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Controls[edit]

  • Joysticks: The game features a 4-way joystick, the only control needed for gameplay. This used to guide the paintbrush around the maze.
  • 1-2 Players: Used to begin a one- or two-player (alternating turn) game.

Characters, enemies and other items[edit]

The paintbrush[edit]

Crush Roller Paintbrush Sprite.png

The hero of the game, his objective in life was simple: to paint the corridors of the maze surrounding the aquarium, where two predatory fish live.

The player begins the game with three lives (depending on the setting); an extra brush is awarded at 10,000 points. The game ends when all the lives are lost.

The fish[edit]

Crush Roller Yellow Fish Sprite.png
Crush Roller Blue Fish Sprite.png

The primary adversaries of the paintbrush, these serve to pursue the paintbrush and stop it from painting the entire maze. Resembling goldfish, one of these are blue, the other yellow. The fish are considered very smart, and often team together in an attempt to corner the paintbrush. If either one (or both) catch the paintbrush, it is destroyed.

Other adversaries[edit]

Once per round, one of six "mischief makers" (animals, people, or other objects) appear, with the sole purpose of messing up the paintbrush's work. Depending on the stage, the objects were:

Round Enemy Characteristic
Round 1 Kitten Nestled in the lower left corner of the maze, he simply leaves pawprints along the maze.
Round 2 Mouse Hiding in a gnawed hole in the lower right-center of the maze, like the cat, he simply leaves mouseprints along the maze.
Round 3 Bird His nest is found in a tree in the upper left corner of the maze. This dirty bird leaves droppings on the painted areas as he flies across the maze.
Round 4 Runaway tire The car on which the tire falls from is parked on the center right of the maze, it leaves its mark as it rolls across the maze's corridors.
Round 5 Cat This cat is faster than its playful younger cousin, and can potentially cause more damage to the painting more quickly.
Round 6 Invisible man The trickiest of all the mischief makers, the only way he can be caught is by tracking the footprints he leaves behind. His home is toward the top right quadrant of the maze.

Roller[edit]

Two of these are stationed in the maze, one along a horizontal overpass toward the bottom of the screen, the other on a vertical overpass stretching from the center to near the top. The paintbrush uses these to crush the fish for bonus points. After the fish are crushed enough times, they avoid the area of the rollers at all costs.

There is one word of caution when using the rollers: Be sure to get to it first, as all ties go to the fish.

Scoring[edit]

Paint area 10 per second
Killing critter 1000
Killing fish with roller See Stages below.

Killing a fish[edit]

Fish killed* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Round 1 bonus 50 100 200 400 800 1600 3200 6400 9000
Round 2 bonus 100 200 400 800 1600 3200 6400 9000
Round 3 bonus 200 400 800 1600 3200 6400 9000
Round 4 bonus 400 800 1600 3200 6400 9000
Round 5 bonus 800 1600 3200 6400 9000
Round 6 bonus 1600 3200 6400 9000
Round 7 bonus 3200 6400 9000
Round 8 bonus 6400 9000
Round 9 bonus 9000
  • The beginning value of the first fish killed in each subsequent round is double that of the previous round's lowest value, stopping at 9000 points (after which every subsequent fish caught is worth 9000 points). This continues through round 9, when all fish killed are worth 9000 points.