Märchen Maze/Round 9
For those of you who have not noticed, this world is a palette-swap of the first world - and the only one where it is impossible to avoid running out of time at least once. So once Alice has dropped down to the platform, start walking forward by pushing the joystick into the "north-east" position and blow a bubble at each of the Slimes that are oozing their way towards you. Once you have knocked them all over the edge, you will see an Imo hovering towards you and a Tombow flying around in a wide arc on the left side of the platform - and once you have blown both of them away, you will have to deal with two groups of Skulls spitting marbles at you from both sides of the platform and several more Tombows flying around in wide arcs in the centre of the platform. There are also three Boxes in the centre of the platform, and each of them contains a Red Crystal - and once you have collected them all, you will have to deal with a third group of Skulls spitting marbles at you and six Bombs bouncing in place on the left side of the platform just before you come to three Ohm edging their way towards you and a group of Tamagochi walking randomly around on the right side of the platform. Once you have knocked them all over the edge, you will see that the platform has narrowed and six Bacura are tumbling towards you just before you come to a seventh Bomb bouncing in place with two more Boxes on either side of it - and both of them contain a Cow of Nazo. Once you have destroyed them all, you will have to deal with eight pairs of Skulls spitting marbles at you as you make your way over the narrow section of platform - along with two more Tombows flying around in wide arcs. Once the platform has widened again, two Red Naniwa and two Blue Naniwa will come walking down the platform towards you - and you will also have to deal with three more Cows of Nazo bursting out of three more Boxes on the left side of the platform. Once you have knocked them all over the edge, you will have to deal with five Spades walking towards you and three more Cows of Nazo bursting out of three more Boxes on the right side of the platform - and once you have knocked them all over the edge, you will have to deal with several more Naniwa and Spades walking down the platform towards you just before you come to three more Tombows flying around in wide arcs in the centre of the platform and four more Cows of Nazo bursting out of four more Boxes on the left side of the platform. Once you have knocked them all over the edge, the platform will narrow again and ten more Bacura will come tumbling towards you just before you come to four more Skulls spitting marbles at you and two more Cows of Nazo bursting out of two more Boxes. It is also impossible to avoid running out of time at this point - but if you are an expert player, it is possible to jump over the Timeout Monster when he appears and walk behind him for the remainder of the round unless you are hit by a marble and knocked back into him (which you almost certainly will be). But regardless of whether if you succumbed to the fate of automatically being forced over the edge of the platform or not, you will have to deal with eight more Bacura tumbling towards you just before you come to five more Spades and four more Naniwa walking randomly around the platform - and once you have knocked them all over the edge, four more Cows of Nazo will burst out of four more Boxes just before you come to four more Spades and two more Naniwa walking down the platform towards you. Once you have knocked them all over the edge, you will have to deal with two more pairs of Skulls spitting marbles at you and four more Cows of Nazo bursting out of four more Boxes just before you come to a small chequered platform moving back and forth. Jump onto the chequered platform in order to be carried over to the final boss platform - where you will be drawn into a battle with the Queen of Darkness herself. She attacks by moving from left to right at the top of the platform in a manner similar to that of Reidoku and occasionally opening her cloak to fire a laser beam at the ground which generates a small group of Spades on impact. Once you have hit her enough times to defeat her, she will explode (although the Spades will remain) and leave a portal back to the real world behind which Alice will promptly jump into. You will then also get 50000 bonus points for every life you have remaining and 10 bonus points for every tenth of a second you have remaining. You can now sit back and enjoy the ending, which shows Alice waking up in the morning and the mirror opposite her bed fading out for a second time. Once it has faded back in again, it is inscribed with a victory message of "Thank you Alice".
