Ninja Commando v 1.3 2-20-01 author: Dimetric Houston e-mail: dhousto6@bellsouth.net CONTENTS: Introduction Updates Story Controls Screen Description Character Evaluation Special Attacks Metamorphs PowerUps Stage Strategies Tips, Tricks and Secrets Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION: Hello all. This FAQ covers the game Ninja Commando for the Neo-Geo CD system. It's an old-school action shooting game. Ninja Commando is available in CD, cartridge, and arcade form. I am not going to bother with the copyright stuff. If you are low enough to try to bank a profit off of this, or you decide to plagiarize it, that's your wretched morality. The latest version of this FAQ can be found at: GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) Note: The manual I have for this game is in Japanese, which I can't read, so all information is what I can glean from the manual or it comes from the game itself. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATES: v 0.5 2-3-01 -Preliminary edition (not published). -Some info present v 1.0 2-4-01 -stage info for 1st stage and Japan present -some stage info for Egypt stage present v 1.1 2-6-01 -updated info in Screen Description section -updated Credits section -all stage info present -corrections in Special Attacks section -updated Tips, Tricks, and Secrets section -added info in Controls section v 1.2 2-9-01 -minor corrections v 1.3 2-20-01 -more corrections and small info additions -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY The Mars Corporation under the command of Spider is up to some evil, and has caused a problem in the time continuum. It's up to the Ninja Commandos to go after Spider and stop his evil work. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTROLS D-pad: Moves character A button: attack B button: evade C button: ninja trick (drains life meter) D button: not used Additional moves: Attack Evade: Press the B button to backflip, then press A to throw your throwing stars. The stars go in the opposite direction of your movement. So backflipping to the left throws the stars to the right. Note: Although it says "evade," it doesn't avoid an attack, it simply moves you around faster than your normal walk. It's just suppose to SEEM like evading. Note: Ninja Commando has several difficulty levels. This FAQ is written using Easy and Normal modes. Normal mode has more enemies than Easy, so if you see a spot in the FAQ that mentions foes that don't appear on your screen, those enemies are in a higher difficulty mode. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SCREEN DESCRIPTION A description of the screen items follows: Top of screen: Score--top left and right sides of the screen. Shows the score of player 1 and 2 respectively Boss Life--appears when the main boss of the stage appears. The right number is the boss' max life, the left number is the current life. As you attack the boss, the left number decreases. When it hits 0, the boss dies. Bottom of screen: Character face--simply shows which character you are playing. Life--yellow bar beside facial image. Drops as you get hit and use Ninja Tricks. Flashes the word "Danger!" when you are really low. Time--underneath life bar. Remaining time is added to your score at the end of the stage. Coins--shows how many coins you have collected in the particular stage. Coins are added to your score at the end of the stage. Dialogue Bar--above your life bar, you will occasionally see words scroll across the area. This is the words of your character. It's really just for kicks, as the characters say really funny things at times. Get food items with a full life bar or keep pressing down when your character is at the bottom of the screen to see examples. Also, the name of the special attacks and ninja tricks appears here when you do them. Lives--this is the number beside the life bar. You only have one by default. It is unknown if you can earn more. Thanks to Neo-Rasa for this info. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHARACTER EVALUATION Here I am giving an evaluation and description of the three playable characters. A description of the items you see in each bio: Attack: the weapon the character attacks with Expand Attack: what the weapon becomes when you hit the attack button REALLY fast and repeatedly. Ninja Trick: the special attack of the character (done by hitting C) Metamorph: the beast the character becomes after attaining 3 scrolls. Joe Tiger: ========== An American-born ninja that is a descendant of the Kouga clan of ninjas. Uses a throwing knife for his weapon. Attack: Throwing Knife Expand Attack: Wide-range throwing knives Ninja Trick: Fire attack Metamorph: White Tiger Pros: ----- --widest area of attack for the expand attack. --his Thunder Trick is very powerful; arguably the strongest special attack of the three characters Cons: ----- --weak attack power. Although his expand attack has the widest spread range, you won't be killing foes all too soon with his normal attacks. Rayar Dragon: ============= British-born ninja that is interested in ninjitsu. An excellent archer. Attack: Flame arrow Expand Attack: Multi-flaming arrows (also becomes Flaming Multiplying Trick) Ninja Trick: Mizingakure Metamorph: Flame Dragon Pros: ----- --Strongest attack power --easiest special moves to perform Cons: ----- --small area of attack; you'll have to move around a lot more to get in range to attack enemies. Ryu Eagle: ========== Japanese ninja that comes from the Fuma ninja clan. Kind of seems like the leader of the group. Attack: Flame shot Expand Attack: Large flame shot Ninja Trick: Black Hole Metamorph: Flame Eagle Pros: ----- --Black Hole instantly destroys all non-boss enemies; great screen clearer! --his King's Attack is strong; weaker than Joe's Thunder Trick but stronger than Rayar's Phoenix Attack. Cons: ----- --weak attack power; somewhat stronger than Joe in normal attacks. --no good spread attacks for front. WARNING: Using Ninja Tricks (C button) drains your life meter, so use them sparingly, or not at all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL ATTACKS Each character has 3 special attacks that they can use in battle. You can use these attacks as much as you wish, without penalty. If you have played games like Street Fighter and clones, the special attacks are done like the special moves of those fighting games. The move directions are from the manual, names are from the game, descriptions and comments are my own. Joe Tiger: ========== Tornado Attack: | -O + A O O Description: A swirl of flame circles around Joe and expands outward. In truth, it's three orange balls in an arc that circle around him, but we gotta be just a bit poetic here ^_^ Comments: Not very strong, but does a decent job on minor enemies early in the game. In later stages even the minor foes can take this so it becomes less useful. Thunder Trick: | hold O + A (this means hold down for a few O | (seconds then press up and A) {Think of a Flash Kick from Street Fighter} Description: A ball of blue light appears around Joe, and several beams of lightning strike out in a cone. Comment: About the best special move you will come across. Wipes minor foes like dust and drains boss life nicely. This is the move of choice if you pick Joe. Double Flame Tornado: O O- / O -O + A O / O Description: Joe does two Tornado Attacks simultaneously, both going opposite directions in their spins. Dang complicated I know. Here is the word equivalent: Up-left Left, (go from upper-left diagonal to lower left Down-Left (diagonal, then upper-right diagonal to lower Up-Right (right diagonal) Right Down-Right And to put a nice picture to boot, these are the areas of the 8-way pad you will touch: O O / O - - O 6 out of 8 directions are what you will hit. / O O Comments: Now for the actual comments ^_^. Very nice move. Being so dang complicated to do, it had better be worth it, and it is. Covers a wide area and just about equals the Thunder Trick. If you don't get cross-fingers trying to do it, this is a great move to do. * * * * * * * Rayar Dragon: ============= Flame Blast: | + A O Description: Rayar shoots a small-range blast of flame from both sides of her body. Comments: Only good if enemies are right up on you. It will kill any minor foe that it hits, but it's short range destroys its usefulness. On the other hand, it's the easiest move you will ever get and you will end up doing it while just moving around (being that you will be firing nearly the whole time) Phoenix Attack: | hold O + A (this means hold down for a few O | (seconds then press up and A) Description: Rayar fires three large flaming birds up the screen. Comments: Rayar's only wide-range move. Better than any of her other attacks against minor foes. Nice screen opener when you are crowded. Flaming Multiplying Trick: A button VERY rapidly Description: Rayar makes multiple images of herself that travel with her. Comments: Kind of helpful as the images fire as well (albeit just a single arrow each), so it definitely adds to Rayar's firepower. As long as you continue to rapidly smash the button, the images remain for a longer period of time. Not exactly worth the trouble you have to go through to get it to happen though. * * * * * * * Ryu Eagle: ========== Empty Air Attack: | -O + A O O Description: Ryu fires two large crescent waves on both sides of his body. Comments: Not as potent as Rayar's Flame Blast, but goes full screen. The waves are large too, so it can hit more opponents. Not too bad. King's Attack: | hold O + A (this means hold down for a few O | (seconds then press up and A) Description: Ryu sends two columns of small explosions up the screen. Comments: Possibly Ryu's most powerful move. Seems to pack slightly less power than Joe's Thunder Trick. The straight vertical movement gives it less spread range than Joe's Thunder Trick, but the power alone makes up for it. ? (a Triple Wave Blast) O / O O | + A | O O / O Description: Ryu fires 3 crescent waves on both sides of his body Comment: Dang, this thing is hard to do. I haven't gotten control of it enough to see it's usefulness (it manages to come off randomly from all the moving and firing I do). It does seem to wipe minor foes out easily. ***I've occasionally seen Ryu say "Bursting Attack" in his dialogue bar, but I've never done such an attack. I can't pinpoint what causes him to say this, but it seems to be holding in the pad in a direction or holding a button. Anyone know? For charge moves, hold down until your character glows, then press up and A. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- METAMORPHS If you get three glowing scrolls (which appear beneath your score) for your character, your character will change into a beast. The beast you change into is the last name of your character. Thus Joe becomes a Tiger, Rayar a Dragon, and Ryu an Eagle. After a few seconds, you will change back into your character. While morphed, you are invincible, and if you hit the A button, your beast does a particular attack. The attacks are described below (I am making up the names): Joe--Tiger Beast ================ Attack: Energy Shot The tiger fires a large white blast straight up. Rayar--Dragon Beast =================== Attack: Body Whirl Rayar's form is more like a snake. Hitting A makes the body spin around, thus you get a wide-range pinwheel. Ryu--Eagle Beast ================ Attack: Flame birds The Eagle fires a bunch of small versions of itself which go out in a V formation. Best range of all the morphs. You'll really clean house with this one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POWERUPS Ninja Commando offers few powerups for our team. These are described below as best as I can make them. All powerups flash yellow while on-screen and will disappear in time. Scroll--you'll recognize it when it appears. Blue color. Get three and your character metamorphs into a beast. Food Items--meat, fruit, drinks. All these restore a portion of your life meter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STAGE STRATEGIES Here I'm giving mostly an overview of the stages. My main concern is giving boss strategies and showing where scrolls are located. Stage 1 ------- You start on Mars Corporation grounds here. Your enemies are soldiers. Blast the rocks and boxes for powerups. Scrolls--* one in the rock cluster with the boxes early in the stage * one in the leftmost box after you destroy the fence * one in the rock on the right after destroying the green truck (soon encountered after destroying the fence) Boss: Spider Time Machine ----- Life: 480 Spider jumps into his Time Machine and attacks you. The machine has three weapons, a gun on each wing, and a gun in the nose of the craft. The wing guns fire rings at you. The nose gun fires a beam which does large damage. It holds you in place while damaging you continuously--I've been killed by the beam with a full life bar, so avoid it. Take out the nose first to destroy the nose gun, then take out the wing guns. When you win, the machine warps through time. You follow in a second time machine (how convenient). The next stages (except the last two) appear in random order, so just go to the section for the stage you are on. This FAQ does the stages in this order: Egypt Japan China Primitive Europe (WW2) Final Egypt ----- Scroll--* one in left pot near breakable door near the beginning of the stage * one in one of the left statues after the midboss At the start, on Normal mode, lions come down the screen after you move a ways up. They are not present on Easy. Don't stay in the center of the street after you enter the fort. People carrying spiked rollers roll down the street (the roller covers the whole street). You can destroy the roller, but this is just safety advice. Mid-boss: 3 mummies The mummies walk around in a circle. Occasionally they will moan and come toward you at a quick rate of speed. Try not to get cornered so you have room to escape. Use the evade (B button) to gain ground and get away. Destroy the mummies systematically. Use your Ninja Trick if things look bad. (always best to go out with a bang before you die). Further on after the midboss, on Normal, lions sit at the side of the screen. Once you go to the twins stairways, they will come out. Your side attack (Tornado, Empty Air, Flame Blast) or evading is your only hope if you got out in the open before killing the lions. On Normal, at the bridge you will see four archers. They are not present on Easy. An enemy that divides into multiple forms of itself appears. It shoots three slow traveling thunderbolts at you. Easy pickings. Just stay at the screen bottom and fire away. Boss: Pharaoh Head w/ arms ----- Life: 200 Ok, here is a large head with equally large arms with. . .something on the ends of them. The "things" shoot snakes in a spread fashion. The head shoots a ball which eventually divides into an 8-way shot. Just keep firing and you will destroy the snakes with no problem. After the snakes, move to the side so you can dodge the 8-way ball. After doing these attack for a few times (three to four I think), the boss also shoots these criss-crossing eye lasers. Nothing much to say here except stay in the center of the boss as much as possible to get as much damage done as you can. Watch for those eye lasers. The boss comes very close to the screen bottom, but doesn't move down far enough to hit you if you stay are the very bottom of the screen, so don't fear. Even the arms won't hit you. If you don't kill the boss after a long time, it MAY eventually move off the screen (which will hit you if you are at the bottom). Japan (Ryu has a personal vendetta here) ----- Scroll--* box on the bridge * in the rock near the farmers (appears after 2nd green guy which hides behind a rock) Before approaching the midboss, a group of knife-carrying foes will travel in from the right. They should pose no problem, but this is just to let you know. The same group appears from the left after the midboss. Midboss: 2 sumo wrestlers ------- These guys have three abilities: 1) They can block your attacks with their hands. They do this by thrusting each hand forward quickly and alternatively. 2) A flame attack similar to Ryu's King's Attack. 3) A spin attack where they do a handstand and spin toward you with their legs split (similar to Chun Li's spinning bird kick of Street Fighter fame). They normally hop around. If they stop hopping and seem to be raising their hands, the flame attack is coming. It's pretty fast. For this reason, stay to the side of their center. The spinning attack is indicated by the wrestlers doing the patented sumo stomp--both hands on the waist, one leg up and then down with a screen-shaking stomp. The spin attack comes after this. Again, stay to the side of their center so you will be able to evade when you see this coming. Boss: Nobunaga Oda ---- Life: 640 This boss is difficult if you don't know how to handle him. Once you see how you can beat him, he'll be easy cakes. The secret is to stay as close to his center as possible. The boss has two attacks: 1. He charges up an energy ball in his sword and throws it at you. You'll see the charging. When you see it, start evading to the side. Once the ball goes past you, QUICKLY get back to the center of the boss (use the evade). The boss' second attack is the most deadly. He strikes with his sword. The strike covers a wide area IF he slashes to the side. By staying in the middle, he will strike straight down, which covers a very small area. Don't get directly in the center, but slightly to the side of it. This way the boss will miss you with this strike but you can still nail him. If you end up a large distance away from his center, he will approach you at an angle which means a side slash is coming up. You can not dodge this thing unless the boss is clear on the other side of the screen, so that's why you want to keep him from doing it. NEW: Ok, the boss doesn't have to be on the other side of the screen. You CAN still avoid this if you are at the bottom of the screen and near the boss center. If you are up the screen beside the boss, you WILL get hit. Aside: Man, check out the cheapo ninja run! I guess ninjas get rigor mortis too. China ----- Scroll--* in some rocks near the start of the stage (just blast everything you can, it's the middle rocks somewhere) * one after the bridge after the water section You will meet enemies that throw dynamite in this stage. The dynamite does not explode immediately, so evade to get away. After destroying the gate you will enter the water. Archers on boats appear here. Joe's Tornado Attack is good, and Ryu's Empty Air Attack is great here. You will meet horsemen as well. The horsemen ride into the screen quickly. If you don't kill them right away, they will shoot an energy wave at you. Midboss: 3 blade warriors ------- These foes have two attacks. One is a ground wave. They lift their sword above their head and bring it down into the ground which sends a wave of dust at you. Evading avoids this easily. The second attack is a charge at you. When they get close to you, they will swing their sword wildly for a few seconds. This is not a hard fight. Your main concern is the charge attack. You want to have room to evade so you are not in the way. At first, keep your movement to a minimum. This keeps the three warriors bunched together and not spread out. Attack but stay to the side of their center. Being bunched together makes it harder to see which warrior is about to do a wave attack. After a few seconds, one or more of them will charge at you. Evade to the side. They will miss their attack and go back to their original places. If there is still one or more left that hasn't charged yet, wait for it to do so before going back to the screen bottom. These folk can block your attacks too, but just keep attacking. They are open when doing the wave attack and when charging at you. After the midboss, more horsemen will appear. When you enter the palace place, dynamite throwers will come down both sides of the screen. If you are fast, get to one side and kill the throwers on that side to keep the dynamite to a minimum. If you are not so quick, evade like mad up the center of the screen. Don't get too crazy, because horsemen will come down the center of the screen too. Continue on to the boss. Boss: Halberd Warrior ----- Life: 300 While looking a bit maniacal (those facial experssions--whew), this boss is initally not hard. His only attack is to swing the halberd. The problem is the thing has a HUGE attack range, covering a good 20% of the screen. What you want to do here is be beside the boss until he is about to attack. Then drop down to the screen bottom. He will miss his attack, which gives you time to nail him. There is about 3 to 5 seconds between his attacks. I think his eyes open real wide before he is about to attack. After draining half of his life, the boss goes into phase 2. Now things become real difficult. The head becomes a dragon. The dragon flies around the screen, shooting out seven flames in your general direction. The flames are in spread fashion, thus a wide range is covered. The attacks are quick in succession, thus the screen gets pretty full. I can only tell you to dodge as best you can. This part is not easy at all. Primitive Era ------------- Scroll--* 2 at the fourth pair of plants and t-rexes (3 egg-rocks are near them. The scrolls are in the left and center rock) Cavemen, carnivorous plants, and the native dinosaurs are your foes here. Early on, you will come across the four-toothed plants. I haven't seen these do anything but sit there and be fodder, so blast away. In Normal mode, t-rexes are with the plants. The t-rexes blow a stream of fire which is short range. You should be at the screen bottom anyway, so this should not be a problem. Destroying the t-rexes and triceratops is an. . .ahem, "Earth-shaking" experience, as you will come to see ^_^ The cavemen throw stone axes and non-returning boomerangs. Midboss: Giant ------- This starts off as three spearmen. Kill the center one and he morphs into a giant. The giant goes back and forth across the top of the screen, picking up whatever is nearby (be it object or caveman) and eventually throwing the object at you. Meanwhile, other spearmen are running at you from the upper sides of the screen. If you see the giant approaching a non-moving spearmen, the giant is about to grab the man and throw him at you. Kill the spearmen to rob the giant of a projectile. Keep attacking the giant to end this madness. You can use your Ninja Trick to destroy whatever the giant is holding too. After the midboss, you will enter water. On Easy, 3-way fire shooting turtles will hound you in the water. On Normal, you face bird formations. I find the turtles harder to deal with. Solution, evade the heck out of there. After the water, you will see four gray rocks on the left. All contain food items. After this comes a funny scene. Some cavemen accoust you. Kill them and you will come upon a group of cavemen marching around a flame. Kill one of them and all the others bow to you in caveman style. Wow, that was hard--but quite rewarding, don't you think? ^_^ Onward to the boss. Boss: Mechasaur ----- Life: 200 I'm not lying with the name. Soon you will see the truth. The birds that fall down at the start here can hurt you, so kill them. This is not an easy fight at all, so be ready to die quite a bit. A giant lizard is your foe. This thing has two attacks right now. First is a dangerous fire stream from it's mouth. It starts slow and speeds up toward you real fast. The animation is of a sort that will utterly stump you, so be extremely watchful, as I can't describe this thing at all in a fashion to tell you how to dodge it. My best advice is to not be near the front of the lizard every 3 to 5 seconds. The second attack is a charge down the screen. For safety, try to stay far away from the lizard. Don't be under any part of its body. As you attack, the skin will start coming off--now you see how the name fits. Destroy the skin on the head and the boss gains an extra attack--homing missiles. It shoots about 8 of them. They curve toward you. If some make it off the screen, they can come back and hit you. What advice can I offer? Well, you can try a strategy I didn't. Get to the side of the lizard and use your spread attacks (Tornado Attack, Empty Air Attack). Rayar has it real hard here. Her Phoenix Attack is all she has that will give you any room to see and prepare. For that you will need to stay at the bottom. Watch for fire streams. If you do stay at the screen bottom, don't be under the lizard's legs or head. Charge for your charging attacks (thunder trick, king's attack, Phoenix attack) and let them go. Ninja Trick if death is inevitable. The fire stream holds you in place until you die, so try to avoid it. Europe ------ ahh, the cheapo ninja run! What a way to start a stage. It will be a good day, yes it will ^_^ Scroll-- (not recorded) More modern warriors here. Soldiers usually fire 3+ shots and run toward you. Try to kill them if you can. If not, evade out of the way and let them go past you. Once you are more in the city, large tanks will appear. They move slow and fire a blast out of their main gun. Stay enough to the side of the front center so that the gun points at an angle, but don't be in its path. You will be safe from shots while being able to shoot the tank. Two tanks will come down vertically at you. After the second tank, while some soldiers fire at you from the left, a third tank approaches horizontally from the right. Evade up and get away. Later you will come to some railroad tracks Midboss?: Trains -------- Here we have two armed trains. The "engine" is loaded with multi-firing guns. The other train cars have single cannons inside. Try to get rid of the engine on the first train (comes from the left), and destroy the cars. It should go down quickly. The second train (comes from right) takes more damage, so it will be a longer fight. Try not to be right under a train component, else the shots will get you. After the midboss you will enter an area with a bunch of tanks and flame-thrower carrying soldiers. For safety, stay on the outside of one of the white lines going up the screen. Stay as close as possible to the line. This way the tank shots should not hit you. Don't move up quickly, as the flamethrowers have the range of the t-rex fire streams. Attack to kill from a distance. You will go through about 7 tank-soldier groups. Boss: Spider tank ----- Life: 580 Named so because Spider seems to get in it. Large tank with multiple attacks here. The center gun fires a single shot. The two guns at the front fire slow-moving fire streams that go out and turn in one direction. The tank also shoots missiles. A method of attack for you is to get to the side of the tank and use the Tornado and Empty Air Attacks. Rayar has it hard again, except you can try to Flame Blast the front guns. The missiles are a constant pest, even for the attack-at-side strategy. Ninja Trick to get rid of some of the tank's weaponry. Final ----- Ok, this is the grand finale. You start back in the boss room of stage 1. Continue upward. Drones await you. They fire at you when they open up. Flamethrowers and grenade-throwers are the human element here. After battling the drones and other foes for a time, you will come upon a succession of boss foughts--all from boss fights you fought before: Boss A: Pharoah Head--Life 200 Boss B: Halberd Warrior--Life 200 Boss C: Mechasaur--Life 200 Boss B and C have helpers this time. Foes from their particular stage materialize, attack, and go away. This is will get in the way of things a bit. It's not much of a hassle for Boss B, but with Boss C it causes much more confusion. Shoot what's in the way, avoid the rest. Boss B goes into phase 2 at 100 life. After Boss C, you will enter a corridor. Drones and flamethrowers are packed in here. The hard way to do this: Fire from where you are. Joe's expand attack will slowly kill everything in here. The drone fire will require you to evade. The Tornado Attack may prove useful as well. Ryu's Empty Air Attack is his only choice here. Rayar's Phoenix Attack will clean up pretty well here. The easy way to do this: Go up as far as possible until the flamethrowers just about hit you. Then Ninja Trick the whole bunch. You should nail everything in the room and thus have a clear path to the end. Proceed to the final boss. Boss: Main Computer ---- Life: 300 Ok, some crazy stuff awaits you here. What you need to attack is the red circle in the center. Initially walls will close over the circle. Four gun turrents are here to attack you. The major menace you have to deal with here are the large fists that come from the side of the screen. They come from one side and go about a character length past the center of the screen. How- ever, you WANT to stay in the center of the screen. Why? Eventually the walls covering the red core open, thus revealing your target, but also firing two huge, Huge, HUGE laser blasts down the screen. If you are in the center of the screen, the blasts won't hit you. Destroy the turrents and now you just have to deal with the huge lasers and the hands. The hands can attack low on the screen or high on the screen. You just want to be just beyond their reach. After a few laser blasts, you may be able to properly judge the distance you can safely be to avoid the fists and the lasers. Destroy the core and you win! Aside: You gain an extra life by beating the final boss. REAL timely, isn't it? >_< -------------------------------------------------------------------------- TIPS, TRICKS, AND SECRETS Yes, the charge moves (down-hold, up + A) will keep you at the bottom of the screen, while your goal is to move UP the screen, but that is part of the challenge in the game, being able to use them while moving on. I didn't like it either, but we have to live with it. Some other observations by Neo-Rasa: *Joe Tiger is the same fellow as the blue ninja in Ninja Combat *The scientist in charge of the Ninja Commandos is the same scientist in World Heroes. When you do a Ninja Trick, charge for your charging attack. Once your character comes down, push up + A for your special. This is an excellent double dose of damage. It's possible to do Joe's Thunder Trick and Tornado Attack simultaneously. I've done it occasionally. The control pads I use are not precise, so exact directions are hard to get on them, thus it probably read both moves somehow. I can't give you any clues as to how to do this though, as I still don't exactly understand it myself. I'm thinking the same is possible with Ryu's Empty Air and King's Attack. I'm assuming you get an extra life at 500,000 points, since that what you get from beating the final boss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS God--for the strength, life, and intellect to do this FAQ Neo-Rasa--for the info about the number beside the life bar and for the observations. I hope you have enjoyed this FAQ. If there are any corrections, additions, etc. that you see that need to be put here, please e-mail me and let me know. Thanks for reading. dhousto6@bellsouth.net Dimetric Houston The End