Takahashi Meijin no Bug-tte Honey/Paddle gameplay

Controls

 * : Press left or right on the direction pad to move the paddle in either direction. Up or down have no effect in this mode.
 * : Not used
 * : Press the B button to use an item if you have collected one.
 * : Press Start to pause the action mid-game.

Paddle
Whenever Bugutte or Takahashi collect an egg that they have reveal in the action portion of the game, the game will switch to the paddle portion of the game. The gameplay here is similar to that of Breakout or Arkanoid, where you must keep a ball in play by maneuvering a paddle beneath the ball so that it does not fall through the bottom of the screen. In this game, each paddle stage is composed of two screens aligned vertically. As a result, you actually control two paddles, one on each screen. Whenever the ball passes from the bottom screen to the top screen, or vice versa, the screen automatically changes.

To keep the ball in play, one must merely keep the paddle underneath the ball. The paddle will move much faster when it is farther away from the ball, and return to normal speed when it is close. If the top paddle is positioned such that the ball strikes the bottom of the paddle, the ball will turn red for a short period of time. While the ball is red, it will slam through any block that it touches and will not rebound, allowing it to potentially clear many blocks at one time. When the ball strikes a block, it is possible for an item or letter to fall from the block. Position the paddle beneath the item or letter to catch it. Read more about the different items below.

If the ball ever passes below the paddle on the bottom screen, one paddle is lost. If every paddle is lost, or if the player succeeds in helping the ball escape through the gate in the ceiling of the top screen, play control is returned to the action sequence. In order to open the gate in the ceiling, you must clear every block from the upper screen. Clearing any of the blocks in the lower screen is not necessary. However, merely helping the ball escape is not the ultimate goal of these stages.

The ultimate goal is to collect the one correct letter out of the four letters that will fall during the course of the stage. Only one letter is the right letter, and it is the only letter that will not destroy your paddle. If you collect any other letter, you will lose one paddle. There is no indication of which letter is the correct letter. The correct letters (or numbers) contribute to the eight character password that you must assemble to clear the stage. Therefore, the correct letters can be known in advance, provided the password is known in advance, as the wrong letters will (usually) not occur in the password.

Special Blocks
There are two kinds of special blocks, that behave different from regular blocks.

Items
As mentioned above, when the ball strikes a block, there is a possibility that an item or a letter will fall from it. In order to clear each action stage, you must collect all eight correct letters (or numbers) from every paddle stage. If you touch the wrong letter with the paddle, the paddle will be destroyed. However, the collect of any item is entirely safe and will grant the paddle with the following effects.