the soldier with the sword by knocking him off the platform or smashing him when he pauses to swipe you. Grab the 500 point bonus and go right. SECRET BONUS = Grab the Hammer Head from Headcase and dispose of the green soldier by knocking him off the tower with the Hammer Head. Grapple onto Hangman and go up. Kill the red soldier when he exposes his face and knock the huge ball off the platform. Grab another 500 point bonus when you jump off the platform by jumping right as far as you can. Kill the sword soldier and jump into the wall. Grab the banana, grapple onto Hangman on the left and kill the red soldier. Move up till you see Headcase. Knock the ball off ONE platform and stand on it, then jump left for an extra life. Grab a Vacuum Head from Headcase and jump to the right of him. Ignore the ball above Hangman for now and move to the right, until you see soldiers climbing up a ladder. Suck 'em all in with the Vacuum Head until it runs out. When it does, run up the hill and grab Hangman. Move SHARPLY to the left to avoid the ball, and watch it destroy the ladder. Go past this and grab either a Super Head or Empty Head. Grapple onto Hangman till you reach the top, then step carefully between the feet and grab a 500 point bonus. Proceed to the right (and grab another 500 point bonus if you're quick enough) and smash the cage till it falls in the hole. You'll now fight Catherine Derigueur. Keep smashing her until she reaches the left of the screen. When she does, back away, as she attempts to suck you into her grasp. When she starts moving, attack her again. You should be able to kill her before she reaches the right side of the screen. SECRET BONUS = When you dispose of Catherine, Old Mcgee and Mule McGee will charge at you. Nail both of them for two secret bonus points. Grab the Sleep head from Headcase to replenish any health you lost. Now you can either take the Mini-Head and travel through the maze defeating little men and dogs that stand in your way, or you can take the Spike Head upwards. The Mini-Head route is easy, but the Spike head is a little more challenging. If you choose the Spike head, ascend left into the top of the wall for some 500 point bonuses. When grabbing the last one, use your head, as the purple block makes you fall through the floor. When you are ready, use the Spike head and climb to the top and move right. You will now face Snake Eyes. Stand in the second gap and aim north east. Smash ALL of his scales, then grab the Ticker Head when you have a clear shot to his head. Hit his head until he blows up. If he's got his mouth open, you won't be able to hurt him because he's about to shoot a fireball. You'll have to use your own judgement when dodging the fireball, because he fires it at random. When he's dead, proceed right and exit the stage. SECRET BONUS = Destroy Snake Eyes. ------------------------------ SCENE 2-3 = MAD DOG AND HEADDY ------------------------------ Trouble Bruin will once again show up here - but this time he'll get squashed by the Keymaster for this stage - a giant sausage dog named the Mad Dog. The weak spot of this Keymaster is it's tail, so open fire on that. When Mad Dog jumps up into the air, stand WELL away from the arrow. He'll come down with something in his mouth, which will be one of the following: A basketball, which bounces around the screen after he drops it. It can't be destroyed but it isn't that tricky to dodge just as long as you keep a cool head. A huge bomb, which damages you if you stand too far to the right of the screen. A caterpillar, who meanders about the right side of the screen and dies after three hits or self-destructs after a while. An egg, which lets out 3 unicycle riders, whom you can destroy relatively easily. Bino, who wanders off the screen unless you smash him. SECRET BONUS = Smash Bino twice (or once with the Hammer Head). That's pretty much all the attacks he does - hit his tail with the bonus heads from Headcase and you'll put the Dog to sleep with ease. End Scene. ---------------------- SCENE 3-1 = DOWN UNDER ---------------------- To avoid falling off the screen, you can hold up or down to move in that direction on this level. Kill the miner soldier and move forward to the next platform. Jump over the ball-bombs and move on. SECRET BONUS = Go past the second ball-bomb launcher and wait for a few seconds. Ball-bombs with happy faces will start to emerge instead of the regular ball-bombs. Smash one of the faces for the bonus point. Don't travel too fast on this level because the enemies tend to pop up and catch you unawares if you do. Kill the puppet on strings, then jump on to the next platform and take care of the two frogs. Swipe the banana, then on the next platform, pick up the 500 point bonuses and dodge the ball-bombs once more. On the next platform, you'll face some flying soldiers. Be patient, get underneath their shadows and aim upward. There are three of them and they take four hits each. Don't attack them if they're gonna drop a bomb. From there, proceed to the right, swipe the banana and the 1-Up, then proceed right some more. Trouble Bruin will then grab you with his Rocket Grappler and the fight will continue backstage. ---------------------------- SCENE 3-2 = BACKSTAGE BATTLE ---------------------------- For this scene, your movement is restricted because you're trapped. You can move the grappler you're stuck in up and down slightly when it's flying straight, but that's about it. You can still fire your head as normal. Bruin's first method of attack is by releasing minature versions of himself from his ship. If you grab the Protection Head this isn't too bad, but if you can't, try and get on a horizontal axis with them and fire your head. SECRET BONUS = Bruin will randomly release a puppet who has a green head about twice as large as the regular mini-Bruins. Destroy this puppet for the bonus. Soonafter, Bruin will start swiping you in circles around the Rocket Grappler. This gives you plenty of time to hit him repeatedly. Make sure you hit him when you are in fairly close proximity and on the same horizontal axis, as this reduces your chances of missing. Once you've been round him a few times, Bruin try to smash you against the ceiling and floor. Look at which way the arrow is facing and push that way (hold UP if the arrow points up and DOWN if it points down.) After this, the pattern repeats itself, so keep attacking throughout with whatever head you can grab from Headcase, and Bruin will fall to pieces, along with his Rocket Grappler. You'll then be freed and move onto the next stage. -------------------------- SCENE 3-3 = THE GREEN ROOM -------------------------- If you lost health during that battle, grab the Sleep Head from Headcase. Go right and you'll end up in the Battle Show. The two opponents you face here are your toughest challenge yet; The Puppeteer and Gentlemen Jim. Once the two split from each other, they are vulnerable to attack. Always try to keep to Jim's right, as this way you'll avoid his cane attack. When he turns into a wrecking ball, time your jumps so it goes between your two opponents - the strings will not hurt you. Balance your attacks between both of them, as this makes it easier to take them down. SECRET BONUS = Kill the Puppeteer before killing Jim. If you kill Jim first, the Puppeteer will attempt to grab your head using his strings. If he succeeds, try and avoid it as much as possible, as it hurts you if it touches. Keep jumping and smashing him and you'll be ok. If you kill the Puppeteer first, Jim will dance about the screen. He is invulnerable to attacks during this, so jump over him if he gets too close. When he stops, smash him repeatedly, avoiding the projectiles he spews out. Once you finish them both, grab the Sleep Head from Headcase to replenish and health you lost and move right. ------------------------------ SCENE 3-4 = CLOTHES ENCOUNTERS ------------------------------ The Keymaster for this scene is the Wooden Dresser (who, according to the Japanese version, is female and not male). At first, her health will be purple and you cannot damage her. Watch her dance to the left of the screen and she will stomp on the ground and assume the identity of a dragon (she puts on a dragon suit). Beau will identify the weak points of the dragon (they're random every time) for you to hit. Watch for the fire stream that comes out of her mouth, grab the War Head from Headcase and let 'er rip. Once she loses her clothes, the Dresser is vulnerable. Hit her heart several times and she'll jump into the air. When she comes down again, the Dresser will put on a ballerina's outfit and begin dancing. Beware, the clothes will hurt you this time, so when she comes in close, grab the Ticker Head and attack the weak points. Once you dispose of her clothes, she'll become vulnerable again. If you don't manage to kill her, she'll jump off again and this time put on a robot suit. This is similar to the dragon, but she has more attacks. If her chest explodes, then back away, as projectiles are going to come out. If she aims one of her arms at you, back off, cause if it grabs you you lose health. Finally, if she stomps the ground you have to dodge in between the falling debris. From there on, she recycles between the three outfits. Fortunately, the Dresser is much weaker than the other Keymasters, so it generally doesn't take long to send her packing. SECRET BONUS = At random intervals, the Dresser will put on a Bino Head. Destroy the head for the bonus point. There is a glitch in the game that allows for the Dresser to put this on more than once when you fight her, meaning you can get multiple bonus points! Beware though, this sometimes causes the game to freeze when you finish the battle. The glitch itself is triggered randomly. ----------------------------- SCENE 4-1 = TERMINATE HER TOO ----------------------------- SECRET BONUS = Smash the orange / blue balls repeatedly until you hear that you've got the bonus. Begin this level by smashing the orange ball, and watch out for the Tumblee. Once he stops moving you can jump on him. The orange / blue balls will raise the land up or down, so if your path seems blocked, smash one to advance. After that you'll reach a platform with Headdy drawn on it. Grab Hangman and you'll change the backdrop. Jump onto the platform to your right. Don't go right too fast - Headcase will fall from the top of the screen and you may miss him if you go too fast. Grab the Bomb Head and place it in the dip in the platform. Mons Meg will now appear, and the bomb will go off and do massive damage to her. When a targeter appears on the screen, keep moving to avoid getting shot. Keep headbutting her throughout and she'll explode with ease. Go right and grab onto Hangman, then jump up the platforms (use Hangman again if you didn't manage to pull them down). Grab a Vacuum Head from Headcase if you want to suck up some bonuses, or grab the Hammer Head to knock out the platforms. Keep moving right until you see another platform with you on it. Grab Hangman to change the backdrop again. Go right and hit the Happy Campers onto the pole. Don't worry if you miss, they'll come back if you do. Once you hit four onto it, jump onto them. Meet Headcase and go left from him. Hit the four remaining campers onto the pole on the left, then jump over for an extra life. Grab a Sleep Head from Headcase, and then the Empty Head. You'll now face the Super Tank Machine. SECRET BONUS = Destroy a cannonball fired from the Tank. Stand as close as you can to the cannon (but NOT underneath it), then when it shoots a straight cannonball, hit it north-east. The ball should stick to the ceiling, then fall on the operator and kill him. After that, the machine blows up. If you miss with the first cannonball, keep trying until you get it. Go back and grab the Sleep Head, followed by the Triple Head. Use this to collect the difficult to reach 500 point bonuses, then smash the wierd looking thing until water comes out of the chute. SECRET BONUS = Jump on the water chute and land on the top of the weird thing's head. Jump up and headbutt downwards on the top of it's head. Repeat until destroyed and you've got the bonus. Jump on the water and over to a platform with Headdy drawn on it. Grab Hangman to change the backdrop again. The blue / orange balls will change the direction of the conveyor belts, and if you wish to attack the Funky Jeep Men with your default head, be aware that you need to hit them in the back, so use the conveyor belts to achieve this. Alternately, you can just grab the Vacuum Head and tear right, while sucking in anything that stands in your way. --------------------- SCENE 4-2 = MAD MECHS --------------------- If you want to go a quick way, grab the Mini-Head and go underneath the barriers. For a more complex - albeit with more bonuses - method, grab the Hammer Head and smash the blue ball until you manage to knock the platform to you. Jump on that and you'll find some blocks with a hammer icon on them. Destroy the blocks to reach some 500 point bonuses. There is no pattern as to when the Wise Women will appear on the moving platforms, so you'll have to look before you leap. They die with one hit though so don't be too anxious. When you reach the second set of moving platforms, make sure you have the Hammer Head, as you can't get through to the end of the scene without it. Just before the end there is an extra life, which you can reach if you hit the yellow thing underneath the moving platforms and jump down a few levels. SECRET BONUS = Destroy all of the Hammer Head blocks on the level. ----------------------- SCENE 4-3 = MAD MECHS 2 ----------------------- This scene revolves around the use of spinning platforms. You may get a few problems here with the screen that when you hit the spinning platforms, you are moved so fast the game doesn't register and doesn't move the screen, so you can't see what you're doing. If this occurs, simply hit the platform back to where you originally were, move a little in the direction you intend to go so the screen follows and resume play. Anyway, kill the flying soldier, then hit the platform right, followed by down. Grab the Sleep Head, followed by the Hammer Head. Kill another flying soldier then jump over to the right. Proceed to Hangman and destroy the hammer blocks for a 500 point bonus. Fall down to the platform with Headcase on. Watch out for the bottom of the screen. Now you can either grab the Hammer Head and go upwards, destroying the fans and the hammer blocks, or down and kill the ceiling creatures, smashing platforms to move on. Make sure you grab the three 500 point bonuses on the way out. SECRET BONUS = Destroy the two fans for two secret bonuses. ------------------------- SCENE 4-4 = HEATHERNAPPED ------------------------- Not much can be said here. You can either wait for Bino to appear and beat him up, or go right. Lo and behold.....no Keymaster! What a level. SECRET BONUS = Wait for a few seconds as you begin the level. Bino will appear and wipe the windows. Beat him up for the bonus. ------------------------ SCENE 5-1 = GO HEADDY GO ------------------------ Another useless scene. Go right past Headcase and you'll see Trouble Bruin. You'll automatically jump up on to the Puppet Tower and into the next scene. ---------------------- SCENE 5-2 = STAIR WARS ---------------------- This is a fairly linear level, but can be tricky. Trouble Bruin appears with his Flying Scythe, which takes large chunks out of the tower. When he nods his head, jump as high as you can get. You MUST get higher than the scythe otherwise there is a very good chance you'll fall off the bottom of the screen and get hurt. When Bruin's eyes go funny, he'll move in to ram you. This is the only time when you can attack him. As you go further up the tower, he'll move in faster and faster, so watch out because he does a lot of damage if he touches you. The speed of the scythe does not change. After enough hits, he'll fall out of the sky and you'll be able to climb the tower. SECRET BONUS = Keep climbing the tower until you hear the message. Note that you must lay off attacking Bruin for a while to achieve this. ----------------------------- SCENE 5-3 = TOWERING INTERNAL ----------------------------- As soon as this level starts, grab Hangman and ascend up. There is NO POINT in attacking the Balloon Kellys unless you like getting hurt. Avoiding the flamethrowers is no big deal - don't climb when you see fire. Climb up past them and you'll face two wrecking balls. The balls are both vulnerable to your head but they both deliver damage to you. Their first attack is to pound random parts of the floor you are on, which is easily dodgeable. The second attack revolves around them spinning around the center tower in an attempt to hit you. Make sure you time your jumps well - remember the connecting chains will not hurt you. The final attack will involve one ball spinning on the ground level and the other spinning above you, which is a bit trickier but not a problem if you can keep your timing. SECRET BONUS = Survive from the beginning of the level until when you pass the wrecking balls without getting hurt AT ALL for the point. After you take care of the wrecking balls, climb up Hangman again and start moving fast. There are some cannons on the sides of the tower that will hit you unless you keep in constant motion. Keep moving and you'll reach a part with bomb launchers on top. Grab Hangman again, avoiding the bombs, and you'll face the ArmorDillo. He is invulnerable to attack while he is rolling, so jump over him as he approaches. When he exposes himself, he is only vulnerable to attack from underneath. So when he starts jumping around, grab the Ticker Head from Headcase, timing it so that you freeze him in mid-jump, and get under him and smash him repeatedly. Do that a few more times and he's history. If you take too long, he starts a new pattern when he uncurls - he'll fire his shields across the screen at you. Simply jump over them when he does and attack him, but make sure to jump over them again as they come back. From there, climb up the tower, grab the banana and prepare for Spinderella. ----------------------- SCENE 5-4 = SPINDERELLA ----------------------- The target for this Keymaster is her rear-end, but the problem is you can't reach it right now. Don't panic, you will in due time. Once you can move again, you'll hear a funny sound effect, and this is the cue that tells you you're going to have to dodge her arms. When she attacks with the left arm, (that's YOUR left, not hers) move right and move left when she hits with the right arm. Try to keep away from the spikes dotted around the arena, as running into these makes the task of dodging her arms infinitely more tricky. Eventually, both arms will stick in the ground and you can get a few cheap shots on her ass. Then repeat the process outlined. The second time you try though, Bino will rush in and break your attack pattern, so feel free to beat him up. SECRET BONUS = Bash Bino until he falls off the screen. Now Spinderella will switch the backgrounds around, making it seem you have the Mini Head active. Annoyingly, her body will now obstruct half of your view. Don't panic. Just concentrate on dodging her arms. You'll have to judge the ass-shots yourself. After two of these, Spinderella will switch the background back to normal, allowing you to finish the job on her. End Scene. --------------------------- SCENE 6-1 = THE FLYING GAME --------------------------- At the start of this scene, Headcase will provide you with the 3 flying heads. These have been covered in the head section, and which one you choose is a matter of opinion. You can only change heads in this level by picking up an icon when it appears in the scene. SECRET BONUS = Wait until Headcase produces a head that looks like Bino. Smash it for a secret bonus point. Choose your head and the screen starts scrolling right. The first wave of attackers are some rockets shape liked sharks, which hurt you by trying to burn you up in their exhausts. Dodge to the top right of the screen and then bottom left when they start moving. Then some soldiers going to the moon will appear, so shoot them at will. SECRET BONUS = Destroy the moon-rocket with the cow on it's side. After that, 8 bombs will appear around you and move in. Shoot the ones on your right and move quickly before you get hurt. You'll face a few more shark rockets, then a clamp will come down from the top of the screen and bring up the Sky Battleship. Begin initially by firing on the turrets and the clamp, taking care to dodge the shots. When the mouth opens, fire with EVERYTHING you have and destroy it quickly. If you don't, it shoots out this VERY annoying worm creature that is a real pain to kill. With the mouth down, the Battleship releases little choppers that drop mines that explode in 8 directions. Those are irritating, but not as much as the worm. Focus fire on all 3 turrets and they'll cave in as well, leaving the Battleship only able to release the helicopters. Now focus fire on the clamp, dodging the mines from the choppers. Around this point you'll run into some cloud turbulance, which does a very good job of blocking the screen up, making it difficult to see what the hell you're doing. Keep a cool head and keep firing at the clamp. After repeated hits, the clamp will be destroyed and the Battleship will fall out of the sky. You'll now continue into a Zepplin for the next part. -------------------- SCENE 6-2 = FLY HARD -------------------- In this scene, Trouble Bruin will appear again, this time with a contraption called the Wheeler Dealer. At first, you can't attack him because he's in the background, but he'll release little mines that home in on you. These can be destroyed with ease. Grab your favourite head and the banana, and he'll move in to your level. Open fire with everything you have on his head. Beware though, every two seconds he releases an indestructible energy ball. This can be dodged easily, but it tends to break your pattern up a bit. The other thing he lets out are two little machines that grapple to the top and bottom of the screen. You can ignore the bottom one, but the top one shoots out an electrical bolt after a few seconds, targeted at the bottom. This can get annoying if you're trying to avoid the energy ball, so destroy the top one. After you hit Bruin enough, he'll fall to the background and release more mines. Waste them and he'll come back to the foreground. Repeat the process described in the previous paragraph. The funny thing about this boss is that you can't completely destroy it. No matter how hard you try, you can't blow it up. Once you DO make enough hits though, Bruin will fall back and release an EN MASSE barrage of mines. Hang to the left of the screen and gun them down. After this, Bruin will be stopped (literally) and you'll continue to the next stage. ---------------------- SCENE 6-3 = FLY HARD 2 ---------------------- This level has a linear pathway, so there isn't much that can be written here. I'm afraid it's mostly up to your own skill at flying and dodging between objects. Generally speaking, when you are given a choice between going top or bottom, going top means you'll face more enemies, while going bottom means you'll have to dodge more obstacles. The floor and the ceiling will often be electric, so try and stay in the center of the screen. The turrets and balloons can be destroyed in one hit. The balloons will drop the energy ball they carry though so watch out. The spiders are indestructible so all you can do is dodge them. If a barrier is blocking your way, shoot it and it will rise. Towards the end of the level you'll have to dodge between several spiders, but once you get past them you can grab a banana. --------------------- SCENE 6-4 = BABY FACE --------------------- This Keymaster doesn't have a weak point - you simply target the face. Baby Face's attack is to shoot you with energy balls. These move very slowly and don't home in on you, so you can just hang to the left of the screen (or right if you have the biplane) and keep your finger on fire. After a few hits, Baby Face will move to the center of the screen. IMMEDIATELY move to the top left corner, and he'll turn into Boy Face. Boy Face will move to the right of the screen, so keep shooting him. If you have the biplane head, keep to the left of the screen. If you have the bird head, stay center. If you have the laser, get as close to Boy Face as you can. The reason for this is that his hand will come out of the cloud after a few seconds (watch the bottom of the screen) and only lasers can penetrate his hand to hurt his face. His hand will fire static electricity in 8 directions, and his face will now move from right to left. Keep shooting him and repeat the process. After enough shots, he'll move to the center. Move back to the top left corner and he'll turn into Man Face. Man Face will keep to the right and he'll pull up a hooked hand and bring down a banner, dragging it randomly across the screen. The banner won't hurt you but his hand will. To make it worse, he now shoots laser bolts from his eyes, and the banner tends to obstruct your view. The laser bolt patterns are in an 8 burst, covering the screen and an additional 4 in one, which fires on one of those 8 axis. His head remains to the right of the screen, so it isn't tough to target, but remember his hand obstructs all but laser fire. After enough hits, he'll move to the center of the screen. Move once again to the top left and he'll transform into Grandpa Face. You can now either let Grandpa Face grab you or shoot him to the very end. His hand is quick so watch out. Don't worry if he grabs you, he dies before he can finish you off. Either way, when you beat him, the scene ends. SECRET BONUS = Shoot Grandpa Face to the last. His face will peel off to reveal Bino hog-tied to the pole. Shoot Bino for the point. ----------------------------- SCENE 7-1 = HEADDY WONDERLAND ----------------------------- Err.....go right. SECRET BONUS = The last cow you see will sound like a horse when you jump on it. Destroy it. Keep going right until you meet the Gatekeeper. SECRET BONUS = Just before you meet the Gatekeeper, note the birds on the totem pole. The leftmost looks like the ugly duckling of sorts. Smash him before he flies off for the point. Hmmm, Heather's there as well? What's going on? (Go to that link in the Japanese / English version differences section for more info. Oh, and I'm referring to the Gatekeeper as a he, unlike the twin female counterparts that were decipted in the Japanese version.) Defeating the Gatekeeper relies mostly on the positioning of Heather. If Heather is standing on the right side of the screen, you have to stand on the left side of the Gatekeeper in order for Heather to be able to chuck the key in his backpack (and vice versa). When the Gatekeeper swings his arm back to ram you, move to the other side of him. Repeat this process until all the key's have been placed in his backpack and he falls off the screen. Hmmm.....the Dark Demon's castle was behind Headdy Wonderland? Well, just as you're about to act, a robot hand comes out of nowhere and grabs Heather. The Gatekeeper's back - only this time he's turned NASTY! Beau will appear and give you the target; his eyes. Note that if he has a hand or Heather to his face, he cannot be harmed (and if you hit Heather, then you lose health.) Jump the projectile the Gatekeeper drops and give him a quick taste of your hit power. While you're at it, smack Beau out of the air as well (it doesn't affect gameplay if you do or don't, but I prefer the little bugger out of the way). Note the smoke coming coming from his head - you just pissed him off. Oops. He'll now try to smash you with his free hand. He'll target your head, which is invulnerable, but his hand is large enough to hit your body as well. When he tries to grab you, throw your head as far away from your body as possible and jump around like a lunatic. He'll try to "fast grab" you 5 times in succession, so watch out. After that, he'll do one of two things. He may jump around the screen, swiping a hand around him while doing so, meaning all you can do is dodge him. Or he may try and target your head again. If he does the latter, make sure his hand targets you so that it flies off the screen (jump in the air and this will be acheived). Provided it's his free hand that he threw off the screen, he'll either bring back Bino or Headcase. SECRET BONUS = Smash Bino off screen for the bonus. Once the Gatekeeper holds Headcase, you now have three ways of taking him out. SUICIDE WAY = Grab the Melon Head and get your ass kicked (not recommended). LONG WAY = Grab the Empty Head from Headcase and smash him when both his hands are away from his body. Remember to re-new the head repeatedly. If you hit Heather though, you will still lose energy. SHORT WAY = Grab the Bomb Head and place it at his feet. With a little luck (correction, with a LOT of luck) it should go off when he is vulnerable. Repeat this twice and he's scrap metal. Should you not like the selection of heads on offer, you can get the Gatekeeper to throw away Headcase by making him throw his hand off-screen using the technique above. Then repeat the action and he'll bring Headcase back, this time with a Hammer or War Head for the selection. However, I do not condone using this technique, because it's pointless when you have two entirely safer methods outlined above. --------------------------- SCENE 8-1 = THE ROCKET TIER --------------------------- This level is just simply a long walk from left to right, but at regular intervals, rockets will come blazing down the tunnel you're in from right to left. The rockets cover about a third of the screen so normal jumping is useless. Listen out for the warning siren and look for rapidly flashing lights, because the rockets do a LOT of damage. There are only two ways to avoid them: COWARDLY WAY = Grab a Mini Head and dive into the small cracks in the floor when you hear a siren. DAREDEVIL WAY = Grab a Spike Head and grapple to the ceiling when you hear a siren. You will have to grapple to the ceiling in rapid succession to avoid getting hurt. This way allows you to pick up the various 500 bonus points scattered on the ceiling. SECRET BONUS = Pick up ALL of the 500 point bonuses on the level. Other than that, it's a linear path. Don't worry about the soldiers, they get destroyed when the rockets blast through or you can explode them with one hit of your head. Go right throughout and you'll end up in the next scene. ---------------------------- SCENE 8-2 = ILLEGAL WEAPON 3 ---------------------------- On this level you'll fight the Missile Man. His only form of attack is to release rockets at you. These are excatly the same as in the previous level, with the only difference being they don't come roaring at you immediately after the warning siren - there is a slight delay for the rocket to charge up. The best way to deal with this guy is to grab the Mini Head and hit the tower he is on repeatedly. The only problem is he may release a rocket immediately after one is fired, making your life troublesome. Keep it cool and don't lose your head (no pun intended), and you'll destroy him fairly easily. SECRET BONUS = Destroy one of the orange soldiers who fall from the platform once you defeat the Missile Man. Destroying more than one will not net you furthur bonus points. ------------------------ SCENE 8-3 = FUN FORGIVEN ------------------------ When you begin this level, note the funny penguin dancer to your right. He can only be destroyed by falling, and if you hit him with your head, he freezes. The way to kill him is to freeze him when he's over the blue blocks, clearing a path for you at the same time. Watch the spikes on your way down, as these hurt a fair bit. Once you've descended enough, you'll see a funny blue thing on a wheel moving toward you. Hit the thing's head but NOT it's body. You must jump onto it's head to avoid getting crushed against the wall. Move right and you'll see another one. Repeat the process. Continue right and you'll face the mid-scene boss, Tarot. Initially, he cannot be harmed by your head, but instead there are several balls with numbers on circling him (2, 4 and 8), a heart circle, Headcase and Hangman. You have to ram the number circles into him to do damage. Ignore Headcase and Hangman. Ramming the heart into him makes him regain energy. Naturally, the 8 ball does more damage than the 2 ball. Tarot's only attack for now is to move the balls outward in an attempt to hurt you with them. Keep to the extreme left or right when he does this. SECRET BONUS = Ram the heart circle three times to get the bonus point. Thanks to Char for clarifying that you do NOT need to hit Tarot with the heart to gain the point. After several hits, Tarot's face will blow up and everything but Headcase will fall off from around him (Headcase falls to the floor). Now Tarot is vulnerable to your head. His only attack is to scrape the sun-spike along the floor. This does a LOT of damage so jump over it when it happens. After repeated hits (the Triple Head from Headcase works wonders), he'll fall to the floor and explode. Grab the Sleep Head if you lost some energy, then use the Spike Head to ascend the wall to your left. Watch out for the buzzsaws, you can destroy them if need be. Once you reach the top, you'll see some Venus Headdy Traps. Attack them by ducking down and hitting their root (you can only do this once their head reaches it's full height). If you don't, they'll chomp on your head and spit it out, and it hurts you if it touches your body. After you take care of the annoying plants, you'll face a very difficult part of the game. There are Hangmen all over the place, but they swap around to an empty tile every second. Below them are some straw patches you can safely land on, and some spikes which you can't. To get past the final part of the course (which is exceedingly frustrating), here's what you have to do. Make sure you're on the fourth straw patch. Wait until the Hangman closest to your position is ready and available. Grapple him, then as you're released, grapple him again in mid air and swing to the right as you pass him. The Hangman to the right of your initial position is now available. Grab him and swing to the ledge and move on to the next scene. SECRET BONUS = The "Don't Shoot" block to the left of where you land after getting past the Hangman course contains a secret bonus point. Smash it. ---------------------- SCENE 8-4 = VICE VERSA ---------------------- This level has a linear pathway, and the mid air switches can be used to put the level upside down (switch the top for the bottom and vice versa) or the right way up. The people in the blocks are useful for getting over spike traps and obstacles, so head butt them into position to proceed. SECRET BONUS = Smash three of the projectiles shot by the upside down heads. Sparky, the end-scene boss, can only be damaged by the balls that appear with him. The balls will fall onto him if you flip the switch. Do NOT be deceived by the appearance of the balls; they all do the same amount of damage. His only attack is to hit you with lightning, but this is slow to charge, so you can avoid it with ease. Beware though, the balls can hurt you as well as Sparky. After you defeat him, move on to the final part of the level. ----------------------- SCENE 8-5 = TWIN FREAKS ----------------------- This Keymaster is the most difficult boss in the entire game, even more than Dark Demon. He has two colours: Red and Green. While green, he fires out enemies from his ears and moves relatively slowly. When red, he concentrates on crushing you against the wall, and moves a LOT faster. He changes between colours when you smash the mid-air switches. SECRET BONUS = At random intervals, Twin Freaks will fire out an enemy with a Bino head. Destroy it for a bonus point. This is EXTREMELY difficult to get. His target is the ear closest to you, but you can only damage him while he's green. To make matters worse, the vast majority of spike traps appear on the level when he's green. When the battle begins, jump up and hit his ear a couple of times, then jump right onto the nearest platform, position yourself underneath the mid-air switch and aim diagonally left. Hit his ear as many times as you can before he gets too close and then hit the switch. From there, your best strategy is to get as much distance between him and you while he's in either form (though keeping him in green as long as possible contributes greatly to surviving the level), and survive long enough until you see Headcase. Grab the Hammer / Triple Head from him and headbutt like mad. If you can complete this boss without losing any health, you have my respect and admiration. Either that or you're a liar. :) ----------------------------- SCENE 9-1 = FATAL CONTRAPTION ----------------------------- When this level starts, Trouble Bruin shows up with one hell of a machine, called the Super Finagler. This guy never gives up, does he? Don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him, but for now, you have to concentrate on surviving. The platform you are on starts moving upwards. Ignore Bruin's machine, but watch out for the occasional projectile he shoots at you. Grab the Hammer Head from Headcase, but watch out for the Melon Head (getting this assures death). Use the Hammer Head to destroy the blocks on the left. After this, ram the blue blocks upwards. Make sure you choose the one that the brown Cocoa head is NOT on. SECRET BONUS = Destroy one of the Cocoa heads (you can't get them both). Once you've dodged past the spikey balls, run IMMEDIATELY to the right once you get the chance. Jump up to the platform above the one you're on and run sharply to the left - if you wait for the moving platform to catch up, you'll get crushed by the spikes. Once you clear the spiky ceiling section, you'll have to dodge between more spikes. These are more avoidable though, and there are some 500 point bonuses as well. After that, you have a choice of where to go. You can either grab the Hammer Head and ram the women on platforms repeatedly so you can get past, or you can grab the Mini Head, destroy the tiny tanks and pick up two extra lives when you're done. Either way, you'll come up against some more blocks which need to be destroyed after you pass. SECRET BONUS = Destroy ALL of the blocks (Hammer and Normal) on the level. To achieve this for the last part of the level, you'll need to grab the Hammer Head at the very last moment and destroy the Hammer blocks first. Once you finish destroying the blocks, the Super Finagler will attempt to destroy you, malfunction and go on a mission to destroy you and Trouble Bruin. Oh dear. -------------------- SCENE 9-2 = FAR TREK -------------------- This level isn't too complicated. Whenever Trouble Bruin tries to grab you, smash him a few times to get him off. The Super Finagler has trouble targeting you in two places; to the extreme right of the screen and directly underneath it. Split your time between these two areas and you should be able to dodge most of the laser shots. Eventually, Bruin will trip up and the Finagler falls behind as well, blowing up as it goes, allowing you to run right to the final scene. SECRET BONUS = Survive the scene without Trouble Bruin grabbing onto you. After about 52 seconds, he will start running in the same place and this is when you will hear you've got it. Thanks to JDAdams on the GameFAQs forums for clearing up the deal on this bonus point once and for all. In addition, Char also gave me some good tactics to get the point: "The best way to survive without caught by Trouble Bruin is to: 1. If you aren't getting completely bombarded by lasers, stay close to Bruin. It will keep him from jumping, which means he will not cover as much ground. 2. The best way to pass Bruin is to go underneath him when he's jumping. In a pinch, you can jump over him, but make sure that no lasers are coming at you. 3. Try to stay near the middle of the screen when you're not moving. When you are moving, however, try to keep the Super Finagler's gun barrel from staying in one place. Just alternate between moving just to the left and right of the barrel. This will keep the lasers from piling up in one direction, as when that happens, it's much harder to dodge the lasers." --------------------------------- THE FINAL SCENE = FINALE ANALYSIS --------------------------------- Well, here it is. You've fought your way to one of the toughest bosses ever. Heather will show up, but she won't be much use (she gets captured before the fight even begins). The background will now pan out from the throne room to a frankly amazing looking space backdrop and you'll face the Demon. The Dark Demon will allow you to pick a head to attack him with. A good tactic is to pause the game and see what options you have. When he turns blue, you can attack him. You can only do this once per choice, so obviously the Hammer Head does the most damage here. If you're fast enough, you can hit him with one head and grab another in anticipation of his attack. The colour of Dark Demon's crystal ball indicates what attack he'll use, and here they all are: PINK = A plague of either jumping or flying creatures that look like evil pumpkins. The flying creatures will fly around for a few seconds before diving at you, while the jumping ones will just jump off the screen. The War Head is recommended for this, but failing that, get the Pig Head or the Super Head. GREEN = Spike men appear from the bottom of the screen and attempt to rip you a new ass. You can either use the Mini Head and hide under Dark Demon's cloak, or use the Hammer Head to destroy them. SECRET BONUS = Destroy ALL of the spike men with the Hammer Head for a bonus. This is INCREDIBLY difficult to acheive. BLUE = A load of projectiles are fired from the Dark Demon's hand along ground level. He also puts up a barrier protecting him from you. The barrier can be destroyed after a few hits though. The recommended heads are either the Super Head (allows you to jump higher) or the Mini Head (allowing you to hide underneath his cloak). ORANGE = Dark Demon disappears off screen and a wall appears at the top of the screen. Only one spot in the wall can protect you from being squashed UNLESS you have the Mini Head, in which case there are 3 other spots. The spots are shuffled randomly by the wall before it comes crashing down on you. Getting crushed does not kill you instantly, but it takes away a whole lotta health. FLASHES BETWEEN ALL OF THE ABOVE = Dark Demon disappears and a HUGE blast charges across the screen. The only way to avoid this attack is with the Mini Head. This attack takes away almost half your health so watch out for it. That's all of his attacks, keep smashing him when he turns blue and he'll explode in a gigantic fireworks display. Congratulations, you've won the game! Now sit back and watch the incredibly dumb ending. :) --------------------------- THE FINAL FINAL SCENE = ??? --------------------------- If you managed to get all 4 bonus numbers from the Intermission Bonus Game, watch until the end of the credits. You'll now get to type the code in and play the last scene. You have infinite lives to complete this part of the game. The first phase is disposing of the "hitmen". Simply hit them and dodge between the money. It falls in a pattern so it's possible to predict where it lands. Beware, the money does MASSIVE damage - three hits and you're dead. But once you take out the two men, you're left with the boss. Get on one of the far sides of the screen and hit the boss. Money will fly out of him and home in on you. Dodge it by running to the other side of the screen. Repeat this process until you knock him senseless. Congratuations, now you've _really_ completed the game! Oh, and those secret bonuses? Sorry, all you get is the satisfaction of getting them all. :) ************************************************* CHEATS ************************************************* It has come to my attention that there are actually THREE, rather than two, cheat codes available for the English version of Dynamite Headdy. The first two are common knowledge, so I'll explain them here: On the Start Screen, highlight "Start Game" and press C, A, Left, Right, B (a correct entry will result in Headdy saying "Nice!") Press Start for the Level Select. Alternatively, highlight "Options", enter the exact same code and then press Start for the Head Check (a screen which allows you to see all of Headdy's different animations). Credit goes out to DRR Phantom for discovering the third code, also known as the "Hard Mode Code", however he worded it a little incorrectly on the GameFAQs website and was unable to change it, so I'll do it for him here. On the Start Screen, highlight "Start Game" and press C, A, Left, Right, B, making sure you HOLD down the B button, even when you hear Headdy saying "Nice!" Now, with the B button still held down, press and HOLD the Start button. Continue pressing both until you see the "Opening Demo" scene appear. Now you can release the buttons and continue as normal. Be warned however, one hit is all it takes to kill you now. Frankly, I've never tried completing the game with this code on, because I know it'd be downright impossible to finish the later stages. :) ************************************************* MISC STUFF ************************************************* Ok, I've decided to make this section because there's several parts to the weirdness that is Dynamite Headdy that can't be put into gameplay values. ---------------- MOVIE REFERENCES ---------------- As most people can guess, a lot of Dynamite Headdy's scene names are puns on various movies. As such (and as some people might not get the jokes) I'm putting down a brief reference guide to the scene names and their movie comparisons. If anyone can help fill in the gaps left by me here or correct any mistakes I make, please contact me and you'll get credit for it. Thanks to IMDB.com for the following: The Escape = The Great Escape (The Steve McQueen classic) Toys in the Hood = Boyz 'n the Hood (Ghetto film starring Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr and Ice Cube) Mad Dog and Headdy = Mad Dog and Glory (Comedy starring Robert De Niro and Uma Thurman) Clothes Encounters = Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Another classic) Terminate Her Too = Terminator 2 (Everyone knows this one) Mad Mechs = Mad Max (The movies that made Mel Gibson) Heathernapped = Kidnapped (There's about 10 variations on this movie) Stair Wars = Star Wars (Everyone knows this one too) Towering Internal = The Towering Inferno (Another Steve McQueen classic) Spinderella = Cinderella (Another one everyone knows) The Flying Game = The Crying Game (Drama about a British soldier captured by IRA terrorists) Fly Hard = Die Hard (The movies that made Bruce Willis) Baby Face = Scarface (There's probably a million movies that could match this scene name, but the closest I thought of was the Al Pacino classic) Headdy Wonderland = Alice in Wonderland (Yet another well known one) The Rocket Tier = The Rocketeer (Action film about a guy who finds a prototype jetpack and becomes a masked hero) Illegal Weapon 3 = Lethal Weapon 3 (You know this one too) Fun Forgiven = Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood directed Western) Twin Freaks = Twin Peaks (David Lynch directed film / TV series) Fatal Contraption = Fatal Attraction (Drama starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close) Far Trek = Star Trek (Only hermits wouldn't know this one) Finale Analysis = Final Analysis (Romantic drama starring Richard Gere and Kim Basinger) Credit goes to Joe Zovko and Nick "Wibblewozzer" Garboden for identifying the Twin Freaks level stage, and Mr Garboden again for identifying Fun Forgiven. --------------------------------------------- ENGLISH / JAPANESE / BETA VERSION DIFFERENCES --------------------------------------------- Finally, the big update I promised would be coming on the forums is ultimately delivered. :) Ok, brief background info. As you may or may not be aware, there are actually THREE versions of Dynamite Headdy; a beta never released to the public, the English version and the original Japanese edition. I'll speak more about the beta in a while, but first I'll cover the major differences between the Japanese and English versions. First point to note is, though English is used for the stage names and vocals, a great deal of the text is written in Japanese (Kajin?), and there is also a lot more of it, mostly spoken before you fight Trouble Bruin (Maruyama) and the Keymasters. I was, at one point, going to write out the translated "plot" of the game, but decided to bail out after I realised just how damn long it would take to actually make SENSE of it. Fortunately, I learned later that Michael Stearns did the job for Madam Luna, who's Headdy-holic site has been sadly taken down at the time of writing this FAQ / Walkthrough. With help from a persons by the name of Freakservo, the translated plot is now available for your viewing pleasure at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/community/treasure_gamers/2794.html?#cutid1 Now onto the rest of the differences. When you start the Japenese game, "Press Start" has now become "Press Start Button" and "Start Game" is "Game Start". Trivial, but noticable. :) Talking of trivial, the "Game Over" Screen shows either "Try Again" and how many continues you have or "Give Up". Ok, now onto some _real_ info. :D You will also notice on the intro that several characters have different names then their American incarnates. For details on who's who, check out the link above. All of the stage names (with the exception of Backstage Battle and Baby Face) are different between the versions. Here are the stage names in both (English on the left, Japanese on the right): The Escape = Escape Hero! Practice Area = Three Friends Meet Whoever = Friend's Room Toyz N The Hood = North Town Madd Dogg N Headdy = Concert Panic! Down Under = Fire Carnival Green Room = Guest Area Clothes Encounters = Starlight Storm Terminate Her Too = South Town Mad Mechs = Working Gear Mad Mechs 2 = Restless Factory Heathernapped = Mystery Spot Go Headdy Go = Puppet Tower Stair Wars = Go Up! Towering Internal = Rolling Rolling Spinderella = On The Sky The Flying Game = Air Walker Fly Hard = Reckless Wheel Fly Hard 2 = Light Velocity Headdy Wonderland = Paradise? The Rocket Tier = Fight! Illegal Weapon 4 = Missile Base Fun Forgiven = Radical Party Vice Versa = Reverse World Twin Freaks = Funny Angry Fatal Contraption = The Rival Far Trek = Brain Break! Finale Analysis = Final Attack As you play throughout the game, you will notice certain enemies and bosses have different colour schemes. These are a bit TOO trivial to write down in detail here, but in my opinion they look much nicer in the English version. :) A few noticeable graphic changes worth mentioning though are that the stagelights of Headdy and the Keymasters don't have "H" or "E" in the middle and the Melon Head Icon viewable on Headcase is now a Japanese symbol instead of a melon. Even more bizarrely, this symbol translates as "Buddha", meaning the Melon Head is in fact a Buddha head, which although explaining the in-game appearance of the head, leaves me to wonder if the programmers really weren't going on a head trip themselves when they made the game. :D The Intermission Bonus Game also has slightly different messages on it (English on left, Japanese on right): Get ** Shots = Get ** Items. Fight! 1/4 Icon = I< (it looks like the 'slow' function on a remote control) Remember (x) = Secret Number (x) As mentioned before, Trouble Bruin is now called Maruyama in the Japanese version, and he is a purple colour and looks rather cute, compared to his brown and evil-eyed look in the English version. His appearance was most likely changed for the English version to look more like his namesake (a bear) and also to give the impression you're actually fighting a bad guy and not a cute looking cat. :D When you fight Maruyama at the end of Scene 1-1, the energy balls he summons to his body don't hurt you. He still does, though. Obviously, this makes the battle between him a lot easier. Also, when he rebounds off the edge of the screen, the balls that fall out of his form start out small and then grow to their normal size. Quite a cool looking effect, but I guess as the balls hurt you in the English version it wouldn't make sense to keep it the way it was. Finally, when you hit Maruyama for the last time and he falls offscreen, instead of hearing the "neutralised" sound effect you hear the "Haunx" vocal he says everytime he gets hurt. Headdy's end stage "Head Juggle" does not have crowd applause in the background. In Scene 3-1, Headcase shows up for the fight with the three Flying Soldiers. He has the Hammer and Empty Heads available. In Scene 4-2, Mons Meg looks VASTLY different in the Japanese version. Rather than a castle-like humanoid robot, she looks like a large girl doll and is called "Rebecca". The most likely answer to the obvious graphic and name change is that Sega America didn't feel too happy about having the player headbutt a gigantic girl doll to death, but a robot who vaguely resembles a girl would be much more satisfactory. :) In Scene 5-3, Bino runs in slightly earlier during your fight with Spinderella, thus making him about 10 times MORE annoying (if that's possible in the first place). In Scene 6-1, there are less Flying Sharks to dodge in the first part of the scene. However, there are two waves of the bombs that surround you as compensation. Also, the wire that picks up The Flying Battleship is longer, meaning there's more of a delay to you fighting it. The mouth-gun of the Flying Battleship is also more difficult to destroy, and green lights appear in between the cloud turbulence during the battle. In Scene 6-4, there is a longer pause between the head selections, and subsequently a longer pause before facing Baby Face. In Scene 7-1, the Gatekeeper is, like Mons Meg, completely different. In the Japanese version, the Gatekeeper is actually two twin sisters, Yayoi and Izayoi. Upon appearance, Yayoi (Gatekeeper) resembles a female Japanese Kabuki dancer wearing a pink kimono. Izayoi (Nasty Gatekeeper) is similarly designed, but with Nasty's robot hands (coloured pink) and with sharp teeth and red eyes. Unlike Sega America's politically correct evil robot, the two are distinctly different characters. Also, the boss theme for this scene now has the drum beat heard at the beginning, like when it's played in the Sound Test. Finally, one blast with the Bomb Head is all that's needed to kill Izayoi. In Scene 7-3, the Hangmen in the final puzzle at the end of the scene hang around for double the time than in the English version, making it about 100 times easier. In Scene 7-5, notice in the English version, Headdy is briefly in his "confused" look for a split-second after Twin Freaks makes his presence seen? Well, that's because of the dialogue exchanged here that is ommitted in the English version, which called for his confused look throughout it. Amazingly, Twin Freaks is even HARDER to fight in the Japanese version, because he appears to have double (!) the health he has in the English version. However, there is a neat trick you can use in the fight - aim north-east and headbutt like mad when he's green - even though you're not hitting his ear, he'll still get hurt. And before you ask, SEGA did indeed catch on with that little trick for the English version and made sure you have to hit his ear. :( The ending of Dynamite Headdy is VASTLY different from the English version. As well as added dialogue from Smiley and Heather, instead of Heather and Headdy making out to the trumpet fanfare, Smiley jumps up and latches himself on Headdy's face, much to the chagrin of Headdy. Heather, evil bitch that she is, just watches with amusement as the trumpets sound. In the ending demo, Heather gives her goodbye salute to Headcase, Hangman and Beau. Headdy is shown a while after trying to remove Smiley from his face. He succeeds briefly and flashes a silly grin at the camera, before Smiley jumps back on there. The rest is as normal. Finally, the Curtain Call is called "Puppet Introduction". All the enemies have different names which I'm NOT about to spell out here. Suffice to say, I think the English names are better in almost every case. And now, for info on the beta. While I don't have the beta, here's a synopsis from the ever-awesome Madam Luna, posted on the Treasure Gamer's Community on LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/community/treasure_gamers), with comments from yours truly inserted in [] parenthesis: "The Japanese version wasn't modified very much from [the beta], basically they added a boss in the Guest Area/Green Room, added the "Hit Me!" wheels in South Town/Terminate Her Too, and Dark Demon's a lot easier in the beta because there's an invisibility head in the circle every time. As well as a few other things, like adding voices and an ending animation." In a screenshot she provided there, there is also a difficulty selection and 2 player mode in the Options Screen, although both options apparently had no changes on the game itself. I later received a mail from NES Boy, who not only gave me more interesting info on the beta, but also provided comparison screenshots as well. Here's what he had to say: "Okay, so I was watching the opening demo of Dynamite Headdy, and I noticed an oddity in the second scene. Mainly the monitors in the background. At the time I first noticed, I had the Japanese and Beta versions. I noticed that two of the silhouettes in the monitors are different than in the final versions. In the attached picture, I compared the two versions of the scene. I also threw in a close up of each of the silhouettes (changed and unchanged from the Beta) and identified who they are supposed to be. Anyway, in the Beta, instead of Baby Face, you see Twin Freaks on the second monitor. This is because Scenes 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, and 6-4 of the final game do not exist at the time of the beta. Even the various "Scene X-X" signs you see after Spinderella's stage have the first digit lowered by one number. For example, Stage 8-4 in the final game was Stage 7-4. Another odd change was that Yayoi/Izayoi looks slightly different in both the Beta and Final versions (you can see most of the minor differences in the pictures comparing the silhouettes, except they don't show you that the top stripe on the bottom of her kimono is missing). The reason that the Gatekeeper does not get a silhouette is because you can still see the final Yayoi/Izayoi silhouette in the American version of the game. Go ahead and see for yourself." Sadly, I can no longer provide the comparison picture for viewing, but if you really want to see it I'm sure you can ask NES Boy for it yourselves. :) So, to sum up, the beta version is remarkably similar to the Japanese version except that there are no vocal sound effects, a few extra options that amounted to nothing, a few graphical changes in the opening demo, the Puppeteer and Gentlemen Jim are nonexistant, the beginning puzzle in Scene 4-1 is absent, there are no flying scenes, no ending animation and the Dark Demon end fight sounds ridiculously easy if you pick the right head. No real difference, then. :D ------------ OTHER TIBITS ------------ Credit goes to Char for discovering this funny little side effect: "If you have your spike head at the end of a stage, connect your head to a wall or ceiling. Walk your body to the end of the level, and your body will go back to your head, and then you'll go to the next stage. It's kind of wierd. An example of this is in stage 8-2. Beat the Missile Man, then connect your spike head to the ceiling and walk off to the next stage." Also, new_challeger from the GameFAQs forums presented this interesting tidbit (with corrective parenthesis added by me, because I'm a grammar whore): "A gigantic movie reference most people missed would be the relation between the Keymasters and the Gatekeeper, anyone remember [Ghostbusters]? [Near the end of] the movie, 2 ghosts possess a nerdy guy and a woman [and] they call themselves the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper. When they meet, they open up the way for [Gozer] to enter into the world. And in Dynamite Headdy, you collect the Keymasters' keys, throw them into the Gatekeeper's backpack and it opens the way to Dark Demon's castle." Interesting indeed! Although I must also add the Gatekeeper didn't exist in the original Japanese version - instead there was those freaky geisha dolls, so I doubt the Treasure programmers intended to reference the movie in such a fashion. ************************************************* FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) ************************************************* Ok, in actuality, I've been asked very FEW questions about my guide to Dynamite Headdy, but one day there might actually come some questions...someday. So, to avoid clogging up my mailbox, I'll answer them here. Q: How does your hit points theory work? A: It's very simple; it's based around an attack which does the lowest amount of damage in the game. In actuality, there are several, but I figured the one term everyone would recognise would be the fact it's Headdy's normal head attack. Q: But you can't get hit with your own head! How can you say Headdy has 16 hit points?! A: Yes you can. Either let the Puppeteer grab your head on his strings or let a Venus Headdy Trap eat your head and spit it out. THEN tell me how many hit points Headdy has. Q: Ok then, but how come Keymasters have 17 hit points? They have the same stagelight as Headdy! A: Perhaps, but they don't take damage in the same way. Your first hit to them does not change their stagelight at all, hence the extra hit point. Q: Can you give a guide as to what enemy projectiles do what amounts of damage? A: Not any more. Q: The Damage Calculation Sheet is wrong! Lasers do much more damage then the wimpy birds! You even said so in an earlier version! A: I was wrong then. I actually went and did a hell of a lotta testing. Each shot that connects does 1 point of damage each. Q: No, you're wrong. This Magazine / Website / Strategy Guide said so. A: Tell you what. Why don't you test for yourself and see? Personally, I wouldn't wipe my rear end with what self-proclaimed "gaming experts" who give theories without proof say. I've explained how I came to the conclusions I have, and they are accurate. You're welcome to try them yourself and see. I have yet to see anyone else provide their own plausible theory about how damage is dished out in the game. Q: But I fired three hundred shots into Baby Face in five seconds and he didn't die! A: Well, remember that in about 50 of those, only 1 hits. All enemies with more than 1 hit point are invulnerable to hits for about a second after they're hit. You forgot about that, didn't you? Q: What's the best head in the game? A: There is no best head. All heads, with the exception of the Melon Head, have a use in the game. MY personal favourite is the Bomb Head. Q: What about the flying scenes? A: I go with the Laser Head, simply because of it's ability to penetrate enemy barriers. Most people go with the Biplane Head though, for obvious reasons. Q: What's the worst head then? A: The Melon Head. Duh. Q: You suck! You got [so and so] wrong! Idiot! A: One - That's not a question. Two - Get bent. Three - I went to the trouble of writing this, if you don't like it, don't read it. Four - Everything in this FAQ / Walkthrough has been tested and is BELIEVED to be accurate. If there are mistakes in the guide, and you have proof of such, and if you can write an e-mail to me in good, proper English and not be insulting, then do so. Unfortunately, now that I've made this the final version of the FAQ / Walkthrough, there's nothing that can be done about it. You'll just have to live with being too late. :p Q: Can I put your FAQ on my site? A: Mail me first and we'll talk about it. Q: Can I use parts of your FAQ on my site? A: No. Q: Where can I find the latest version of this FAQ? A: GameFAQs, which is where you'll most likely be if you're reading this. If you're not, tell me where you're reading it from so I can sue the pants off the git who stole it, unless it's from a site who already have my permission. Q: Dude, Gamespot stole your FAQ! A: That's not a question, and because GameFAQs let Gamespot advertise on their site, then it's safe to assume they let them do that. ************************************************* THE FINAL WORD ************************************************* Well, writing this FAQ / Walkthrough took a lot longer than I thought it would. And the updates took even longer when I got round to them! :) Feedback is welcome provided you can write in good English. My e-mail address, as it has now stood for over 6 years now, is keepinitfresh@hotmail.com. Unfortunately, my Hotmail account can get quite filled with junk as well, so PLEASE ensure that any mail you wish to send me has the words "Dynamite Headdy FAQ / Walkthrough" clearly printed in the subject title somewhere, otherwise I might mistake it for spam mail and delete it. Now, I know in earlier versions of this FAQ / Walkthrough I said that I wouldn't be making a final version. Well, to be frank, times change. It's been 6 years since I first wrote, and subsequently began updating this FAQ / Walkthrough and I think it's safe to say, after reading all the messages left on these boards and others, watching speedrunners play the game at a level I could never manage, providing both comments and commentary on a "Let's Play Dynamite Headdy" run with Madam Luna and once again playing and replaying this great game from the 16 bit era of awesomeness that I've said everything that needs to be said about Dynamite Headdy. Plus I've realised, with growing up and becoming an adult in full time employment, that I now no longer have the time to persue online Internet activities as much as I used to, and in that respect this is just one of those many casualties. But that's the way life is - it moves on, even when things like this can no longer. Thanks go out to the following people: Me (no one reads this bit, so why not) for taking what spare time I have in this world to constantly update this FAQ / Walkthrough. :) Treasure and Sega for producing this great game. Madam Luna for info on the Beta, the Japanese game, her Headdy website (which has sadly been taken down) and also for letting me provide commentary on her "Let's Play Dynamite Headdy" series on Google video. Bob Tomasevich and Micheal Sterns for uncovering all of the secret bonus points in this great game. DDR Phantom for finding out the patented Hard Mode Code. JDAdams for clarifying the deal behind the Far Trek bonus point. Char for clarifying some things on the Tarot bonus point and providing some tips for the Far Trek bonus point. NES Boy for providing the sadly no-longer viewable comparison screenshots. Ryan Schmidt for the info on McDonald's TreasureLand Adventure. Joe Voboz and Nick "Wibblewozzer" Garboden for helping me identify the movie name puns in Dynamite Headdy I missed myself. New_challeger for the Ghostbusters tidbit. The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) for helping me to track down info on the movies that Dynamite Headdy got it's puns from. GameFAQs for allowing me to put the initial version of this FAQ / Walkthrough on their site, and then letting me improve on it since then. http://faqs.ign.com for hosting version 1.41 of this FAQ / Walkthrough. Gredge for allowing me to write version 1.1 of this FAQ / Walkthrough for use on his site. And finally I give thanks to YOU, the adoring fan / Dynamite Headdy fanatic who decided to read all the way through this FAQ / Walkthrough of mine. You guys are the reason I have updated this FAQ / Walkthrough until literally nothing more can be said about this amazing game. It's been my privilege and honour to write this for you, and I can only hope many more people like you will find this game, play it and then read this FAQ / Walkthrough because they can't get past Scene 5-2. So then, all that's left to say is "Catch You'z Laterz, Dudez". Daniel James Gallagher AKA Minty Fresh Death