------------- --ARMADILLO-- ------------- FAQ © by H_Hog E Mail: H_Hog@eskimobob.com FAQ started: May 26th 2002 Last updated: August 9th 2002 Version: 1.1 Armadillo © IGS Inc. 1991 Armadillo is a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This FAQ was only posted at GameFAQS.com and Gamenotover.com. Please notify me if it's seen anywhere else. ------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. The Game 2. Basic movement 2.1. Level Controls 2.2. Armie's Different Forms 3. Items, Pick-Ups and Power-Ups 4. Enemies 4.1. Regular Enemies 4.2. Eating enemies, and other tricky foes 4.3. Bosses 5. Final stuff ------------ 1. The Game ------------ Armadillo is a fun platform game on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Unfortunately, the game has never been released outside Japan, so I am not able to give you a real detailed storyline description, aside from what I've seen in pictures from "cutscenes" and the ending. After clearing the game however, I found out as much: A cowboyhat-clad Armadillo travels through what seems like Mexico, looking for what I assume to be his dad and girlfriend. Halfway through the game you find your father acting strangely, I assume from what I've seen that he has kidnapped your girlfriend. Naturally, you, as the Armadillo, have to track him down and defeat him. Desertscapes, mountain areas, Mayan caverns, underwater caves, even a Casino, nothing is too rough for Armie. (I'll be nicknaming him that from now on.) Well, let's get on with the gameplay. 2. Basic Movement ------------ After starting a game, you'll see a Map screen with squares. It's similar to Super Mario 3, but with the changes that the level squares are linked together via several blank squares. Walk on top of a blank square, and press the A button. It will be crossed out, and you can move freely. In a 1-Player game, keep doing this until you come across a level. In a 2-Player game, the 2nd player will control Armie now, and claim "his" square. Both of you take turns until one of you starts a level. You'll see something floating around that looks like a Spaceship with sunglasses. The idea is to reach it as soon as you can, so you can beat the boss and move on to the next world, very similar to Super Mario 3. 2.1 Level Controls ------------ Control Pad: Moves Armie. B Button: Changes Armie to ball form, and back to normal. Similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, Armie can roll into a ball to keep enemies from attacking. Armie can jump while in ball form, and will be able to bounce high. A Button: Jumps. Not much more to it. You can jump and press B in mid-air to assume the ball form, and bounce. Hold the A button to bounce higher. Watch out, unlike most platform games, you can NOT jump on enemies to defeat them; you'll need the Ball form for that. Hugging the wall during a jump will make you grab it, a-la Megaman X. You cannot climb walls, nor can you jump high enough after grabbing a wall to actually climb higher. The only way to ascend by climbing is to jump and cling to a wall directly next to the one you're climbing, alternating between the two. 2.2 Armie's different forms ------------ Armie has several forms - the basic ones being Regular and Ball. Also, Armie is able to turn into some animals in Regular form. Animals I've seen so far are the Bird, the Kangaroo, the Fish, and the Snail. All animal forms are lost either by: -Being hit by an enemy in the animal form -Obtaining an other animal form (Except Bird) An Animal form can be temporarily paused by pressing the B button, reverting back to regular Armie. Pressing B then will turn Armie into Ball form, and pressing B after that again, he goes back to his current active animal form. When you have an animal form active and you grab another one, the current form stays active until you changed back to regular again. After that, the new form will be active. Regular Form: Armie will walk around just like any other platform character. Only in Regular form you'll be able to cling to walls and slowly slide off them by jumping on them and pressing the control pad in the direction of the wall. Regular form has the easiest handling. Ball Form: Main attack/defense mode. When hit with the ball, enemies will bounce off the screen like bowling pins, provided of course, you have a little boost. That is, Enemies will not die if you slowly roll into them. Luckily, you won't get hit either.* You can also break certain blocks (marked with a heavy black outline) to find items. Handling of the ball form is pretty tricky; you'll often feel like you're playing a strange Pinball game. It is not advised to cross gaps in the floor in Ball form, you'll easily bounce out of control and land between a rock and a hard place. Tiny form: By catching the bird's Shrinking Apple, Armie turns half his normal size. He can walk and swim faster, and jump and bounce higher. He can also crawl through small gaps, going places he couldn't before. Also, because he's lighter, he can scale walls easier. As I mentioned before, where Regular Armie needs to ascend by jumping from one wall to an adjacent one, Tiny Armie merely needs a single wall to climb upward, Megaman X style. Downside of Tiny form is that Tiny Ball form is even more difficult to handle. also, even though your active animal form remains while tiny, Armie cannot use that form until he has grown again. Tiny Form ends after walking through a funnel, dying, or by ending the level. Bird Form: When you change into a bird, you'll be sure to know there's an item or special bonus around that can only be gotten in Bird Form, so look for it! Control the joypad in 8 directions to fly anywhere you want to. Press B button to change back into Armie, permanently. Bird form has a random time limit. Get hit by an enemy, and Bird mode is over, as well*. Getting Bird Form will not nullify Kangaroo, Snail or Fish form. Kangaroo Form: Armie will change into a high jumping kangaroo, being able to jump the height of an average ball bounce in a single leap, with slightly worse character handling then the Regular form. Also, he climbs slopes a bit more easily. Rather useful. Kangaroo form stays effective even after completing a level, until you get hit by an enemy. (in which case you won't die, but revert to Regular form*). You'll also lose Kangaroo after obtaining a different animal form, except Bird. Fish Form: Usually encountered in or just before levels with water in them. Armie can swim for himself, but has a hard time diving, making it tricky to dodge enemies and spikes. Basically, he floats upwards when he's not swimming. In ball form, he CAN hit enemies, but he'll float upwards even faster. However, Fish form will enhance Armie's swimming abilities. He'll be able to swim faster, (which is still horribly slow) and he can sit still in water without floating upwards. It's a mixed blessing however, because in Fish form, you're vertically twice as large as you are in regular swimming Armie mode, sometimes making you less maneuverable. Also, it takes TWO taps of the transform button to change to ball form. Still, I recommend staying in Fish form, plain and alone because if you get hit, you revert to Regular form, rather then dying instantly. Like Kangaroo Form, you'll keep Fish Form even through levels. Snail Form: Armie will turn into a snail, able to scale walls left, right, and upsidedown. That's...pretty much it. It's useful, but rare in the early levels. Press the A button to get into your shell, making you invincible, but immobile. *Some things stay lethal, regardless of form. These will be explained later. 3. Items, Pick-Ups and Power-Ups ------------ Various items are scattered around to help you. Here's the ones I saw so far. Kangaroo, Fish, Bird, Snail: Turns you into their respective Animal Form. Described above. Grabbing an animal item while already having that form gets you an extra life. (I.E. with Snail active, grabbing a Fish will drop Snail and activate Fish form, grabbing another Snail will get you an extra life.) Umbrella: Press Up while jumping to slowly float downwards. Grabbing the Umbrella will remove your current Animal Form. Square tablet with white circle: Whatever it is, it nabs you an extra Life. Shoe: Makes you faster, and jump slightly higher. Effect is hardly noticable. Rather useless. Soda Bottle: The music changes, and you start to flash. What ever could it be? Guess what, it's Temporary Invincibility. Potion: A power-up with the most original effect I've seen in a game. This stuff turns you green, and inverses your vulnerability. That is, you can simply walk into enemies normally and kill them, you can withstand lethal objects like the gopher's "bow" cry, BUT you will be -completely- vulnerable in Ball Form. Runs out after a short period. Shrinking Apple: Dropped by the white bird. Snatch it before it hits the floor and you'll shrink. (Explained earlier) Dice: 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 eyed dice are scattered around. After a level, they'll be arranged, and depending what you have, it tallys up extra bonus points after a level. You can hold 5 at a time. No one I've talked to is sure how this bonus system works yet, but my guess is you have to get things like 2/3/4 of a kind, full house, straight, and that sorta stuff to rack up the scores higher. This will be looked into more in the near future. Coffee: Extra bonus points. 4. Inhabitants of the Game ------------ Armie's world is stuffed with enemies, and a lot of different ones at that. It also has a few allies, though. I'll explain the ones I saw so far here. 4.1. Regular Enemies ------------ Raccoon: Nothing special, just walks and hops a bit. Cactus: Slowly walks wherever it can go, again nothing serious. Big-beaked Bird: It kinda looks like a pineapple with a bird head. It flies through the air, making a swandive now and then to try and hit you. Rabbit: Hops and floats through the air a bit using its ears as propellor blades. Annoying, but easy to defeat. Flamingo: Walks around, stretching its neck, trying to snatch you with its beak. Bat: Often lurks in dark corners and caves, blending in with the background. Very annoying. Siamese Cat: Jerkily walks around, falling off platforms and such. Stick Figure: Similar to the Siamese Cat, it jerkily dances around in one spot. Skunk: Walks on it's front paws, with its tail arched around it. No biggie. Mimic: Looks like a tiny magician. Can morph itself into random enemies. Small Fish: Swims around in a wavy fashion. Bull: Quickly runs forward. When hit on the front, you bounce off. Hit him on top of his head or in the back. 4.2. Eating enemies, and other tricky foes ------------ Some enemies open and close their mouthes. Avoid these like the plague when their mouthes are open, even in Ball form. Jump inside their gaping maw to find yourself eaten, with your skull drifting upward. Eww. Other enemies don't eat you, but are nonetheless dangerous, even as a ball. Bulldog: Usually sticks to one spot, and doesn't often open his mouth. Alligator: Constantly opens and closes his mouth. Jump on top of his head to avoid a dinner demise. Whale: Crawls along the ground, snapping his mouth like the Alligator. Easier to defeat then his reptilian friend, yet annoying nonetheless. Crab: Slowly walks around, stops, and snaps his oversized claw. Hit the claw when it's open and you're a goner. Gopher: Pops up out of nowhere from a dug hole, does nothing for a while, then suddenly shouts "BOW". The word "BOW" floats straight forward, and can kill you, even in ball form. Hedgehog: Walks around for 2 seconds, then suddenly raises its spikes, which are lethal, even in Ball form. Very annoying to defeat. Big Fish: Swims around like his tiny comrade, with matching snapping jaws. Propellor Fish: "Swims" around in both the sky or water. Attack him on the front, 'cause if you hit the propellor you're dead meat. Snake: Goes up and down in a level, with his gigantic mouth always open. Hit him when he turns his tail upward. Pink Alligator: Lurks on the floor, no higher then yourself in Ball form. Until it opens its mouth, when it's suddenly taller then yourself, easily able to eat you whole. Dangerous. Spinning Clown: Jumps and spins around wildly. Beware his pointy underside and hit him in the head or side. 4.3. Bosses ------------ In the map screen, try and get the square with the UFO on it as soon as you can. You'll then enter a friendly schoolhouse looking building, where the Boss lurks. Boss 1 is a lizard in a business suit with a machine gun, firing slow but pretty big bullets. Hit him 3 times in Ball form to defeat him. All the next bosses are very similar, all of them are animals in business suits with guns, all with their own quirk. If you're fast, you can defeat most of them without them even being able to release their first shot. At a certain point in the game, you'll meet a fat blue Armadillo, whom I believe to be Armie's dad. Moments after that you'll battle a machine bearing your dad's face, so I'm not so sure of it. 4.4. Allies ------------ There's a small amount of people that will help you along. Bird: Drops the Shrinking Apple. Grab it, you can get nice bonuses in tunnels only accessible in Tiny form. Goat: Inhabits pretty much every Sushi shop, Bar, and other enterable house in the game. I think they give you advice, but since I can't read Japanese, I'm not sure. For all I know they're badmouthing you. ;) Alien: Looks like a twitching jellyfish. Talk to him and he'll lend you his spaceship. The spaceship is always nearby the alien you talked to. Enter it, and you automatically clear the stage, and you can decide where on the board you want the ship to drop you off, even places you haven't been to before. Useful to get a shortcut to the boss, though you cannot land exactly ON the boss. 5. Final stuff ------------ I did my best to make this guide as complete as I could, but of course it might happen that any of you that read this FAQ stumbled upon something I haven't found yet, or maybe think there's something I should add. It's also appreciated if anyone that can actually read Japanese tell me what the majority of the said text is, most preferrably at the intro screen, the game start, and the ending. For Emulator users, I can provide a FCE Ultra savestate near the ending (one hit left on the last boss) if you need it for translation purposes. Also, I'll repeat what I said above: This FAQ has been written for being shown on GameFAQS.com and Gamenotover.com only. Let me know if you spot it anywhere else. Special thanks: Dennis - For introducing me to this game first, in the form of a pirate cart where the game was changed in a Mario game way back when I was still around 7 years old. Phredreeke - For telling me what the original name for the "Mario V" Pirate was. BJ "Tonic" Brown - For confirming Phredreeke, and pointing me toward more info of the pirate, which determined me to search this game. Kitsune Sniper: For working on a translation on this game. Here's hoping it's finished soon. =) You - For reading this FAQ. =) - FAQ © H_Hog.