The true ending is to defeat the boss in Hyde mode on the roof tops (he's stupidly easy), but the hard part is you dont get any life refill so the whole last stage you have to make sure you get there with enough health. Then all the enemies on the 6th level disappear and you just casually (AND SLOWLY) walk to the exit. The 'bad' ending is harder where you just have to go thru all the 6th stage obstacles as Jekyll and with all the barrels and bombs its MUCH harder. Also the damage that the barrels does is random, sometimes it takes off just life, or just meter, or both. If you jump in the air just far enough with the bombs you'll lose all of your Hyde meter and maybe lose 2 boxes of health.
I think i've beaten this game twice for the NA thread.
It, of course, gets lots of grief for the painfully slow pace and walking speed of the Jekyll sections. Then there's the ever-present issue of "slow-down" with many NES games when there's too much going on on-screen at one time. What I've found incredibly interesting is that, somewhere around half-way through the final stage (when the singing lady in the window appears), there's a ton of stuff on-screen (barrels, bomb-guys, singing lady) and yet...the game actually speeds up! Jekyll moves considerably more swiftly here but, unfortunately, so do the obstacles. This has made me wonder: is this the speed the game was intended to play at and the rest of the stages are just plagued with inexplicable slow-down? If so, what's causing said slow-down and why does it cease when there are more sprites on-screen? Seems counter-intuitive to me. The mystery of this game continues.
Originally posted by: gutsman004
So you can beat it with Jekyll and/or Hyde?
Yes. If you finish Stage 6 with Jekyll (which can be very hard thanks to those stupid barrels), you'll get what some call the "bad" ending. It's the more brief and less detailed of the endings. If you instead allow yourself to transform to Hyde during Stage 6 and then get Hyde all the way to that point, you'll have the option to jump up to the rooftops of the city. From this point on, Hyde follows an alternate path and will not die by exceeding Jekyll's progress. At the end of Hyde's stage, you'll face a boss and, upon defeat, transform back to Jekyll. After this, the streets are now empty for Jekyll and you can walk him to the church and...the "good"/alternate ending.
Also,what's up with the lightning strikes that instantly kill Hyde? Is that the exceeding Jekyll's progress that you were talking about. If so,that's a piss poor game mechanic.
And it seems to me the more you continue,the harder the game gets as I've continued numerous times on level 4 only to make less and less progress. The bomb guy was showing up less frequently earlier.
Yeah, it's supposed to be if you reach Jekyll's distance with Hyde, the lightning ends your game. Never quite figured out how it was supposed to work, though.
I really enjoyed reading the analysis. I'm awful at the game and really can't get over the slowness of the protagonist, personally. It's not the dirt worst game by any stretch, but I don't think it's a hidden classic either.
Okay, I tried it again, and managed to get to level five before it beat the immortal soul out of me and left me for dead.
I said it before, but let me phrase it another way. The start of level four is BULLSHIT! I got wedged between a spider and the edge of a screen (where you can't go back, like in SMB), with townsfolk rushing at me and a bomb guy slowly walking towards me. The whole time that slingshot kid is taking potshots at me. Every time I get past the spider, some dickhead knocks me back behind it. Did I mention the bomb guy was coming, and there wasn't room to jump out of the way if he dropped it? I got totally wasted TWICE! Didn't even get a chance to come back as Hyde, because I was drained of life. The third time the level changed up a bit and I was able to get by.
The game is unique and even occasionally a bit fun, but the BS stuff just ruins it.
Okay, I tried it again, and managed to get to level five before it beat the immortal soul out of me and left me for dead.
I said it before, but let me phrase it another way. The start of level four is BULLSHIT! I got wedged between a spider and the edge of a screen (where you can't go back, like in SMB), with townsfolk rushing at me and a bomb guy slowly walking towards me. The whole time that slingshot kid is taking potshots at me. Every time I get past the spider, some dickhead knocks me back behind it. Did I mention the bomb guy was coming, and there wasn't room to jump out of the way if he dropped it? I got totally wasted TWICE! Didn't even get a chance to come back as Hyde, because I was drained of life. The third time the level changed up a bit and I was able to get by.
The game is unique and even occasionally a bit fun, but the BS stuff just ruins it.
What kills me is there are times where you just receive a relentless onslaught of the bomb dropper guys,which makes the townsfolk stay in a constant frenzied state. It's frustrating for sure.
Comments
I think i've beaten this game twice for the NA thread.
Its just a very slow... slow... slow game.
It, of course, gets lots of grief for the painfully slow pace and walking speed of the Jekyll sections. Then there's the ever-present issue of "slow-down" with many NES games when there's too much going on on-screen at one time. What I've found incredibly interesting is that, somewhere around half-way through the final stage (when the singing lady in the window appears), there's a ton of stuff on-screen (barrels, bomb-guys, singing lady) and yet...the game actually speeds up! Jekyll moves considerably more swiftly here but, unfortunately, so do the obstacles. This has made me wonder: is this the speed the game was intended to play at and the rest of the stages are just plagued with inexplicable slow-down? If so, what's causing said slow-down and why does it cease when there are more sprites on-screen? Seems counter-intuitive to me. The mystery of this game continues.
So you can beat it with Jekyll and/or Hyde?
Yes. If you finish Stage 6 with Jekyll (which can be very hard thanks to those stupid barrels), you'll get what some call the "bad" ending. It's the more brief and less detailed of the endings. If you instead allow yourself to transform to Hyde during Stage 6 and then get Hyde all the way to that point, you'll have the option to jump up to the rooftops of the city. From this point on, Hyde follows an alternate path and will not die by exceeding Jekyll's progress. At the end of Hyde's stage, you'll face a boss and, upon defeat, transform back to Jekyll. After this, the streets are now empty for Jekyll and you can walk him to the church and...the "good"/alternate ending.
Heh, AVGN had a pretty good trailer about a movie adaptation of the game:
Yeah, revisiting that epic trailer is part of what inspired me to go back to the game again. My favorite part is the bombs, of course!
"He's a very slow walker..."
My favorite part is the bombs, of course!
Bombs that suck you back into the explosions.
Bombs that suck you back into the explosions.
Yep. Those.
Also,what's up with the lightning strikes that instantly kill Hyde? Is that the exceeding Jekyll's progress that you were talking about. If so,that's a piss poor game mechanic.
And it seems to me the more you continue,the harder the game gets as I've continued numerous times on level 4 only to make less and less progress. The bomb guy was showing up less frequently earlier.
I said it before, but let me phrase it another way. The start of level four is BULLSHIT! I got wedged between a spider and the edge of a screen (where you can't go back, like in SMB), with townsfolk rushing at me and a bomb guy slowly walking towards me. The whole time that slingshot kid is taking potshots at me. Every time I get past the spider, some dickhead knocks me back behind it. Did I mention the bomb guy was coming, and there wasn't room to jump out of the way if he dropped it? I got totally wasted TWICE! Didn't even get a chance to come back as Hyde, because I was drained of life. The third time the level changed up a bit and I was able to get by.
The game is unique and even occasionally a bit fun, but the BS stuff just ruins it.
Okay, I tried it again, and managed to get to level five before it beat the immortal soul out of me and left me for dead.
I said it before, but let me phrase it another way. The start of level four is BULLSHIT! I got wedged between a spider and the edge of a screen (where you can't go back, like in SMB), with townsfolk rushing at me and a bomb guy slowly walking towards me. The whole time that slingshot kid is taking potshots at me. Every time I get past the spider, some dickhead knocks me back behind it. Did I mention the bomb guy was coming, and there wasn't room to jump out of the way if he dropped it? I got totally wasted TWICE! Didn't even get a chance to come back as Hyde, because I was drained of life. The third time the level changed up a bit and I was able to get by.
The game is unique and even occasionally a bit fun, but the BS stuff just ruins it.
What kills me is there are times where you just receive a relentless onslaught of the bomb dropper guys,which makes the townsfolk stay in a constant frenzied state. It's frustrating for sure.