Flying Hero/Items

Flying Hero has a number of items and power-ups. A majority of them come from the main game, but there are a few which only appear other modes of play.

Outdoor items

To obtain items during normal game play, you must collide the Flying Hero with one of the fires raging in a window. Every time he hits a fire, there is a chance that an item will fall to the ground. There are some very useful items which have a tendency to appear frequently in the beginning of the game, but much less so as you reach later stages.

Note that when you hit fires, there's a chance that a small flame will fall from the window. If one hits your net, it will catch fire. You can still safely bounce the Flying Hero in this state, but if another flame touches your net while it's on fire, it will burn up, and you will lose a life as a result of missing the Flying Hero when he touches the ground.

Money Bags of money serve as bonus points throughout the game. Small money bags give 100 points, regardless of color. Collect the large red money bags for 500 points, and collect the large white money bags for 1000 points. Unfortunately, points don't appear to serve any purpose in the game other than keeping score.

Extend

Collect the safety net extension to grow the size of your safety net. A larger safety net should make it easier to catch the Flying Hero and bounce him back up into the sky. More than one safety net can be applied at one time, increasing the size of the net even further.

Ax

After you've extended your safety net at least one time, there's a possibility that an Ax may fall from a fire window. If you collect this Ax, it will cancel out one Safety Net extension, reducing the size of your net. If you want to keep you net as big as possible, avoid collecting the Ax.

Fire Extinguisher

If your net happens to catch fire as a result of a small flame hitting it, there is a chance that a fire extinguisher may appear. If it does, try to collect it, because it will extinguish the fire on your safety net, and prevent you from losing a life if you catch a second flame.

Doubles

If you collect this item, a second Flying Hero will appear. For as long as you can bounce both Flying Heroes, they will each fly around the screen putting out flames and rescuing people. If you end up missing one of them, you will not lose a life and play will continue with the remaining Hero.

Power-Up

Flames in a window can appear in three different levels of intensity. Normally when the Flying Hero hits a flame, he can only degrade the fire by one level. Collecting a Power-Up tile turns the team's clothes from blue to green. In green clothes, the Flying Hero can reduce flame intensities by two levels. If you manage to collect a second Power-Up, your clothes will go from green to red, and the Flying Hero can eliminate even a level 3 intensity fire in one hit.

Fire coat

If you catch a coat, the Flying Hero will be granted the ability to pass through things that he would normally ricochet off of. So if he passes a window on fire, or a person in need of rescue, he will continue to sail through them instead of bouncing off them. This is not invincibility, and you still have to make sure to catch him before he hits the ground.

Flag Standard (Matoi)

A Matoi was a type of flag used by firemen in Japan during the Edo period. Collecting one immediately sends you to the interior of the building, which has it's own rules and items. Those items are listed below.

Horn

Collect the horn to summon a dark rain cloud that will appear, rain over the fire below, and completely extinguish it. This will immediately end the stage and allow you to progress to the next stage. This will appear less and less frequently throughout the game.

Radio

Catching a radio will summon a helicopter to fly across the top of the screen. Initially, the helicopter does nothing at all, simply flying from right to left. However, if you are able to send the Flying Hero just beneath the helicopter so that it can grab on, the helicopter will suppress the fire and carry the Flying Hero up to the clouds, where a Bonus Game will be initiated. Radios also become less frequent as the game progresses.

Inside

After collecting a Matoi, you are sent to the interior of a building on fire. You have approximately 60 seconds to find a key on one of the floors and escape to the next stage. If you do not find the key before time runs out, you lose one life and are sent back to the beginning of the most recent stage. To search for items, you must stand in front of a door and press . In addition to the items listed below, you might find a person, which can be collected for bonus points, or you might find a stick of dynamite. If you find dynamite, you must make sure you stand clear of the explosion or you will lose one life.

1-Up

If you find one of these, collect it to increase your extra life count by one.

Stopwatch

Grab a stopwatch to freeze time temporarily. While time is frozen, flames won't move, and the timer won't count down. This can be good and bad, depending on where the flames freeze, because sometimes they will freeze in a position that can still hurt you, but too high for you to remove them.

Fire coat

Coats found inside the building function a little differently than coats outside. Inside coats make you impervious to the fire and flames that move through the halls. The effect is temporary, and it does not guard you from dynamite explosions.

Bonus stage

During the bonus stage, the Flying Hero bounces around an upper section of clouds while the two safety net firemen stay below. The Flying Hero will dislodge treasures from the clouds above which you must collect in the safety net for bonus points. The only item which may appear from time to time that does not provide points are the 1-Up tiles. Each one you catch increases your extra lives by one.