Sanrio Carnival 2(GameBoy) FAQ/Walkthrough version 1.0.0 by schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if you'd like to post it on your site. ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION 2. CONTROLS 3. BY-GAME ANALYSIS 3-1-1. TIMED 3-1-2. WAR 3-1-3. POINTS 3-3-1. SECOND SOLO GAME 4. VERSIONS 5. CREDITS ================================ OUTLINE 1. INTRODUCTION Sanrio Carnival 2 is a neat little game that doesn't have anything much to do with Sanrio Carnival 1 other than the same Sanrio characters. It consists of two subgames: one, where you line up candies 3 in a row as they drop 1 by 1-- Tabo uses his hammer, and two, where you put together a sliding 3x3 puzzle. Neither game is terribly esoteric, so this will not take long to master, but hey, it's Sanrio, and Sanrio games are always fun. The GameBoy version is organized a bit differently from the NES version, but that's nothing that will really distract you from the strategy. 2. CONTROLS In the first game, either button causes Tabo to swing the hammer in the first game. An arrow shows where it will be swung. If there is a piece of candy directly right, Tabo will slide it and all other candies to the right. The last one will fall off the edge. If five candies are on the row, then they just rotate around. Tabo can move up and down to cause candies to fall. In the 3. BY-GAME ANALYSIS Games are listed by which option you choose on the menu, then which sub- option. 3-1. FIRST SOLO GAME 3-1-1. TIMED The purpose of this game is to get 6 columns/rows of each color(white, grey, striped) before the timer runs out. Making a column/row causes that set of candies to disappear. Rows/columns are calculated together, then everything that can fallo, will. Candies come out the top every half-second, but you don't have to worry about them piling up. It won't kill you. Also, if you get more than 6 columns/rows of one color, they turn black and block up the rest of the area. This creates a small problem when you make a bunch in a row, or when you don't realize the little flowers at the top tracking your progress don't change so quickly. There's no bonus for chains or for getting 4 or 5 in a row--4 or 5 is possible, but you have to insert something in the center. If you match up 6 of one type, be sure to avoid matching any further. Concentrate mainly on the color you have most left of, and this should not be a problem. It's possible randomness may screw you totally over, but not very. You only need 18 of any one color if you are careful, and it is easy to get things started right. In fact, to start you will always have a lot you can match up. There will be a 5x10 well, and you will have 4 of any one type of color. You can dump the color you have the most of into the next column. Just keep repeating. This strategy won't work perfectly all the time, but you can clear out a lot to start. Eventually you have to look to if you want to kick something off the edge to make a row instead of a column. You'll probably get a black triad or two just because the probability you get 18 of each candy type at once, or even close to it, is very low. Don't panic- -just try to push all that stuff either to the bottom or to a column at the edge. 3-1-2. WAR Here you need to be able to match up a triple quickly, with your opponent out of view, or set up a bunch of 2-matches. Watch for wraparounds and for if you put a bomb together, which will stun you. 3-1-3. POINTS This is an interesting variant where you have all the time you need, but the key is space. If you fill a column with black squares, they all disappear. Candies will fall from the upper left as before. There are 5 colored pieces: white center stripe side stripe light grey dark grey And your main short-term goals are to match up 3 of a kind(usually in columns--kick pieces down so they are in adjacent rows, then line them up) and to place one black square on each column. The columns can be shuffled later. Eventually you'll run out of columns, but until then you can buy time by trying to give each row 1 of a different color. Columns are so much easier than rows that putting 2 of the same color next to each other on a row is not practical unless there is nothing better. Remember not to push anything right and release another piece unless there are no other moves, and try not to make a move that will release random candies down the UL too much. In fact it's best to match your columns 1R of the left. That allows you to hit either button A(push near candy 1R) or B(push it 2R and jump the gap) with different effect than if another column were open. You have the time to shuffle things so if you are near the top, and in fact I find it worthwhile to nearly fill up the board to do so. For each candy that falls, you should have a chance to try to do something with it. Note that, even in the worst case, if you keep 1 candy color per row, and you have 1 blank in each row, then abcdX bcdeX abdeX < you have 3 of at least 2 colors. Finally you may get in a fix where a blank candy is not in a row. The only way to get around this is to make a 3-high just above the row and try to position a blank candy above it. Obviously you have fewer chances to do this than it seems, but if you are careful, you will be able to slide things in. Also, you can rely on chance that there is some match somewhere long enough to get things working. Whatever you do, don't disrupt a potential column of blanks by kicking one to the bottom. It's possible to run out of blanks, which would kill you, but if you are careful and observant, you can always scramble up a column match or two long enough to get more blanks down. Once you've cleared a column, strategically dump blocks into that column so that you can have many ways to match a set of three. If you beat 10000, you get a congratulatory message once you are stuck(the game takes time to detect this,) but otherwise there's no reason to keep playing. If lost for a move, scan the board by color, seeing if there are any two rows each with items of the same color, then look for a third. I start with the whites, then greys, then stripes. It's easy to get confused by the stripes, so take a bit of extra time when kicking one of them. 3-2. 2 PLAYER GAME I didn't have the ability to tinker with this on my emulator. 3-3-1. SECOND SOLO GAME This is a 3x3 slide puzzle. You get points based on how soon you get the game done. There are two versions--Tabo's face and numbers. The numbers are a bit easy because they are not so hard to place, but Tabo's face is not too bad. You can tell where to put his face by its contours. Still, for practice, start with the numbers. Each game randomly plucks one square from the puzzle and makes you replace the rest. A detailed analysis of the 4x4 case is at cut-the-knot.com. But what you need to know is, brute force works. The way to get through this is pretty easy. What you want to do is 1) get a corner square right 2) get the next 2 squares in the row/column right 3) get the next 2 squares in the column/row right 4) shuffle the final 3 squares We know that there is always a solution, because you can see how the tiles are slid, and what's even better is, you'll never wind up with 1 5 3 x 2 6 7 8 9 ie you just need to flip two tiles. This is impossible to win, and impossible to get to. Because you get to all original positions by sliding tiles, it's enough to show that you can't win, and thus you can't retrace the winning steps to get there. Let x = the # of decreases(not just ADJACENT decreases--this tripped me up) in numerical value as you go left to right, then down to the start. x=0 if the puzzle is solved, and now we show x stays odd/even. Any one move is moving a square across 2 other squares in our order. So e-a-b-c-d becomes e-c-a-b-d, for instance. But then (a>b) + (a>c) + (b>a) + (c>a) = 2 (if the values are 0=false, 1=true). However, before = (a>b) + (a>c) and after = (b>a) + (c>a) and before - after = (a>b) + (a>c) + (b>a) + (c>a) - 2 (b>a + c>a) which is even. So basically what you need to do is look for a square close to its corner and start building. Remember too which square is gone, or supposed to be. The main other trick is just getting pieces in line. First, just link the 2 numbers together that need to be. Say you have: abc d89 7e You can pull square e to the DR, 8 down, 9 left, then c-b-a-d around. dab 9c 78e Pull 7 u, 8 l, 9 d, c l, e u, 9 r, 8 r, 7 d. Fortunately it's usually much less difficult than this. In the first example below, loop clockwise, and in the second, e> cv 8v a> b^ 8< and loop 9 next to 8, then move 9 D R with 8 behind it. You can see mirror images make things difficult. a98 a89 bcd bcd 7e 7e Let's say we want to make the left side next. 4a 1a b1c b4c 789 789 The left is easy but how to split the right so it is the right way? 1< a< c^ 4> b> 1v b^ 4< and now move everything counterclockwise. You'll notice things get easier, the more is in place. A general rule for any puzzle like this that is relatively safe and efficient is to try to reduce it to a 2x+1 by 2x square, then 2x by 2x, then fill squares in 2 at a time. It seems the bonus starts ticking down more slowly once you get very far down, but a few times working with the controls and understanding the concepts and having faith that getting close will let you stumble on a solution--with a bit of luck for a quick solution--means you could clear 20000 points. Just remember which piece is missing. End of FAQ Proper ================================ 4. VERSIONS 1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 12/12/2007, completed 5. CREDITS Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang, current and emeritus. They know who they are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-banned message board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be part of mine. Thanks to the NES Completion Project folks for keeping it going. Special thanks to odino for notifying me about this game. Thanks to Suicidal Translations for translating this game.