Pop n' Bounce (Gapporin) Neo Geo FAQ Version 1.0 Puzzle 1-2 players Accessories: Paddle controller optional -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Copyright 2003 by JuneHa Kim/BakaOrochi All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of this FAQ in any shape or form is prohibited. Come on, it's not like it's HARD to e-mail me if you want to use any part of this FAQ, is it? If you want to use ANYTHING, even codes or whatnot from this, CONTACT ME FIRST. This is my work, and not one bit of this is to be reproduced in any way, shape, or form. Copyright laws protect this FAQ. This is purely my own work, any other similarities to other FAQs are purely coincidental. I do respect all other copyrights and if I have inadvertently infringed on any, please contact me immediately so that I may remedy the problem. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- FAQ History: 1.0 10/4/03 -First release -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Contents: 1. What's the point of this FAQ? 2. What the heck is "Pop n' Bounce?" 3. How to play 3a. Scoring 3b. Power ups 3c. Other gameplay aspects 4. Frequently asked questions...well maybe not that frequent. 5. Arcade (MVS) and Home (AES) settings 6. Can you give me some tips/secrets? 7. The levels 8. Closing notes/Thanks/Contact Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 1. What's the point of this FAQ? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Why not? There wasn't one, so I figured, why not? If there's anything you feel I should add to this FAQ, feel free to e-mail me. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 2. What the heck is "Pop n' Bounce?" -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The concept of the game is simple: Keep the ball alive by hitting it everytime it comes close to the bottom of the screen. It's basically Arkanoid, but with a huge cute tangent thrown in. This is Videosystem's take on the game. The story? I don't know yet, as I do not own any manuals or where I can find the documentation to this game, if you can help with character names and what-nots, please send me an e-mail (see bottom section). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 3. How to play -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- You control one of two characters, depending which side you're playing. Neither have any effect to the gameplay itself. If you're Player 1, you're the girl, Riccia. If you're player two, you're the guy, Acorus. ...but mainly, you control their little paddle at the bottom of the screen. Purpose: Keep the ball alive! Depending on the game settings, you may only miss up to 2 or 3 times (maximum setting is 5 lives), and then you have Game Over. HOWEVER, you DO NOT want to Continue, because when you do, you have to restart the level (not the World), which can be a HUGE pain. This is NOT like Arkanoid in many ways however. The strategy of gameplay is rather different. When you defeat an enemy, if another from a row above can move into the space that's been opened up, the enemy will move to a lower row. Additionally, if the enemy moves down a row is the SAME color as a neighboring enemy, it will MERGE into a BIGGER enemy. This may be good or bad, because your power-up capsule (if you get one) will be bigger as well. Here's a visual: O-Denotes Orange B-Denotes Blue G-Denotes Green Y-Denotes Yellow BYGO YOBG OYGB Let's say you pop the far right B enemy, the enemies above it will shift down like so: BYG YOBO OYGG Now you see there are two Green enemies next to each other, which means those two Green enemies will merge into a bigger one. Enemies will constantly merge if they're lined up next to each other. Also they can grow in height too, not just width, if they're a) the same shape and form (see: enemies), and b)the same width or height AND they're adjacent to each other. As enemies get bigger, they will give you power-ups and more points, so make them merge if you can (since small enemies won't give you crap). Note: If "Block Down" Option is OFF on the game options menu, enemies will not merge. You WANT some of these enemies to merge as big as they can get, because when they hit a certain size, if you pop them, they will give you special power-ups. 3a. Scoring Your score multiplies every time you can hit an enemy with every bounce-back. If you hit only walls, and the ball returns to you, your score multiplier subtracts 10x everytime (or down to 1x if you have less than 10x mutiplier). Your multiplier will reset to 1x whenever your miss the ball. When you clear a level, if it takes you under a minute to clear the playfield, you will get a bonus. 3b. Power ups When you defeat an enemy, you will occasionally get a power-up. Different letters give you different power-ups. L (Blue) Elongates your paddle S (Orange) Lets your shoot lasers. Not too useful since the rate of fire is REALLY slow, and can distract you from focusing on returning the ball (which you MUST STILL keep alive) D (Red) Slows down your ball. Be careful, this will also make you lose your power-ups. P (Green) Strengthens the ball. The first level is pink (which you can hardly tell a difference, except when you hit black enemies). Larger P capsules will make your ball more powerful. SPECIAL POWER-UPS You only get these when about 6-8 enemies merge. SP (various) This clears your entire playfield 1-UP (purple) Gives you an extra ball (life) 3c. Other gameplay aspects "B" Pop bubbles: You will occasionally run into "B" bubbles. Depending on the color, they do different things. Red, blue, orange, green: Pops all corresponding color enemies on the screen (if they have a shell of some sort, the shell will be taken off). Black: Same as above. However, sometimes these are the only things that will defeat certain black enemies (i.e. Slimes). Purple: These will pop any enemy surrounding this bubble. If there is another bubble nearby, it will pop that too. If there are other purple P bubbles nearby, it will CHAIN those (as in, those will activate too, popping whatever's around that purple P bubble as well). Timer: Another thing you have to be careful of is that enemies will move downward (as in the entire stage) if you let too much time pass. If the enemy line hits the bottom of your playfield, they will all turn into one big boss. This is simply just a big pain. Sometimes the enemies will move down faster than others (i.e. Dharma starts shifting down after like 30 seconds), so sometimes the only choice to beat certain levels is to either be REALLY good or just defeat them by boss. Boss fights: This only occurs once the enemies advance past the bottom red line. The playfield will clear and you will have to hit a huge version of the boss about 30 times in a span of about 45 seconds. Occasoinally, a random enemy will be tossed out to try to block your shots. You usually should have enough time to defeat the boss (plus, ATTACK is still available to you if you can hit them all). If you DO NOT defeat the boss in the allotted time period, you will lose ALL your lives instantly. Ball speed: This will increase naturally as you continue to play. Some factors may slow it down, but it will definitely increase if your ball hits the top of your playfield. ATTACK: If you can hit all 6 letters at the top of your screen, you will receive a bunch of power-ups simultaneously, and your paddle will extend to about as long as the playfield (but balls can still slip past the paddle, and you only get three, so be careful). It wil last about 10 seconds. Also be careful because the speed of the balls go VERY fast for that time period. 2 Player game: When you play 2-players, whoever cleans out the playfield first, or whoever stays alive longest wins. Winner stays, loser pays. You will be thrown into a random playfield. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 5. Arcade (MVS) and Home (AES) settings -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I do not have access to the debug BIOS, so please do not ask me what I can do with that. MVS settings can set: BALLS (lives) to maximum 99 (default: 3) Continues: Infinite, without, or 1-99 continues (default: infinite) Level (difficulty): 1-8 (default: 4, aka MVS) Extend (extra lives): -Every 200k and 500k points -Every 500k and 800k points -Every 500k and 1 mil points -Every 1 mil and 2 mil points -Every 1 mil and 2 mil points -At 200k points only -At 500k points only -At 1 mil points only -At 2 mil points only -At 200k and 500k points only -At 500k and 1 mil points only -At 1 mil and 2 mil points only Controller: Paddle or Joystick Battle mode: How many rounds to win a 2-player battle (1-3-5) Demo sound: When no one's playing, keep sound on or off Disp. Credit/Level: Display the Credit and/or the Level number Stage Select: On or Off (you can go to the last level with this ON if you like) Block Down: The enemy columns will move down as you pop the lower rows. This will affect gameplay greatly (since this especially changes strategy of gameplay), so think twice about turning this option on or off. AES settings By default, there are no options to set, oddly enough. In fact, I don't even know if there was an AES release because at DEMO mode, the game says "INSERT COIN!" If you know how to switch MVS settings over to AES settings, the MVS settings will carry over to AES (i.e. Stage Select). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 6. Frequently asked questions...well maybe not that frequent. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Q: What's the Rabio from? A: The Rabio/Lapus has it's own game from a long long time ago (before Videosystem was called "Mc O'River"). Since then, it's randomly appeared in other Videosystem games, like Aero Fighters. Q: Does this game have any sequels? A: No. Q: Is there any differences between the different regions? A: Nothing except for the text and the title of the game. There's no added dialogue, no added story, no added screens, nothing. All regions are the same. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 7. The Levels and enemies -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Land Area (Area 1) 1-1: Penguin Likes: Bow ties Dislikes: Humid places -These are just your standard enemies 1-2: Hippopotamus Likes: Bathing Dislikes: Cavities 1-3: Cat Likes: Warm hearth Dislikes: Fleas -Some arrangements will use indestructable bars 1-4: Dragon Likes: The sky Dislikes: Indecisive people -You will have to first break the shell first to pop the dragon. Shells can merge too, as well as the dragon itself, but shell and dragons cannot merge. You must pop the shell first to merge the dragon. Sea Area (Area 2) 2-1: Octopus Likes: Fresh seafood Dislikes: Noisy places 2-2: Blowfish Likes: It's large eyes (rather vain, eh?) Dislikes: Pointy things 2-3: Turtle Likes: Sunbathing Dislikes: Fast runners -You will first have to destroy the shell before the turtle. 2-4: Mermaid Likes: Clean seawater Dislikes: A bad mannered person -You will have to destroy the shell first. Space Area (Area 3) 3-1: Slime Likes: Soft things Dislikes: Hard things (...) -Black slimes are INDESTRUCTABLE. You must pop the B bubble to pop them. 3-2: Spaceship Likes: Brand new fuel Dislikes: Rust -Note: This enemy does NOT appear as a poppable enemy, except if the blocks goes below the red line. 3-3: Star Likes: Zero-gravity conditions Dislikes: Crashing 3-4: Martian & UFO Likes: Universal conquest (who doesn't?) Dislikes: Invaders (Kinda ironic, eh?) -Another two-step enemy, first pop the UFO, then the martian. Variety Area (Area 4) 4-1: Dharma Likes: Sincerity Dislikes: Insincerity (...) -Don't be surprised if you can't pop all the dharma; I think you're supposed to be forced into a boss battle with him. It's VERY difficult to defeat all the dharma before he moves down, and it seems like the timer for the dharma to move down comes by a LOT faster than normal. 4-2: Snail Likes: Rainfall Dislikes: Cold winters 4-3: Ghost Likes: Midnight Dislikes: Bullies Final Stage 4-4: Rabio & Lady Likes: Carrots Dislikes: Satin -You will first have to destroy the Rabio. Note: The larger the lady, the different poses she has =P -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 8. Closing notes/Thanks/Contact Information -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Thanks to... Videosystem for this wonderfully short and fun game. Copyrights...(every game I mentioned thus far, just to be safe) Pop n' Bounce (Gapporin) is trademark/copyright of Videosystem. Neo-Geo is trademark/copyright of SNK and Playmore. Arkanoid is trademark/copyright of Taito. ~~~ Before e-mailing me... Know that I don't read or respond to the following types of e-mails: -Begging for codes -Asking for the GameShark/Enhancer/whatever bypass code -How to modify your system -How to pirate games -How to unlock *your favorite song here* -Unlocking codes -Spam -Viruses -Flames/Rants/Raves -Stupid crap that's already been explained in the FAQ, but you're too lazy to read -CODES, PLEASE STOP ASKING ME FOR THEM -Other such stupidity You can e-mail me at BakaOrochi at bemanistyle dot com If you'd like to reuse this FAQ in ANYWAY, SHAPE OR FORM, YOU MUST contact me FIRST! So please save yourself the legal trouble. I won't bite your head off or anything =E -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- This FAQ can be located http://www.geocities.com/bo_iidx or http://www.gamefaqs.com