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= Rocket Ranger FAQ =
= Nintendo Entertainment System =
= Author - Drew "Kasket" Guirey =
= November 2003 =
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- An Alien Invasion!! -
The year is 1990. An alien moon appears in the night sky. Waves of rocket ships
descend upon Europe, carving out a new country - Greater Leutonia. A strange
force field protects the moon from American and Soviet missile attacks. Only
one person can stop the Leutonians. That person is you!
You, a young American scientist, have just complied your greatest invention ---
a rocket powered flying suit. Now, you are about to become the Rocket Ranger
and save all of humanity from the overwhelming alien forces, bent on invading
and destroying our planet!
This is where the game starts and allows you to really get a feel for the
general theme and overall hype that this title presents. For old Nintendo
games, the instructions on how to play and even the basic points of what you
have to do are generally aged and lost. This guide has been created to give you
an idea as to what you have to do in order to successfully complete the game.
This guide is also a simple walkthrough that gives one formula on how to finish
the game and what skills you will need in order to complete it. Without really
diving into the game, you will find the hybrid of this to be one part strategy,
one part fighting and one part shooter. All the points are covered including
the amount of control and what the options you have available will do to help
you complete your mission.
While I have little or no problem with this FAQ being used on other sites, I do
ask that you keep the standard protocol and ask me before you take it. Stealing
my work is a good way to get slapped with a lawsuit and I have the money, time
and power to do it if I catch you. If you wish to use this guide on your site,
then ask first and do it with my blessings.
Happy Gaming,
Drew "Kasket" Guirey
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= Rocket Ranger Table of Contents =
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{1} - The Overview
{2} - Walkthrough
- Control
- Options
- Stages
{3} - Credits
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= Overview of Rocket Ranger =
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Rocket Ranger is a strange hybrid of three different genres all rolled up into
one single game with aspects that touch on fighting, strategy and shooting. You
will fly through a few different stages, trying to avoid the enemy while firing
on them and destroying what's ahead. Other portions of the game will allow you
to fight against the computer intelligence and gain parts to a rocket that will
help you to save the world.
Throughout your adventure, you will be able to undertake a story that is about
as common today as it was nearing the end of the NES era. With a hero who has
no name and an outrageous enemy with no face, you will be using more of your
mind then you will your reflexes in most respects. Strategy is rampant
throughout Rocket Ranger and in the end, you might find that this is more of a
"choose-your-own-adventure" style game with a few possibilities.
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= Walkthrough - Controls =
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Control over Rocket Ranger really doesn't require much and is pretty basic in
terms of what you have to work with in the three different aspects of the game.
You have your movement of the Ranger in the air with the directional pad and
you use the A button to fire shots at whatever your target might be. The speed
of your Ranger is already pre-determined.
The fighting portions of the game require no movement and you simply press on
the directional pad in order to get a different effect. If you happen to press
up and hit the A button, then you will throw an uppercut which does the same
amount of damage as the pair of jabs. Both jabs are thrown with the A button
and a press of the directional pad to the left or to the right. Blocking is
easily done by simply holding up on the pad and no hitting the action button.
Using the spies in the strategy portion of the game is easy to figure out and
you simply select the different actions that you want them to take and then
press A. Once you have your spy report, and wish to transfer the spy, then you
simply select another country and send the spy there. The advanced commands are
done with the directional pad and give you choices on whether you want them to
be high-risk or low-risk operatives, which determines the amount of time it
takes to get a result.
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= Walkthrough - Options =
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You will find that when you first start the game off, you are thrown into the
mix of finding your way throughout the world. There are several options that
you have at your disposal that will allow you to proceed. These options are
important to know and understand, as they will be instrumental in your ability
to complete the game.
- War Room -
This is the option that you want when you need to travel back and forth
throughout the world and the various stages that it contains. From here, you
can get the information that you need to figure out what you're going to do to
conquer the alien plots based on the information available. If you're
interested in doing a little strategy gaming, then you can perform different
actions here that include infiltration and resistance with your agents.
- Fuel Depot -
This is the option that you choose when you want to fire up your rocket with
extra fuel before you travel around the globe. You will find that you have two
sub-options here that allow you to take your Lunarium and load up either your
Rocket Pack, or your Rocket Ship. However, you have to procure 5 parts to the
rocket ship before you can access the final stages of the game.
- Rocket Lab -
This really isn't much of an option that you can use right away, but will be
important later on when you're looking for rocket parts. Once you've found all
5 of them, you can return here and construct your ship to take you to far away
places. Aside from looking at the ship as you find the pieces, there isn't much
of a reason to use this option and is basically an add-in.
- S.O.S -
This is an option that you can use in-between stages when you need to go back
to the states and refuel. Only use this option when you have no other way of
getting back and you can't continue forward as it adds time to your schedule
and you can't afford it. It's handy in a pinch, but remember that this is a
last effort that you should use.
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= Walkthrough =
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Once you have figured out where the rocket parts are and you have collected
enough of the fuel to power it through successful completion of the stages,
you'll be taken to the last stage of the game. In all actuality, there is
nothing more to this than a fight sequence along with a flying sequence that
both follow the same formulas that you found throughout the game. Take this to
heart: The game is either extremely short, or extremely long depending on what
path you take.
In order to be completely successful at this title, you will have to think more
than you actually have to play and there are portions where you will go wrong
and you will find yourself without a clue where to go. The overall theme of the
game is simply luck in making the right choices and making it to the end of the
game in the shortest time possible. Below is the overviews of the main aspects
of the game and the formula to where you have to go in order to get all of the
parts needed to finish the game.
Chapter 1:
In the dark hours of morning, Leutonians land a zeppelin in Washington D.C.,
and kidnap the top scientist, Otto Barnstorff and Jane, his beautiful daughter.
The airship turns to escape high above the Atlantic. If you hurry, you still
might foil Commander Krag's plot. Get going!
Thousands of feet above the Atlantic looms the ominous cigar shape of the
Leutonian zeppelin. First you'll have to knock out several air torpedoes to get
in closer. Then aim at the gondola to hit the alien gunners. This dirigible is
filled with gas. Flammable gas.
In this stage, you will do more flying around then you will firing at the
zeppelin itself. Torpedoes will be coming at you from all directions, and you
will have to gauge your shots at the dirigible well before you get any real
hits in. The problem here is that you might want to get a into the fray, but if
you take too much damage, the Ranger will drop and you'll be without your
bearings.
You will notice that it doesn't matter how many times you fire at the zeppelin,
it will always get away and you'll be forced to chase it. Something that you
might want to do is to simply avoid the incoming shots and work your way
towards the ship. Once it has crossed the screen and disappeared, the next
chapter will open up and you'll be on your way again.
Chapter 2: The Airship Escapes
The airship reaches Europe where the protection of fighter planes and anti
aircraft batteries force you to break off pursuit. Before coming within range
of the coastal defenses, you bank away from the airship and activate the wrist
monitor to inform your commander.
Krag has taken Jane and Otto to a Lunarium bomb factory. He plans to use Jane
as a Guiana pig to test his new device. You can still reach the factory before
Jane is reduced to a slobbering zombie. Once subjected to the vile device, they
will be unable to stop Krug and his forces from taking over.
At this point, you can pretty much pick and choose where you want to go if you
have all of the Lunarium that you can use to get there. Depending on where you
go and what you decide to do, you can kill your way to the end of the game and
pick up the rocket parts that you need.
Chapter 3: The Rescue.
An agent informs you of a vast mine on the alien moon that is the sources of
the alien's Lunarium. The agent also says that Krug has moved the duo to a
desert base that will serve as a testing ground. You have to get there
immediately and stop Krug from trying out his mind control device on his
hapless victims.
The Spying Game: All Countries
The spying game that you have to undertake is more like Risk in the fact that
you have to do certain things in certain countries to get a desired result.
Most of the different countries that are located on the map are empty and
devoid of any sort of action that you can find. The one thing that you're going
to have to do from the beginning is send spies all over the map in order to
send you back reports.
The downside to this is that once you've figured out where you need to go and
what you need to do, the spies can be captured and the missions that they
undertake are for naught. While you might want to start riots in these
countries, you end up wasting time on the map, which will result in a loss of
game. Picking and choosing your places throughout the map as well as getting
the right combination of spies in the right countries will help you to find the
three hidden lab locations.
From time to time, you will lose one of your agents and these agents are
important to the spying. For the life of me, I haven't been able to figure out
why the spies tend to die off in the first few minutes of the game and you're
not allowed to rescue them. If you do spend too much time in the War Room, and
time continues to pass, then you will get a bad ending and have to start from
the beginning.
Rocket Labs: Norway, Northern Africa {3 hidden}
You arrive at one of the alien rocket labs. With luck, you can capture the
parts of the rocket from the various labs and assemble them at Fort Dix. The
guard puts up quite a fight and you'll have to go fist to fist, tooth and nail
to get the part from him. It's up to you and your mad fighting skills to bash
this guy and get the part that you need to complete the rocket.
At this point, you'll be taken to another aspect of the game that is actually
pretty interesting if you aren't ready for it. The minute you start this
mission, you'll be in a fist fight with a guard. To fight, you merely need to
push one of the directions and the A button to throw a punch. This isn't the
most advanced fighting, so you won't have to worry about tossing kicks. Once
you have a balance on the blocking {press up on the directional pad}, you
should be able to beat him with little effort.
Something that I found to be mildly interesting here is that the locations of
the rocket labs are random up to the point of having to play through the game
multiple times to get a certain combination that works to find the labs. The
combination that I found only worked one time in a dozen and ended up with
this:
Norway
Northern Africa
Russia
Libya
Columbia
If anyone happens to find a different combination than this, I would love to
have it for the guide and you'll get complete credit for coming up with it.
This portion of the game happens to be the most annoying, simply because you
can waste a year or so in the game just looking for the labs. It is important
that you find them, because you cannot complete the game without all of the
rocket parts, which makes it a hit-or-miss type of play.
Dogfight Stages: European Countries
Approaching Krug's bomb factory, you search for any sign of the enemy. In a
moment, the skies explode with swarms of death dealing fighter planes. You take
defensive measures to try and ensure that you aren't about to go down in
flames. With little more than clothing and the sky separating you from the
enemy, you buckle down and head into the clouds.
This is another aspect of the game play that you will find to be interesting
enough the first two or three times through. With the dogfights, all you have
to do is shoot down the enemy by keeping in line with the animations and try to
avoid taking too much damage. Once you've figured out the patterns and gotten
the aiming portion of the fighting down, you should be able to pass this and
subsequent stages with no problem.
The only thing that you're going to have watch out for here is when you have
the planes firing at you from all angles. This can be a little tough to figure
out if you're not watching close enough, but if you stay about two-quarters of
the way down the screen, then you'll be able to hit them without the enemy
hitting you. Once you've shot down enough enemies, the stage will end and you
can reselect a different country to fly to.
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= Credits =
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I'd like to thank the following people for making this enjoyable:
Jeff "CJayC" Veasey: Without him, this FAQ and it's posting wouldn't be
possible. For putting up with days of constant submissions and otherwise. He's
the man.
Bree: My beautiful wife. Thank you for putting up with all of the late hours of
playing games and not coming to bed right away. When this is all said and done,
you deserve more recognition than I do.
NES Gamers: All of them, everywhere, who do nothing but play these old games
and really keep me interested in writing the FAQ's for them. Keep requesting
them and I'll keep writing them.
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= Copyright 2003 to Drew Guirey =
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