Knight Rider (NES)/Walkthrough

Stage flow
There are 5 sets of 3 missions, for a total of 15 missions. All 15 of Knight Rider's missions follow the same basic flow.
 * 1) Receive a mission debriefing from Devon.  (Press  to advance at any time.)
 * 2) Get an opportunity to upgrade one of KITT's features before the mission begins.
 * 3) Start the mission (you will automatically accelerate up to 130 mph before control is handed over to you.)
 * 4) You must drive through traffic and reach the end of the course before time runs out, before your shield is depleted, or before you run out of gas.
 * 5) Once you reach the end of the course, your gas and shields are automatically restored.  One minute is put on the clock, and you must face and defeat the boss before the one minute is up.

Survival tips

 * Avoid colliding with or destroying any blue vehicles, as they are civilians. For every neutral blue vehicle or Knight truck you destroy, five seconds are deducted from the mission timer.
 * Don't engage every red vehicle that you see. You should only bother fighting with red vehicles if they are close and potentially in your way.
 * Do try to engage every red vehicle you see. Try to destroy the yellow tinted cars instead. They will provide you with power-ups. However, try to be careful destroying yellow cars while taking a sharp turn. It will be difficult to position KITT's hood under the icon and catch it.
 * Similarly, you shouldn't miss out on the opportunity to obtain power-ups from the Knight Foundation truck. Control your speed as you approach it so that you don't ram into it by mistake.  Some stages are so short that they require you to obtain Time power-up icons in order to complete them.
 * To best avoid collisions, drive on the striped lines between the lanes. There can only ever be one vehicle per lane (not including KITT), so it's also possible to drive behind a particularly fast vehicle (which will move slower down the lane relative to KITT) and avoid collisions.
 * Don't bother dealing with any of the aerial enemy vehicles unless you feel you absolutely have to. In order to hit them, you'll have to Turbo Boost which uses up a considerable amount of gas.  You'll also want to use lasers, as it takes a few shots from your machine gun to destroy them, and you may not get all the shots out before you drop back down to the ground.
 * Reaching the end of the stage in time involves not losing your shield, not running out of gas, and maintaining a high level of speed. If you notice that your time is just about to run out, accelerate KITT as fast as you can before he begins to coast.  Then Turbo Boost as frequently as possible.  This will slow KITT's rate of deceleration down, and give you a better chance of coasting to the boss battle.

Boss battles
Boss battles occur against trucks or enemy helicopters. Somewhere on each truck or helicopter, you will see a set of lights or indicators which start out blue. These lights indicate the health of the boss. As the boss takes more damage, the lights will switch from blue to yellow, and then from yellow to red. When the lights are red, this means the boss is very close to being defeated. Use up all of your remaining supply of lasers, and then all of your missiles before resorting to using machine guns.

When fighting against boss trucks, it's important to avoid driving directly behind the truck where you are most vulnerable to getting shot. You should try to lead the truck by a little to the right or to the left, following closely behind, but never directly behind. Fire continuously when the truck is veering in your direction, while simultaneously driving away from the truck in order to avoid damage.

When fighting against a boss helicopter, you are required to Turbo Boost in order to get off the ground and high enough to attack. When you Turbo Boost, you should be able to avoid most attacks, as they are directed on to the ground below. In order to boost high enough, you'll have to keep your speed up, which may require you to take a break from fighting, and building up your speed so that you can resume your attack on the boss.

The first two missions of each set of three will always involve the boss escaping just before being destroyed, while the third mission will see you actually defeating the boss. In later levels, there may be more than one boss to battle. In these situations, your shield and gas meters are always restored when advancing from one boss battle to the next.