C H A C K 'N P O P
for the Nintendo Entertainment System
Game copyright 1985 TAITO Corp.
Licensed by Nintendo
*Version FINAL*
This guide copyright 2006 Matt Toothman. This guide is for individual use only,
and only to be found at GameFAQs.com.
If necessary, you can contact me at:
matt dot toothman at gmail dot com. Replace the appropriate words with the
appropriate characters. Please mention the title of the game in the subject
line. If you have comments, corrections, or additions to this guide, then by
all means let me know.
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Table of Contents
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1. Version History
2. Story/Controls/Misc.
3. Points
4. Levels
5. Credits/Outro
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1. Version History
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1 061106 Began work on guide.
1.0 061106 Submitted to GameFAQs. Final version unless anything new
comes to light.
Chack'n, the eponymous hero, must traverse 14 levels to find and marry his
girlfriend. Thus motivated, let's get to the meat of the guide.
The goal in each level is to get to the top floor. Chack'n destroys the bricks
blocking his path by destroying the cages holding hearts that are scattered
around the level. Once all the hearts have been freed, the path is opened and
Chack'n must simply climb to the top to complete the level. Destroying
monsters
is completely optional. Chack'n is further constrained by a time limit:
although not numerical, the ghost pushing the green object at the top of the
screen represents a time limit. If the ghost reaches the right edge of the
screen, Chack'n will lose a life. You can tell when this is about to happen,
as two other ghost figures come to help push the green thing as the last few
seconds tick off.
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Controls
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D-Pad: Controls Chack'n. LEFT and RIGHT are obvious. If Chack'n is on the
floor and there is a ceiling within reach, pressing UP will cause him to turn
upside down and walk on the ceiling. If he is on the ceiling pressing DOWN
will return him to the floor, regardless of distance.
The controls for horizontal motion are fairly loose: Chack'n will continue
LEFT or RIGHT with one press of the button, but you can press UP or DOWN to
stop him in place.
Chack'n cannot horizontally traverse a pit of any size. In other words, you
can't jump. Nor can you adjust your direction while falling.
A+B: Rolls 'hand grenades' to the left (A) or right (B) of Chack'n. The
resulting
explosion can kill both enemies and Chack'n. Only one grenade can be on the
screen from a side at a time (one per side= 2 grenades onscreen at a time).
Grenades obey the law of gravity and will fall straight down at Chack'n's
side if he is on the ceiling. They also will roll a fair distance and will
only stop if there is a good-sized flat landing place. The explosion will
curl down and around pieces of floor, so being directly under an explosion
will not always protect you.
START: Pauses the game.
SELECT: Selects 1 or 2 players (TITLE SCREEN), otherwise no use.
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Miscellaneous
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Monsters can be destroyed in their 'egg' form before they hatch. White eggs
are not about to hatch, green ones will hatch shortly, and red ones are
hatching.
If Chack'n is killed and a grenade explodes, enemies can still be killed in
the short interval before the level resets.
Any hatched enemies return to their eggs when Chack'n is killed, although
they take less time to hatch.
The order in which monsters hatch is fixed for a particular level.
Killing multiple monsters will yield bonus fruit or vegetables. Two bonus
fruits/vegetables cannot exist simultaneously. If you get a second multi-kill
while the first fruit is still onscreen, it will cause the first fruit to
disappear.
The purple whale-like creatures and the ghost-looking character at the top of
the screen can both be found in later Taito games (Bubble Bobble, etc.) as
MONSTA and MIGHTA, respectively. To my knowledge, these characters first
appear in CHACK'N POP.
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Points
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Destroying a monster in its egg: 50 pts.
Destroying a monster after it has hatched: 200 pts.
Freeing a heart from its cage: 1000 pts.
Moving platform squashes monster: 800 pts.
2 monsters with one explosion (pepper appears, collect): 400 pts.
3 monsters with one explosion (cherry appears, collect): 600 pts.
? monsters with one explosion (?????? appears, collect): ??? pts.
Destroying all monsters, 0 eggs: 5000 pts.
Destroying 0 monsters, 0 eggs: 20000 pts., plus
an extra Chack'n
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Levels
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1: 1 heart to be released, 6 Monstas
You should be able to, with practice, get an easy 0-kill bonus (20000 points
and an extra life) on this level. The route is straightforward.
2: 2 hearts, 6 Monstas
You should definitely get the 'kill all monsters' bonus here. The level is set
up in such a way that you can move almost anywhere you want. Get the left
heart first.
3: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
To destroy the left heart-cage, you must jump and roll bombs to the left and
right. Each bomb will destroy half of the cage.
4: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
Jump and roll a bomb left to release the lower heart. Rolling a bomb right
only destroys half of the cage. The monsters tend to congregate around the
upper heart, making a multi-kill very possible.
5: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
The platform will probably kill at least two or three of the Monstas here.
Standing on the solid wall above the platform and dropping bombs is very
effective here.
6: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
Go for the left heart first. Getting the right heart first and backtracking
takes too long.
7: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
Destroying the yellow walls allows Chack'n (and enemies!) to wrap around from
one side of the screen to the other, Pac-Man style. You can stealthily throw
grenades through the passage, too. It's just you and Solid Snake, baby.
8: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
This level should be very easy. Although the route is longer, go for the left
heart first: it will lure more enemies into the moving platform. It is possible
to have the platform kill all eight enemies here.
9: 2 hearts, 8 Monstas
Destroying the two small bricks under the lower heart means you can't collect
it and you'll have to intentionally lose a Chack'n. Pause the game when you
first get to this level and plan out your path. Other than the bricks that
*directly* block your path, try not to destroy anything. I usually lose at
least a life on this level, even after knowing which bricks to destroy.
10: 1 heart, 6 Monstas
For some reason, this is a repeat of the first level. The only change here
(and in the other repeated levels) is a slightly different, and faster, hatch
order. The time limit seems shorter as well. Take this opportunity to get the
0-kill bonus and get back one of the Chack'ns you probably lost on level 9.
11 (see level 2)
12 (see level 3)
13 (see level 4)
14 (see level 5)
15 (see level 6)
16 (see level 7)
17 (see level 8)
18 (see level 9)
19 (1)
20 (2)
This is as far as I have managed. I fear there is no end. If anyone can
provide any information to the contrary, I will happily slog through more
levels (this game isn't hard, just incredibly tedious).
*Update to the above, 062206: from Adam (email address withheld)
<quote>
CHACK'N POP (Taito)
-A rather difficult definition for a finish here. Basically, the game
continuously loops the same 9 levels/mazes, which means Maze 10 will
be the same as Maze 1, then Maze 19 will be the same as Maze 1...you get
the picture. Anyway, using an emulator so I would not have to play through
each tedious level I determined the address that controlled the level
value ($003B) and figured out the address value for Maze 99 (the value
being 168). When you finish Maze 99 it goes to Maze 0 (which is value 176).
I would technically consider this Maze 100, as there isn't room for 3
digits on the Maze indicator. Anyways, you can keep playing and the Maze
number will keep going up until you reach "Maze 44" which is really Maze
144. The HEX address value at Maze 144 is 248. When you finish Maze 144 the
game goes on to Maze 1, the very first maze of the game. The HEX address
value for Maze 1 is o, so this is the true Maze 1, meaning you finally
looped back to the beginning of the game after finishing Maze (1)44. Since
a HEX address value cannot go over 255 the last HEX address value the game
registered before hitting that mark was 248 (Maze 144). So this game has
absolutely no ending and loops back to the beginning after going through
144 levels/mazes. For those of you using an emulator who will be using
that HEX address, note that Maze 1 has a value of 0. Maze 2 has a value
of 1. Hence, Maze 9 will actually have value 8. However, Maze 10 will
have a value of 16. For some reason the HEX address value jumps by 8
between every "Maze 9" that you finish. If you plug in any value between
9 and 15 you will get garbled screens. In all you will have to play
through the 9 Mazes 16 times in order to return to Maze 1.
</quote>
*This is apparently excerpted from Adam's NES Game Endings FAQ here on
GameFAQs.
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Credits/Outro
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A hearty THANK YOU to:
Nintendo: for producing the most innovative, fun, and influential games out
there.
Taito: This isn't the worst game I've ever played.
My mother for not throwing out my old issues of Nintendo Power.
Matt Conte, for the .NSF Winamp plugin.
Adam for saving me from the 145th maze.
This document is legal and intellectual property of Matt Toothman, 2006
