A comprehensive guide to the scrolling fighter for the Sega Master System.
By Matthew Stephenson (Ringworm)
Version 1.0, 26 September 2004
Next update: Not sure. If I find the manual for the game, I may include some
more information, otherwise this will probably be the only version, except for
possible format changes.
Table of Contents:
See the 5 character code next to each entry below? It's there to make
navigating this FAQ much simpler. Press CTRL+F together, type the 5 character
code next to the entry you are looking for, and press enter twice. You'll be at
the appropriate section. Awesome. This method works in many programs I have
tested it in, such as Notepad and Microsoft Word. I'm sure it's similar in most
programs though.
As this is the initial release, this section is pointless. I'm just adding it,
as I'm trying to keep my FAQs consistent, and so I remember if there's another
update.
This FAQ is Copyright of Matthew Stephenson (Ringworm), 2004. It can be found
on the following websites ONLY:
www.gamefaqs.com
Want to host this FAQ? Found it on another site not listed above? Let me know:
ringwormrulez[at]gmail[dot]com
I may let you host it. Ask. The only requirement is you post the ENTIRE FAQ,
UNEDITED. No changing any of it, and it has to be all there. Try to keep it
updated as well; the most recent version will always be found at GameFAQs.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION BEFORE HOSTING THIS! If not, you are in breach
of the law. Obviously, you can not make profit from this guide by selling it or
anything similar. Once again this is illegal. You can make a copy for personal
usage though if you're that way inclined. I got no problems with that. It's
your printer ink and paper you are wasting.
Got a question or got some info you feel should be included? Again the best way
to contact me is by emailing:
ringwormrulez[at]gmail[dot]com
I may take a while to respond, just letting you know. Also, make sure what you
want to ask is not covered already. Generally, I respond to anybody that needs
help. If I feel the FAQ makes it perfectly clear, and you just haven't read it
properly though, I may not.
IF YOU DO EMAIL ME: Include the game name, or something which makes it obvious
what it's about. I will NOT read ANY emails with attachments, or ones with no
subject line.
I'd like to take some time to thank the people that have helped with this
guide. Firstly, I'd like to thank Coreland and Sega for making the game. The
webmasters that host this FAQ should get a bit of credit too I guess, as you
wouldn't be reading this otherwise. Thanks also to the other FAQers on the FAQ
contributors board at GameFAQs, and especially Masamune3 and Joni Philips for
running the SMS Completion Project. Without you, I never would have got the
urge to write this guide. I'd also like to thank you, the reader, for choosing
this guide, and I hope I helped in some way.
All names, characters, games and related material are Copyright of Coreland,
1985 and Sega, 1986.
Firstly, this game is quite tough. I used to own it on the original Master
System, and couldn't get past level 2. I still find it fairly tough with an
emulator and multiple save states. Just letting you know.
The story of My Hero is reasonably simple. You are walking in the park with
your girlfriend when some guy (forgive me, don't have the manual, so can't
remember his name) kidnaps her. What do you do? Hide in a corner and cry your
eyes out? That's no fun. You're going to get her back, and have some fun
beating up numerous enemies along the way. After all, you are her hero, as the
name suggests.
This game can be played by either one or two people. If you want to play one
player, start the game with the controller 1 button. If you want to play two
player, use the start button on controller 2. Simple. You will alternate turns
- after losing a life, it is the other players turn.
Directional pad: Left/right - move the hero left or right. Down - crouch.
Button 1/Start Button: Press this button, and the hero will do a flying kick.
Button 2: This is a combo button. Pressing this button by itself will make the
hero punch. Hold down and press button 2 to trip an enemy. Hold up and press
the button for a high kick.
There are numerous types of enemy in the game. Some will make you lose a life
if you touch them, others you can attack for points. They are as follows (in
order of first appearance):
Thug (500 points): Walks along the ground towards you, and if you don't attack
in time, he'll punch you. They attack in groups and from both sides, and you
can easily be surrounded if you aren't careful. The most common enemy.
Thug in building (NA): You'll see them looking out of windows. When you walk
nearby, they will drop bottles at you.
Bottle (100 points): Thrown vertically downwards from buildings, can knock you
out if you aren't careful. When attacked by you, they fly horizontally away
from you, and any enemies hit this way will be sent flying. Enemies are NOT
normally hurt by falling bottles though.
Knife Thrower (1000 points): Stands in the one spot and throws knives
horizontally at you. You have to be careful when attacking them, as sometimes
it will make you lose a life if they have JUST thrown a knife.
Knife (avoid): Thrown horizontally by a knife thrower. Jump over it with button
1.
Shuriken (avoid): Appears from behind a hedge or wall, and bounces along the
ground a few times, then rolls. Normally you can jump them, although sometimes
you need to duck under them.
Bomb (avoid): Thrown from top right of screen, these land on the ground, and
then explode. Wait for the explosion to completely disappear before continuing
on.
Fire (avoid): It's a small camp fire, normally in a pit between blocks. They
are very easy to avoid really.
Flame (avoid): These come from the fires, and go vertically upwards. Generally
wait for one, then continue on, but they are not that tough to avoid.
Jumping thug (500 points): Identical in appearance to a normal thug, but they
attack by doing large jumps. Either flying kick them, or just walk underneath
(sometimes works) to get past.
Bulldogs(500 points each): Trip these (down and button 2 repeatedly) to get
past. They always appear in a line of four. In later levels, you may need to
trip the first two and jump the last two, but I'm sure you can figure it out.
Boss (10000 points and an extra life): You fight the boss at the end of each
level. Hit him 10 times before he hits you 10 times to win.
Pig (avoid): It's a pig, need I say more? Runs at you, just jump over it.
Pig rider (1000 points): Basically a knife thrower standing on a pig. Except
they don't throw anything.
Cannonball thrower(1000 points): Identical to a knife thrower, except they
throw cannonballs instead. They can also throw them diagonally if not on the
same level as you.
Cannonball (avoid): Flies horizontally at you, thrown by cannonball throwers.
Can fly diagonally.
Moving fires (avoid): Annoying, these have a set space that they will patrol.
They move left to right, and the ones on top of blocks are tough to avoid.
Timing is crucial.
Frog (avoid): Jumps and spits a bubble that flies horizontally. Both the bubble
and the frog will cause you to lose a life if you touch them.
Bubble (avoid): Spat by frogs. See above.
Falling thug (500 points): Identical to normal thugs, except they appear from
the top of screen.
Cannonball Bouncer (1000 points): Throws cannonballs that bounce. The
cannonballs bounce a lot higher than the shurikens, and don't lose height.
Bouncing Cannonball (Avoid): Bounces in a reasonably large arc, quite easy to
avoid, as you can normally walk under them.
Remote Controlled Car (Avoid): Not hard to avoid, but it shoots arrows
vertically upwards, as well as moving left and right (it follows you over a
small section of level 3). The arrows are the difficult bit to avoid.
Arrow (Avoid): Shot vertically upwards by remote controlled car. Avoid them or
try jumping them.
Rock (Avoid): Falls from the sky, then rolls along the ground. Jump them, or
wait for a gap between rocks.
You will also score points continuously as you move forwards.
The game involves three levels, repeated. After finishing level 3, level 4 will
be identical to level 1, just a little bit faster I believe. In each level, you
will walk through a town section, a park section, then another town. After
making it there, you will fight the boss on a beach. If you win this, you move
to the next level.
I'm not sure if this game has an ending, or continues forever. I've made it to
level 11 so far, and it's still going. I'll let you know if it ever does
finish, or if the levels just keep repeating.
I only use button 2 for one point in the game, where you need to trip some
dogs. The rest of the time, I use jumping kicks (button 1) exclusively. The
other attacks require close range, and are therefore quite useless in
comparison.
Watch your girlfriend get kidnapped, then it's on with the game. The level
begins with thugs attacking you, and the occasional thug dropping bottles at
you. Progress right and when you get to a building by itself, just past 5 trees
close together, the enemies should stop appearing. Continue right, and you
should see your first knife thrower, as well as some thugs dropping bottles.
It's easier than the first part of the level, which is one of the hardest parts
of all. Once you see the second knife thrower, the thugs reappear. Continue
onwards until you see a building by itself again (looks remarkably similar to
where thugs stopped appearing the first time...), and they will stop coming
(again). One more knife thrower, a few shurikens and you are at the park.
The park section starts with a pyramid of blocks. There is a knife thrower at
the top, and shurikens bouncing down the side at you. I suggest the following:
Jump to the first step, and wait for a shuriken to bounce over, jump to the
second and duck under the next one. Quickly jump and kill the knife thrower,
and go back to the second top step. Duck under the shuriken and quickly
continue. Bombs are your next worry, but they are not too tough to avoid. Keep
walking, and wait for a bomb explosion to completely disappear before
continuing on. The section with bombs is not very long - when you see the fire
you know they are about to stop coming. Jump a few fires, avoiding the flames,
and then you will see a line of four fires. Carefully jump between the blocks
here to get past, and you are at the end of the park.
At the end of the park, and start of the second town, watch out for the
shurikens again. As you are jumping them, thugs will start attacking you. This
section is quite tough, and fairly long. There are a lot of bottle throwers and
a knife thrower to watch out for, thugs for the first half, and then a new
enemy - jumping thugs for the second half. The section ends at a building
similar to where all the thug sections end, except this one isn't on its own.
Look for two bottle throwers close together in a green building. One bottle
thrower, and a line of bulldogs to go, then you are up to the boss.
Boss fight - Beach.
Get used to this - you'll be doing it fairly frequently. In the middle of
screen, you will see two bars: TAKE and BOSS. Every hit you (TAKE) score on the
boss will add a heart icon to the bar. Every hit your opponent gets adds a
skull to his. The first to 10 icons wins the fight. Again, I just use flying
kicks, and moving left and right. You shouldn't get hit too often, but if you
do, the boss can hit you numerous times in a row. It's very easy to win with
practice.
The level start identically to level 1 - thugs and bottle throwers, except this
time there are a few more. It stops once you get past the isolated building
(again). The next section has pigs (and a few bottle throwers). Just jump them
and hold right (should be four pigs). A few thugs will attack in the next
section, just keep going right and attack them when you are about to be hit.
You'll soon get to the next lot of enemies, I laughed the first time I saw them
- pig riders. There's about four of these to worry about, and then you are out
of the town.
In the park, you'll see a row of four fires. Jump to the blocks above them, and
a cannonball thrower will appear. Time your jumps well, as you need to avoid
both flames and cannonballs. Once past this section, you will see one of the
most annoying obstacles of all - moving fires. There are three to avoid, and
the ones on top of the blocks are VERY tough to avoid in later levels (level 8,
11 etc). Timing is the key. You will see another pyramid just past the third
fire. Quickly go onto the first block and duck, or you will be hit by a
cannonball. As soon as it is past you, kill the first cannonball thrower.
Another one will appear on the right side of the top step, so be careful. Kill
him ASAP, and then a third one will appear at the bottom of the pyramid. Wait
for him to throw a cannonball, jump it and kill him before he can throw a
second. The next section of the park features two frogs. You'll learn to hate
these. Wait for a frog to land from its jump then move. When you are in the
middle of the two frogs, remember that bubbles will come from both directions.
It can be quite hard to avoid them too.
Finally, you have got through one of the hardest bits of the level. The second
town section begins with pigs, bottle throwers thugs and jumping thugs. Not too
tough and it stops once you get to the pizza shop this time. There is a knife
thrower to avoid, and then two more frogs. These are harder to avoid than the
ones in the park (especially in later levels). A few jumping thugs later (a
very short section), a short walk, then you will fight the boss. The strategy
is identical to the one shown for level 1.
The level starts with no enemies attacking you - hooray. Walk forwards a bit
though, and thugs will start to fall from the sky. Continue forwards and, yah,
you got it - it starts the same as levels 1 and 2. Once you get to just past
the building on its own, the enemies stop coming. Walk right and you'll see a
cannonball bouncer. Keep walking until you are a few steps away, wait for him
to throw another cannonball and kill him (watch for bottles). Two more frogs
are your next worry. As soon as you jump the second one, you will be attacked
by falling thugs (again). This is a fairly short section luckily. Another
cannonball bouncer, a few bottle throwers and you are up to the park section.
There's a cannonball bouncer to start the park, then frogs. The frogs are quite
annoying here. You need to time your jump from the top of the blocks (don't
stop half way or you'll be hit by a bubble!) to land in between the two. You
may need to drop a level and jump from there to avoid hitting the first frog.
Time your jump over the second one, avoiding the bubbles, then jump to the top
of the blocks when you can. At the next pyramid structure, a remote controlled
car will appear. This follows you for a reasonably long distance. Avoiding the
arrows it shoots is the tough bit. Once you see the rocks on screen, it'll
drive off. The rocks have a fixed pattern. They fall down along the edges of
the gaps, and then roll to the other side. Wait for the one on the left to
fall, jump to the middle, then jump the right hand rock. Do this for both gaps.
Be careful in between gaps that the rocks don't hit you, as there is not much
space to stand there. Back to the second town!
The town starts with falling thugs. These will be around until you get to a
cannonball bouncer near the pizza shop. You will then be facing jumping thugs
(and one more cannonball bouncer) until you get to some glass doors near a
green building. There's good news and bad news with this section. There are no
bottle throwers, but to make up for it, it's quite tough. You are often
surrounded by three thugs, and the cannonball bouncers are in annoying
positions. After this, there is only one more cannonball bouncer to face, and
then it's time to fight the boss again! Strategy is identical to the other
times you fought him.
This is not really the easiest style of game to write a FAQ for so it's
probably not the best FAQ I've ever written. I'm sure it's good enough that you
can follow it, and I'm reasonably happy with the end result.
I was never very good at this game as a kid, I guess the fact I was maybe 9
years old when playing it had something to do with it. I enjoyed it though, and
it was one of my first choices of games to write a FAQ for, on this system.
If anybody can confirm the game does have an ending, let me know how many
levels there are in the game. I know there are at least 11 levels anyway.
I hope this FAQ was of some help to you. It's doubtful more than 10 people will
ever read it, but I still think it was worth the effort. I'm sure somebody will
find something useful in this document one day.
