Aerostar
Game Boy
Developer: Vic Tokai Publisher: Vic Tokai
By: GammaBetaAlpha
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Table of Contents
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Basics [HELP]
Walkthrough [WALK]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
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Basics
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[HELP]
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How to Play
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Aerostar is a vertically-scrolling shoot'em'up game, often referred to
as a shmup. This means that your own plane can fire bullets at enemies to
destroy them while avoiding enemy fire. Aerostar's gimmick is that your plane is
'land-based', meaning that it is restricted from moving across water or any
pits. It can temporarily jump into the air and move around, but it has a limited
time in the air, and must land on a solid surface, or else the plane is
destroyed. While on the ground, you cannot accidentally fall off. You can also
move backwards as well.
Strategy in the two modes of combat comes into play with the type of
bullets enemy ships and tanks fire - the smaller bullets are fired at ground
level, while the larger bullets are fired into the air. You can dodge small
bullets by temporarily lifting up into the air, while larger bullets must be
avoided while moving around. However, while in the sky you cannot fire bullets
out.
The Aerostar, the name of your ship, has 3 lives per continue, after
which you must restart the level over. To my understanding, the only difference
between Easy, Normal and Hard is how many hits the bosses will take.
Additionally, if you start with Easy or Normal, you will go to the next
difficulty after automatically once you finish Level Seven, with your score
carrying over.
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Controls
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A - Jump into the Air (Release to Land)
B - Fire Bullets (Hold down to continue firing at a non-stop pace)
D-Pad - Move around on the ground and in the air
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Power-Ups
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Each power-up only has one level to it, so you can simply change power-
ups every time you get a new one. When an enemy drops a Power-Up, you can shoot
at the power-up with your current bullet(s) first to change it into any of the
five types of power-ups.
(S) - Whenever you have the B Button Pressed down, an energy shield projects out
the side of the Aerostar that destroys/damages everything it touches
(L) - Shoots out a single laser beam. As long as you hold the B button down, it
will continue to go straight: however, when you release the B button, it
shall then split into two laser beams that go horizontally
(B) - Sends a single large missile out
(O) - Gives the Aerostar orbital drones that guard it while in the air. They
will destroy any air bullets that they come into contact with, as well as
any aircraft they touch.
(V) - Sends out a spray of five bullets from the Aerostar - one goes straight,
two go northeast and northwest, and two go northnortheast and
northnorthwest
Under most circumstances, the (V) power-up will be the most useful, as
it is by far overpowered with its ability to shoot five lasers per shot of the
weapon. (L) will also be fairly useful, with its ability to split into two
horizontal lasers.
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Walkthrough
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[WALK]
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Level One
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The first part of the level will be fairly simple, with several ships on
the ground strip and a few coming in from the sides via the air. These latter
ones will shoot into the air, so as long as you stay grounded you do not have to
worry too much.
After destroying a few ships, one of them should drop a power-up. You
can shoot the power-up before collecting it to toggle the type of power-up you
get: I recommend going for the V power-up, as it tends to be overpowered in
comparison to everything else.
Shortly into the level, you will face tanks and some stationary
vehicles: the former shoots out missiles that have a limited amount of seeking
capabilities, which should be jumped over (fly into the air for a short spurt)
if you are close by. The latter is fairly easy to dodge, given that they only
shoot out straight forward - however, they tend to shoot out at chokepoints on
the roadstrip, so be wary of them. After some more time, you will also run into
larger battleships - these guys fire air bullets, and take more time to take
down.
Boss Battle
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The boss, which vaguely resembles a crab, follows a set shooting pattern
- out of four bullets that it can shoot (far left, far right, center-left,
center-right), it will shoot the two center bullets and either the far left or
far right bullet. In its next series of bullets, it will change the far end
bullet to the opposite side, so that you get a sequence that looks like:
. . . During the fight, you will get several ships
that
. . . will fly around and shoot bullets at the
Aerostar.
. . . What is important to note is that they all shoot air
. . . bullets, meaning that as long as you stay on the ground,
they are relatively harmless.
That having been detailed, the basic strategy you should follow is this:
stick to the side where the crab boss will not be firing a bullet on the
upcoming sequence, then once the bullets have passed, quickly move to the
opposite end to avoid getting hit with the next barrage of bullets. If you find
yourself caught off-guard and are certain to be killed by a bullet, jump into
the air - even if there are other ships around, you will not necessarily jump
right into the path of a bullet. While moving around, just spam bullets (hold
down the B button). A (V) power-up is best here, as the boss takes damage from
each bullet that hits him, not just one per firing sequence.
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Level Two
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Early on, you will face a fairly passive group of enemies. These are
unnotable; what is notable, however, are a few large buildings in the
foreground. While your plane will not crash if you fly over it, they will block
all shots that come at them, so you need to work around them, and watch for the
enemies hiding right behind them using the buildings as shields.
Eventually, you should run into some wider ships that shoot out two
laser beams, one from each end. As these are ground ships, they can be avoided
by going into the air. After that, a rare large ship will come around which can
send out its wings to 'jab' diagonally and straight down. These can generally be
avoided by just staying out of the way of the ship. Another bulkier ship will
send air-based bullets out.
Once you get to a series of roads which are in a cross-shape, the boss
battle begins.
Boss Battle
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There is one important thing to keep in mind about this boss: it can
only fire air shots. It cannot fire at the ground, so as long as you stay
grounded, you can continue chipping away at it with bullet fire. For this fight,
as before, I recommend grabbing the (V) power-up and just constantly spamming it
by holding the B button down.
Of course, you will eventually need to Jump into the air and fly over to
the next bit of land. When this occurs, you need to realise that the boss has
three attacks: one of them is a laser it will shoot straight forward from its
center. The second attack is to spit three big bullets out its front side, going
straight down, southwest and southeast. The last attack is to spit a single
bullet out, but it will be fired out in the direction of the Aerostar. When
flying over, the first two attacks are totally harmless (so long as you actually
are not flying in front of the boss), but the last one is the only one that has
any chance of causing harm, so watch out for it when it does come if you are in
the air.
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Level Three
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The line-up of four ships that you encounter at the beginning is
harmless, and will not do any damage so long as you stay on the ground (they
will not fire at you, but will destroy your ship if you run into them in the
air). However, they are still there to grab points off of if having a good score
is something you care about in the game.
More than anything else I recommend grabbing a (V) power-up when you get
one if you do not have it already, or an (L) powerup if you are skilled at using
it. The environment of Level 3 has several walls set up to block off both enemy
and your own fire - additionally, cannons are placed on several small islands at
choke points when half the screen is blocked off by a wall. Having (V) or (L)
allows you to hit far away from the Aerostar and at several different angles,
much more useful than the regular shot or the other three possible power-ups.
You will also sencounter a new type of big enemy ship after going
through a number of cannons - a big craft that will move around the screen, and
then release what appear to be several 'bees'. Try to destroy this craft quickly
before it has a chance to release more foes onto the screen. Another big ship
will release several large air shots that perform a double-helix pattern; stay
out of the way and on the ground when possible for best results. A final one
will spit out two diamond-shaped shots that go diagonally - these are ground
shots, so slip in between the shots when they go outside and destroy the ships
as quickly as possible.
Once you exit the cave and get out only a mass of solid grey ground you
will fight the boss battle.
Boss Battle
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The whole battlefield is a single large expanse of grey ground, so keep
that in mind as you will have nowhere you cannot go.
That having been said, however, the boss is fairly large, and it can
move just about anywhere across the screen, and it is ground-based. In
particular, it will go down to the bottom right corner, and then move left to
the bottom left corner before going back up. Keep this in mind, as if you get
caught off-guard when it stops by, you need to jump into the air and stay there
until it passes by.
The boss ship only has one attack, but it can pack a big punch if you
are not careful - it will send eight bullets out from its four 'wings', two from
each wing, one going southeast and one southwest from the wing. With the four
guns situated evenly apart, there is a lot of bullet traffic right in front of
the boss once it fires. The best way to overcome this is to either quickly jump
into the air to dodge the ground-based shots, or to stay at the bottom of the
screen and wait for the shots to spread out.
For this battle, the best strategy is to wait in front, and fire away at
the boss. Once it shoots out bullets, either move completely out of the way,
temporarily jump into the air, or maneuver yourself so you can slip in between
the bullets once they spread out. When the boss ship comes down to the bottom of
the screen, move up behind it or jump into the air, and fly into the bottom
right corner once it moves from that spot.
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Level Four
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Notable for this level are spikes on the sides of the walls. Do not even
think about flying into them, as they shall destroy your ship quickly.
In the early portion of the level, some of the ground-based tanks will
leave behind a mini-tank after the shell is destroyed. Kill off these mini-tanks
as well as they too can fire at you.
You should quickly come to a roadblock in the level, where you cannot
advance any further: start spamming your lasers to destroy the small blocks
between the Aerostar and the next road. After the first set of blocks, look to
the sides of the level, and you should see that some of the spikes are grey
instead of white: be wary of these, because as soon as you fly by them they will
come out of the wall at the Aerostar, so quickly move ahead of them.
Boss Battle
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This battle is a bit trickier than the last few. The boss, while it will
never charge directly at the Aerostar, is still overall tougher: for one, it has
both a ground shot and an air shot. For the ground shot, it spits out two
bullets from each end, one going southwest and one southeast, making for four
bullets in a lighter version of the previous boss's attacks. Its air attack is
to send three bullets in a line southwards.
To achieve dominance in this battle, you need to be constantly spamming
lasers, while keeping the Aerostar on the tracks. The tracks go by fairly
quickly here, but you should still wait until you are almost out of room, as you
do not want to be rammed by the boss by going too close to the center of the
screen. Only jump into the air and make a flight over when you absolutely have
to.
As for power-ups, both (V) and (L) are the useful power-ups in this
battle: the former for the sheer amount of spamming that can be done, and the
latter for point-precision hitting.
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Level Five
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The first thing you should note about this level is that it winds around
a lot and is narrow roughly the whole way through.
Secondly, the enemies of course have changed again, this time slightly
to reflect the jungle theme. The vaguely C-shaped balls that spin around will
not ever attack the Aerostar - however, they are in the air, so you must either
destroy them or maneuever the Aerostar around them while it is flying, or else
you will be destroyed at point of contact.
Keep your eyes on the side of the screen, as the alligator enemies,
which take several hits to kill, can send out several bullets at once to kill.
(V) or (L), which I have recommended for the whole game, can be useful once
again here.
Later on, you will also face some scorpion and jellyfish-like enemies.
These guys shoot out only air bullets, so if you stay on the ground and fire
away they are no problem at all.
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Boss Battle
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Like the boss of Level Three, Level Five's boss battle takes place on a
battlefield where you can move around everywhere, with no water or pits to fall
into.
That said, the huge, hulking mechanism that is Boss Number Five does not
actually fire any attacks. You can not destroy the boss's frame either. Instead,
what will happen is that the boss will send out a big ball that resembles an air
bullet as a proxy weapon.
What the ball will do is to go around the battle arena in a clockwise
motion. During the time period it does this, it will fire two lasers out from
its top and bottom. When a laser comes to be parallel with the Aerostar, it will
change directions horizontally to come straight at the Aerostar. Even if you
move, as soon as the laser is parallel again, it will once more change
directions. It will repeat this for a third and final time before finally fading
out.
There is a way to get around this, however: if a laser does not have a
target to attack, it will snuff out. Wait for the laser to come towards the
Aerostar, then jump into the air and stay in the air until the laser goes
straight underneath the Aerostar, where it will then snuff out. This way, you
can avoid the hassle of dodging them after their first flight path.
That having been said, it is the ball that flies around that you need to
follow. When the bigger framecraft spits the ball around, it will go around in a
clockwise square, before going back into one of the big craft's hatches. The big
boss will then open one of its hatches and let the ball out again. To destroy
the boss, you need to shoot the ball instead of the larger aircraft, so focus
your shots on the ball.
If you get into a tight spot, jump up into the air and fly around. None
of the enemies or shots are air-based, so you can fly around and into a safe
position.
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Level Six
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Level Six is the second-last level, and as you may expect the toughest
so far. The enemies early on are of two types; the first is the larger craft,
which will spit out a fast chain of ground-bullets straight south. The second
are four-packs of alien spacecraft that follow each other carefully, which
resemble the Zerg Scourge from Starcraft, and they spit out air-based shots.
There will also be a split early on, and multiple roads. I recommend you
try staying to one path as long as you can, as there are no ground-based
shooters with seeking-missiles or the like, and the roads in Level Six stay
narrow all the way through, increasing the chances for missing a road when
landing down from flight.
Later on, you will face off against some bigger ships that come up from
behind that spew air shots, and some small tank-like enemies that leave a
smaller form behind when destroyed, requiring two shots to kill. You will also
see the occasional UFO-shaped enemy. These guys will go down to the center of
the screen, then split into two, with one pod and three air shots going in each
direction. Both the pods and the shots are 'in the air'.
Deep into the level, you will come up to tracks that go diagonally. When
these occur, you will finally have to start jumping track to track quickly. My
recommendation is to go from the right-most track to the left-most track, as
this will give you the maximum amount of time before you have to jump off again.
After you get through that, you will come to an odd few lines of blocks.
To get through these, you need to fly the Aerostar to land on the solid blocks,
and not the ones with a diamond-shaped crease or a triangle-shaped crease. After
the first few rings of roads after that, you shall finally come to the stage six
boss.
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Boss Battle
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Boss Number Six is different than the others: at the beginning of the
battle, it will be in a single form, but later on it will split into three
separate ships, which will fly around before then reuniting. Both forms are
vulnerable to damage, but when it is in three, if you have the (V) shot you can
spam it and hit all three at once for triple damage.
In the singular form, the boss will spit out five bullets that go south,
southeast and southwest. In its split form, the boss with the long pole will
shoot out a straight laser, while the other two will each shoot out two bullets.
Notably, although all shots the bosses fire are ground-based, they
themselves are in the air, so do not try to fly over them while in the air. You
can, however, pass through them while on the ground.
When flying, you will want to drop down on a corner of any of the ringed
roads, as the corners offer a slightly better chance of landing successfully.
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Level Seven
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In the beginning, you will get flying enemies that shoot air-based
bullets, while tanks on the ground shoot ground-based bullets. Quickly, you will
also fight some other aircraft with cylinder shaped wings that can shoot lasers
straight south of themselves.
After, you will see some odd ships that will fly towards a center point,
creating tiles behind them. While you do not want to destroy them, there will be
ships behind them that spit out ground bullets. You will either want to cut the
tile-ships after they have made a significant amount of road, or jump into the
air to dodge the bullets from the tanks.
Shortly thereafter, you will see some train-like enemies. These guys do
not actually attack you, but they are large, and take up space on the roads. You
can either fly around them, or destroy them to free up space.
After some time, you will come across some more ships that are the
opposite of the tile creators - these ones will destroy tiles. They are also a
lot more resilient to damage, so fire away at will; do not be surprised if you
are unable to salvage many tiles, however. Continue flying, grabbing whatever
foothold you can, and continue spamming fire.
When you finally make it through that section, the boss battle will come
up fairly quickly.
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Boss Battle
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This battle is actually somewhat easier than you may expect, as the boss
follows a simple attack pattern: it will first shoot out five bullets, then it
will shoot out five bullets again. Next, it will shoot out three air-based
bullets, then it will shoot out a stream of fire from its mouth.
For the first two attacks, you have a choice: you can either move around
and dodge the bullets by waiting for them to spread out and slip between, or you
can jump into the air for a few seconds. As the screen is static and not
scrolling, so long as you do not go up or down you will still land right back on
the narrow platform the Aerostar is.
With the third attack, just start spamming your attack. For the fourth
attack, however, you should move AWAY from the center; this is because the boss
will spit a line of fire from its mouth that goes south across the center of the
platform the Aerostar is sitting on. After a couple of seconds, the flames will
swipe to the side the Aerostar is on. When this occurs, jump into the air, and
fly to the opposite end: the flames will not follow you. Instead, they will go
back to the center, and retreat, where the boss will then repeat this attack
pattern.
Just continue hammering away at the boss, dodging each attack as it
comes, and it should fall in short order.
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Donations/Amazon
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[DONT]
I don't really care too much about donations, but if you are feeling
generous, feel free to send one via PayPal to gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT
com
Alternatively, if you ever order any items from Amazon.com, go to the
link below. You do not have to buy anything right away, but (if you do not clear
browser cookies often) any items you buy within the next 90 days will count as a
'referral order' to me, meaning I get anywhere from 4-6% as a referral/affiliate
payment of what you ordered (ie. order $100 worth of stuff, I get $4-6 from
Amazon.com)
www.amazon.com/?&camp=212361&linkCode=wsw&tag=raofavigafa-20&creative=391881
Other than that, considering this FAQ is for an obscure old game, if you
have any other obscure old games that you do not play anymore, consider sending
them to me (I will even pay the shipping cost!). I write FAQs for plenty of
obscure old games with no FAQs, and having a physical copy of the game (and even
better, a manual) is superior to not. You can email me if interested at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
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Contact Info
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[CONT]
Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this
game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an
obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If
you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors,
again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you wish to host this guide, or use information from it, consider the
FAQ semi-public domain: you can host it without asking and derive information
from it word-for-word if you wish, but keep the document unchanged if hosting it
and give credit where due if using information
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©2010-2011 GammaBetaAlpha FAQs
