_____ _ _ ____ _ _ | _ \_) _ _ (_) / __| || | | |_) |_ | |___ _| |__ ____ _ ___ ____ ____ | _ |__ | | ___/ || / |_ _|\/ / /| '_ / / __| \____/ |_| | | | || | () || |_\ / / | | | | (| |__ | |_| |_||_\____/\___|\/\/|_|_| |_\__ |____/ __________________________________ __| | _________________ |____/ A Pilotwings 64 (PAL) FAQ/Walkthrough for Nintendo 64 by Christian Wall Size: 192 KB Version: 1.1 Last updated: Nov 8, 2005 E-mail: cwall_85[at]hotmail.com Homepage: http://home.swipnet.se/cpg Copyright (c) 2003-2005 Christian Wall _________________ Table of Contents _________________ 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Basics, etc. 2.1 Brief game information 2.2 Brief overview 2.3 Classes, tests, medals 2.4 Characters 2.5 Islands 2.6 Radar 2.7 Altitude meters 2.8 Sound 2.9 Subjective review 2.10 Test presentations in FAQ 3.0 Hang Glider 3.1 Basics 3.2 Beginner Class 3.3 Class A 3.4 Class B 3.5 Pilot Class 4.0 Rocket Belt 4.1 Basics 4.2 Beginner Class 4.3 Class A 4.4 Class B 4.5 Pilot Class 5.0 Gyrocopter 5.1 Basics 5.2 Beginner Class 5.3 Class A 5.4 Class B 5.5 Pilot Class 6.0 Cannonball 6.1 Basics 6.2 Level 1 6.3 Level 2 6.4 Level 3 7.0 Sky Diving 7.1 Basics 7.2 Level 1 7.3 Level 2 7.4 Level 3 8.0 Jumble Hopper 8.1 Basics 8.2 Level 1 8.3 Level 2 8.4 Level 3 9.0 Birdman 9.1 Basics 9.2 Stars 9.3 Islands 10.0 Secrets 11.0 Final Section 11.1 Version History 11.2 Credits 11.3 Contacting 11.4 Proof-reading 11.5 About the Author 11.6 Copyright Notice 11.7 Final Words Search string ------------- If you want to get to a section fast, bring up the search function of your browser/word editor. To activate the search function, press Ctrl F in most programs, including Internet Explorer. Then type the number of the part which you wish to reach. For example, if you need to get to Class B for Gyrocopter, type 5.4. You could just type the name of the section in the search function and you will get there eventually. If you know the name of the test, you can type that in the search function and you will get there in a blink of an eye. _______________________________________________________________________________ 1.0 Introduction _______________________________________________________________________________ Pilotwings 64 was released as a launch title for the Nintendo 64. Though it was very good, it was left in the shadow of the magnificent Super Mario 64, which was N64's real launch title. Pilotwings 64 is the sequel to Pilotwings on the Super NES, which was released in the early 90's. I actually didn't buy Pilotwings 64 at once when it came out. Instead, I picked it up just a few years ago, when it was on second hand sale. My copy had previously been for rental, but no one wanted to rent it anymore, so they sold it instead. I actually paid more for it than I should have, but I just had to get this old classic into my collection. Now it's time for me to write a FAQ for it. Enjoy! _______________________________________________________________________________ 2.0 Basics, etc. _______________________________________________________________________________ Here you can find general information about Pilotwings 64, that is the same for all vehicles in the game. If you're looking for controls or basics for a certain vehicle, you should go to the part that represents that vehicle. ========================== 2.1 Brief game information ========================== System: Nintendo 64 Television System: PAL Publisher: Nintendo Developer: Paradigm/Nintendo Origin: US/Japan Players: 1 Genre: Flying adventure Save Files: 2 Accessories: Nothing Released Japan: June 26, 1996 USA: September 29, 1996 Europe: March 1, 1997 ================== 2.2 Brief overview ================== Pilotwings 64 is a flying game. You shall choose among an amount of flying vehicles and complete a larger amount of tests. I believe that this game has more of an unrealistic feel to it. It is not a simulator. ========================== 2.3 Classes, tests, medals ========================== There are three primary vehicles: Hang Glider, Rocket Belt and Gyrocopter. To advance in the game, you must advance through classes. There are four different classes for each of the primary vehicles. Beginner Class - 1 test Class A - 2 tests Class B - 3 tests Pilot Class - 3 tests Beginner Class is easiest and Pilot Class hardest. In the classes, you must complete a number of tests which is stated above. The objectives of the test vary much. You can read about the tests in the parts for the vehicles. In each test, you can accumulate a total of 100 points. To get high points, you must for example, fly through many rings, do the objective in time or land softly. You can get three different medals for each class. Bronze - 70% of the total score Silver - 80% of the total score Gold - 90% of the total score The total score is the total number of points in the whole class. For example, Class A has two tests. That's 200 points, and then you need 70% x 200 = 140 points to get a Bronze medal. You must at least take a bronze medal to be able to advance to the more difficult class. You must get at least a Silver medal for all of the primary vehicles in a class to unlock am Extra Game. Get at least a silver medal on Class A to unlock Cannonball, Class B to get Sky Diving and Pilot Class to get Jumble Hopper. ============== 2.4 Characters ============== There are six different characters in this game. Their abilities differ from vehicle to vehicle so check the respective part for each vehicle. What's common for all of the vehicles is that the characters are divided into three classes. In the light class we can find Lark and Kiwi; in the middle class, Goose and Ibis and in the heavy class, Hawk and Robin. I'm not completely sure about this, though. As you probably know, all of the characters have bird names. You can read a few lines about every bird, below. For those of you who hate fillers: get over it, the descriptions can't be longer than one kilo byte in total. Lark - Aladidae A family consisting of 85 species in the order of passerines. They are 13-27 cm long and often striped in the colours of brown and grey. They live all around the world. Kiwi - Apterygidae Only three species in this family. It's the only family in the order of Kiwi birds. All of them live on New Zealand and none can fly. They look like small brown balls with long and narrow beaks. Goose - Anser 15 species in this family. They are large birds 53-101 cm long, living on the north part of Earth. Ibis - Threskioni A family of 30 species. The often white and brown birds can be 48-110 cm. They have really long beaks and can be found everywhere there's a warm climate. Hawk - Accipitrinae A family of 50 species, all around the world. They are often brown and 30-70 cm long. Very fast birds of prey. Robin - Erithacus rubercula A 14 cm big thrush bird, living in Europe and North Africa. It's grey-brown on the top; white and orange below. It belongs in the order of passerines. =========== 2.5 Islands =========== You do your missions on the following islands. There are no unlockable island. Below, you can find some general information about the islands and which classes that are taken there. I also write what weather that might occur. The difference between Sunny and Sunny Part 2 is the clouds. Sunny's cloud are packed in small thick groups, while Sunny Part 2's clouds are shattered over the sky. I believe that Sunny Part 2 is slightly more foggy. Sunny Part 2 is available for all islands, even though you can fly with the birdman during Sunny Part 2 on Holiday Island and Little States (unless, you take a star). Holiday Island -------------- Weather: Sunny, Cloudy, Evening, Starry Night, (Sunny Part 2) Beginner Class: All Class A: None Class B: None Pilot Class: None Level 1: Jumble Hopper Level 2: Sky Diving Level 3: None This is the smallest island. It is easy for the beginner to handle because it's rather flat. Here you find a small mountain with a beauitful castle on top, a hotel, a small airport and an amusement park. Lots of beaches and grass land can be found as well. This is a real holiday island. Ever-Frost Island ----------------- Weather: Sunny, Snowing, Starry Night, Sunny Part 2 Beginner Class: None Class A: Hang Glider Class B: Rocket Belt Pilot Class: Gyrocopter Level 1: None Level 2: None Level 3: Sky Diving and Jumble Hopper An island with a tall mountain. There is a ski village and an oil refinery representing the civilisation. It lies near the polar circle. Crescent Island --------------- Weather: Sunny, Sunny Part 2, Cloudy, Starry Night Beginner Class: None Class A: Gyrocopter Class B: Hang Glider Pilot Class: Rocket Belt Level 1: Sky Diving Level 2: Cannonball and Jumble Hopper Level 3: None This topical, C-shaped island can be found in the south seas. There're some mountains on the island and those are surrounded by jungles and beaches. A hotel in the middle represents the civilisation. Little States ------------- Weather: Sunny, Cloudy, Evening, Starry Night, (Sunny Part 2) Beginner Class: None Class A: Rocker Belt Class B: Gyrocopter Pilot Class: Hang Glider Level 1: Cannonball Level 2: None Level 3: Jumble Hopper This is a miniature of the United States. Though it is a miniature, it is by far the largest island. You can find so many American attractions here that you must see it for yourself. But where did Canada and Mexico go? ========= 2.6 Radar ========= Never underestimate the radar. It's a very good device. It lies in the upper- right corner of the screen and it shows where important targets lies. It also shows the runway or goal platform, thermals and in which direction the wind is blowing. The grey triangle in the centre of the radar is your vehicle. It always lies in there. The grey triangle points to what you have in front of you. You always see a white line with an "N" on the radar. That line points to the north. If the grey triangle points to the line, it means that you are travelling to the north. Sometimes, there may be windy weather. A blue arrow points to the way where the wind is blowing. The longer the arrow is, the stronger is the wind. An orange spot on the radar indicates that there is a thermal near you. Themals are only available when you fly the Hang Glider and helps the glider up in the air when you fly through it. Thermals aren't indicated at all, when they lie more than 600 metres away from you. The runway or goal platform is often marked on the radar. It's always red. Targets like rings, balloons, balls, robots and other important things are marked with yellow or green squares. If the target is positioned below you, the square is green and if it's above you, the square is yellow. Remember this well! Red, green and yellow squares are marked as triangles on the radar when they are positioned more than 600 metres from you. =================== 2.7 Altitude meters =================== It's very important to pay attention to the altitude you're currently on. Check the meter in the bottom right corner and you will see how high above the sea you are. If you have less than five metres left, you must really consider to gain some altitude. When there are less than 100 metres above something (land, mountain, sea, building), a red meter will show up above the sea level meter, to warn you, so that you don't crash. ========= 2.8 Sound ========= Go to the option menu and select "Sound". Here, you can listen to the 31 different tracks of Pilotwings 64. 1. Title music. Only heard when starting the game. 2. Heard after the above track, returning to title and in the option menu. 3. Heard on the file-, vehicle- and character selection screens. 4. During presentation of island and test selection screen. 5. While flying the Hang Glider. 6. Landing successfully with the Hang Glider. 7. Landing outside target/getting a low score with the Hang Glider. 8. Crashing with the Hang Glider. 9. While flying the Rocket Belt. 10. Landing successfully with the Rocket Belt. 11. Landing outside target/getting a low score with the Rocket Belt. 12. Crashing with the with the Rocket Belt. 13. While flying the Gyrocopter. 14. Landing successfully with the Gyrocopter. 15. Landing outside target/getting a low score with the Gyrocopter. 16. Crashing with the Gyrocopter. 17. While using the Cannon. 18. Hitting the target with the Cannon. 19. Not hitting the target with the Cannon. 20. While Sky Diving. 21. Landing successfully while Sky Diving. 22. Landing outside target/getting a low score while Sky Diving. 23. Crashing while Sky Diving. 24. While using the Jumble Hopper. 25. Hitting the goal with the Jumble Hopper. 26. While being the Birdman. 27. Not sure, but it has something to do with the Birdman. 28. Crashing while being Birdman. 29. Selection screen and score board after any flight. 30. While begin awarded a medal or a perfect score. 31. Credits. ===================== 2.9 Subjective review ===================== I don't think big reviews should be included in FAQs, but on the other hand, it may be good to know what the author thinks about the game. That is why I've decided to only include small, subjective reviews in my FAQs from now on. Graphics 8/10 When I got the game, I really liked the graphics. It's so free and beautiful. All of the areas are vast and you can go wherever you wish to go. It's really amazing. Some of the environments look very realistic. Sound 7/10 I suppose the music fits the game, but it's not much to brag about. I've nothing more to say, but the characters voices are rather silly. Controls/Gameplay 8/10 There are many vehicles and most of them have well developed controls. The problem with games that have many different gameplay moments, is often that it just gets mediocre or even bad because the developers don't get the time to do the finishing touch to the system. Pilotwings 64 does however not suffer from this. There is a large number of tests and many of these vary much. You will not get bored. Lasting appeal 7/10 There are many tests, but when those are finished, there is not much more to come back for. Total 8/10 A great calm game, which stood in the shadow of Super Mario 64. ============================== 2.10 Test presentations in FAQ ============================== All classes and tests in the below sections have a presentation. Here, I describe how it works. [Name of the class] ------------------- Location: On which island the class is taken. Tests: How many tests there are in the class. Bronze: How many points you need from the tests to get a bronze medal. Silver: How many points you need from the tests to get a silver medal. Gold: How many points you need from the tests to get a gold medal. [Name of the test] ------------------ Objective: In the test selection screen, there's an objective typed up. I write it here as well. I write it in quotes, to mark that it is taken straight from the game. Even though, I use British English in this FAQ, the objectives are written in American English because it is like that in the game. Hint: In the test selection screen, there's a hint typed up. I write it here as well. I write it in quotes, to mark that it is taken straight from the game. Even though, I use British English in this FAQ, the hints are written in American English because it is like that in the game. Scoring: In the test selection screen, the score is typed up, I write it here as well. If there's a time limit, I write that as well. Weather: Which weather is during the test. Wind: Only available in Extra Games. I state in which direction the wind is blowing. If it says "weak", it means that the wind arrow covers about a third of the radar. "Medium" means half of the radar and "Strong" means whole or close to whole radar. Difficulty: I rate the tests in difficulty between one and five. There's no criteria. I compare the difficulty of the tests with each other. I don't just compare the tests in the same vehicle class, I compare the tests over the whole game. Character of choice: Which character I prefer to use for the test. Here I write a Walkthrough for the test. _______________________________________________________________________________ 3.0 Hang Glider _______________________________________________________________________________ The Hang Glider is a flying vehicle with no engine. It is a large wing with a sack below where the pilot lies. There's also a metal bar for the pilot to hold. To be able to fly with the Hang Glider, you must jump off a mountain or be drawn by a plane. The later is not available in Pilotwings 64. I believe that Hang Gliders originate from kits. Kits have existed in East Asia for more than 2000 years. Later, they were used to deliver leaflets and sinalise important incidents. Today it's a sport and a well ========== 3.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in flying the Hang Glider. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - Flying - Landing - Rings - Photographing - Thermal flying - Characters - Judgement categories - In-game pointers Controls -------- Control stick Left: Turn left Right: Turn right Up: Descend, gain speed Down: Ascend, brake A Button: Release your legs, brake B Button: Release your legs, brake R Button: Switch view point (behind glider or behind pilot) Z Button: Snap photo by using the camera Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up Flying ------ You never have to care about starting, because you either begin in the air, or automatically run off a cliff. As simple as that. When it comes to the flying, there is some things you're ought to now about the Hang Glider. The Hang Glider has no engine, you only glide in the sky. You automatically lose altitude during the flight. Everything needs energy to work. There are no real perpetual motion machines. You can ascend by using "up", but then you lose large amount of speed which you must retake, or you will fall either way. You shall seldom, or never try to ascend using this way. If you dive by using "up", you lose lots of altitude quickly, but you also get a real speed boost. The Hang Glider is very heavy to control. When you try to turn, it never happens directly. You must wait for the glider to adjust itself for the wind. When you turn, you lose more stability, the more you turn. It's often hard to regret a turn; when you've turned and then want to turn back, you lose lots of air, speed and stability during the process. Always plan where you are going, before you execute the command. Landing ------- Landing with the Hang Glider can be rather tricky. You can do it by using a number of different methods. Something that is correct for all of the methods is the fact, that you cannot land with a speed greater than 50 km/h. If you release your legs with 50 km/h or higher, you will crash. There are some different ways of landing with the Hang Glider; different ways of approaching and different speed to be held. For each test, you get judged in two different landing categories: landing accuracy and landing impact. You get more accuracy points the closer you are to the centre of the platform. It depends on the difficulty of the mission how close you must be to the centre to get a full score. Most of the missions are pretty forgiving when it comes to this; you can land somewhere around the centre. The other thing that is important when landing is the impact. This is a little different, because you can never be completely sure when you get a prefect landing impact. This is determined on how softly you land. The goal is to make your character run along the landing point as he or she lands. If you release your legs high above the landing point, you get little or no impact points. I can guarantee that you get no perfect impact if you see the character bob up and down as he/she lands. You can land in 50 km/h, which you can see if you watch the in-game demo for the first Hang Glider test. When you've completed your tasks, fly to the landing point. The landing point is a red target on the ground and marked as a red square on the radar. Try to get close to the landing point in altitude by diving and then braking. Brake by pressing "A" or "B". Brake until you have a speed of 50 km/h. Keep the speed and fly just a metre above the landing point. Just when you get into the outer red field, release your legs. If you didn't get past 50 km/h, you will run along the landing point and stop in the middle. If this is done correctly, you get perfect accuracy and impact points. There are cons with this manoeuvre, though. If you get past 50 km/h and release your legs, you will spin and crash and thus fail the landing completely. It is also hard to stop in the middle of the landing point and get a perfect accuracy score. Impact is easy, though. I recommend a speed around 30-40 km/h. Just as above, you should sink so your close to the same level as the landing platform and as you get really close, brake by using "A", to a speed around 35 km/h. Glide around a metre above the landing point and release your legs when you get past the white area. There's a sneaky way to trick the computer into believing that you get a good impact even though it was very bad. This will either end up in a perfect score or no impact score at all. When you are some metres above the landing point, you can dive towards the centre of it and release your legs just as the sack of the Hang Glider touches the landing point. Three things may happen. You will either crash and get no points at all. You may clear the landing and get perfect accuracy (you aimed at the centre, right), but no impact points. And, if you're lucky, clear the landing and get perfect accuracy and landing points. This landing strategy, by letting the "sack" touch the ground may be used even if you manage to level with the landing point from the beginning. Remember to never release you legs when you're more than 2 metres above the landing point; this will result in little or no points at all. You must get good at the landing process. It gives you a large amount of the score for each of the tests. Practise, practise and practise; that's the trick! Rings ----- The easiest task when flying the Hang Glider is flying through rings. There are two different kind of rings: yellow and red. The yellow rings are normal and the rings are bonus rings. Score vary, but red rings are always much more worth than yellow ones. It couldn't hurt to display what they are worth in the Hang Glider missions, so read the table below. To get a perfect ring score, you must take all of the rings, except for Rising Creek where you only must get 8 of them. |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Class| Test| Yellow rings| Red rings| Total rings| | | | Amount|Worth| Amount|Worth| Amount|Worth| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Beginner Class| Albatross Nest| 2| 20| 1| 20| 3| 40| | Class A| Chicken Dive| 7| 14| 6| 36| 13| 50| | Pilot Class| Rising Creek| 8*| 40| 0| 0| 8*| 40| |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| * = There are 15 rings in total, but seven disappear after you've taken 8. Photographing ------------- This is a big and difficult part of the Hang Glider tests. In the so called Shutter Bug tests, you must photograph one or more targets. These are the things you must photograph throughout the game: a flame from a smoke stack, a whale, a fountain, a monster(!), a passenger boat and a space shuttle. Depending on how good your photograph is, your amount of points differ. You can always get a maximum of 60 photo points. If there are only one target that you must photograph, you get 60 points if that photograph is perfect. If there are two target, they split the 60 points. You can thus only get 30 points for a perfect shot. When there are three target, you can only get 20 points for a perfect photo. The 60 points are divided over the amount of photos. When pressing and holding "Z", a frame will appear. If you release "Z" a photo will be taken of the image that currently is displayed in the frame. You can take a maximum of six photos during one flight. I recommend you to divide them equally over the amount of targets in the mission. To get any points at all, the target must be seen through the frame. If you succeed in taking the photograph, the words "OK" will be displayed directly there after. The tricky part is to get a perfect photo. To get it, you must have the target in the centre of the frame and it must take up as much space as possible, without being outside the frame. In the centre and take up as much space as possible. That's it! Pointers, eh? Try to bring up the photo frame early and advance towards the target slowly. Keep the target in the middle of the frame all the time, and shoot in the very last second; when the target takes up as much space as possible without being outside of the frame. If you do this correctly, you will get a perfect shot. In the test selection screen, you can always find sample photos: photos that are perfect. If you take the exact same photo, you will get a perfect score. These photos are also available if you press "Start", while playing a Shutter Bug test. Remember, that it is often important to search for a landing platform or a thermal current directly after you've taken your shot, just so you don't crash. After a test, you can always check the photos you've taken, and if you're on a Shutter Bug test, you will get them evaluated and rated. The best shot, will be marked as "best shot"(!). Always check these photos. You will get a good idea of how they are rated and what you need to do to get it perfect. When you're not on a Shutter Bug test, you can just fly around and take photos on beautiful things if you wish. These can be saved in your album, if you check the photos after the fight. The album is available from the Option menu. I recommend you to photo for fun with the Birdman instead. It's easier and you can get wherever you want. Thermal flying -------------- This is the only thing that can make you ascend, without having the side-effect of slowing you down. Thermal currents are big windy spirals which are marked as orange spots on the radar. Fly into one, and it will take you high up in the air. Thermals vary in size and height. Some are really narrow, and then you must fly into it many times to reach your altitude. Some are really short and some can take you so high up that you'll be stunned. To my knowledge, everyone of them disappear after awhile. It may even be a great while. As long as the thermals exist, you can fly around without doing anything at all and you won't have to worry about crashing. Characters ---------- Choosing a character for the Hang Glider wasn't hard for me. I play with Kiwi for all of the missions. That's because the lighter characters (Lark and Kiwi) gain air easier while in a thermal currents. They don't sink as fast either. The good thing about the heavier characters (Hawk and Robin) is that they are more stable and don't wingle as much. Still, I see no good reason to choose anyone else than Kiwi. Why Kiwi and not Lark? Because she is so darn cute :) Judgement categories -------------------- After each test, you will find different categories in which you are judged in. I will list each of the ones for the Hang Glider below, and tell what you have to do to get a perfect score. Altitude Points The higher you get using the thermal currents, the more points you receive. The height limit for getting a prefect score is explained in the test where you must accomplish this task. Photo Points This is determined on the photo(s) you take. If you snap a photo where the subject lies in the centre of the image and it covers as much as possible of the image, without having any parts of it showing outside. Ring You get a higher score for flying through more rings. Read more in the part about rings. Time Points In all tests where there're time points, there will be a time limit. If you've cleared all of the objectives and landed within this limit, you will receive a full time score. The more you get past the time limit, the less points you'll receive. There's one exception. In Seagull Wing, you must land on an exact time limit to receive a full score. Not before, not after: exact. Landing Accuracy This is determined on how close to the centre of the platform you land. In the smack middle, and you'll get a perfect. Landing Impact This is determined on how softly you land. If you run along the platform, you get a perfect score. If you come floating from above, you don't You can trick the game here, though. Read further in the landing part. Total The total score for the test and it's always 100 points. This score is the sum of 3-4 of the categories above. In-game pointers ---------------- If you press "Replay" after a flight, and then press "A" during it, you will see a pointer. Press "A" two times more and you will see another one. These pointers are written below. Approach "Watch your angle when landing. Try to stay as even with the horizon as possible." Control Stick "Handle the Control Stick gently. Too much angel can make vehicles hard to control." Feel the wind "Wind direction is indicated as a blue arrow on the radar. Feel the wind and use it to your advantage." Flare "You will flare (lose speed) if you ascend too much. Stop flaring and drop your nose to return to normal." Landing Impact "Too much flare or a sudden decrease of speed will make for a hard landing. Decreasing speed by pulling your nose up will have the same effect." Landing Speed "Decrease speed to under 50km when landing. Too much speed will make for a difficult landing." Loosing Speed "If you find yourself deccelerating drop your nose to increase speed." Photo "When taking a photo, timing is critical. Hold the Z Button, and release it when the time is right." Pilots "These 6 pilots have their own skills. Is your pilot selection appropriate for each test?" Pull up "When going down, fly in circles above the landing point to decrease your speed." Radar "Objectives (rings, photo, etc.) are either green or yellow. Yellow objectives are above the player, while green objectives are below. The landing point/runway is red." Ride Free "Hang Gliders can fly as long as the thermal current exists. Why don't you fly around and forget about the task?" Ring "There are two different rings for the Hang Glider. Yellow rings are normal. Red rings will give you a higher score." Stopping Distance "Speed will affect your stopping distance. Make sure your speed is low enough so you have enough room to land." Thermal "Thermal currents vary in size, strength and altitude. They are orange when looking at the radar." ================== 3.2 Beginner Class ================== Location: Holiday Island Tests: 1 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Test 1 - Albatross Nest ----------------------- Objective: "Fly through 3 rings, then land on the landing point." Hint: "Be sure to press A when you land, and decrease your speed to under 50km for an easier landing." Scoring: Ring 40 Landing Accuracy 40 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 1/5 Character of choice: Anyone. Then for the first mission in Pilotwings 64. This is pretty easy, even to get a perfect score. Start by steering slightly right to get into the thermal in front of you. Thermals are marked as orange spots on the radar. Line up with the three rings so that you can see the red goal platform through them. Get smoothly through the rings without ascending or descending, unless you need to. The yellow rings are worth 10 points each and the red ring is worth 20 points. When you start to close in on the goal platform, brake by tapping A or B. You can also press "down" to ascend, but then you can lose your stability. See to it that you are pretty close to the ground, about 7 metres, perhaps. Brake until you have a speed between 25 and 40 kilometres per hour and you will have a decent landing. Get closer to the platform and press and hold "A" or "B" when you're gliding about one or two metres above it. You will run along it and stop in the middle. You will get a full target accuracy wherever you land in the red field in the middle, except if you land on the edge of it. The farther away from the middle, the less points you get. If you have a very slow speed of 20-25, you should release your legs close to the middle, maybe while gliding over the white field. If your speed is higher, about 40-50, you should release your legs just when going in on the platform. Remember to stay very close to the ground when you release the legs. If you release your legs high above the platform and then fall down, your points for landing impact will be less. Soft landings are good. =========== 3.3 Class A =========== Location: Ever-Frost Island Tests: 2 Bronze: 140 pts Silver: 160 pts Gold: 180 pts Test 1 - Shutter Bug -------------------- Objective: "Take a photo of the flame coming from the oil plant's smoke stack, then land on the landing point." Hint: "Photo points are determined by how large and centred the object is. Don't pull away from the flame too soon." Scoring: Photo Points 60 Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 2/5 Character of choice: Anyone. It's time to take your first photograph for professional rating. This one is easy. Start by going towards the thermal, which is marked as an orange spot on the radar. When it has taken you up in the air, go towards the chimney of the oil plant. If you can't find it, follow the yellow or green square on the radar. You will soon see the flame, your target. As you start closing in on the flame, press and hold the Z button. A square shaped target will show up. When you release "Z", a photo will be taken of the view you have inside the square. You need to release Z when you have the flame in the middle of your square. The top of the flame should not be outside the square and you should include the black top of the chimney. When you have the flame together with the black top of the chimney in the centre, you will get a prefect shot. Press "Start" and check the sample photo and you will see what you must do. When you think that you have just about the right shot coming, snap away all six pictures to make sure you get it perfectly. Now it's important, that you don't pull away from the flame. Instead, fly right through it. You will not crash, you will only see a rather comical scene where your character screams and becomes black. Now it's time to get your sooty Hang Glider down to the landing platform and you don't want too much speed here, right? Just when you've flown through the flame, press and hold "A" and you will do an extreme speed drop as well as you will drop several metres in altitude. Wait until you have around 50-40 metres left until you crash, then release "A" and press "up" to gain speed again. Fly towards the goal platform and occasionally press "A" to make the speed stay around 40 km/h. Stay close to the ground and do an old-fashioned landing. Test 2 - Chicken Dive --------------------- Objective: "Fly through as many rings as you can, then land on the landing point." Hint: "This is a gut check. Take it easy!" Scoring: Ring 50 Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Anyone, all of them have their pros and cons. Tough to get perfect score, but it's possible. You will run off a mountain for this one and directly when you're in the air, press and hold "up" to immediately begin this thrilling dive. Try to fly through all of the rings in a straight line. Turn as little as you can to be stable. There are 7 yellow rings; worth 2 points each, and 6 red rings; worth 6 points each. To take the last rings without loosing, is the toughest part of this test. If you pull up too early; you will not get the last rings, and if you do it too late; you will have a rather uncomfortable relationship with a mountain wall. I usually pull up, just after I've flown through the last yellow ring, or when I'm just about to fly through the second to last red ring. It is important to immediately turn to the right after you've pulled up. It's best to turn right at the same time as you pull up. You will hopefully miss the mountain wall in front of the coin trail, but you're not safe yet. If you don't turn left, immediately after you've missed that mountain wall, you will crash into another. I don't recommend pulling left after the rings; I, at least, seem to have trouble getting up to the landing point. When you've taken all rings and safely passed both mountain walls, you have a pretty tough landing ahead of you. You will see a thermal slightly to the left of you, when you've cleared the mountains. Fly into it and it will carry you high above the landing platform. Now get down to the landing platform and remember to slow down by using "A". It very easy to get a bad impact here. I can't tell you how annoying it is to get 19/20 in impact when you've done everything else successfully. =========== 3.4 Class B =========== Location: Crescent Island Test: 3 Bronze: 210 pts Silver: 240 pts Gold: 270 pts Test 1 - Velocity Square ------------------------ Objective: "Use the thermal currents to ascend to 400m, then land on the landing point on top of the mountain. You must reach 400 m to receive time points." Hint: "Keep your speed constant and turn in the thermals to reach 400m. Higher thermals are narrow. Circle your glider, and land on the landing point." Scoring: Time Points 40 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 40 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Cloudy Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi Don't use heavy characters for this test. They will have trouble getting up through the thermals which you must climb. Directly when you begin to glide, turn left into the first thermal. Fly straight into it, don't just fly in a corner of it. You won't get enough altitude, if you don't get straight into it. When the first current has taken you up to around 160 metres above sea level, make a sharp turn to the left into the second thermal. Fly straight into this one as well as you should do with the rest of them. Let this one take you to about 270 metres. Make a sharp turn to the left, into the third thermal and let this one take you to around 340 metres above sea level. Time to get into the fourth and final thermal. Make a turn to the right from the third one, and let the fourth bring you over the 400 metres limit. You will probably have the goal in front and below you when you've reached 400m. Dive towards the goal and when you close in on it and have little height difference between you and the goal, start braking by tapping "A". Get to a speed around 30-40 km/h and then land smoothly on top of the mountain. Test 2 - Shutter Bug 2 ---------------------- Objective: "Take photos of the fountain in front of the hotel and the whale swimming in the gulf, then land on the landing point." Hint: "The whale is always moving and the fountain is surrounded by palm trees. You've only got 6 shots. Keep that in mind when taking photos." Scoring: Photo Points 60 Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi (for the below strategy to work) Another tough test, at least to get a perfect score. The 60 photo points are divided on two targets. Both of the targets: the whale and the hotel, can each give you a maximum of 30 points. You have six photos in the camera. Snap both of your target three times. This is my preferred strategy for getting a perfect score. You will see a green square on the radar that's to the left of the starting area. That's a whale which you must photograph. Immediately when you begin, dive towards the green square and brake as you start reaching the sea. Advance the whale carefully with "Z" pressed. Make the whale stick in the middle of the picture frame and snap three times. This is rather hard actually. I do think that you can get full points for taking the photo of the whale from behind. You must get the water he blows out in the photo to get a perfect score. When you're done with the whale, check the radar to see a thermal very close to you. It's an orange spot. Fly into the thermal, and you will once again be high up in the air. You must get a good approach to the fountain, your next target, so fly towards the island in the middle of the bay. Once there, look at the radar for the fountain and the landing point (they lie on the same place). Fly towards the fountain and bring up your photo frame with "Z". As you close in on the place, you will see the fountain. Be ready to snap when you have the whole fountain in the middle of the frame. There is some blue things next to the fountain. Remember to get those in the picture as well. Check the sample photos to see perfect shots of the whale and the fountain. When you've taken your three shots of the fountain, ascend and fly to the left, so you avoid crashing into the hotel. Don't land immediately. Continue to the left until you see a small wooden bridge. Just before you pass over the bridge, turn around and head back to the hotel and landing point. You will probably have a perfect speed and altitude when you fly over the landing point, so you won't have to try too hard to get perfect accuracy and impact. This strategy for landing is only possible with Lark or Kiwi. The other ones sink to fast. Test 3 - Seagull Wing --------------------- Objective: "Land on the landing point in exactly 3 minutes." Hint: "Timing accuracy is important. To achieve your goal, use the thermal currents located near the landing point." Scoring: Time Points 70 Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: I'd think Lark or Kiwi. This is one annoying test to get a perfect score on. You must land exactly when the timer strikes 3'00. It's close to impossible to make a completely fool-proof strategy for this one, but I do have a strategy that makes you land close to three minutes. Adjust this method until you manage to hit 3'00 exactly. Check the radar when you begin and directly set course for the red triangle, the landing platform. You will notice a mountain standing in your way. Fly around it on its left side and then set aim for the goal. Don't, even once, press "up" or "down" until I say so. >) Fly over the goal in the same speed as usual and continue away from it. You will see the red square on the radar draw father and farther away from you. When you see that the red square is about to be turned into a triangle and the timer stand on 2'05 - 2'10, turn around completely, and set aim for the goal again. Directly after the turn, dive to around 50 metres above sea level and stay there until you get to the goal. Remember to brake before you reach the plat- form and then land in an old-fashioned manner. Hope that the clock shows 3'00. I'm aware of the thermals near the landing point, but I think it's a waste of time to use them. =============== 3.5 Pilot Class =============== Location: Little States Test: 3 Bronze: 210 pts Silver: 240 pts Gold: 270 pts Test 1 - Thermal Flyer ---------------------- Objective: "Fly into the thermal currents and ascend as high as you can, then land on the landing point. The thermal currents will disappear after 4 minutes." Hint: "The currents will become smaller as you ascend. Aim for the smaller currents to increase altitude." Scoring: Altitude Points 70 Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Cloudy Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi Definitely use Lark or Kiwi for this test. No one else. You shall travel through a large amount of thermals to reach the altitude of 650 meters. An altitude of at least 650 metres above sea level gives you a prefect altitude score. The further below this limit you've come, the less points you will get. Try to use "up" and "down" as little as possible. You will be able to hold a pretty even speed and height if you leave those commands alone. The first thermal is a little to the right of where you start. Fly into the middle of it and let it carry you to around 210m. The second one is pretty straight from the first. I lies to the east from the first one. Let this one carry you to the height of 280m. The third one lies to the north and it will take you all the way to 380m. The fourth lies to the north-west from the third one and will carry you to a height of 470 metres above sea level. Make a sharp turn to the left so you look towards the south-west. On the radar it will look as you're heading to the thermal current in the centre and you are. The problem is that you will fly below it if you don't press "down" to ascend while you're below it. You will probably see the thermal above your head, but check also the radar for the orange spot in the centre and you will make it. This thermal takes you to the height of 620m. This was the fifth thermal. Then for the last one, which will take you all the way up. Check to the south- east from the fifth current, and you will see the sixth one. Fly into it and you will reach at least 650m and you will probably do it awhile before 4'00. Now it's time to land, and may I say, you do have a long way down. Start diving and don't care too much about the landing point; you have time to look it up. The landing point lies a bit over sea level (I think about 50m), so stop diving before the height of 200 metres above sea. Then fly towards the landing point and try to brake in time using "A". Get down early and land smoothly. Test 2 - Rising Creek --------------------- Objective: "Fly through 8 rings out of 15, then land on the landing point. You must fly through 8 rings to receive time points." Hint: "There are a total of 15 floating rings. The score for each ring is the same. Look for thermal currents to help you out. Scoring: Ring 40 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 4'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Kiwi or Lark, I'd suppose. Remember here, that you don't have to take 15 rings. In fact, all rings disappear when you've taken eight of them. The rings are worth five points each. When you start, I don't recommend you to follow the waterfall; it's annoying, dangerous and time consuming. Instead, head directly to the right and you will see your first ring. This ring lies to the south. You will see the second one nearby. From the second ring, dive to the south-west and you'll see your third ring on an altitude of 150m above sea level. Continue and you'll see the fourth one on an altitude of 100m. Ignore the one on a cliff nearby, and fly instead to the one above a freeway on an altitude of 65m. Check the radar and continue into the thermal nearby. For the sixth ring, head to the east, yes to the east, and you will see it on 100m. Continue for the seventh one in the same direction. You will only see the edge of it, so be sure to turn a little to the right of it to get through it correctly. Then get down into the valley and head for the landing point. The last ring will appear during the way there. Just after the last ring comes a thermal which carries you up in the air so you can make it to the landing platform in Los Angeles. When you close in on the landing point, dive in time and brake to a speed of 30-40 km/h. Land smoothly on the platform. This one can be tricky, I don't know why. Test 3 - Shutter Bug 3 ---------------------- Objective: "Take photos of Missi the monster, the passenger boat and the space shuttle, then land on the landing point." Hint: "When using the thermal in front of the space shuttle, be careful not to go too high. You can still photograph the space shuttle after it takes off. Just use the C Buttons to help you out." Scoring: Photo Points 60 Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Starry Night Difficulty: 5/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi. This is easily one of hardest tests in the game. To get three prefect photos in one try is very hard. Choose a light character to make the last photo easier to take. Starting off, fly straight and to the left towards the river. I suppose that it's Mississippi (Missi), but what do I know about American geography? When you get closer, you will notice a red thing in the water, it's Missi the monster. Fly closer and take a photo of her. Fly very close and wait to shoot until she's in the middle of the frame and takes up as much space as possible. Remember to only shoot twice. You should divide the six photos over the tree targets fairly. Draw away from Missi in the last second and head for the closest thermal current. Let it carry you up and then check the radar for the next target. Choose the green square which is not by the landing point. You will soon see the boat which you should photograph. You will first see that it goes by you, and then turns to go back towards the landing point and last target. You should try to get that perfect shot when the boat just has turned. When you've taken your two photographs, head for the closest current, which should lie to the right of you. When you've gained air in the current, head for the landing point and last target. On the way, you will see a current on your right. Ignore it, but the current after that one, which lies in your path, must be used. Let this current carry you to a height of at least 180-190m above sea level. Check the radar for the last target and then dive towards it. Dive right down first, so you get high speed. Then continue in high speed towards the shuttle. The space shuttle will be launched, and because of this, it's very important that you have a high speed here. When the space shuttle takes up a large space in the middle of the picture frame, shoot twice and hope that you're close enough. If the shuttle gets launched, try to either ascend and photo or use "C down" to look upwards. To ascend doesn't really hurt you here, you must slow down because of the ramp, anyway. After you've taken the photos, turn around to the landing point just behind you. If you feel insecure because of all the buildings, take a spin towards the current on your right and then go for the landing point. Land as usual. This is not the most difficult part of this test, if you know what I mean. _______________________________________________________________________________ 4.0 Rocket Belt _______________________________________________________________________________ A Rocket Belt is an amazing device. It's two rocket engines attached to a belt which humans wear. In Pilotwings 64 can someone who wears a Rocket Belt reach unbelievable altitude and reach unimaginable speed. The Rocket Belt was developed as early as the 50's by the United States, I believe. It was at first meant as a device for the military, but when you only could fly for around 20 seconds each time, it was in reality only for show. ========== 4.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in flying the Rocket Belt. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - Flying - Landing - Hovering - Rings - Ball bouncing - Floating pads - Characters - Judgement categories - In-game pointers Controls -------- Control stick Left: Turn left Right: Turn right Up: Point jet forward Down: Point jet backward A Button: Strong jet B Button: Weak jet R Button: Change viewpoint (behind pilot or above pilot) Z Button: Air brake, hover (drain lots of fuel) Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up Flying ------ When you control a Rocket Belt, you control the two rockets attached to your belt. When you press "A" or "B" (depends on your requested speed), both of your rockets will fire. You will be boosted in the direction of which both of them are aimed towards. By using the control stick vertically, you can change the angle of your rockets. A neutralised control stick lets you get straight up in the air, if you use the jet buttons. Pressing it "up", aims them forwards and you will be boosted forwards. "Down" will of course do the opposite. You turn in the air by pressing "right/left". To make sudden stops, you must press the control stick in the opposite direction of which your are heading, or simply press "Z" (read more below). It will be harder to turn and stop, the greater your speed is. If you don't use any jet at all, you fall. If you hit the ground too fast, you crash and must restart the test. If you hit the ground or a wall softly, you will not crash, only get two points deducted from your total score. As I wrote above, there are two different kinds of jets; the strong one, used when you press "A" and the weak one, used when you press "B". I find the weak one very unnecessary. I never use it and I don't think that you should either. It is almost no power at all, and if you actually feel the power, it takes a long time for it to really take effect. I recommend that you use the A button and the Z button instead, whatever you do. A Rocket Belt uses fuel. The fuel metre lies in the bottom part of the screen. Fuel will be used when you use your jet. Hovering, by pressing "Z", drains the highest amount of fuel, then it's the strong and last, the weak jet. When the fuel metre is empty, you can no longer use your rockets, and you will fall. This sure sounds uptight, doesn't it. The max speed is 204-206 km/h (depending on the choice of character and the max altitude you can reach is around 700 metres above sea level. Landing ------- Landing is the easiest thing about the Rocket Belt. It's much easier to land with this vehicle than with any other. I wonder if that's the case with the real counter-parts. For each mission, you get judged in two different landing categories: landing accuracy and landing impact. You get more accuracy points the closer you are to the centre of the platform. It depends on the difficulty of the mission how close you must be to the centre, to get a full score. That doesn't really matter, though. It's very easy to hit the exact centre. The other thing that is important when landing is the impact. This is determined on how softly you land. That means that you must use your jet wisely. Think about it yourself: how many metres would you like to fall right down on a hard platform? To get a perfect landing, then. The landing point for the test is always marked with a red square if you are within 600m. Fly towards the landing point and when you are somewhere above it, press "R" to change your viewpoint. You will then place your view above the pilot instead of behind him/her. Boost yourself to the centre of the point and then fall. As you start closing in on the ground, press "Z" to stop and hover. When you've only got one metre left until impact, press "Z" and then release the button to land with a full impact score. If there is a wind blowing, you must be extra careful. Do as usual, but place your back or front towards the wind. If the wind would blow you off course, then you can simply use the jet to get back to the centre of the landing point. It's more annoying if you have the wind blowing on your side, you see. Hovering -------- Hovering is one of the most vital moves when using the Rocket Belt. Everything would be much harder if this move wasn't implemented and I seriously doubt that it can be found on a real Rocket Belt. When you press and hold the Z button, both of your rockets start to spin very rapidly. This makes you stop almost immediately. The amount of time from when you press the Z button and when you actually stop becomes higher, the more speed you have. Still, you always stop within a few seconds, even with a speed above 200 km/h. As you can read above, the hover technique is always used when you land to make a better impact. You shall also always use this technique when you are doing precision exercises to avoid hitting things, and thus get points deducted. Remember to always check your altitude metre and and as soon as you get close to anything, take it as an accustomedness to always press and hold "Z". Do keep in mind, that hovering uses very much fuel. If you hold "Z" for a long time, you will see your fuel get drained very quickly. Try to always just hold "Z" to get yourself out of dangerous situations. It might be tempting to hold "Z" if you are going to make an 180 degrees turn, but don't get used to it; it drains too much fuel. In the demo for the test in the Beginner Class, I know that they do this, but here you have lots of fuel. In other places, you maybe don't. Rings ----- You only have rings in two tests for the Rocket Belt. The value of the rings differ in both of the test. In Metropolis Dance, you have seven yellow rings, worth four points each and two red, bonus rings, worth six points each. In More Rings, there are no bonus rings. All rings are yellow rings worth one point each. If you fly through some of them, others become time rings which are worth six points each. These rings always disappear after an amount of time and becomes regular yellow rings. In More Rings, there is a total of fifteen rings. Six of these must be taken when they are yellow. Eleven of them can be taken as time rings. Some rings spin. This is important to keep in mind. If you go too fast through a spinning ring, you can easily miss it. Try to slow down in front of them and boost slowly through them to be sure that you're successful. Ball bouncing ------------- There are two ball bouncing tests in Pilotwings 64. You shall body slam a big green ball into a goal area which is marked as a red square on the radar. As soon as the green ball gets inside the goal area, the test ends and you don't even have to care about landing. When you hit a ball, the ball bounces away determined on where you hit it. If you hit it from the underside, it will bounce upward. If you hit it in the centre, it bounces straight forwards. Try to keep the ball on the water and not too high up in the air. Bouncing it onshore, can make it move in less useful directions. If you bounce too high up, you will lose lots of time, if you accidentally push it downwards. Floating pads ------------- The floating pads tests are about landing on small pads to receive points. These look like small landing platforms and they hover in mid-air. You must land on them in order, because the second pad will not envelope before you've landed on the first pad, and so on. When you land, I don't recommend you to use "R" to change viewpoint, because I think it just adds to the confusion. Try to approach the pad horizontally, and then use "A" and "Z" in conjunction to each other, to carefully land on the pad. If you do a free fall towards a pad which is higher than 2 metres, you will have two points deducted from your score and it will not count as you've cleared the pad. It's all about soft landings in other words. Another big aspect is the fuel. You will start with little fuel and this will be replenished when you land on the pads. Don't go aroud and lose too much fuel, or you won't make it to the next pad. Do take wind into consideration. The wind is very important, because it can make you miss the pads. Position yourself so that you have the wind blowing on your back or on your front when you approach a platform. Then, you can just give a short burst in the requested direction to get on course again. Characters ---------- Your choice of character doesn't matter than much. I prefer to use Lark or Kiwi, because they are more nimble and I think that they respond faster to your actions. It is easier to avoid crashing into walls. On the missions where it is windy, I prefer heavier characters, because the light ones are easily affected by the gust. Lark and Kiwi have a max speed of 206 km/h, Goose and Ibis have 205 km/h and Hawk and Robin have 204 km/h. In other words, it doesn't matter much. Judgement categories -------------------- After each test, you will find different categories in which you are judged in. I will list each of the ones for the Rocket Belt below, and tell what you have to do to get a perfect score. Balloon You get a higher score for more crushed balloons. If you have burst all of the balloons in the test, you will get a full balloon score. Floating Pads You get a higher score for landing on more floating pads. If you have landed on all of the floating pads, you will get a full balloon score. Ring You get a higher score for flying through more rings. Some rings must turn into time rings for you to get a full score. Read more in the part about rings. Time Points In all tests where there're time points, there will be a time limit. If you've cleared all of the objectives and landed within this limit, you will receive a full time score. The more you get past the time limit, the less points you'll receive. Landing Accuracy This is determined on how close to the centre of the platform you land. In the smack middle, and you'll get a perfect. Landing Impact This is determined on how softly you land. If you make a free fall for more than one metre you will not get a perfect impact score. Deducted Points If you touch anything except the landing point or the objectives, you lose points from your total score. Two points each time. Total The total score for the test and it's always 100 points. This score is the sum of 1-4 of the categories above. In-game pointers ---------------- If you press "Replay" after a flight, and then press "A" during it, you will see a pointer. Press "A" two times more and you will see another one. These pointers are written below. Approach "When landing, don't drop your speed too fast or you'll crash. Keep your balance by pressing either the B or Z Buttons." Ball "If you hit the ball from below, it might bounce too high. It could go in any direction." Caution! Close to Wall "If you get too close to a wall or building, the camera angle will change which indicates a warning. Keep a cool head and don't panic." Changing the View (C) "Use the C Buttons to select the desired view. It's helpful when trying to see objects that aren't directly in your line of sight." Changing the View (R) "Change the view by pressing the R Button. It's very helpful to use when landing. Press R again to return to the standard view." Control Stick "If you push up or down completely on the Control Stick, even though the Rocket Belt is horizontal, gravity will pull you down." Deducted Points "If you touch or land on anything but the objectives or landing point, you will be deducted 2 points for each occurrence." Feel the Wind "Wind direction is indicated as a blue arrow on the radar. Feel the wind and use it to your advantage." Floating Pad "If you land on a floating pad correctly, the next pad will open up and appear on the radar. Floating pads restore a small amount of fuel." Fly Free "Sometimes it's nice to forget about test loud and just explore. See what you can find!" Fuel "Pressing the Z Button consumes a lot of fuel. Use the B Button to slow you down and watch your fuel gauge." Hovering "Press the Z Button consumes a lot of fuel. Use the B Button to slow you down and watch your fuel gauge." Inertia "When you are flying, it will be difficult to change direction suddenly because of inertia. Try to keep your inertia under control." Radar "On the radar, items below the pilot are green. Items above the pilot are yellow. The landing point is red." Ring "There are two different rings, normal and time. Time rings only appear when certain rings have been cleared. They only appear for a short time, before turning into yellow rings." ================== 4.2 Beginner Class ================== Location: Holiday Island Tests: 1 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Test 1 - Balloon Crash ---------------------- Objective: "Hit the balloon floating above the castle and land on the landing point. You must hit the balloon to receive time points." Hint: "Go straight up when taking off for easier flying. When in danger, press Z to stabilize yourself. To help with landing, change your view with the R Button." Scoring: Balloon 30 Time Points 20 (will be deducted when 0'45 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Difficulty: 1/5 Character of choice: Anyone. This is so easy that it's laughable. The timer begins when you've left the ground. Keep that in mind. Now simply press "A" to gain air and then aim the control stick 45 degrees forwards. Aim straight towards the balloon on the castle and burst it. When you've done that, press "Z" to stop and then turn around so you're looking at the landing point. If you wish, you can hold "Z" while turning. The landing point is the red square on the radar. Hold the control stick "up" and boost towards the landing point with "A". Release "A" now and then to drop altitude. When you get near the landing point, press "Z" to become stationary and then "R" to change viewpoint so you place the camera above your pilot. Boost towards the centre of the platform and press "Z" occasionally to slow down. Be sure to press "Z" when you have 1 metre left to the platform and you will get a perfect Landing Impact. You will have a perfect Landing Accuracy if you land in the centre and a perfect Time if you land before 45 seconds have passed. =========== 4.3 Class A =========== Location: Little States Tests: 2 Bronze: 140 pts Silver: 160 pts Gold: 180 pts Test 2 - Metropolis Dance ------------------------- Objective: "Fly through 9 rings, then land on the landing point. You must fly through all 9 rings to receive time points." Hint: "Use the map to help plan out an efficient route. Be careful not to touch obstacles when going for the rings. Scoring: Ring 40 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 1'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Evening Difficulty: 2/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi The reason why I'm recommending Lark or Kiwi for this test, is because of their length. It is much easier to avoid hitting buildings when using smaller characters. You must fly through all 9 rings to receive time points, so be sure that the radar is cleared when you land. There are seven yellow rings; each worth 4 points and two red rings; each worth 6 points. This my route of choice. The first ring is yellow and lies to the left of where you start, you might even see it. It moves in a circle. Boost yourself to the left of it, so you look towards the skyscrapers. Press "Z" so you're stationary in front of the ring. Boost through it when you see your chance. From the first ring, you'll probably see the second one. It's red and spins just in the centre of the group of the skyscrapers. Fly carefully into the centre by occasionally pressing "Z". Remember that even the slightest bump into a building deducts your points and thus disables you to get a perfect score. Pass the ring slowly, so you're sure that you go through it. Time to get the third one. If you don't look at the radar, this may be hard to find. From the second ring, just boost straight up in the air and you'll find it on top of one of the skyscrapers. Fourth one, eh? Have you seen the freeway running through Los Angeles (in this game)? It forms a bridge over the city and just below it lies a red ring. Drop down from the skyscrapers on the north side of them and fly through this stationary ring. Not long from the fourth one lies the fifth and sixth on top of each other. Fly on top of the uppermost and change your viewpoint with "R". Position yourself above the rings and then simply drop through them. Press "Z" when you've dropped through the lowest, so you don't hit the ground. Rings 7-9 lie near the landing point in a row. Just fly through them and get ready to land. Land as you usually do. There's nothing strange about it. Test 2 - Touch & Go ------------------- Objective: "Land on each floating pad in order then land on the landing point. You must touch every pad to receive time points." Hint: "Try adjusting the view to better see the landing pads. When you land on the first floating pad, the next one will appear. Each pad will slightly refuel your rocket belt." Scoring: Floating Pads 30 Time Points 20 (will be deducted when 2'00 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Hawk or Robin This is your first floating pads mission. In short, you shall land softly on every pad and when you're done, land on the landing point. You must do this within 2 minutes to receive full time points. The reason why I'm recommending the heavy characters, is because there will be some strong wind near the ground. The wind makes it harder to land on the floating platforms. I also recommend you to read the part about floating pads in the basics for the Rocket Belt. You will have a very thorough explanation there. When you begin, you will be on an altitude of 324 metres above sea level. The first floating pad lies just in front of you. Land on it as described in the basics. Because the platforms lie in a line on different altitudes, you will probably see the second one when you're on the first. The third platform is on a much lower altitude than the second one. When you're on the second one, jump off it and fall until you see the third one. It's on 288m. The fourth pad is a great way below the third one. It lies on 204 metres. Jump off the third pad and fall until you see the fourth one. Do the same thing for the fifth pad which lies on 142m. While going to the fifth platform, a strong wind will begin to blow to the right and that's why it is good to use one of the heavy characters here. Still, beware that you will be blown slightly to the right. Do try to approach the fifth pad from the left, if you feel that the wind is hard to control. The last pad is found further down from the fifth. It lies on 71 metres above sea level. Then it's just to aim for the goal. The goal can be found behind a rock formation after the sixth pad. It's very easy to land here, so do it as usual. =========== 4.4 Class B =========== Location: Ever-Frost Island Tests: 3 Bronze: 210 pts Silver: 240 pts Gold: 270 pts Test 1 - Balloon Bonanza ------------------------ Objective: "Crash into every balloon, then and on the landing point. You must hit every balloon to receive time points." Hint: "Each blue balloon will turn into 5 orange balloons. Hit the orange balloons fast before they get away." Scoring: Balloon 30 Time Points 40 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Hawk or Robin It's about bursting two big blue balloons to make five smaller orange balloons appear from each of them. This is not hard, unless you get confused. Start off by flying towards the closest one. It hovers above the water. Fly into it in high speed, because you can't break it if you fly too slowly. The five orange balloons that appear will be much easier to break, though. Never stay in the middle of the balloons. Make turns, forward and back through the pack of balloons. Do so until you've broken every one of them. Remember to wait for the word "Balloon Cleared", because it's easy to think that you have broken it, even though you haven't. Try to follow the balloons in their move- ment: if they drop; you drop, if they bounce up; you boost. I recommend you to use "R" as seldom as possible. It will just add to the confusion, in my humble opinion. Alpha and Omega about this test, is to fly back and forth. When you've broken all of the balloons in the first place, follow the radar to the next target. This big blue balloon lies near the oil refinery. Break it and the small orange balloons as you did above the water, but be a tad more careful; the area is surrounded by a number of structures. Use "Z" a lot to avoid crashing into buildings. If a balloon has bounced out of your sight, check the radar to easily find. Also remember to check the radar to see if your balloon lies above you or below you. Even though you always should keep the balloons in your sight, accidents happen, right? When you've broken all of the balloons, it's time to land and here's when it is good to have chosen a heavy character. The wind blow you away, literally, if you've chosen Lark or Kiwi. Fly towards the goal platform (the radar), and if you choose to drop down on the platform from a high altitude, you will see yourself blowing towards the ocean. Press "Z" a lot to brake and boost all the time towards the middle, so you don't accidentally miss a few landing impact points. Speaking of points... You will not get balloon points for the blue balloons, only for the orange ones. These give you three points each. Test 2 - More Rings ------------------- Objective: "Fly through every ring then land on the landing point. Clearing certain rings will make Time Rings appear." Hint: "Try to fly through Time Rings for a higher score. Time Rings will flash on the radar." Scoring: Ring 60 Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Snowing Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi The only reason why I am recommending the light characters is because they are nimble and thus making it easier to avoid mountain walls. This is one of the toughest tests for the Rocket Belt, you must plan and time well to get a perfect score. It's all about taking the time rings. There are 15 yellow rings around the island. When you fly through some of these, others will turn into red time rings. Time rings will only appear for a limited amount of time. After that, they become regular yellow rings again and you won't be able to activate them again. To get a perfect score, you must get 9 time rings and 6 yellow rings. Time rings are worth 6 points and yellow rings only 1 point. Do remember that you don't have to be fast; there is no time score. There's the fuel of course, but unless you press "Z" very much and often, I don't think you have to worry. Below, follows my preferred strategy to take them all. Directly when you start, you will have three rings in a line before you. When you take the first one, the second one will become a time ring and disappear after 2 seconds. When you fly through the second one, the third one will become a time ring and disappear after 4 seconds. The third one spins so don't boost too fast through it. Quickly boost towards it, but go slower through it, so you're sure that you get it. The third one will not activate another time ring. To the left, you will see two rings lying on top of each other. This may not be the fastest way, but this is in my opinion the toughest task during this test. So in case you fail, you can restart without losing too much of your effort. Go there first. Fly on top of the uppermost ring and press "R" to change your viewpoint. You will see the rings spin so place yourself as close to the centre of both of the rings' movement schemes. When you see that it is the right time, drop down through them both. The fourth ring will trigger the fifth ring to become a time ring. If you drop through the fourth but miss the fifth one, you will be disabled from getting a perfect score. The time ring will disappear after three seconds, you see. Ignore the rings nearby and get back to the starting point instead. Continue in the same direction once you've passed the starting point and you will see three rings on a line hovering in the air. The ring in the middle, trigger the ring to the north, and that one triggers the ring to the south. There's really nothing strange about the sixth, seventh and eighth. Beware the fact that they are spinning slightly. The seventh ring is activated in six seconds and the eighth in ten seconds. Nearby there's a low mountain with one ring on each side of it. The ring on the left side activates the other ring as a time ring. Go to the left ring and place yourself on its left side, so you're looking towards the ring that will be activate (check the radar, if you don't know where to look). Fly through the ring and then get over the mountain to the right side of it. You have as much as ten seconds before the ring is deactivated, but don't use "R" to change viewpoint and drop through it. It's hard to make it this way. Instead, just try to boost through it. Look at the altitude meter to see if you're close to the mountain wall and if you are, use "Z" immediately to stop. These were rings nine and ten. Now it's time to get another set of rings. Fly straight up in the air to the altitude of 245m. Head to the east, just between to mountains and you will find a yellow ring that activates two others. Fly to this ring; the eleventh, and the twelfth and thirteenth will be activated at the same time beyond it. You have 13 seconds to get them both. Position yourself to the right of the rightmost ring and quickly boost through them both. Now, check the radar and you will see the two last rings. Fly towards them and go around the mountain on the right side. You will come by a ring high up in the air. This is the fourteenth one, so get through it and the last ring will be activated during the following 13 seconds. The last ring lies way down, so just drop altitude and when you see it, boost until you reach. Carefully get through and you've only got the landing left. Right on! You will see the landing point on the radar. It lies on a mountain, around 200m above sea level. Fly over there and land as usual. Test 3 - Iron Head ------------------ Objective: "Crash into the bouncing green ball and push it to the goal area." Hint: "If the ball bounces too high, wait. It'll eventually come back down. Watch your altitude (and the ball's)" Scoring: Time Points 100 (will be deducted when 2'00 has elapsed) ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Starry Night Difficulty: 2/5 Character of choice: Anyone Immediately when you begin, you will see the big green ball in front of you. Locate the goal on the radar. It is marked as a red square similar to a landing point. Fly towards the green ball and line up with the goal. Try to give the ball hard pushes during high speed. Try to bounce the ball on the water. It's easy to crash and lose points if you bounce it onshore. I recommend you to try and not bounce it too high up. If you do, wait for it to come down. I'd like you to aim on the middle of the ball. It's really easy to get the ball inside the goal before 1'15, so I don't believe you need any more pointers. It's also very monotonous. When you've got the ball inside the goal, the test will end, so you don't have to land. =============== 4.5 Pilot Class =============== Location: Crescent Island Tests: 3 Bronze: 210 pts Silver: 240 pts Gold: 270 pts Test 1 - Dark Cavern -------------------- Objective: "Fly through the cavern as quickly as possible, then fly through the Goal Ring at the end. Don't crash into the cavern wall!" Hint: "This cavern is narrow and curvy. Watch your fuel when going down, use the R Button to make descending easier." Scoring: Time Points 100 (will be deducted when 2'00 has elapsed) ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi Your test is to make your way through the cavern that lies inside the mountain on Crescent Island. It is rather narrow, so you need to be very careful. Lighter characters are my obvious choice for this test. They respond slightly better than heavier and it is of course easier to avoid walls, since they are shorter. I know that it is windy at one place, but it doesn't matter that much and it's not hard to control. You will have a flying start, so immediately get into the cavern. Work your way through the cavern in a decent speed. Use "A" to boost, and press "Z" very often to avoid walls. Don't worry about the fuel. I find it safest to use "Z" as soon as you're going to turn. If you touch any wall of the cavern, you will have two points deducted and will thus not get a perfect score. If you're not experienced, ignore the time points, and just try to get through the cavern without touching any walls. When you try again, try to do it faster. Continue like that and you will soon get through within the 2'00. When you've flown through half of the cavern, you will come to a big room with a strong wind. You may think that you would have chosen a heavier character just for this task, but it really isn't hard to get past with small pilots. Just fly through it as usual and you will encounter a hole. Press "R" to improve your viewpoint, and then just fall down the waterfall. Press "Z" whenever you're about to crash into a wall, then steer in the right direction. When you have only five metre left until you hit the water, press "Z" to slow down, change viewpoint and get to the next hole. Do the same when going down this hole: press "R", avoid walls and stop before you have five metres left until you hit the water. Now you haven't long left until you get out of the cavern. When you do, you will have the goal in front of you. You just have to pass it, so don't worry about landing. Test 2 - Diamond Head --------------------- Objective: "Crash into the bouncing green ball and push it to the goal area." Hint: "The first push will be important. It will be very tough because of the wind. However, with enough practice, you should be able to bring the ball in without touching the ground." Scoring: Time Points 100 (will be deducted when 2'00 has elapsed) ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Cloudy Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Hawk or Robin For this test, the time limit is rather tight. Be fast and efficient. I suppose I should recommend Hawk or Robin, because the wind is blowing hard, but it doesn't really matter. Now it is important not to bounce the ball directly for the goal, because there is a mountain landscape in the way. In such case, you should bounce the ball in front of you all the way to the goal, but that's pretty tough. As soon as it bounces down on the mountains, it will do all kinds of nasty turns, and that's now what we want, is it? Instead, I prefer to bounce it straight off the mountain and then transport it on a low altitude over the bay. Do like this. Immediately when you begin, fly to the west from the ball, turn around and then give the ball a hard push towards the east. Try to touch the ball a little under the middle of it. This will make it fly forwards and a little upwards. Push it forwards in the air for awhile. Continuously fly into it. When you think that you've got it away from the mountain and that you are somewhere above the bay (press "R" to see what's below you), let the ball fall. When you've come down to the bay, continue to push the goal towards the goal. You can do it as you did in the previous "ball test". Just try to push on the middle of it, until you hit it into the goal area. It's not very hard to do it this way. It is harder to give a detailed Walkthrough, though. The test will end as soon as you've got the ball inside the goal area. No landing issues here. Test 3 - Touch & Go 2 --------------------- Objective: "Land on the floating pads in order, then land on the landing point. You must land on every pad to receive Time Points." Hint: "Everytime you land on the landing point, your fuel will be slightly replenished. Watch the radar carefully!" Scoring: Floating Pads 30 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 3'00 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Hawk or Robin The last test for the Rocket Belt is indeed not that hard. The last test for the Hang Glider is much tougher. It's time to do some floating pads, similar to the second class A test. Read more thoroughly about floating pads in the basics section for the Rocket Belt. Concerning only this mission is the strong wind. The wind has the annoying habit of blowing you away from the floating pads, when you try to land on them. It's especially annoying when you have the wind blowing on your side. When you are falling down to land on a floating pad, turn so that the wind blows on either your back or your front. Because, if it blows there, you will have the ability of just boosting forwards or backwards to get back in course again. I know that I recommend the heavy characters, but if you use this strategy, then it doesn't matter that much. Now for the test. The first pad lies just in front of you on a low altitude of 33 metres above sea level. All altitudes I refer to here are metres above sea level; not the red meter. Check the radar, and you will have a pretty good idea of where the next pad lies. It's higher up: 78m. The third pad lies on 43m, just where the river flows into the sea. Follow the river to the waterfalls and you will find the fourth pad on a low altitude of only 13m. It might be a good idea to use "R" here, because it lies so low. From the fourth pad, boost straight up to about 90m. You will see the fifth pad under a vault. Be careful when you attempt it, because it's easy to bounce into the vault. Press "Z" to avoid getting your points deducted. Boost straight up in the air again. This time to around 150m. You will see the sixth pad on top of a big rock structure. It lies on 169 metres above sea level. Press "R" when you stand on it and you will spot the seventh pad. It lies in something that looks like a pit. Be very careful about the wind here and use the wind-to-back strategy I told you before. Use "Z" if you're about to crash into a wall. Get straight up to an altitude of 208m from the seventh pad. You will see the eighth pad below a vault. Be very careful when you try to take it. Don't use "R" and press "Z" as soon as you feel that you're close to a wall or the ceiling. The ninth pad lies slightly below you on 193m, just before the cave entrance. Nothing too strange about it. It's pretty narrow, though. The tenth and final pad lies very high up. It lies on 358m, so boost straight up from the ninth and you will spot it when you get so far up. When you've landed on it, it's just to land as usual. Beware the wind, so you don't drift away from the centre of the platform. _______________________________________________________________________________ 5.0 Gyrocopter _______________________________________________________________________________ A Gyrocopter looks like a small, open helicopter but controls not at all like one. It flies like a plane on a rather low altitude. There's one big propeller blade on top and a small one behind it. It looks like the pilot sits in a small boat, or something similar. The Gyrocopter was invented by Juan de la Cierva and was first flown in 1923. It was never used much and replaced by the helicopter during the 40's. ========== 5.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in flying the Gyrocopter. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - Flying - Landing - Shooting - Rings - Characters - Judgement categories - In-game pointers Controls -------- Control stick Left: Turn left Right: Turn right Up: Ascend Down: Descend A Button: Increase speed B Button: Decrease speed R Button: Switch viewpoint (behind the pilot or first person view) Z Button: Fire missiles (endless supply) Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up Flying ------ Even though the Gyrocopter may look like a small, open helicopter, it doesn't fly at all like one. It's more like a small plane. You start from a runway, and can't get up in the air before you've reached 50 km/h on the ground. You can never hover in the air like a helicopter, you must always be in motion. When you press and hold "A", you raise your throttle setting. You will see the little meter in the bottom left corner of the screen moving to the right. While holding "A" you gain lots of speed, until you reach the maximum of 250 km/h. If you hold "B" you decrease your throttle setting. The meter will move to the left and you will decrease in speed. The propeller blade on the back will slow down until it's hardly moving at all and you will drop altitude and stability. If you release both buttons, the meter will move to the middle and the speed will stay where you left it. If you have a low speed; you're very easily controlled by wind, but you can do much tighter turns. The wind has less control over your vehicle and it is harder to turn the, greater your speed is. The Gyrocopter is easiest to control on a speed around 150 km/h. Whenever you hold "A" you will hardly notice the wind, but as soon as you press "B", you will be very much affected by it. You can seldom ascend well if you don't hold "A". You need the extra power from the raised throttle setting when you gain altitude. If you instead hold "B" while ascending, you'll drop altitude. If the engine gets no power while performing an effort this demanding, it will just give up. When you dive, you will gain lots of speed, whichever button you use. You can make more precise dives, when holding "B", though. The Gyrocopter drains fuel, but this is seldom anything to worry about. It drains fuel in a slow pace and there's really no manoeuvre that drains more than normally. It's not like the Rocket Belt. A slow trip around whole Little States might be too much for the fuel tank, though. Landing ------- Landing is the toughest task while using the Gyrocopter. There are two issues which you must keep in mind: landing accuracy and landing impact. Landing accuracy is determined on how close to the centerline of the runway you land. You get full score if you get down on the centerline and then follow it until you stop. You won't get a perfect score if you get down on the centerline and then stop on the edge of the runway. Neither if you get down on an edge and stop on the centerline. In short: line up with the centerline early to avoid these accidents. Landing impact is determined on how softly you get down on the runway. This is however very woolly. You will get a perfect score if you carefully - with a low speed - get down on the runway horizontally. But you can also get a perfect score if you crash down on the runway in high speed and in a very steep manner, just because you may bounce "correctly". Some bounces leave you no score and some leave you a perfect score. It depends on if the game counts the bounces as a process in the landing or not. Don't take any chances, get down carefully. This is how a perfect landing should look. When you've accomplished all of your tasks in the test, head to the runway. Start to slow down very early; long before you reach the runway. Get a speed around 120-160 km/h and then release the A and B Buttons. Get down on a low altitude early: about 50-100m above ground. Be sure that you're completely lined up with the centerline of the runway and when you're close to it, hold "B" and carefully drop altitude until you're just a few metres above the runway. Straighten up and then get down on the ground. Be sure that the vehicle lies horizontally when you get down and that you're in the very middle of the runway. Hold "B" until you stop completely. A common mistake when landing is that you overshoot the runway. You get afraid about getting a bad impact, while flying just a few metres above the runway. You don't get down on the runway and miss it. Be sure to always get down on the runway early. Don't wait for the right moment, just get down. If you land or stop on the triangular things on the edges of the runway, you will get no landing accuracy, nor landing impact. Wind is also important. It won't affect you as much when you have released "B" and not while holding "A". Line up with the centerline early and try to wait a long time before holding "B". "B" is the trap which blows you away. Rings ----- The tests are often about flying through rings. These give you points. There are three type of rings to get during the Gyrocopter tests. The yellow rings are normal. They will be there until you fly through them. It is just to take them in any order. Blue rings must be taken in order. The second blue ring will not appear before you've taken the first, and so on. White rings are exactly like blue rings but they give you a higher score. A white ring may appear instead of a blue ring, it might appear alongside with a blue or sometimes it opens a new path. If you check the radar when you've flown through a blue or white ring, you'll see that another square shows up. This is the next ring. In the last ring mission, some blue rings activate two squares on the radar which symbolise two different routes. One where you take white rings and one where you take blue. If there are blue and white rings alongside with each other - in other words, you can only take one of the rings in the group without turning around - then you must select one of them, because the others will disappear when you've chosen it. Choose a white one if you want a perfect ring score. Shooting -------- Yes, you may actually shoot in this game. Pilotwings may be a pacific game, but we are allowed to do some shooting at least. It's actually great fun and there is some strategy involved as well. You bring up the sighting scope by holding "Z" and shoot by releasing the button. If you fly straight and there's no wind, the missile you've shot will hit whatever lies in the centre of your scope. You may have two missiles in the air at the same time. No more are allowed. You are not able to shoot a third missile before the first one has hit something or has disappeared in the horizon. That's why you shouldn't go wild with your trusty missiles. Always try to fly straight and steadily while shooting missiles. The missiles are much more accurate this way. If you have the chance, try to hit your target when you are as close as possible. Only do this if it doesn't affect your time score. If it's windy, always check the radar when you shoot. If the radar show a wind to the left, aim on the right side of your target and vice versa. Never underestimate the wind, unless you're very close to the target of course. There are three different types of targets: normal targets, balloons and Meca Hawk. Normal targets are stationary and easy to hit. Balloons are also stationary and can be rammed into as well. Meca Hawk is a huge robot which is walking around, destroying things. Characters ---------- Kiwi and Lark are my favourites here as well. They are very agile. Heavier characters have lots of trouble when they turn; that's why I seldom or never use Hawk or Robin for the Gyrocopter tests. When there's a strong wind, I prefer Goose or Ibis. They can resist the wind well, and their turning ability is not too poor. Often, the character choice doesn't matter much. Judgement categories -------------------- After each test, you will find different categories in which you are judged in. I will list each of the ones for the Gyrocopter below, and tell what you have to do to get a perfect score. Balloon You get a higher score for more crushed balloons. If you have burst all of the balloons in the test, you will get a full balloon score. Destroyed Only for Meca Hawk. If you've destroyed Meca Hawk, you get a perfect score. If you receive points, you get full points. Never anything else. Ring You get a higher score for flying through more rings. When there are no more rings on the radar, you get a full ring score. Target You get a higher score for more destroyed targets. If you have blown up all of the targets in the test, you will get a full target score. Time Points In all tests where there're time points, there will be a time limit. If you've cleared all of the objectives and landed within this limit, you will receive a full time score. The more you get past the time limit, the less points you'll receive. Landing Accuracy This is determined on how close to the centre of the runway you land. In the smack middle, and you'll get a perfect. Landing Impact This is determined on how softly you land. If you bounce a lot when landing, you will not get a perfect impact score. Deducted Points If you bump into something while flying or if you make a hard landing, you lose points from your total score. Five points each time. Total The total score for the test and it's always 100 points. This score is the sum from four of the categories above. In-game pointers ---------------- If you press "Replay" after a flight, and then press "A" during it, you will see a pointer. Press "A" two times more and you will see another one. These pointers are written below. Changing Viewpoints "To switch to the pilot's viewpoint, press the R Button. This will make it easier to fire missile." Feel the Wind "Wind direction is indicated as a blue arrow on the radar. Feel the wind and use to your advantage. Missile trajectory will be affected by wind." Fly Free "The Gyrocopter is a great way to fly around the big island. Forget about the tests. Fly around and take in some sights!" Fuel "Don't get too carried away with your sightseeing. Flying consumes fuel. Hope there's a gas station around." Landing "Aim for the centerline of the runway. Don't overshoot the runway." Landing (Angle) "Try to stay as horizontal as possible, when landing. If you're to steep, you'll bounce." Landing (Speed) "When landing, decrease your speed by pressing B and approach the runway." Loss of Speed "Dropping your speed and raising your nose will cause you to lose altitude. Level out and increase speed to gain altitude." Meca Hawk "'Meca Hawk' doesn't look very bright, but he's very strong. Watch his pattern of movement and hit him with a missile." Missile "Hold the Z Button and the sighting scope will appear. Release the Z Button to fire the missile. You can fire two missile in arrow." Pilot "Gyrocopters handle differently for each pilot. Find the pilot that best suits the test at hand." Quick Turns "Making quick turns by dropping your speed and raising your nose can come in handy. Master this technique." Radar "Rings, targets, etc. will be either green or yellow on the radar. Yellow objectives are above the player, while green ones are below. The runway is read." Rings "There are three types of rings: white, blue and yellow. Yellow rings are normal, white and blue open in order. The white rings will get you a higher score." Scope "When targeting with the Z Button, you can make sight adjustments by pressing the C Buttons." ================== 5.2 Beginner Class ================== Location: Holiday Island Tests: 1 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Test 1 - Novice Rings --------------------- Objective: "Fly through 3 rings in order and land on the runway." Hint: "After flying through the rings, circle around and approach the runway. Decrease your speed by pressing the B Button to land safely." Scoring: Ring 20 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 1'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 2/5 Character of choice: Anyone It's time for you to learn to fly the Gyrocopter. This test is very simple and that's good. The timer will begin when you press the A button, so do it and hold it down. You will slowly accelerate and move along the runway. When you've reached 50 km/h, you will automatically lift and after that, accelerate very fast. Keep holding "A" and aim for the rings. You must fly through them in order: the second one won't open before you've taken the first, and the third won't open before you've flown through the second. The blue rings are worth five points and the white ring ten. When you've taken the third ring, release the A button, and turn around to the runway again. Do a narrow turn. Position yourself so you're flying straight towards the runway: line up with it. Use "A" to accelerate and "B" to deccelerate, to keep yourself in a speed between 120 and 150 km/h. This is according to me, the best landing speed. If you have a higher speed, it will be hard to get a good impact. If the speed is lower, then it might be hard to control and thus harder to get a good accuracy. Dive down towards the runway early, so that you follow the ground on a low altitude before you fly over the landing area. Aim towards the middle of the runway. For the actual landing process, then. When you're over the runway in a speed around 120 km/h, dive towards it and press "down" to ascend slightly when you're just a few metres above the ground. Then slowly and carefully get down on the runway in the very middle of it. Hold "B" when going down on the runway and keep holding it until you stop. When you've stopped, the test will end. The time limit will not give you any problems. =========== 5.3 Class A =========== Location: Crescent Island Tests: 2 Bronze: 140 pts Silver: 160 pts Gold: 180 pts Test 1 - Sky Manuevers ---------------------- Objective: "Fly through as many rings as possible, then land on the runway." Hint: "Watch the radar carefully and plot your own course. If you miss a ring, keep going. Going back consumes time and fuel." Scoring: Ring 60 Time Points 10 (will be deducted when 2'45 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Anyone This is a rather neat test. You shall fly through 15 normal yellow rings, all worth 4 points each. You don't have to fly through them all, and if you miss a ring, I recommend you to either continue without it or restart the test. You lose time, fuel and stability if you to get back to the ring. I don't think it matters that much which character you choose. Lighter characters are more nimble, but heavier characters resist the wind better. Remember to always check the radar, if you don't know where the next ring lies. Begin by flying off the runway. You will have the first ring a little to the left from your start on 26m above sea level. Fly through it and directly head to the left to get to the second ring on 38m. Hold "A" all the time, until I say elsewise. If you are too slow, you will not get full time points. From the second ring, head straight up to 100m for the third ring. When you get through it, head directly down and to the left while holding "B" to slow down. You will see the fourth ring on 44m above sea. Before you get through it, you must press "A" again to accelerate, or the wind might blow you away from the ring. When you've taken the fourth ring, it is time to continue accelerating and continue along the coast. Head straight up to a height of 142m. Check the radar to locate the ring. For the sixth ring, dive again. This time to the little point of the coast where there are huts. The ring lies on 34m. It is rather important to slow down for the seventh ring. It lies near the rock in the sea. Check the radar and approach it from the right, because its angle is strange. Remember to raise your speed just before going through it, so the wind won't give you problems. The ring lies on the low altitude of 17m. The eighth ring lies on the island. Check the radar to locate. It lies on 75m. You must turn directly to the left from the seventh ring. Follow the trench upwards to get the ninth ring. It lies very high up, on 216 metres above the sea. You fly through something that looks like a gate when you take it. The tenth ring lies on 35m. You will see some boats on the beach below the ninth ring. The tenth ring lies there. It's not too hard to dive in high speed here. Go straight for the eleventh ring which lies on 85m above the island in the bay. The twelfth ring is rather hard to spot, I think. It lies above the biggest beach in front of you. Check the radar and you know where. It's on 27m. Continue straight and you will see the thirteenth ring above the last part of forest on 60m. From ring twelve, check the radar to see the fourteenth ring. Ascend heavily, to an altitude of 137 to get it. Now you will be line up with the final ring and the runway. While diving for the last ring on 40m, start slowing down to around 120-140 km/h. Then get through the last ring and get down to a low altitude to approach the runway. Have the recently stated speed and slow down when you go down for impact. Test 2 - Bull's Eye ------------------- Objective: "Destroy the 3 missile targets, then land on the runway. You must destroy every target to receive time points." Hint: "Targets always fact the player. If you miss a target, circle around and try again." Scoring: Target 30 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 1'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Difficulty: 2/5 Character of choice: Anyone Now it is time to learn how to shoot missiles. It's a rather easy test, so it is nothing to worry about. A thing that you must remember is that you can't go wild with the missiles, because you can only have two of them in the air at the same time. You can't fire a third missile before the first one has hit something. Begin with flying off the runway. You will see the first blue and white target clearly. Hold "Z" to bring out your sighting scope and I recommend you to press the R button to change to the first person view; it's easier to hit this way. When the dot on your scope lies on the target, release "Z" to shoot a missile. Shoot two, why doncha! Try to fly straight towards the target when you fire the missile. If you are turning while firing, you may not hit. When you've hit the first target, head for the second one on the island in the bay. It is the right square on the radar. I recommend you to release the A button when you're going shoot. Destroy the target and go get the last one. The last one can be found behind the strip of land to the left of you. You might even see it. Destroy that one too and head back for the runway. Be sure to slow down in time before you're too close to the runway to regret it. You will have the runway pretty lined up for you, so there should be no problem for you to land. =========== 5.4 Class B =========== Location: Little States Tests: 3 Bronze: 210 pts Silver: 240 pts Gold: 270 pts Test 1 - River Run ------------------ Objective: "Fly through every ring, then land on the runway. You'll receive no time points if you miss a ring." Hint: "The white rings under the bridges are difficult to get to, but will definitely help with your score." Scoring: Ring 60 Time Points 10 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 3/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi The biggest difference between this test and Sky Manuevers from Class A is that in Sky Manuevers, you were supposed to fly through as many rings as you could. You received a pretty decent score, even if you missed a few of them. In this test, however, you must get all the rings, or you will practically get no score at all. In this test, there are blue and white rings. You must take them in order. If you miss one, then you must fly back to get it or restart the test. I recommend the later. Sometimes, you can see many open rings at the same place. You must only fly through one of these and the others will disappear. At those places, you can often choose between white and blue rings. Then, you should choose the white to improve your score. There are twelve blue rings that you must (and can) take, four of these must be replaced by white rings to get a perfect score. Blue rings are worth four points and white rings are worth seven. Get off the runway and you will see the first blue ring in front of you on the low altitude of 28m. To get the second ring, keep "A" pressed and ascend to 140m. It is also blue. Time to dive again if you want the third ring. It lies on the way to the passenger ferry in a little inlet. It's blue and on the altitude of 35m. Continue on land and the next one lies very visible on a forest on 64m, blue as well. Time for the "river run". I suppose that you've kept "A" pressed until now. At this point, release it to get a safer flying on the river. Follow the river and you will see a bridge with two white rings above and one blue above. Get one of the white rings; whichever suits you best. Avoid crashing into the water, ascending when you've taken it. Continue along the river and you will find a bridge with two blue rings under it. Take the right one and continue. The third bridge is a little more complicated. You will see two blue rings easily, and one white ring in the left corner, behind a tree. Go around the tree from its right and get carefully under the bridge. Be sure that you're speed isn't too high here. Fly along the river for the fourth bridge and eighth ring. Take either of the blue rings and continue. You will find another bridge with a white ring to the right and a blue ring to the left. Take the white. The last bridge has four slots with two blue rings in the centre and two white rings at the edges. Fly through the left most ring and be very careful. It is rather easy to crash into the water here. Now it is time for the last phase. Hold "A" now, to increase your speed and get through the eleventh ring on 70m. You will see the last ring on your radar, but don't fly directly to it. Fly in a very wide right bow towards it. This is needed because you must line up with the runway. If you fly straight towards the ring, you will have the runway directly on your left and that is not good. Do the wide turn and start braking for the landing when you fly through the last ring. This landing is pretty tough because of the wind, so be very focused and get down on the runway in a very horizontal manner. It is also hard to spot the runway. You will see a tree, though, and behind that tree, lies the runway. Maybe, you think that my character of choice is strange here, but the wind doesn't seem to do much effect, if you're not going to slow. The light characters are very nimble, which is good. Test 2 - Metal Horizon ---------------------- Objective: "Destroy all 10 missile targets, then land on the runway. You must destroy the targets to receive time points." Hint: "The Gyrocopter and missile trajectory will be affected by wind. Take that into consideration when aiming. If you want a highscore, you must destroy every target." Scoring: Target 30 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 3'15 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Starry Night Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Anyone I got the exact same effect, whichever character I was flying with: this test is pretty hard; in my opinion, one of the toughest in the game. Something seems to go bad every time I try to get it perfect. I'm sure it is just me. You have practised target shooting in the previous class, so I guess there isn't much more to say about it. Do take wind in consideration, though. If you shoot a missile when there's a strong gust, then it might "avoid" the target. Also, try to fly as close to the target as possible, before you fire. Not if it slows you down, of course. This is my preferred route through the targets. If you want a decent score, then you must destroy every one of them. Get away from the runway and ascend. Press "R" for another view. I think it's easier to hit the targets this way. You will see the first target on a cliff to your left. Fly towards it and fire away. When you've passed the cliff, shoot on the rightmost target. It lies on the ground and it really is the target that lies mostly to the right. Nothing strange there either. When you've obliviated the second target, look down the canyon to find the target that should be closest to you. You should be seeing it while destroying the second one. When you get down the canyon. Begin to slow down, so you at least won't get past 190 km/h. You will see the fourth one further along the canyon. Destroy it as well and be ready to turn in the canyon. It is time to turn around the pillar you should be in front of. Press "R" to change your viewpoint so you're behind the Gyrocopter. Then hold "B" before the turn and through it as you hold "Z" to bring out your sightseeing scope. During the turn, you will run into a target. Release "Z" to fire a missile before you literally run into it. Ascend to around 100m above sea level, and make a tight right turn to get the last targets. It might be a good idea to change to the first person view again. Check the radar for the closest target. It lies on top of a cliff. Try to advance towards the target from the left, because you will only see the edge of it. If you miss this target, don't worry, you will have another chance when you are flying to the runway. Have a decent speed around 150-170 and continue to the next target. You will see it on the ground above the canyon. Beware the wind here. If you check the radar and notice a blue arrow, fire on the left edge of the target or you might miss it. You will find the eighth target on a cliff rather visibly. Wait to fire until you are very close to it. Wind and angle might mess it up for you. Directly when you've taken this one, dive to the left to get the ninth. It's above a road. This one is also visible from its edge so it might be a good idea to either shoot in the last second or to approach it from the left. When you've taken the ninth, do a sharp right turn (yes, right) and aim for the last square on the radar. It is in the canyon and very visible if you come from the right turn. Now it is time to go for landing. I think you will make it in time if the timer doesn't show more than 2'15 or something like that, when you destroy the last target. You must get in a good angle when you land so set off for Los Angeles, which is the closest city in the direction of the runway. When you're flying over L.A. descend to around 70m above sea level and then head straight out for sea from Grand Canyon. When you've flown over the sea for just a few seconds, head straight for the runway and remember to slow down early. Line up with the runway on a low altitude and hold "B" as you're going down on it. This is actually pretty hard. Practice a lot. Test 3 - Hawk Attack -------------------- Objective: "Red Alert! The giant robot, Meca Hawk is attacking the city! Hit Meca Hawk with 5 missiles!" Hint: "Meca Hawk will throw rocks at you. They can be destroyed with missiles." Scoring: Destroyed 30 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Cloudy Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi Were you, as I, under the impression that this game was realistic? Time to destroy a big robot. He must be hit with 5 missiles and you must get back to the runway in the tight time of 2'30 to get full time score. I cannot offer you a step-by-step Walkthrough, only some pointers. Meca Hawk's movement is not that predictable. Begin with changing your view with "R". It's much easier to hit him, with the first person view, in my opinion. The improved risk of crashing into buildings and getting hit by rocks is something one can live with. A speed of 150-170 km/h is highly recommend, but do fly at the speed you like best. Hitting Meca Hawk when he is walking or running, is hard and ineffective. Fly on an altitude of around 30 m above the ground (not sea), and wait for him to stand still and throw rocks. Fire missiles towards the rocks and him. Fire, fire, fire. As soon as you hit Meca Hawk, he starts to run, often in your direction. This makes it hard to hit twice in a row, but to get full time points, you can't just hit once at the time. When you shoot and you're pretty sure that one of the missiles in the air will hit Meca Hawk, aim one right in front of him or towards his feet. If he gets hit by the first one, he will run into the second and thus get hit twice in one go. If you're lucky, you might even hit thrice. Try to aim towards his stomach as often as possible, it's more certain that you will hit more than once. When he has run below you, don't turn around immediately; he might go around you. That's an annoying way to lose precious time. Do a tight turn with "B" when you see that he is heading away from you. When you've shot him five times, you must land quickly. It is hard to land within the time limit. Don't head straight for the runway; you will get there in a bad angle. Instead locate the grey mountains to the right of the runway. Fly towards these, pass them and then head for runway. Slow down and drop altitude. Land as usual. It is not that hard, actually. =============== 5.5 Pilot Class =============== Location: Ever-Frost Island Tests: 3 Bronze: 210 pts Silver: 240 pts Gold: 270 pts Test 1 - Ice Hornet ------------------- Objective: "Fly through as many rings as you can, then land on the runway." Hint: "When you clear the blue ring, check the radar to confirm the next ring's location. Something new may pop up." Scoring: Ring 40 Time Points 30 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 20 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Snowing Difficulty: 5/5 Character of choice: Goose or Ibis This may be the toughest test in the game. At least I think so. I recommend one of the middle weight character for this test. It's a strong wind, but you need some agility to get through all of the rings. There are three different kind of rings in this test: blue; worth two points, white; worth four points and yellow; worth two points. This is the only test where you actually may choose between blue and white rings, but still get a perfect score. At two different points in the test, you may choose two different routes. Both of the times you may choose between four blue rings and two white rings. These give the exact same score. I will describe everything in the Walkthrough below, but I recommend you to take as many white rings as possible, because it takes less time. Keep "A" pressed as much as possible of two reasons: the time limit is tight and the wind is strong. If you miss a ring, restart; you don't have the time to continue. The first ring is blue and lies visible just after the runway. Then there's another blue with with a small, yellow, spinning ring inside. Just try to fly in the very centre of the yellow ring and you will probably make it. If not, restart. Then head for the last one in the trail on 175m above sea level. It should be the fourth ring. When you've taken the fourth ring, dive straight down and hold "B". Release "B" and press "A" as soon as you see that you're setting course towards the fifth ring on the low altitude of 25m. Now it is time to take three yellow rings. They are spinning on the ground nearby. Release "A" while you fly through them to make sure that you don't miss them. Try to fly through them in the centre and be ready to fly to the right or left if you must. These were rings six to eight. Now it's time for the first intersection. You will see a blue ring nearby on only 35m. When you fly through it and check the radar, two new targets will appear on it. One is the blue ring, which you will see in front of you. The other one is a white ring, further away. You can take whichever route you want; when it comes to the ring score, but it's harder to get maximum time score if you only take blue rings. I therefore recommend the white rings. I'll describe the blue route in the next text section, and the white route in the one after that. When you've flown through the intersection ring, locate the next ring in front of you on about the same altitude. Make a wide left turn so you get the right angle when you fly through the ring. The next ring can be found near some ice flakes. Get a similar angle on this ring and then ascend heavily towards the mountains; check the radar to locate the ring on 145m above sea level. The next ring is way down, so press "B" and dive towards it. Press "A" again when you've established a course towards it. Remember to ascend immediately when you've taken it, or you will crash into the water. Skip the next text section, if you wish to continue directly for the next ring. For the white rings, then. When you get through the ring that opens two new squares on the radar, fly towards the leftmost dot. Fly towards the mountain on your left. The ring lies on the other side of it on the altitude of 83m. It lies between the two mountains and it is very small. Hold "B" while turning around the mountain, or you won't make it. You will see that the next ring appears on your right, but don't head over there at once. If you do, there's a big chance that you crash into a mountain, or lose lots of speed trying to avoid it. Fly straight from the first white ring instead, towards the whales. When you reach them, fly towards the ring on 95m. Whichever route you chose, you will have a moving ring above an ice rock to get. It's on 30m and might look confusing, but just head to the point above the ice rock and you will get it wherever it moves. Continue your flight and you will spot a spinning yellow ring. Fly in the very centre of it at high speed and it should give you no problems at all. Now it is time for another ring which splits your path in two. Just as the last time, you can take the regular route with four blue rings or the strange route with two white rings. The later one of these routes is recommended by me. The blue route is described below and the white route in the text section below the blue one. The first blue ring after the one that splits the path, goes upwards to 130m, and the one after: as far as 225. When you've flown through the second ring, locate the next ring (on 30m) and press "B" until you've set your course straight towards it. Accerlate immediately when you're heading towards it or your chances to get full time score are smaller. When you've dived through this ring, head for the very last square on your radar. That is the last ring and it spins on 25m. Fly through it slowly and then line up for a pretty tough landing. Don't hold "B" too much before you land or the wind will grab you no matter how big you are. This route is not to prefer, however. Choose the route below instead. Yes, for the white rings then. When you've flown through the ring which divides the path, hold "B" and make a very tight right turn at the same time as you ascend. The poor ring lies between two mountains on slightly more than 200 metres above sea level. Make sure that you turn in time and don't crash into a wall. When you've passed the ring, dive towards the very last ring. It lies on 20m, just above a frozen pond. Press "B" when you dive towards it and fly through it from the right. Make a very wide turn through it, thus you must brake. By braking, you'll get a perfect speed towards the runway as well as a perfect angle from the ring. This is very much needed because of the strong wind. Press "B" just before you go down on the runway. If you hold "B" for a long time, the wind will grab hold of you and that isn't good. Aim for the centerline during a decent speed and I'll bet that the landing will be just right. If you've taken the routes with white rings and held "A" pressed during as much time as possible, then there should be no problems to get that perfect time score. Test 2 - Balloon Rush --------------------- Objective: "Destroy 20 of 30 balloons then land on the runway, You must destroy 20 balloons to receive time points." Hint: "You can destroy target balloons with missiles or by ramming them. Choose you method wisely." Scoring: Balloon 20 Time Points 40 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 10 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Starry Night Difficulty: 2/5 Character of choice: Lark or Kiwi This is a funny and easy test. You shall with no wind at all, blow up balloons. You can ram into them or shoot them with missiles. You can go wild and fire wherever you want or follow my recommended route below. Once twenty balloons have burst, all of them will disappear. Get away from the runway and go to the left. Hold "A" until you close in one the balloons, then release it and keep it released during the "battle". You will see four balloons on a row, going away from you. These balloons lie below and to the right of the six gathered balloons high up in the air. Aim towards the line of balloons and shoot shattered balloons during the flight over there. I think that you should get two or three balloons before the line. When you get to the line of four balloons, ram into them all. Don't shoot, ram. Be sure that you get them all. Ignore the balloon on your upper left while doing this. When you've rammed the line, you will see five balloons in a cross. While you turn to the left, shoot the ones on the horizontal line, not the upper or below ones. Now you'll have burst around 8-10 balloons. Aim towards the flame of the oil refinery and you will see three balloons on top of each other. Shoot them all and shoot the ones near the flame. Then make a tight right turn with "B" and you'll be in front of the six balloons high up. These are divided in two rows. Aim your missiles on the lower row and ram the ones on the upper row at the same time. It is important to look in your missile scope here. If you haven't 20 burst balloons yet, aim towards the runway and destroy the balloons you see during the path. There should be about three here. Then get to the runway and be sure to slow down in time. The strategy above will give you no problems concerning the rather tight time limit and the lack of wind and well positioned runway will give you no landing issues. Test 3 - Meca Hawk Again ------------------------ Objective: "Red alert! Meca Hawk has returned! Hit him with 5 missiles to destroy him. You must destroy him to receive time points." Hint: "When Meca Hawk is under water, he can't be harmed. Attacking from high altitude will make it easier for you to avoid the thrown chunks. Scoring: Destroyed 30 Time Points 20 (will be deducted when 3'30 has elapsed) Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Difficulty: 4/5 Character of choice: Goose or Ibis Begin with changing your view with "R". It's much easier to hit him, with the first person view, in my opinion. The improved risk of getting hit by rocks is something one can live with. A speed of 150-170 km/h is highly recommend, but do fly at the speed you like best. Before you start firing at him, take a peek at the radar to check the wind. If it blows to the right, aim on the left side of Meca and vice versa of course. Hitting Meca Hawk when he is swimming, is hard and ineffective. Hitting him while he is diving is impossible. He is invincible under water. Fly on an altitude of around 30 m above the sea, and wait for him to stand still and throw rocks. Fire missiles towards the rocks and him. Fire, fire, fire, but never on the water. As soon as you hit Meca Hawk, he starts to run, often in your direction. This makes it hard to hit twice in a row, but to get full time points, you can't just hit once at the time. When you shoot and you're pretty sure that one of the missiles in the air will hit Meca Hawk, aim one right in front, on the water. If he gets hit by the first one, he will run into the second and thus get hit twice in one go. If you're lucky, you might even hit thrice. Try to aim towards his stomach as often as possible, it's more certain that you will hit more than once. When he has run below you, don't turn around immediately; he might go around you. That's an annoying way to lose precious time. Do a tight turn with "B" when you see that he is heading away from you. When you've shot him five times, you must land quickly. It is hard to land within the time limit. It is hard to land because of other issues as well. At least I aim to land on the runway in the direction it points at me, but for this test, it should be done differently. The natural way to reach is pretty much blocked by a mountain. You can of course land from this direction but it's hard. If you fly above the mountain, then you must dive towards the runway, and thus gain a very high speed. Why it is bad to not come in straight towards it, is rather obvious. Instead, head towards the oil refinery, which you will see beyond the runway. When you've flow past it, do a tight turn around and then aim towards the runway. Drop speed and altitude and land as usual. The wind in the landing process is also important. From this direction, you will have a contrary wind and this slows you down. In the natural direction, you have a following wind which raises your speed even further. _______________________________________________________________________________ 6.0 Cannonball _______________________________________________________________________________ Unlock this Extra Game by getting a silver or gold medal on Class A for Hang Glider, Rocket Belt and Gyrocopter. The Cannonball Extra Game is about literally shooting yourself from a cannon and hitting a very hard target. Painful, but refreshing. Cannon shooting with humans is probably just available on circus and I seriously doubt that it has some bloody history behind it. Who knows? Maybe it was a way of executing prisoners. The first non-people shooting cannon fired by gunpowder was invented in the fourteenth century and has been developed heavily during the years. Today, there are many different kinds of cannons. They can be found on tanks, planes, ships and of course artillery for bombing cities. ========== 6.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in using the Cannon. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - How it works - Target presentations - Characters Controls -------- Control stick Left: Move cannon to the left Right: Move cannon to the right Up: Adjust the firing angle downwards Down: Adjust the firing angle upwards A Button: Fire R Button: Switch viewpoint (behind the cannon or first person view) Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up How it works ------------ You shall shoot yourself out of a cannon and hit a large red and white target. Sounds like something you want to try for real? It doesn't seem to hurt the pilots in Pilotwings 64 to crash into mountain walls while travelling in 200 km/h. There're four targets to hit during a test. There's one test per level and three levels for this "vehicle". This makes a total of twelve targets. You will get three shots per target and it is only the shot that gives you must points that shows in the total score. For each target, you can get 25 points and to receive this amount, you must hit the centre of it. There are three things which you can adjust before firing your cannon. Direction, angle and power. You must be very careful and accurate when setting all of these. Direction is set by moving the control stick to the left and right. You will see on the meter in the bottom part of the screen in which direction you are aiming. Angle is set by moving the control stick up and down. You can see on which degree you are angling your cannon on the meter to the right. You can set an angle from -10 degrees all the way to +60 degrees. The power meter lies to the left and it works differently. When you push the A button, the cannon will fire and use different amounts of power, depending on how full the power meter is when you fire. Full meter, means full power. There are some issues which you must think about when firing the cannon. Of course, we have the targets' position and their distance. Naturally, it is harder to hit a target which is far away than one up close. You are required to aim much more accurately when it is far away. You must also take the wind into consideration. If there's a strong side wind, aim towards the opposite direction. You can see the wind indicated by a blue arrow on the radar. If you don't use my Walkthrough below, then I strongly urge you to press "R" before firing. You will then see the sighting scope of the cannon. If there were no gravity or wind, you would hit exactly where you aim, but that's not the case. You'll have to take the above issues into consideration. However; if there's no wind, you don't have to care about the direction meter. Just set the sighting scope in the middle of the target and then set the angle. If you get a perfect angle, you will appear in the centre of the target. There're some little pointers to make the whole thing a little more fun. If you are just firing for fun, try pressing "R" while flying in the air, and you will see the character fly from a real "replay-racing-game-perspective". The pilot will fly towards the camera and then leave it. I don't recommend you to do this while trying to complete something, because it's hard to see where the character lands and thus hard to learn from your mistakes. You can also make the character look in different directions while flying by moving the control stick. This is just for fun and doesn't affect your course. As often as you can, shoot with full power. Adjust the other settings so that you can use full power. Setting a certain power is very hard; it's not at all like setting a direction or an angle. When you can't use full power, check which colour on the power meter it is filled up to. Use that colour as a mark where to aim next time. When you've got a bull's eye on the first or second shot, waste the last shots on nearby obstacles or shoot them weakly in front of the cannon. This saves you lots of time and patience. Firing the cannon is very much about fine adjusting and practising. Practise, practise, practise. That's what it's all about. Learn from your mistakes, write the figures on a piece of paper and never, ever lose your patience. Target presentations -------------------- I present the targets like this. Target [input number here] - [input weather here] Wind: In which direction the wind is blowing. How strong it is. Direction: How you adjust the cannon horizontally. This is for the meter in the bottom part of screen. If the word north-west is typed here, it means that you should adjust it to a number (which is also typed) between a bird and the letter N. South is "S" and East is "E". If there are two numbers written, then you should set the cursor between these. Angle: How you adjust the cannon vertically. This is for the meter in the right part of the screen. Just adjust it to the same number I've written. If there are two numbers written, then you should set the cursor between these. Power: The power meter in the left part of the screen. It often says: "Full", and then you should fire when the meter is full. Sometimes, I state a colour, and then you should fire when the meter is filled up to that colour. Difficulty: Out of five, how hard it is. The tests are compared with each other. There's no criteria. Characters ---------- It doesn't seem to matter much. I use Kiwi in all levels. If you follow the Walkthrough below, you should as well, just in case. =========== 6.2 Level 1 =========== Location: Little States Tests: 1, Super Cannon Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Select a pilot and aim for the 4 cannon targets. (3 shots per target). Your best score of the 3 attempts will be recorded." Hint: "Before firing the cannon, change the view by pressing R to make aiming easier. Take wind into consideration for the last two targets." Scoring: Target 1 25 Target 2 25 Target 3 25 Target 4 25 ______________________ Total 100 Character of Choice: Anyone, but all of the tests are taken with Kiwi in mind. Target 1 - Sunny ---------------- Wind: None Direction: North-west 49.5 - 50 Angle: +0.5 - +1 Power: Full Difficulty: 1/5 Press "R" and place the cross hair in the centre of the target, then change the angle of the cannon. Ignore the "direction" in short. Target 2 - Sunny ---------------- Wind: None Direction: South-west 70 Angle: +11.5 Power: Full Difficulty: 1/5 Press "R" and place the cross hair in the centre of the target, then change the angle of the cannon. Ignore the "direction" in short. Target 3 - Evening ------------------ Wind: South, weak Direction: North-west 30.5 - 31 Angle: +17 - +17.5 Power: Full Difficulty: 2/5 Target 4 - Evening ------------------ Wind: South, weak Direction: South-west 87 Angle: +2.5 - +3 Power: Full Difficulty: 3/5 =========== 6.3 Level 2 =========== Location: Crescent Island Tests: 1, Ultra Cannon Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Select a pilot and aim for the 4 cannon targets. (3 shots per target). Your best score of the 3 attempts will be recorded." Hint: "The 4th target is not visible. Use your first shot for reference. Adjust your angle and power with the 2nd and 3rd shots." Scoring: Target 1 25 Target 2 25 Target 3 25 Target 4 25 ______________________ Total 100 Character of Choice: Anyone, but all of the tests are taken with Kiwi in mind. Target 1 - Sunny Part 2 ----------------------- Wind: None Direction: South-west 65 Angle: +9.5 - +10 Power: Full Difficulty: 2/5 Press "R" and place the cross hair in the centre of the target, then change the angle of the cannon. Ignore the "direction" in short. Target 2 - Sunny Part 2 ----------------------- Wind: North, weak Direction: South-west 10.5 - 11 Angle: -10 Power: Upper part of the green field Difficulty: 3/5 Use "R" to locate the target. Target 3 - Cloudy ----------------- Wind: North, medium Direction: North-west 36 Angle: +29 Power: Full Difficulty: 3/5 Don't get fooled by the perspective behind the cannon. Target 4 - Cloudy ----------------- Wind: North, medium Direction: 48.5 - 49 Angle: +15 Power: Between the red and orange fields. Difficulty: 4/5 You will not see the target; it lies behind the hill. =========== 6.4 Level 3 =========== Location: Ever-Frost Island Tests: 1 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Select a pilot and aim for the 4 cannon targets. (3 shots per target). Your best score of the 3 attempts will be recorded." Hint: "This one's tough! Take distance and wind into consideration, get the right angle and power. Keep trying and you'll get a perfect score." Scoring: Target 1 25 Target 2 25 Target 3 25 Target 4 25 ______________________ Total 100 Character of Choice: Anyone, but all of the tests are taken with Kiwi in mind. Target 1 - Sunny ---------------- Wind: None Direction: South-east 22 Angle: +12 Po1wer: Full Difficulty: 3/5 This target lies farther away than it looks. This makes it a tad difficult. Target 2 - Sunny Part 2 ----------------------- Wind: North-west, weak Direction: South-west 82.5 Angle: -10 Power: Upper part of the turquoise area Difficulty: 4/5 Check the map from the start menu to see where the target lies. It's below you. Use the power setting above and then adjust it to your liking. Target 3 - Snowing ------------------ Wind: North-west, strong Direction: South-west 35 - 35.5 Angle: +51.5 - +52 Power: Full Difficulty: 4/5 You must be very precise to hit the target; it lies far away. If you don't want to follow the guide lines above, press "R" to get a better viewpoint. Target 4 - Starry Night ----------------------- Wind: North-west, weak Direction: 53.5 - 54 Angle: +35 Power: Middle of the orange field or slightly above. Difficulty: 5/5 This target is so far away that you must be extremely accurate to hit it. These doesn't - by far - guarantee you a hit. Use these figures as a guide point and then adjust them millimetre by millimetre until you are right on target. This is the target that is most dependent on luck. _______________________________________________________________________________ 7.0 Sky Diving _______________________________________________________________________________ As we all know, Sky Diving is about jumping from a flying vehicle, falling and then saving oneself with a large piece of sheet above one's head. When describing it like this, it sounds like pure insanity, right? Another way for man to play god, I suppose. Sky Diving appeared hundreds of years ago. It is not certain, but surely 7 or 8 centuries ago. Leonardo da Vinci draw a model of a parachute in 1495, but it didn't show its life saving ability before 1785 when it saved a French, named Jean-Pierre Blanchard and his dog from a crashing hot-air balloon. It was used a lot during the World Wars and it became a sport after Word War 2. Unlock this Extra Game by getting a silver or gold medal on Class B for Hang Glider, Rocket Belt and Gyrocopter. ========== 7.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in Sky Diving. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - Formations - Landing - Characters Controls -------- Control stick Left: Turn left Right: Turn right Up: Tilt forwards (before chute opens) Down: Tilt backwards (before chute opens) A Button: Brake B Button: Open chute (after cloud cover) R Button: Switch viewpoint (after chute opens) Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons (after chute opens) Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up Formations ---------- A test in Sky Diving is divided in two parts. You're released from a height of 2500m above sea level. You jump with three other pilots and together with them you do formations. If you choose a male character, you will jump with the three females in the game and if you choose a female character, you will jump with the three males. Now it's about doing five different formations with your pals before reaching 1100m. When you reach 1100m, you will get through a cloud cover and appear above the island. Then it's just to land, so read about that in the section below. As I've said; five formations. When you begin, you will see the other pilots already lying in a formation. You will see a blinking, yellow silhouette where you are supposed to lie to complete the formation. When you have positioned yourself on the silhouette, there will be a countdown from three and when the words: "GO" have flashed, you can break the formation and move on to the next one. When you are in the formation and it's counting down, press "A" each second to uphold the formation. When you have finished all five, the other pilots will leave you alone. If you don't finish all formations before the cloud cover, you won't get a full score. Having trouble hitting the right spot in the silhouette? Learn to master the dive technique completely. If you need to get down, press "up" to dive. If you have the formation above you, press "A" to flare and get up again. The silhouette may not be showing if you want to complete the formation, then you must press "A" to get up again. Check the size of your pilot in comparsion to the others sizes and see if you're on the same level as them. It's not too important if you are a little to the right or left of the silhouette. That's seldom the problem. The angle however, is. You must be positioned in the exact same angle as the silhouette or you will not get your countdown. Try pressing "right" or "left" to get it right. It can also be the problem that you're in front or behind the silhouette. If you are, press "up" or "down" to get positioned correctly. If you don't want to follow the Walkthrough below, try memorising the formations, so that you always know where you should be positioned. Landing ------- When you've reached 1100m you will get through a cloud cover and when you've got past it, you will see the island on which you shall land. The landing point will be very visible in all of the tests. Aim towards it by leaning the control stick in 45 degrees forwards. When you're above it, press "up" to dive towards it and press "B" to release your parachute when you've reached 250m above the landing point. Then circulate around the goal until you reach 50m. When you do, hold "A" to brake at the same time as you steer towards the centre of the platform. Release "A" when you're in the right direction. Hold "A" shortly there after and land softly in the very centre of the point. As with all other vehicles, there are landing accuracy and landing impact. Landing accuracy is determined by how close to the centre of the landing point you are. When Sky Diving, you don't have to be in the very centre, though. Landing impact is determined on how softly you land. If you hold "A" just a second or two before you land, you will get a perfect impact score. That's because you brake when you hold "A". Remember to take wind into consideration. When you land, fly either against the wind or towards it. A side wind is never good, it will only blow you away. A heavy character can break through the wind much easier than a weak one. Remember that. Landing is a hard thing when Sky Diving. I've tried to make an accurate Walkthrough, but it's mostly about gut feeling and practise. So that's what you should do: practise, practise, practise! Characters ---------- It doesn't matter that much. The heavy character aren't affected by wind as easily as lighter ones, but they seem to fall faster and not as controlled as the others. I prefer to use Goose or Ibis, and sometimes Lark or Kiwi. Lark and Kiwi are great for the formation process because it is easy to see where they shall lie. This is just a thing to get used to when it comes to heavier characters and not an ability to prioritise. Judgement categories -------------------- Formation Each formation you accomplish is worth ten points. If you accomplish all five formations before you reach the cloud belt, you get 50 points. Landing Accuracy This is determined on how close to the centre of the landing point you land. In the smack middle, and you'll get a perfect. It's rather forgiving. Landing around the very centre, may still give you a perfect score. This category is worth 30 points. Landing Impact This is determined on how softly you land. If you don't hold "A" while landing, you won't get a perfect score. This category is worth 20 points. Total The total score for the test and it's always 100 points. This score is the sum of the three categories above. =========== 7.2 Level 1 =========== Location: Crescent Island Tests: 1, Sky Diving 1 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Complete as many formations as possible, then land on the landing point." Hint: "Each completed formation is worth 10 pts. There are a total of 5 formations. Don't flare too much when landing." Scoring: Formation 50 Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Wind: None Character of Choice: Lark or Kiwi It's time for the first level in Sky Diving. First it's time to do some formations. If you think it's hard and need some pointers, read the basics section above. You have only until 1100m to accomplish them all. If you use a male, you will jump with female pilots, if you use a female, you will jump with males. For the simplicity, I will say the male pilot's names in the descriptions. If you jump together with female characters, just exchange the name of the male with the female in the same weight class. This is the order in which you shall do the formations with the other pilots. The other pilots have already founded the basic for the first formation. You just have to take the place of the yellow silhouette and hold it for three seconds. Press "A" every second to hold it. When you've broken the formation, follow Hawk and place your head against his. You will get into the second formation. For the third formation, head into the space between Lark and Goose. Have your head towards Lark and your legs towards Goose. For the fourth, just get into the empty slot of the circle and for the fifth, have Lark on your right and your head towards Hawk's head. If you finish before the cloud cover, press "up" to dive until you break it. When you're above the island, press "up" until you reach 250m above sea level. Then press "B" to release your chute. I've really tried to make a detailed Walkthrough for landing, but it just won't work, so you'll have to settle with this description instead. Circulate around the landing point and when you reach 50m above ground, hold "A" and steer towards the centre of the landing point. Release "A" and glide, then press it again just a second before you land to get a perfect landing impact. This is mostly about getting a feel for it, so do just that. =========== 7.3 Level 2 =========== Location: Holiday Island Tests: 1, Sky Diving 2 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Complete as many formations as possible, then land on the landing point." Hint: "Before opening your chute, use flare to move horizontally." Scoring: Formation 50 Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Cloudy Wind: West, weak Character of Choice: Goose or Ibis It's time for the second level in Sky Diving. First it's time to do some formations. If you think it's hard and need some pointers, read the basics section above. You have only until 1100m to accomplish them all. If you use a male, you will jump with female pilots, if you use a female, you will jump with males. For the simplicity, I will say the male pilot's names in the descriptions. If you jump together with female characters, just exchange the name of the male with the female in the same weight class. This is the order in which you shall do the formations with the other pilots. The other pilots have already founded the basic for the first formation. You just have to take the place of the yellow silhouette and hold it for three seconds. Press "A" every second to hold it. When you've broken the formation, place yourself between Lark and Goose but in the opposite angel. For the third formation; place yourself on Goose's right side, but in the opposite angle. When you've broken the third formation, follow Lark and place your head on his left side. Just be behind Goose when it's time for the last formation. If you finish before the cloud cover, press "up" to dive until you break it. When you're above the island, press slightly "up" to get to the place above the landing point, the press "up" completely until you reach 250m above sea level. Press "B" to release your chute. Circulate around the landing point and when you reach 50m above ground, hold "A" and steer towards the centre of the landing point. Try to either go against the wind or follow it, when you steer to the centre. You must get the feel for the wind. Release "A" and glide, then press it again just a second before you land to get a perfect landing impact. This is mostly about getting a feel for it, so do just that. =========== 7.4 Level 3 =========== Location: Ever-Frost Island Tests: 1, Sky Diving 3 Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Complete as many formations as possible, then land on the landing point." Hint: "Memorize the formations. Smooth movement will make all formations easy to complete." Scoring: Formation 50 Landing Accuracy 30 Landing Impact 20 ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Part 2 Wind: North-west, strong Character of Choice: Goose or Ibis It's time for the third level in Sky Diving. First it's time to do some formations. If you think it's hard and need some pointers, read the basics section above. You have only until 1100m to accomplish them all. If you use a male, you will jump with female pilots, if you use a female, you will jump with males. For the simplicity, I will say the male pilot's names in the descriptions. If you jump together with female characters, just exchange the name of the male with the female in the same weight class. This is the order in which you shall do the formations with the other pilots. The other pilots have already founded the basic for the first formation. You just have to take the place of the yellow silhouette and hold it for three seconds. Press "A" every second to hold it. When you've broken the formation, put your head towards Lark's left side to accomplish the second formation. For the third formation, put instead your head towards Hawk's right side. Continue working with Hawk and place yourself behind him for the fourth formation. For the fifth, follow Hawk's legs and have your right side towards them. If you finish before the cloud cover, press "up" to dive until you break it. When you're above the island, start by pressing slightly "up" to get above the landing point. The landing point lies on slightly less than 300m above sea level. This must be kept in mind. See 300 as 0 to get the right idea. Press "B" to release your chute when you've reached 550m above sea level. Circulate around the landing point without crashing into the mountain and when you reach 50m above ground, hold "A" and steer towards the centre of the landing point. Try to either go against the wind or follow it, when you steer to the centre. You must get the feel for the wind. Release "A" and glide, then press it again just a second before you land to get a perfect landing impact. This is mostly about getting a feel for it, so do just that. _______________________________________________________________________________ 8.0 Jumble Hopper _______________________________________________________________________________ You put on magic shoes which make you jump hundreds of metres up in the air. Does this equipment have a real life counter-part? No. The Jumble Hopper breaks so many physical rules that you will be amassed. A man can't jump 100 metres up in the air from a standing position, just because he uses special shoes. A man can't continue jumping when he has crashed towards the ground in 150 km/h. A man can't defy inertia. And that's why it is so much fun to use the Jumble Hooper. Unlock this Extra Game by getting a silver or gold medal on Pilot Class for Hang Glider, Rocket Belt and Gyrocopter. ========== 8.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in using the Jumble Hopper. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - How it works - Characters Controls -------- Control stick (when preparing to jump) Left: Circle to the left Right: Circle to the right Up: Adjust for jumping forward Down: Adjust for jumping backward A Button: Hold to make more powerful jumps R Button: Switch viewpoint (behind the pilot or first person view) Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up How it works ------------ Jumble Hopper is different from all other vehicles. You wear a pair of shoes which makes you jump hundreds of metre in the air. You can't be stationary, once you've landed from a jump, you will continue into a new jump a couple of seconds later. During this time, you must prepare for the next jump. By moving the control stick left and right, you set the direction of your jump. If you don't press "up" or "down", you will jump straight up in the air. If you press the control stick up, you jump forwards, and if you push it back, you jump backwards. It is very important to master the angles of the jumps. The farther you press the control stick, the longer and lower you jump. The less you press the control stick, the shorter and higher you jump. By holding the A button, you add power to jump. The jump becomes higher and much longer if you hold "A" while preparing to jump. Learn to estimate where you appear when you jump. Learn to have the right angel and when to use "A" or not. You should as often as possible press "A" and "up" completely while jumping to save as much time as possible. The objective is always to get into a rather wide goal area. When you've landed on the ground of a goal area, the test ends. Remember not to press the control stick too much when you're in front of a goal, or you may overshoot it. There's always a time limit in the tests. If you land in the goal area before the time limit has passed, you get a perfect score. You get less points, the longer it takes for you to get into the goal after the time limit has passed. This is the only vehicle, which you cannot crash with. Crash so that you must retire from the test, that is. If you jump into a mountain wall, building or something else that isn't somewhat flat, you will only lose some seconds while your pilot shakes his/her head for awhile. However, if you land on water, two points will be deducted from your total score, thus you're disables from getting a perfect score. Avoid water as much as possible; try to choose different routes where you don't get close to water. Water is the only thing that can deduce your score, except getting into the goal to late. You can jump on steep hills as long as they are not too steep. Hills you can jump on are more coarse than those you can't jump on; those are more clear, instead. That's a different you'll learn to see after some time. But jumping on hills have rather annoying effects. You will jump to the right if the hills is aimed to the right and so on. If you learn how to estimate, you will have no problem with this. Because you've can't "lose" or crash while Jumble Hoping you must either get into the goal, or choose "Quit" from the Start menu to leave the test. Characters ---------- Your choice of character is rather important in this Extra Game. Lark and Kiwi make long and high, but slow jumps. They are easily affected by wind. Goose and Ibis make short, but very fast jumps. They jump slightly lower than the light characters and resist wind better. Hawk and Robin make slow, short and low jumps. They resist wind very well, but you should not choose them. I prefer the medium characters and I use them for all of the tests below, except the last. I dis them for the last, just because their first jump is bad. =========== 8.2 Level 1 =========== Location: Holiday Island Tests: 1, Triple Jump Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Jump to the goal area. Two points will be deducted from your score each time you land in the water." Hint: "Hop to it! Your first jump will be your most important. Choose wisely when pressing A for long and short jumps." Scoring: Time Points 100 (will be deducted when 0'15 has elapsed) ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Wind: None Character of Choice: Goose or Ibis Difficulty: 2/5 If you want the below strategy to work, you must have Goose or Ibis. It consists of five jumps and will get you in the goal area before fifteen seconds have passed. It's close to fool-proof. Hear my well, chap! Be sure that you hold "A" and "up" all the way before the test begin and you will make your first jump directly. Hold "A" all the time until you get to the goal area. When you land from your first jump, circle very slightly to the left: just a tad. Press the control stick all the way up and you will land on the left side of a tree, very close to the pond. Make the third jump towards the bridge which is going over the a river leading to the pond. You will land in this area. Aim the fourth jump towards the airport and you will probably land on its roof. The last jump should be aimed on the goal area while holding "up" and "A", which you have done all the time so far. You will most likely land in the goal area before 0'15, thus gaining a perfect score. =========== 8.3 Level 2 =========== Location: Crescent Island Tests: 1, Moonlight Hop Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Jump to the goal area. Two points will be deducted from your score each time you land in the water." Hint: "To save time, try jumping over the mountain. The angle of the slope will affect your jump. Be careful!" Scoring: Time Points 100 (will be deducted when 1'30 has elapsed) ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Wind: South-east, weak Character of Choice: Goose or Ibis Difficulty: 2/5 Remember to keep an eye on the radar for this test, because the wind might cause you trouble. This is my recommended route and if you follow it perfectly, you will get in the goal area five second or more before the time limit has passed. If you use Goose or Ibis, that is. Hold "A" and "up" before you begin, because you're aimed in the correct direction from your initial position. Follow the coast line in this direction and be sure not jump in the water or crashing into a mountain wall. Check your wind thoroughly. When you've passed some huts with a large camp fire in the middle of them, start to keep your eyes open to the right. You will short there after see a grey hill with a grove on top. Jump up on the forest and then get towards the grey hill. To get on top of the forest, there's a possibility that you can't hold "up" completely. Try holding "up" halfway to gain more air and get over the forest. Jump towards the goal area (check the radar) and when you see a beach, get down on it. When you jump on the beach towards the goal, jump a little to the left of your requested target, because the wind might carry you to the sea. That deducts points. As you've done before, hold "A" and "up" to move as fast as possible over the beach. In the hints of the test, it says that you should get over the mountains, but I don't recommend it at all. It's very easy to crash and hardly worth the extra time you get. When you're close to the goal, remember to calculate your jumps well. If you land close to the goal, don't hold "A" while jumping, or you will get over it. If you jump just in front of it, hold "up" just slightly, or you will jump over the goal, no matter if you hold "A" or not. =========== 8.4 Level 3 =========== Location: Little States Tests: 1, Go East Bronze: 70 pts Silver: 80 pts Gold: 90 pts Objective: "Jump to the goal area. Two points will be deducted from your score each time you land in the water." Hint: "This is a long course. Landing points will depend on the route you take. Choose carefully." Scoring: Time Points 100 (will be deducted when 2'30 has elapsed) ______________________ Total 100 Weather: Sunny Wind: North-east, medium Character of Choice: Lark or Kiwi Difficulty: 3/5 This is the toughest of the Jumble Hopper tests, but it isn't that hard, if you take the right route. The first jump is tough if you use anyone but Lark or Kiwi. When you hold "up" and "A" when using the light characters, you get to the forest area on the other side of where you are. If you use anyone else, you crash into the forest instead. Using Goose or Ibis is faster, but then you must circle the control stick from up to right just when you begin. Getting a good timing can be difficult. When using Lark or Kiwi, you get to the goal area around 15 seconds before the time limits. When using Goose or Ibis, you finish 20-25 seconds before the time limit. That's when using my route below, of course. If you crash into the forest, restart and try again. You lose too much time, trying to get up. Whenever I don't write anything else, always hold "A" and "up" completely while jumping. When you've made a successful first jump to the forest area, look at the wind direction on the radar and start jumping where the blue arrow points. Make long jumps by holding "A" and "up". Jump to the left of the tall mountain with the observatory on top and continue on these green hills close to the mountain area on your right until you reach a field with lots of barns. During the hill march, be sure not to get to close to the right; there are beaches there and high hills to jump over if you want to get back. When you are on the field, press "Start" and "Check Map". You will see that there's river in the field area. Try to avoid jumping over the river; it is so easy to jump into it instead. Jump to the left of its end. That means that you should keep to the left while jumping on the field. When you see the big city close to the river, jump on the right side of it (or in front of it, one can say). Then follow the radar towards the goal. You will see a big green hill covering your path to the goal. To the left of the hill there's a road. Jump on the road, instead of the hill and thus, you'll go around the hill. Now you'll probably see the goal. When you're close to the it, remember to calculate your jumps well. If you land close to the goal, don't hold "A" while jumping, or you will get over it. If you jump just in front of it, hold "up" just slightly, or you will jump over the goal, no matter if you hold "A" or not. Getting a perfect time score when you take this road is very easy, so don't worry about it, unless you crash more than once. _______________________________________________________________________________ 9.0 Birdman _______________________________________________________________________________ Birdman is the only vehicle in the game which you can fly with forever (except for Jubmle Hooper, but you can't fly with those), no thermal currents that vanish, no fuel consumed and no objectives to keep track of. You can fly around the islands as you wish with nothing to care about. You unlock islands to fly on when you've got silver or gold in different third levels for the Extra Games. Birdman for the Holiday Island is unlocked by taking silver or gold in Beginner Class. Long before the plane was invented, crazy men put home made wings on their arms to fly with. This often resulted in bad injuries for the poor chaps. If we succeeded in making wings that would work, we wouldn't be able to flap them hard enough. They would probably have to be very large to be able to carry human weight. As long back as in old Greece, we can read about Daidalos and his son Ikaros, who were trapped inside King Minos labyrinth on Crete. Daidalos made two pairs of wings for him and his son to escape the labyrinth with. It worked well at first, but Ikaros flew too close to the sun and the wax in his wings melted. He fell to his death in sea, later on named after him. ========== 9.1 Basics ========== You've come to the right place if you're looking for the basics in using the Birdman. You will find the following parts here. - Controls - Flying - Photographing Controls -------- Control stick Left: Turn left Right: Turn right Up: Descend Down: Ascend A Button: Flap your wings B Button: Hover/Brake R Button: Switch viewpoint (behind the pilot or first person view) Z Button: Photograph Start Button: Pause the game, bring up the menu C Buttons Left: Look left Right: Look right Up: Look down Down: Look up Flying ------ You can fly as long as you want with the wings. The faster you tap the A button, the faster you go. You can reach speed around 180 km/h if you're lucky. Decend and ascend in the usual way and remember that you turn easier the slower you fly. Tap "B" and you will be stationary in the air: hover. Another good way to stop is to press and hold "down". When doing this, you will very slowly fall to the ground and land. If you land, the flight won't end, you can take off again, with no problems at all. The flight will end if you land with any other part than your feet first, you fly into a building, mountain or something else. It will also end if you choose "Quit" from the Start menu. While flying the Birdman, there are no objectives at all. Photographing ------------- You can photograph with the Birdman just as the Hang Glider. When pressing and holding "Z", a frame will appear. If you release "Z" a photo will be taken of the image that currently is displayed in the frame. Press the C buttons to move the photo frame slowly. You can take a maximum of six photos during one flight. Just fly around a take photos of beautiful things, why donca? After the flight, you can choose to view the photos taken. From there, you can save the photos in your album. The album is available from the Option menu and you can save six photos there. Characters ---------- There's not much to say here. Heavier characters are fast but not nimble. Lighter characters are nimble but slow. ========= 9.2 Stars ========= On each of the islands, there's a star. If you take one, with any vehicle, you get to fly the Birdman on that island. The weather will not change. This flight is only temporarily. Although, you can fly during as long as time as you want, when you quit or crash, test won't show up in the Extra Games menu. If you want features to show up here, you must take at least silver on the third levels of the Extra Games and the Beginner Class. Holiday Island -------------- Choose Rocket Belt and Beginner Class to get this star as conveniently as possible. Fly towards the castle in front of your, but continue away from it to the beach on the other side of the island. Follow the beach to the right and you will soon see a valve. The star is in this valve. Ever-Frost Island ----------------- Choose Rocket Belt, Class B and Balloon Bonaza. To the left of where you start, there's a waterfall area. Fly over there and follow the rightmost waterfall to its source. You will see a cave leading into the mountain. Get in there carefully and avoid walls and water. You will soon come to a hole in the ground. Press "R" to change perspective above the hole and you will see the star below. Crescent Island --------------- The star lies in a sea cavern on the north part of the C shaped island. Get to the green point that sticks out the most and into the cavern on sea level. The star lies not far into the cavern. Choose Rocket Belt, Pilot Class and Dark Cavern to reach it easily. When you begin, head to the left and follow the coast until you get to the green point. Little States ------------- One of the easiest to find. It lies in the middle of Cental Park, New York City. Getting this star with another vehicle than Rocket Belt is just plain hard and annoying, so don't even try it. Choose Rocket Belt, Class B and Metropolis Dance. Now you will be on the exact opposite side of the Little States from the star. The other test gets you closer, but its fuel isn't sufficient to get the star. Either read about the warp between San Fransisco and New York City in the secrets sections or simply fly to New York. Check the map and you'll see the city in the north-east part of the Little States; it lies on a point. When you are in New York, get carefully down in the centre of the buildings, into the park and take the star. =========== 9.3 Islands =========== Probably one of the most unnecessary parts of this Walkthrough. For each island, there are four different weathers to fly during. They are called tests and all of them have hints. I will type this information here. I will also tell you how to unlock them and where you appear on the islands. The difference between Sunny and Sunny Part 2 is the clouds. Sunny's cloud are packed in small thick groups, while Sunny Part 2's clouds are shattered over the sky. I believe that Sunny Part 2 is slightly more foggy. You cannot choose Sunny Part 2 on Holiday Island and Little States, but the weather does exist in the game. If you take a star during Sunny Part 2, you appear on the same place as Sunny. Holiday Island -------------- How to unlock: Get silver or gold in whole Beginner Class. - Test 1 - Sky Walk 1 - Sunny - Altitude: 104m Location: At sea, looking towards the castle. Hint: "There's no test for Birdman. Just fly like a bird. To quit, press START and select 'Quit'." - Test 2 - Sky Walk 2 - Cloudy - Altitude: 277m Location: Above fields, close to amusement park. Hint: "You can take photos with Birdman, just like Hang Glider." - Test 3 - Sky Walk 3 - Evening - Altitude: 174m Location: Above the hotel. Hint: "When landing, press B to flap your wings, straighten your body and decend. You cannot land on steep slopes." - Test 4 - Sky Walk 4 - Starry Night - Altitude: 55m Location: Near pond. Hint: "When you land, you can take off again (although this has no effect on the game)." Ever-Frost Island ----------------- - How to unlock: - Get silver or gold on all levels in Cannonball. - Test 1 - Sky Walk 5 - Sunny - Altitude: 522m Location: You're looking towards the trench in the mountain. Hint: "Feel free to fly anywhere!" - Test 2 - Sky Walk 6 - Starry Night - Altitude: 38m Location: In the village. Hint: "Not much to see right now. There are a few whales to watch. Stay away from the chimney flame. It's hot!" - Test 3 - Sky Walk 7 - Snowing - Altitude: 72m Loaction: Above whales, beyond twin islands. Hint: "There's a bit of snow falling. Sorry about that!" - Test 4 - Sky Walk 8 - Sunny Part 2 - Altitude: 116m Location: Near second to largest island and off-shore platform. Hint: "Just another beautiful day on the island? See for yourself!" Crescent Island --------------- - How to unlock: - Get silver or gold on all levels in Sky Diving. - Test 1 - Sky Walk 9 - Sunny - Altitude: 432m Location: Near mountain with two landing points. Hint: "Glide like a Hang Glider. Take some pictures. Enjoy the view?" - Test 2 - Sky Walk 10 - Sunny Part 2 - Altitude: 103m Location: Near the native village with large camp fire. Hint: "Another sunny day with just a few clouds in the sky." - Test 3 - Sky Walk 11 - Cloudy - Altitude: 276m Location: South point of the C. Hint: "The same island, just a different climate. Cloudy days aren't for everyone." - Test 4 - Sky Walk 12 - Starry Night - Altitude: 69m Location: Near the hotel. Hint: "It's dark out there. Be careful not to crash." Little States ------------- - How to unlock: - Get silver or gold on all levels in Jumble Hopper. - Test 1 - Sky Walk 13 - Sunny - Altitude: 348m Location: North-west part of the big field. Hint: "There are plenty of sites, see what you can find!" - Test 2 - Sky Walk 14 - Cloudy - Altitude: 103m Location: East of Grand Canyon. Hint: "Don't worry. You won't find the evil Meca Hawk here." - Test 3 - Sky Walk 15 - Evening - Altitude: 90m Location: Outside New York City. Hint: "If you ignore the test, you can fly free as a bird!" - Test 4 - Sky Walk 16 - Starry Night - Altitude: 240m Location: Near San Fransisco. Hint: "Vehicles which require fuel will crash when they run out of gas. Gas station? Hmm..." _______________________________________________________________________________ 10.0 Secrets _______________________________________________________________________________ Yes, you have arrived to the Secrets section. Everything is in my words, but I have read some of the information at GameFAQs.com. These are the secrets: - Different endings - Petrol station - Stars - How to unlock - Warp Different endings ----------------- I read this in the other FAQs at GameFAQs.com. Credits go to them for this information. During the credits, you will see a trip around the Little States. This trip will be taken during different times of the day, depending on how much you've cleared of the game. Sunny - You must have at least bronze on all of the classes for Hang Glider, Rocket Belt and Gyrocopter Evening - You must have gold on all classes in the game, including the Extra Games. Starry Night - You must have perfect score on all classes in the game, including the Extra Game. Mario becomes Wario ------------------- In the mid-west part of Little States, you can find a large mountain area. On one of these mountain: Mt Rushmore, you can find some dead presidents' faces carved in. The funny thing about it is that Mario's face can also be found carved in. If you fly towards this mountain and fire eight missiles on Mario's head, Mario will be transformed into a laughing Wario. Pretty near, isn't it? To change face on the mountain again, you just have to fire three missiles. If you turn off the game, you must fire eight missiles again; it isn't enough with three. This can also be done with the cannon, but then you only need to fire once, to change the face. For the Gyrocopter. Choose Class B and either of the tests Metal Horizon and Hawk Attack (you begin from the same runway). Then head in the north direction and keep an eye to the left. You will soon see the mountain with the faces. Fire away towards Mario and if you can't fire enough, sway away from the mt and try again. For the Cannon. Choose the first level and you will see Mt Rushmore above the first target. Set the direction to 47 and the angle to 10. Shoot with full power and you will land on the nose of Mario/Wario. The camera view will zoom out and show the face change. Petrol station -------------- Have you ever flown around the Little States with the Gyrocopter or the Rocket Belt and run out of petrol, although you wanted to discover more? You can solve the problem! There is a petrol station near Florida in the Little States and you may fill up your fuel for free over there. You can do it as many times as you wish. If you don't know where Florida lies, bring up your map from the Start menu and locate the south-east tip of the island. When you are in Florida, follow the road north-west from there and you will find the petrol stations. If you are flying a Rocket Belt, get down very close to one of the stations and hover just above the ground. You will see your fuel meter get filled up in the blink of an eye. If you are flying the Gyrocopter, land on the road nearby and carefully - without going over 50 km/h - "drive" to one of the petrol stations. Stars ----- There is a star on each of the islands in the game. Take one, and you can use the Birdman on that island temporarily. Check the locations of the stars in the section about Birdman. How to unlock ------------- To unlock a more difficult class/level for a certain vehicle, you must get at lease a bronze medal on the previous class/level. That's it! But there are some other things to unlock as well. Here's a table: |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Extra Game/feature |What to to | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Extra Game: Cannonball |Silver or Gold in whole Class A | |Extra Game: Sky Diving |Silver or Gold in whole Class B | |Extra Game: Jumble Hopper |Silver or Gold in whole Pilot Class | |Birdman Stage: Holiday Island |Silver or Gold in whole Beginner Class | |Birdman Stage: Ever-Frost Island |Silver or Gold on Level 3, Cannonball | |Birdman Stage: Crescent Island |Silver or Gold on Level 3, Sky Diving | |Birdman Stage: Little States |Silver or Gold on Level 3, Jumble Hopper | |Extra Feature: "Congratulations"* |See credits: Bronze in all Pilot Class | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| |*Can be found in the Option Menu and enables you to watch the credits | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------| Warp ---- Credit for this warp goes to the other FAQs at GameFAQs.com. I've read the information, but the below description are in my own words. There's at least one warp in Pilotwings 64. It's between New York City and San Fransisco. New York City lies in the upper right part of the island. It lies on a point. You can easily recognise it because of the green field in the centre of the buildings (Central Park) and the big statue near the city (Statue of Liberty). San Fransico lies on the west edge of Little States, in the middle of the coast. It can be recognised because it is the second to largest city on that coast and there's a big, red bridge nearby (Golden Gate). Choose the Rocket Belt, Class A and the test Metropolis Dance to try this warp. In this test, you'll begin in Los Angeles. From this city, head to the north- west until you bump into another big city with a red bridge. That's San Fransisco. Search for a light grey-green building in the centre of the city. It has a different pattern at the bottom and two entrances. One points to the east and the other one to the south. Fly into the south entrance and through the building to the east entrance, and you will find yourself in New York City. If you want to go the other way, then you must fly for a great while to get to New York, unless you choose to use your new warp way. Both of the Rocket Belt tests in the Little States are on the west coast, and the test which is closest, then you start with hardly any fuel. It's an identical building of the one in San Fransisco. It lies in the South-west corner of the "town" and has one entrance to the south and one to the east; towards Central Park, actually. You must fly from the east entrance to the south, to get to San Fransisco. The other way around and it won't work. _______________________________________________________________________________ 11.0 Final Section _______________________________________________________________________________ This is the final section. Here, you find miscellaneous parts which don't belong anywhere else. ==================== 11.1 Version History ==================== Version 1.1 - November 8, 2005 ------------------------------ Added my new homepage URL. Version 1.0 - June 26, 2003 --------------------------- The initial version. ============ 11.2 Credits ============ GameFAQs/CJayC - For accepting all of my FAQs My brother - Because I've used his computer Nationalencyklopedin - I used it to check facts for the vehicles Other FAQs at GameFAQs - Some minor information Paradigm/Nintendo - For making the game =============== 11.3 Contacting =============== If you've got anything on your mind concerning this FAQ, feel free to send me an e-mail. Corrections and constructive criticism are always welcome, but I will probably not accept contributions to the FAQ, unless they're very good. Send me e-mails in Swedish, English, Spanish, Norwegian or Danish. You will get the reply in the same language as your e-mail, except if you write to me in Norwegian or Danish. If that is the case, you will get the reply in English or Swedish. Whichever e-mail you send me, must be polite and properly written or it will be ignored and deleted. I will probably not reply to questions already answered in this document, unless the answer isn't clear enough. cwall_85[at]hotmail.com ================== 11.4 Proof-reading ================== I'm Swedish and have therefore not English as my first language. I still have a long way to go before I can handle the English language perfectly. If you have English as your first language, you can handle it well and you're not younger than 14-15 years then maybe you would like to proof-read this FAQ. If you would, I'd be forever grateful to you and because of that, help you out whenever I could in the FAQs department and I'd list you in the FAQ information at the top of the document. If you have decided to proof-read this FAQ I'd be happy if you didn't correct it, instead mark what is wrong near the error. The reasons are because I must see so you have not misunderstood me and I may be working on another version of the FAQ when you send me the corrected version. Searching the corrected old version for what used to be errors and then inputting it into the error filled new version, would be extremely time consuming and annoying. If you send me a proof-read version which is only corrected, I will not be able to use it. ===================== 11.5 About the Author ===================== Not that anyone cares, but I think it's nice to know something about the author that has written the FAQ. My name is Christian Wall and I am born in 1985. I live in a small town in the middle of Sweden together with my little brother and our cat. I am currently (Summer, 2003) on a Summer vacation from the gymnasium (highschool) and I will be studying there for another year. When I have finished my gymnasium time, I will continue to study either law or economics. In my spare time, I like to play videogames, read books, write FAQs and believe it or not, I like studying. ===================== 11.6 Copyright Notice ===================== This document is protected by international copyright law. You may download this document for personal use, print it and/or put it on your homepage/site. However, this document may not be altered or divided into different parts, and no parts may be removed. It may not be published in any magazine and/or sold for profit. You may not convert it into HTML, nor any other file format. It may only be displayed in ASCII text (.txt). All credit must be given to me, Christian Wall, the sole owner of this document. If you follow these demands, you may publish it on your homepage/site. You do not have to e-mail me about it. I will not send my FAQs or updates to any other sites than the ones listed below. If you want the most recent versions, go there. http://home.swipnet.se/cpg http://www.gamefaqs.com Copyright (c) 2003-2005 Christian Wall ================ 11.7 Final Words ================ Thank you for reading. Copyright (c) 2003-2005 Christian Wall All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. - End of Document -