Super Geon's Supercheap Strategy v90% (v.90) King of the Monsters 2 for Neo Geo Arcade 30 October 2002 (insert copyright and legal info here) Aster Azul (asterazul@yahoo.com) Best viewed in 9-point courier. Table of Contents A. Intro: Why You Might Want to Play KotM2 for Neo Geo Arcade B. General Tips C. Guide For Each Level and/or Boss 1. Huge Frogger in American City 2. Eifflelelyte in French City 3. Clawhead in Grand Canyon 4. Beetle Master in Desert 5. Aqua Slug in Ocean (what the heck was Ocean called again?) 6. Lavicus in Volcano 7. Famardy and Friends in Hideout D. Moves List (not started) E. Ending Benefits F. Cool Colors G. Review (not started) H. Also Try V80%- Writing this from memory, but I do know what I'm talking about. I need to get the guide down and then I'll do a run through and fix errors. It's definitely not finished, but I'm going to turn it in so that the update will come sooner. That and I might not have time to work on it for another week :-( V90%- It's pretty much done for now. When I play through it again I'll add the moves list and review, but I'm not interested in the meantime. It's as done as it will be until I replay KotM2 or until someone emails me and asks me to finish. If someone did that, I'd be so flattered that I'd finish it! (My reasoning is that no one really reads my KotM FAQs, so if I got an email I'd realize that SOMEone did.) ** **** A. Intro: Why You Might Want to Play KotM2 for Neo Geo Arcade Most people who would be interested in playing KotM2 would be fans of the Genesis version game, which is much superior in gameplay. OK, so KotM2 (Neo Geo) has better graphics, cool monster origins and sound, great animation, story, and the like. But in truth it is not a very good game. It's fun but not well-thought-out. Only a KotM2 fan could truly appreciate this game, so others are warned to leave off and play the Genesis version of this game. You can find King of the Monsters 2 on the internet and get it to work on a Neo Geo emulator. It's a lot of heck to find it, though. Try the "Top 50 Emulation Sites" or somesuch. I can never remember those blasted web addresses. Some of those sites are terribly worm-eaten with adds for pornography and other such corruption, but you WILL get your ROM eventually if you look around. I suggest the shareware Geo Mame emulator for running this. The Mac version can be found at www.emulation.net, a great site for Macintosh emus. If you've got a Windows, you're on your own! The King of the Monsters 2 (Genesis) ROM does not work at all as far as I am concerned. Perhaps you can find a way to get it running, but it seems hopeless as far as I can tell. KotM1 (Genesis) works fine if you can find it but KotM1 (Neo Geo Arcade) doesn't even have a working ROM set as far as I can tell. Every single ROM that I've ever seen for it has been the same: a bunch of random misnamed files that are the wrong length and number for the game. If you can get it to work contact me at asterazul@yahoo.com This game shoots for about a 6 to 8 quarter strategy, which is the only realistic goal for a game like this. Although it is possible to reach the final level on one or two quarters, beating it is quite another matter. I played the game in "Home Version" mode on easy and normal modes. MVS mode is rather similar, I'm sure, except in that you won't lose your power-ups when you need to switch to player 2's side. You can just put in more quarters ^_^ Easy mode was hard, normal mode was slightly harder, and I expect that hard mode would be slightly harder than either. I suggest just playing through on easy mode. The harder difficulties are not particularly interesting. ** **** ** **** B. General Tips *Super Geon's Earthquake special move is most likely the best attack in the game. Get it early and use it often to defeat bosses with near perfection. Ah, the cheapness! It requires two power levels. Hold down the punch button to use it when you have two power-ups. *When using moves such as Earthquake, the player is invulnerable. Quite useful! As long as you let go of punch before an attack or bullet hits you, you're in business! *Special moves are performed by holding the punch button, kick button, or jump button until your character really glows, and then letting go. Learn to time them perfectly so that you can send them off whenever you want to. Of these, the punch button is always your strongest move. *Super Geon's Snake Fire special move is also very useful at times, especially for beating Lavicus at the Volcano. You can trap him in that pit. *Get power-ups whenever possible by destroying buildings and such. *When destroying buildings and enemies to get power-ups, stay off to the side. Although there are many powerups lying around, there are also terrible terrible anti-power-ups. These are EVIL. They will practically ruin your game if you're playing at a later level, say the Lavicus's area. You should also avoid small life bonuses or points if you are fighting a boss or difficult enemies as your character will perform a dangerous "happy!" animation that leaves you open for attack. *To stop a character's "happy!" animation, move left or right. This is incredibly useful because it allows you to bypass the animations that appear after you use a special move. This way you can use your special moves quickly and efficiently. *Grapples are bad. To win a grapple, continually press a punch or kick button. The winner of the grapple is pretty much determined at random, but favor shifts towards the enemy once you've performed a succesful grapple with the life you are on. Dying resets this and makes you more likely to win the next. Grapples do significant damage but are not really recommended because of their luck orientation. *You can destroy planes and tanks merely by jumping upscreen and downscreen through them. Use this to easily defeat them and destroy the nearby buildings. *Avoid damage at all times. Damage is very bad. Get health, avoid damage. Hurting enemies is basically icing on the cake, so just avoid things when necessary. Jumping upscreen and downscreen is often useful for doing this. *Flashing enemies contain power-ups. Beware! These are not always good power-ups! Never let a flashing enemy collide with you, as it may drop an anti-power-up at your feet and leave you with no power pellet abilities. This can happen with Lavicus's evil minions. *Point bonuses are useless. The scoring system in the game doesn't really add much to it, so I would ignore it for the most part. *Power-ups are always in the same exact spots. Try to remember these spots. *There are two areas of the game in which you fall from the sky. Practice "pushing the button in a timely manner when landing" in order to get an extra life! The timing is tricky. You press the jump button right before you hit the ground. *If you are playing with a friend, decide who actually needs the power-ups in the clifftop wrestling match minigame rather than simply competing. You can use megafire to defeat your opponent. *In the target practice type minigames, both players should help take out enemies. If you are playing a solo game, take each set in stride and don't let anything past you. Punch slowly to avoid combos which often miss. ** **** ** **** C. Guide For Each Level and/or Boss ** 1. Huge Frogger in American City Defeat Huge Frogger at a distance to avoid getting pummeled. He only takes a few hits at first, so don't sweat it. Now use your skills to avoid planes and enemies. This is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. You should be able to reach the end of the level with both power levels and a full lifebar. Beating Huge Frogger at the end is not a problem. I recommend continually using your jump attack, which causes you to roll up into a spiky ball of pain. When you knock Huge Frogger over, you may want to try whacking him with your tail as well (it's the kick attack, silly!) If you want to stick with one strategy, though, keep using the spiky ball on him whether he is down or up. You should win without losing much (if any) life. Par: 0 lives list. Aster Azul's best possible: 0 lives lost. ** ** 2. Eifflelelyte in French City The French city is also pretty typical. Just avoid what you can and destroy what you can't. Make sure to pick up any good life-ups as well. (I'm sure you can find them yourself, lazy!) Eifflelelyte is a bit tougher. Use your kick attack to damage him from afar before he grows to normal size. You should then change your tack. Your best strategy is to knock him over using a kick or jump attack and then use a continuous barrage of Earthquakes to defeat him. Remember, don't charge for an Earthquake if Eiffelelyte is going to reach you before you can pull it off. If you manipulate the timing correctly, Eiffelelyte will be a cinch. Next, his parasitic body will detach and attack you directly. Stay far enough away to be safe and use your Snake Fire when it comes towards you. It will split into two pieces, but Snake Fire will still take them out easily. Par: Maybe 1 life lost, hopefully zero. Aster Azul's best possible: 0 lives lost. ** ** 3. Claw Head in Grand Canyon The grand canyon can be a bit tricky to avoid in. There are some anti-power-ups here as well. PLEASE avoid these at all costs! It's better to lose your life than your power-ups! You will probably be able to destroy most of those flashing enemies, though, and pick up some health. The elevator with the slime spitting worms is tough. Do the best you can to avoid their shots with jumping and some attacks. You'll come out with only a little less than what you came in with, if all goes well. Watch yourself in the canyon area. There's a power up in one of the upper spires but an anti-power-up in another. Careful, please! You can break the canyon walls for kicks, but it only gives you points. It's very helpful for avoiding those dratted I.T.O. creatures. (Check out the downloadable manual at www.geocities.com/asterazul/King_of_the_Monsters_2). You can hide in the above area you create by destroying cliffside and allow them to pass, although you can still bash them for possible small power-ups. Claw Head is usually trouble, but I have developed a useful albeit extremely cheap strategy for defeating him. Gee, sounds like most of my strategies! Trick Claw Head into walking into the area to the very right of the screen which forms a small alcove. Then jump onto the overhanging cliff. Now start using your Earthquake attack. If everything goes well, he will be nearly helpless to resist! Thereby you may pound him into submission. This happens because he seems a little confused about getting onto the top of the cliff. I've gotten this to work on normal mode. I have not tried it on easy. If this doesn't work, focus on knocking Claw Head down and then using Earthquake. Avoid his evil slime attacks and the periodical I.T.O.s as well as you can. Try using Earthquake to avoid damage from his moves. Par: About 1 life lost in this level. Aster Azul's best possible: 0 lives lost. ** ** 4. Beetle Master in Desert The desert can be extremely annoying at times. Your main concern is to avoid those evil quicksand pits that swallow you up. Sometimes you will be eaten immediately following going near the center, but sometimes you will be able to escape. What you really need to do is watch out for Shark Fins. Don't let ANY of them so much as touch you or you will be knocked down and drift towards the terrible quicksand pit of doom. If this happens, press the button as fast as possible to get back up and then get the heck away from that pit! Knock the shark fins out with your tail or punch or simply avoid them. There IS some nice life bonus in this area from destroying Shark Fins, but go for it at your own risk. You may be knocked down and trapped in that quicksand if you try to destroy all of the Shark Fins. I don't quite remember where they show up, but those floating cutter creatures are bad news as well. Line up and use your tail to take out all five in a row before they take YOU out. There are some P-Heads at the end of the area that shoot slime at you. Avoid the slime and destroy about two P-Heads per cycle but do not get damaged. If you can just avoid damage, do so. Anyway, after the P-Heads you will be sucked into a tornado. In the air, I believe the left has more power-ups, although I can't remember. Figure out where the life-ups are and get them. You'll need them. As mentioned in the tips, time your jump as well as possible so that you can land in on your feet and earn that one-up. After some annoying enemy fighting (P-Heads and such, be careful. Also cutters.) you will move onto Beetle Master. If you're low on health, try breaking the pyramids before you reach him so that you can pick up the health. Beetle Master is the last semi-easy boss. My strategy for him is to jump kick him over and then time my Earthquakes PERFECTLY to take him out. It is much easier to defeat him if you can get the timing perfect. If you get into a position where pulling off another Earthquake is impossible, knock him over to buy time. Use another Earthquake immediately afterward. After he loses over a third of his bar, Beetle Master splits. As long as you can keep his two clones coordinated, you will be in good shape. But as soon as they start to think independantly you are in trouble. You just have to attempt to knock them both over using jump attacks and such, and if you can use another Earthquake that's great. Otherwise all you can do is use brute force and your own brain. Remember that if you are in the air using an Earthquake those grabby hands from Beetle Master's underground grab attack can't get 'ya. Par: About 2 lives lost in this level. Aster Azul's best possible: 0 lives lost. ** ** 5. Aqua Slug in Ocean (what the heck was Ocean called again?) The ocean is where things get too tricky for perfection. You just have to do your best. Keep jump attacking in order to ward off the pesky brain-sucking-jellyfish that descend from above. The Pujimonds you just have to avoid or destroy. Don't do a lot of swimming here, as those jellyfish will get you. Aqua Slug is one of the few bosses that I am clueless about. There is no true super-duper Aqua-Slug-beating strategy. Earthquake no longer works on him (heaven help us all!) and your other specials are likewise useless. Just do what you can. Attack, jump attack, heck, even GRAPPLE Aqua Slug if you can pull off some of them. (Especially if you have a mega-fire!) All I can do here is help you avoid his specials. When he throws a whirlpool or other such dangerous projectile, swim WAY upwards to escape. Just don't stay up there too long or the jellyfish will return. You can pretty much lure Aqua Slug anywhere and it is a big stage, so mess around if you wish. Oh, and falling into the bottomless pit doesn't hurt you or Aqua Slug. You can use it to avoid him sometimes. If you are going for a two-player strategy (which I have never done. Both players must be quite proficient.) this would probably be the best time for player 2 to switch in. By now the original player is nearly out of lives and could probably use some help. Good luck on the boss. Figure out a good strategy and let me know. Par: 4 lives lost in this level. Aster Azul's Best Possible: Gee, I dunno. I'm sure I've done pretty well here once or twice. Maybe 2 lives lost? ** ** 6. Lavicus in Volcano Another evil boss, but not quite as unstrategic as Aqua Slug. There's no level before this boss. It's just straight to the fight. You can't use Earthquake or Atomic Thunder on Lavicus. Lavicus will waste you if you are not careful, but you can pull off some pretty good strategies if you get the boss in a groove. Knock down Lavicus and flame him with Snake Fire. If you have two people playing then it is easier to do this. One person can knock him down and the other can use a special move. The only really good strategy is to knock him into the lava pit and trap him with Snake Fire. If you time it correctly then he won't have a chance to escape and you will beat him very easily. It's hard to do this, though. Don't let any of the monsters he spews touch you-- sometimes they contain anti-power-ups. Par: 4 lives lost in this level. Aster Azul's Best Possible: Probably two lives. ** ** 7. Famardy and Friends in Hideout Well, the terrible thing about this level is that you have to fight all of the bosses over again. All I can say is: Good Luck! Use the strategies I told you about. For Claw Head you can use Earthquake but not the cheap corner trap. For Lavicus you're on your own again. (Note: Famardy are plural. Okay, it's just a technicality, but I use it anyway. I say this because Famardy call themselves "us." It's basically just one boss, though.) Famardy are pretty tough, but they are do-able. It will take you many lives to beat them, but you must accept this. I suggest using Super Geon's tail attack to attack him from a distance. Remember that you can attack them from above or below. If you lose your continue with Super Geon, then you can switch to Cyber Woo. Cyber Woo's kick attack is GREAT for taking out Famardy. Stand above them and use it continually. Put the button on megafire if you have the option. This level is at the point where, if you are playing the home version on one-player, you will run out of your four continues. When you are on player one's last life, switch to player 2 and save yourself! You'll have no power-ups but you may manage, especially if you have already reached Famardy. After wasting your credits on Famardy and beating them, they will split into a zillion little Famardies. Beating them within the time limit will earn you the good ending. Otherwise you'll get the bad ending. It's easier to do this on two-player. ** **** ** **** D. Moves List I'll add this in at some later date. I'm working on other things at the moment. ** **** ** **** E. Ending Benefits The good ending is much longer and more fun than the bad ending, but the bad ending is interesting to see at least once. Seeing the text of these endings is cool because you'll recognize it from the Genesis version. ** **** ** **** F. Cool Colors Each monster has three colors. Normal Colors (no power) Normal Colors (1 power) Normal Colors (2 power) Normal Colors are always available. Super Geon's super colors are switched from the Genesis colors. You'll also see a purple shade when you are poisoned. The Genesis version has over twice as many color schemes. ** **** ** **** G. Review (not started) Bah! Who needs one? ** **** ** **** H. Also Try King of the Monsters #1 - Not as good, but still fun. King of the Monster 2 (Genesis) - Definitely the best monster fighting game of all time. If you liked KotM2 (Neo Geo) you will definitely like KotM2 (Genesis)! It is superior in so many ways! Although graphically inferior, the Genesis version is definitely the better game. Any Rampage game - These are pretty fun arcade-type monster games. Sort of an opposite of KotM games. This is to KotM2 as King Kong is to Godzilla. Great game, but it gets old (unlike KotM2!) Someday I may expand my website to feature these games. We shall see... ** **** ** **** Credits ** **** SNK - For making the so-so Neo Geo version of this game. Konami, SNK, Takara - For making the best monster game EVER! The Genesis rendition of King of the Monsters is probably the best monster fighting game ever. Better even than the arcade or SNES version. Great job, guys! Aster Azul - I never gave up and finished these wacky KotM2 guides. Silver88 of the GameFAQs message boards - Actually HELPED me get a partial moves list for KotM2 Genesis! What a first! Thanks, man! Laladien of the GameFAQs message boards - Really REALLY helped me by getting a complete KotM2 Genesis instruction manual for me! What a guy! Now you can read the manual after downloading it on the web at: www.geocities.com/asterazul/King_of_the_Monsters_2 Daneasaur of the GameFAQs message boards - Another KotM2 expert. You may see him on Godzilla game message boards. He was able to remember a few of those super secret moves! Cool! Most notably, he knew about Huge Frogger's Triple Super Body Slam which ISN'T in the instruction manual for KotM2 Genesis! WOWSERS! LTZ - A Malaysian student who told me how to do Eifflelyte's secret move for KotM2 Genesis. Thanks, LTZ! Go beat those evil invading monsters! Go! Beat them! *Aster Azul* E-mail me if you need some help. Always glad to be of service! If you're a KotM fan, e-mail me and we can talk! asterazul@yahoo.com This document Copyright 2002 Aster Azul