____ ___ ______________ ______ __________________ __ / __ )/ |/_ __/_ __/ / / ____/ / ____/ _/_ __/\ \/ / / __ / /| | / / / / / / / __/ / / / / / / \ / / /_/ / ___ |/ / / / / /___/ /___ / /____/ / / / / / /_____/_/ |_/_/ /_/ /_____/_____/ \____/___/ /_/ /_/ ... Copyright 2004 - DetroitDJ ... SYSTEM - Game Boy VERSION - 1.0 FAQ/Walkthrough ... ... Table of Contents ... 1> Game Release Data 2> Game Summary 3> Game Play A> Basics B> Map Guide C> Bonus Guide D> Upgrade Guide E> Enemy Guide 4> Cheats 5> The Three C's: Copyright, Credits and Contact ... ... GAME RELEASE DATA ... Genre : Action Designer : Nova Official Title : Battle City Release Date : August 9th, 1991, Japan Not released outside Japan ... ... GAME SUMMARY ... Battle City is a peculiarly addictive game from the line of older Game Boy games. Like many such games, it lacks a storyline and longevity, and has average first-generation Game Boy graphics. But amidst these drawbacks, Battle City is still a very entertaining game worth picking up. Its progressive and slightly luck-based difficulty alongside its simple controls and concept create a game that's easy to learn and difficult to master, but fun no matter what point one's at. The basic concept of the game is the player is a tank driver whose goal is to destroy the other tanks before they destroy him. Sound simple? It is. There are no special weapons, beefed up schemes or elaborate designs. You are a tank, you have a cannon, now destroy everyone else. What could be simpler? ... ... GAME PLAY ... BASICS The game is divided into 35 levels. Two aspects of each make every given level different from the rest. The first is the enemies you will encounter. While you always encounter 20 enemy tanks, levels vary by what combination of the 4 types of enemy tanks you encounter (see Enemy Guide, 3E, for more details). The second aspect that differentiates between levels is the map. All maps are the same size, but different combinations of the different types of terrain create different maps. Based on these maps, difficulty can vary greatly, from close-range combat with enemy tanks to being forced to fire across rivers (see Map Guide, 3B, for more details). The object of each level is simple: destroy all enemy tanks before losing. Losing comes in two forms. The most obvious is to lose all one's lives. The player starts with 3 lives (that is, you can die twice before losing), but can earn more lives throughout the game. The other is for the enemy to destroy your 'base'. Your base is a statue on your end of the screen surrounded by a thin layer of wall (see Map Guide, 3B, for more details). If the enemy hits it so much as once you're gone. This is easy to prevent though (see Battle Tips, 3G, for more details). The maps are laid out in grids of small pieces. Your tank is 2x2, with the cannon in the middle. If you fire the cannon into a wall with 2 bricks on either side of where the blast hits, it'll take out the left one first, then the right on the next shot. Most objects in the game besides terrain are laid out in 2x2 figures (upgrades, enemies, your base) while the terrain can all stand as 1x1 pieces. A shot cannot go through a one-space opening; two spaces are required. Enemies are always created at the top of the screen, alternating between the top-right, top-middle and top-left. No more than 3 enemies are ever present on the map at one time. If you and your opponent are facing each other and you both fire and the bullets hit each other, they cancel each other out. ... MAP GUIDE Maps are made of 5 types of terrain: >CLEAR: Clear terrain is the basic terrain. You can travel over it unobstructed, shoot over it, etc. It's actually not entirely common in the game, making up barely half of only the early levels, until you start the fighting. >WALL: Walls are the green brick walls that cover much of every map. Walls cannot be traveled through until they are shot down. One shot will take down one 1x1 piece of the wall (remember your tank is 2x2), so it will take two shots to take down a wall enough to travel through if it was wide as your tank in the first place. Both you and your enemies can destroy these walls. This is the type of wall that surrounds your base, but the wall that surrounds your base is only one square thick, so two shots (remember a shot cannot go through only one space) will destroy it. Walls make up the majority of all maps. >BRICKS: Bricks are similar to walls, except they cannot be destroyed by normal shots. Only an upgraded tank (see Upgrade Guide, 3D, for more details) can blast through these. None of your enemies can blast through them. Otherwise they are the same as walls. These are the rarest type of terrain, but the only type that cannot be immediately shot through. Use these for your own strategy to avoid the erratic movements of the enemy (see Battle Tips, 3G, for more details). >SHRUBS: Not exactly sure what to call these, these function the same way as Clear terrain, the difference is the these appear as a swirled design that actually floats OVER the tanks, both yours and the enemies, preventing a clear view of either. >WATER: Water is the only terrain that cannot be crossed under any circumstances. However, unlike Bricks and Walls, Water can be shot over. ... BONUS GUIDE There are five different bonuses in the game. These bonuses semi-correlate with points, but their appearance is a bit random. Typically three-four will appear per level. They appear as objects on the screen that you pick up my running into them. They always appear on screen with a high-pitched 'ding' sound, so you don't have to worry about missing them. These upgrades can be very valuable in your progression in the game, so I recommend you make grabbing them your top priority. All bonuses are worth 500 points added to the effect of the bonus. Bonuses are named by the image on their graphic in the game. >SHOVEL: The shovel bonus has no effect other than the 500 points. >GRENADE: The grenade bonus instantly destroys all active enemies in the field. It does not, however, give you the points for destroying them. This is most useful when surrounded or when an enemy is near your base and you're too far to intervene. >TIME: The time bonus (the graphic is a stopwatch) freezes all enemies for 30 seconds. They cannot shoot or move; they sit as sitting ducks for your blasts. Very useful. >TANK: The tank bonus is an extra life. >STAR: The star bonus upgrades your tank. Each time you get one your tank grows one level, but when you get killed you're back to normal (see Upgrade Guide, 3D, for more details). ... UPGRADE GUIDE As stated above, every time the player picks up a star bonus, the tank upgrades a level. There are four levels of tanks, despite the two-digit display of the player's tank's current level. If you pick up more than 3, they no longer have any effect. All tanks are destroyed by only one shot, and when destroyed you lose a lie and come back as a level 0 tank again. Here are the descriptions of the tank levels: >Level 0: The weakest tank, it moves as slow as normal enemy tanks and can only fire one shot at a time. Each shot must hit something before attempting to shoot again. It can shoot down walls but not bricks. >Level 1: Slightly better then the level 0, level 1 is mainly upgraded in speed. The tank moves slightly faster and its bullets fly slightly faster. Still can only shoot down walls, not bricks. >Level 2: Unlike levels 0 and 1, level 2 can fire two shots at a time. This is especially useful when facing off against opponents. The first shot will cancel out the opponent's shot and the second will finish the job. Still can only shoot down walls, not bricks. >Level 3: The highest level, all the upgrades of the first three plus can finally shoot down bricks OR walls. ... ENEMY GUIDE Like your own tank, there are four different enemy tanks. >Level 0: Basically identical to your first tank, slow and basic. >Level 1: Like yours, the first upgrade for the enemy tanks entails a speed upgrade. The level 1 tank is much faster than yours, but fires at the same speed. >Level 2: The level 2 upgrade isn't as fast as the level one upgrade, but is still faster than the level 1. Like your level 2, the enemy's level 2 allows him to shoot twice. >Level 3: The level 3 upgrade differs the most of any from your own. The level 3 is bigger, slower and can only fire once at a time, but it takes 4 hits to destroy it. Not the hardest thing to take down. The AI script is primitive for this game, and the tanks will not actively pursue you or your base. Typically they go in a straight line until they hit an obstacle. ... ... CHEATS ... There is only one known in-game cheat for this small game. On the screen where it displays what level the player is on, pressing up automatically advances the level. This feature has no restriction, and can be used to jump straight to the last level if desired. ... ... THE THREE C'S ... COPYRIGHT This FAQ is the exclusive property of DetroitDJ. All rights reserved. This FAQ may be freely distributed as long as this copyright information remains intact. Battle City is copyright 1991 to Nova Games Ltd. ... CREDITS Nova Games: I don't know if they're even still around, but thanks for making a wonderfully addictive game. CJayC and GameFAQs: Thanks for creating a site that doesn't discriminate against virtually unknown games like this one. ... CONTACT GameFAQs ID: DetroitDJ E-Mail: DDJGameFAQs@gmail.com AIM/Yahoo!/MSN/GoogleTalk: DDJGameFAQs ... End.