Pro Tip of the Day - genesis

Pro tip: Seeing the ending of Mr. Nutz any time you want

Will — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:51:17 +0000

Let's just get this out of the way right up front: Yes, there is a game called Mr. Nutz. It stars a squirrel.

It's kind of long and kind of hard (*snicker*), and you get passwords to kind of help you along.

But what if you went to the Password screen, and instead of entering the password you had, you entered "VITAMI"?

Well, then you'd be taken directly to the ending sequence!

Which, like a lot of the games of the time, isn't all that special.

But don't worry about that.

Pro tip: Starting on whatever level you want in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist

Will — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:18 +0000

The Genesis Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is a whole lot like Turtles in Time, which means you should know pretty much what to expect.

And if you want to skip around to see what the game has to offer without actually working for it, we can arrange that.

First, go to the title screen

Grab Controller 1 and hit:

A, B ,B ,C ,C ,C ,B ,A , Start

Done right, you'll be taken to a black screen where you can select your starting point

Which means you can start at the end and finish the game in less than 5 minutes.

You know, if you're into that kind of thing.

Pro tip: More extra lives in Zool: Ninja of the "Nth" Dimension

Will — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:10:05 +0000

Since I didn't have much access to the Genesis library in its heyday, I missed out on a lot of games, like Zool. So now, when I do get a chance to play them, I make sure that I tip the scales to my favor any chance I get.

So, in Zool, I pause the game, and hold in the Start button. Then press Down, Up, Left, Left, A, Right, Down (which kind of spells out the word 'Dullard'). The screen will light up halfway through the code, like it's been un-paused, but it won't be. Finish out the code an you get a bonus life! And, you can do this as many times as you want to stock up!

Easy!

Pro tip: Starting on whatever level you want in Sonic the Hedgehog

Will — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:58:10 +0000

The original Sonic the Hedgehog game, like pretty much all the games in the series, starts out pretty easy and then ramps up the difficulty to a ridiculous level pretty quickly. So it might be nice if you could practice those advanced stages, right?

Well, then good news!

If you go to the title screen

And press Up, Down, Left, Right on Controller 1, you'll hear a sound like you've collected a Ring. Then hold down the A button and press Start. Done right, you'll be presented with a Stage Select screen!

Letting you start pretty much anywhere you want.

Just be aware that if you start at the last stage and finish it, you won't see the true ending. You need to play through enough of the game to collect the Chaos Emeralds for that.

Pro tip: Doing... Something in Vectorman

Will — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:54:33 +0000

Vectorman came out late enough in the lifecycle of the Genesis that I had pretty well moved on to other things, so I didn't get to play it very much outside of the demo machines in the store, which means that I didn't get very much playtime with it.

Which is why when I do decide to play it, after I start getting frustrated at it I pause the game

And then on Controller 1 press: C, A, Left, Left, A, C, A, B. Which kind of spells "CALL A CAB". And when I un-pause the game

Vectorman turns into what looks like a giant Mouse Pointer! He can now go anywhere and when he crosses paths with minor enemies, they explode!

But, when I got to the boss of the area, I had to fight him the old-fashioned way

So there's still some skill involved here.

Pro tip: Accessing Level 0 in Toejam & Earl

Will — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:55:41 +0000

The first level of Toejam & Earl seems pretty straightforward, right? Just a small island in the middle of an endless sea to get you introduced to the game, right?

But, say you progress far enough into the game that you get something that lets you travel across the surface of the water, like Icarus Wings

Then you could brave the endless expanse of water and travel Southwest until you make landfall

The island has a couple of presents on it, which is nice, but it also has a hole in it. So you obviously want to jump in

And when you do, you're greeted with a tiny island with a Lemonade Stand, a Hot Tub, and a Hula Dancer

For a nice, relaxing time, and a health refill.

And as a bonus, once you're done here, when you jump off the island you're transported back to the highest level you got to on your adventure. Extra bonus!

Pro tip: starting on whatever level you want in Flicky

Will — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:44:15 +0000

Flicky is a pretty cute game with a simple premise: you lead baby birds away from cats.

But what if you want to play and start on a level other than the first one? Well, you'd be in luck.

If you start the game, and when the screen full of instructions pops up

Hold Up on the Cross Pad + A Button + C Button, and while holding all of those press Start.

Done right, a screen with the phrase "ROUND 1" will appear

Which you can manipulate to say any number up to "ROUND 36"

Where Flicky gets tricky.

Good luck!

Pro tip: A Hidden Song in Castlevania: Bloodlines

Will — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:30:00 +0000

In several of the Castlevania games you'll find that the developers threw in remixed versions of some songs from prior titles, which is fine, lots of those songs were pretty good.

But occasionally they're a little harder to find than others. Like in Castlevania: Bloodlines.

You have to first go to the Options Screen

And play Song #5 and Sound Effect #073 (and leave those two selected as you exit the screen)

Then, start the game and progress until you get the "4th powerup" for your guy (an orb for John and a book for Eric)

Once you do, you'll be greeted with a song from a classic Castlevania game! But probably not the one you're thinking of. The song that's played is from the opening stage of Castlevania III, titled, shockingly, "Beginning".

Don't have a Genesis and a copy of this game handy? You're in luck! The remix can be downloaded here

Pro tip: Typo Watch: Beast Wrestler

Will — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:02:54 +0000

I'm pretty sure you all know about the 'All Your Base' thing. It's old and played out at this point, so I'm really not going to get too far into it here.

So I'd like to draw your attention to another game that I might not have the chops to become the next 'All Your Base', but is still loaded with weird typos and mistranslations:

Beast Wrestler is a game about big ol' monsters that you have to make wrestle each other in some kind of bizarro wrestling match. The hook, I guess, is that at certain points you can take monsters that you've defeated and combine them with your current monster to make one that is possibly stronger than before. In fact, the game can explain it better than I can:

Which seems pretty straightforward... until your monster sustains heavy damage, that is

Then you're taken to my favorite typo in the whole game

A screen where they have misspelled the word 'two'.

I still crack a grin every time.

Pro tip: lengthy invincibility in James Pond 2: Codename Robocod

Will — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:11:57 +0000

Toward the beginning of James Pond 2, you'll find a group of collectibles laid out as such:

Not too exciting, right?

But!

If you collect them in this order:

Cake
Hammer
Earth
Apple
Tap (at least, I'm pretty sure it's a Tap... like a spigot)

(the first letters of which conveniently spells out the word 'CHEAT'), you become invincible... for several minutes, in fact. I was able to clear out two whole areas and part of a third before it wore off. Just don't get too complacent, it will wear off without much of a warning.