Enemies
Skele-horse | Ghost | Demon head |
---|---|---|
Skele-horses rampage through the screen, quickly adjusting to any uneven heights in their path. | Compared to the other horrors you'll face in this stage, ghosts are relatively tame. | Demon heads slide down one side of the screen until they are even with you, and then rush across. |
Snake woman | Hawk man | Whip skeleton |
Snake women slide across the floor in hopes of colliding with any intruders. They are easily stopped as you approach. | Hawk men patrol above the ground that the snake women slide on. They bob up and down as they fly forward in one direction. | Whip skeletons are incredibly dangerous due to the long reach of their attacks. Counter in kind with whip attacks of your own. |
Flame | Sword knight | Masked head |
Flames warp in and spit two fireballs at you before disappearing and reappearing somewhere else. | Sword Knights hop around on the ground, keeping four spinning blades suspended in the air, which they fire off periodically. | Masked heads quickly float up and down, and back and forth on the screen until they are destroyed, spitting fire at you. |
Demon | Dragon Bones | |
These floating demons move back and forth on the screen, slowly adjusting their height as they shoot small sparks at you. | This large and fearsome boss remains motionless while it attacks you by generating smaller versions of itself every few seconds. It is vulnerable to attack along its neck, so you'll have to jump up to successfully hit it. Fuuma is considered such a threat, that this boss has literally eaten him. You'll need to defeat the Dragon Bones to free Fuuma from capture. | |
Mini bones | ||
Mini bones are generated by the Dragon Bones boss. They appear and walk around to attack anyone standing in front of the boss. |
Stage description
Rely on King Kong, but don't overdo it
King Kong is absolutely essential in this stage. For one thing, you can barely access the depths of hell without King Kong's high jumping abilities. Furthermore, many of the enemies that you face in hell are incredibly strong, and Kong is likely to possess the strongest attack on your team unless you rescued Moai already. Kong can remove the enemies faster than most other characters can, but if you keep him out for a long time, he is likely to lose a lot of health, and possibly even die, which will be a bad situation for you. Use Kong as much as you can afford to, but remember that you can't afford to lose him here. Switch to another character if he is about to die.
King Kong sized jumps
Very shortly after you've arrived in hell, you will reach one rock formation that is unusually high. There are only two characters who can jump high enough to clear the rock. One is King Kong, and the other is Moai. Since it's unlikely that you've rescued Moai before visiting Hell, you will need to rely on King Kong to get you past this hurdle. Far later in the stage, when you begin to encounter the whip-wielding skeletons, you'll need to rely on King Kong's jumping power once again. Make sure that you keep him alive long enough to reach this otherwise-impossible jump.
Dealing with Whip Skeletons
The Whip Skeletons are potentially one of the most dangerous enemies that you'll face in hell. They are determined to keep you from getting through the portion of hell that they guard. They have a strong attack that has quite a long reach. Blindly rushing towards them to attack them is not a recommended strategy. Instead, you should rely either on range or timing. By now, you should have plenty of special weapons for your characters. To play it safe, switch to one of these characters and activate their special weapon. When a whip skeleton appears on screen, back up and fire at it from a safe distance until it is defeated. If you do not have any special weapons, or bullets to use with them, use can try timing your attack. Wait for the skeleton to lash his whip, and then rush in to attack him before he gets another shot in.
Leave Hell and return
The fact of the matter is, Hell is an incredibly dangerous place to be, and the enemies at the very end of the stage are even stronger than the tough enemies you face in the beginning. You would be wise to seek some help. Fortunately, you can gather an item from hell that will be a great asset to you, the Konami Mantle. After you collect it, stand on the platform shown in the image to the left, and press down to discover a quick warp back to the lab. When you return to Hell, you will have to repeat your progress, but hopefully when you return, you will be a lot stronger and better defended than before. With the Mantle in your possess, Konami Man and Konami Lady can now fly if you jump straight up and hold the A button down. With this power, you can now collect the Power Capsule and Goemon's Lucky Cat weapon from Template:~, and you can collect Konami Lady's Heat Gun weapon as well as the Magical Armor from Template:~. Once you have these items, you should notice a big difference when you return to Hell. All of your characters will defeat enemies more quickly, and take less damage from attacks.
Make things easier for yourself
Possession of the Mantle is great, but its benefits may not occur to you right away. When you reach the lowest level of Hell, you will be confronted with their strongest regular enemies, the Sword Knight, the Masked Head, and the floating Demon. These enemies will attack you all at once, and they are quite persistent and difficult to remove. While it's possible for you to attack them and get them out of your way as you approach the boss, there is another tactic that you can take: fly past them. With the Mantle, you can have Konami Man or Konami Lady jump up and start flying at the start of the stage. Then choose a height that protects you from the three enemies that like to appear here, and float your way through without having to worry about the difficult jumps in this section.
The demon Dragon Bone boss
When you reach the fearsome Dragon Bone boss at the end of the stage, you'll need to formulate a good method of attack against it. His vulnerable region is along his neck, which is quite high off the ground to begin with. Furthermore, he attacks you by generating smaller versions of himself to walk around on the ground and deal with intruders. There are two ways that you can deal with this boss. One is by flying while the other is by staying on the ground. If you choose to fly, choose any Konami-person that has access to their special weapon. Activate the weapon and jump up into the air. Then while you float in the sky, shoot the boss into oblivion. If you choose not to do this, or are unable, you'll have to attack from the ground. Here again, you have some choices. Using Simon and his boomerang weapon is not a bad idea, although it won't be as effective as it was against the previous boss in Template:~. If you don't have enough bullets, but you do have enough health for King Kong, you can have him jump up and attack the neck directly by punching in mid-air. Watch your health and switch characters if necessary.
Once the boss is defeated, you will immediately rescue Fuuma. You will find his special weapon, the Shuriken, just a short distance to the right. Then you have to turn around and exit the stage. Don't forget about the warp location which you can use for a faster get-away back to the lab.