Rush 'n Attack FAQ/Walkthrough(NES)
version 1.0.0
Copyright 2000 Andrew Schultz [email protected]

Please don't reproduce this FAQ for profit without my consent as it took
a good deal of effort to create.  I am not in any way affiliated with
Konami, NES, or any entities who created the game.  Although I did my
best with this, some of the events are quasi-random in the
game(soldiers' speeds--even though they look identical) so it is
impossible to provide a complete description.  So I appreciate any
error-checking that gets done.

Please note this is not the arcade FAQ.

**AD SPACE**

Please visit my homepage at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/2762,
or something.


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--INDEX

GENERAL(HEH) TIPS

HOW POINTS ARE SCORED

THE FASHIONS THESE DAYS

LEVEL 1

LEVEL 2

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 4

LEVEL 5

LEVEL 6

QUIRKS

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GENERAL(HEH) TIPS

 Rush 'n Attack is a very demanding game.  Because of some decisions
the programmers made about controls, even when you think you are doing
something right, you won't be.  Although you can knife repeatedly, if
you are worked into a hole you won't be able to kill any enemies.  Here
are things to be aware of:

1--you can jump left or right over soldiers.  But if you jump at them
you can't always knife them.
2--if you jump at a ladder, you'll automatically climb it.  Big problem
if you planned to knife a jumper afterwards.
3--shooters, from the right, fire, go forward, fire, etc.  Moving to the
left, they get where you can't attack them even when crouching, unless
you back in to the left.  They'll also search for you if you are on a
different platform.
4--When in doubt, a standing jump is better.
5--You can knife two opponents at once with one knife stroke.  You're
probably better off with two tries, even when you're killing two of
them.
6--the regular soldiers have two different speeds, which are quasi-
random.
7--the best way to play Rush 'n Roulette(sorry, had to say it!) is to
jump left, especially if you are left of mid-screen to begin with.  A
soldier may appear from there, and you'll buy the farm.
8--your jump is slightly longer than the distance between two mines.  So
back up before jumping over the first of a series.  Your hero is just
too athletic... :)

HOW POINTS ARE SCORED

100 points for a Special trooper/"weapons guy"(releases weapons.)  They
hide missile launchers or grenades(three shots each), a star of
invincibility, or a gun(which you can use for a limited time.)  You also
get 100 points for picking the special item up.
200 or 300 points for Soldiers, depending on if they're slow or fast.
It's funny that the fast ones may actually be the less annoying.
500 points for Shooters.
500 points for taking out a mine with a special weapon.  You must crouch
down with a missile launcher or throw a grenade to do so.
1000 points for dogs in the boss scenes.
1000 points for Jumpers.
2000 points for jetpack guys in the boss scenes.
3000 points for paratroopers, but 500 if they turn into shooters.
8000 points for helicopter guys.

Oh yes.  You get an extra guy at 50000 and then at every multiple of
100000.

Approximate point totals for going straight through level without losing
a guy(cumulative):
1.  25000
2.  60000
3.  125000
4.  170000
5.  230000
6.  300000

THE FASHIONS THESE DAYS

Aside from weapons guys(light tannish yellow, no other details) each
class of enemies dresses differently for each level.

On level 1:
--Soldiers have white bottoms with black tops and brown extremities.
--Jumpers have black tops with red everywhere else
--no shooters
--everyone has bayonets

On level 2:
--Soldiers have maroon outfits with black shirts
--shooters have yellow outfits with black shirts
--jumpers have red outfits with black shirts

On level 3:
--soldiers have maroon tops, white pants, black shirts.
--shooters have black/gold/yellow
--jumpers have black/red/yellow

On level 4:
--everyone wears black helmets
--soldiers wear maroon
--jumpers wear red
--shooters wear tan

On level 5:
--everyone wears coats with rifles
--soldiers wear maroon
--jumpers wear red
--shooters wear tan

On level 6:
--no weapons guys
--soldiers wear black with white spots
--shooters wear yellow with pale yellow spots
--jumpers wear red with yellow spots

LEVEL 1

   This one's a whole lot easier than the others!  Of course, it's nice
not to have Shooters.  You can run forward, just knifing the guys
behind.  The weapon you get will be a missile launcher.  You can use it
to blow up the mines when the background changes from the bridges.
Don't jump on the trucks because you will encounter Jumpers there.  You
should get another missile launcher--it's best to save the bullets to
make the boss scene easy.  If you hit the guy while he's still
crouching, the launcher will be to the right, but if not, it will fly up
and land on the truck.  Also, a jumper will follow the weapons guy
immediately, so be alert.  There will be one solitary mine to jump over
except you may have to wait a bit to pass it so you don't jump and hit a
bad guy in the process, so it's the only place you might use the
launcher.  Other than that, just roll forward and don't forget to take
care of the guys creeping up a bit on you every now and then.  Once you
pass the solitary mine, you will have to kill three jumpers who come
from the right.  When one appears, do not go further right but knock
them off one at a time, until you have the hang of the game.  If there
is a soldier in the area, rub him out first so that you can concentrate
on the jumper.  Once you are able to go past the midway mark you are at
the rightmost part of the level, and the boss will soon appear(you also
hear sirens if you have sound.)  Note this is a general rule for the end
of all scenes.  If you have all three shots in the missile launcher,
this is easy.  Go to the left, wait for the first man to appear, and
fire right.  Repeat three times.  If you only have two shots left then
wait as long as possible to shoot(you can take out jumpers when they are
airborne,) leaving two jumpers to take out(not hard to do with a jumping
stab.)  With no shots left, start a bit left of center and determine
your jump so that you will not have to knife both jumpers and soldiers.
It's a good place to get comfortable with standing or running jumps.

LEVEL 2

   The pace picks up here.  Go forward and the third guy coming from
the right will be a jumper.  You know what to do with him.  You'll want
to keep your left side pretty clear because you will be running under a
gun tower which fires shots periodically--if you stay in one place, you
will be shot, but otherwise you should be OK.  If you must stop, right
under the gun tower is the best place to avoid shooting.  At some time
you will want to make a break to the right--there are two jumpers and
then your first shooter, and you can almost always outrun the bullets if
you don't pause or turn back.  If you run right at shooters(again, watch
your back) they won't kneel and fire.  Once you get to the first truck,
don't pass it, but wait until the weapons person crouches, move to the
left of the truck and wait(knife to the left if you have to.)  Once you
get the gun be ready to fire at the first jumper you see, always moving
to the right.  Then crouch down and blow up mines when you're relatively
close to them(i.e. you see two mines,) and run right so your missile
takes out as much as possible.  There'll be a shooter there and anthough
you can blow up all three mines with a shot it's better to pick off two
mines and kill him than risk things.  After the mines there will be a
few trucks, followed by another gun tower.  A shooter will come from the
left, and you may want to go under the gun tower and nail him with a
missile(remember to duck.)  If you've got no gun, go just right of the
tower, then back left to knife him.  After that there are some mines you
must jump over unless you were able to save a missile.  You can knife
the jumpers that jump at you pretty easily as it's just a matter of
timing, and it's good practice for a tough part of level 5.  There will
follow a truck you will want to jump on, as it has an invisible ladder
to the right of the visible one that is quite annoying--if you climb
down it, you step on a mine.  Go to the right edge and wait for the
jumpers to cross below before jumping down.  You can now go full
throttle right as there will be jumpers and a shooter, but they will not
be too tough to handle as long as you jump vertically when to the left
of a ladder.  When the trucks end, check briefly to see if someone's in
back of you.  Then floor it right.  You should be able to knife a bunch
of soldiers and a shooter, and you will just be able to beat the shots
from the gun tower if you only knife when necessary.  There's a jumper
at the end, and after that is the boss scene.
   The boss scene is not too bad.  Start off just left of center(where
that white horizontal line ends) and if you have grenades, throw them
before the jetpacks swoop down.  Even if you don't this scene is not too
hard even with just your knife--the people in jetpacks stop near the
ground so often.  Just beware the soldiers marching around on the
ground.  If you kill all three in the air and don't survive, tough luck
for you.  I find you can jump right and kill one jetpack guy after they
land first.  In fact, the jetpack guys spend a lot of time waiting to be
knifed when they "land."  Just watch for the grenades landing.

LEVEL 3
   Go right, knife the two soldiers, stop, jump up and knife the
jumper.  Then pass the ladder and wait for the shooter to climb down.
Knife him, climb up, go right, pick up the invincibility star.  Now
floor it right until you get to the sheds with numbers on them(11, 51,
91.)  A jumper should come out, and you probably want to jump straight
up to take him out(chorus in:  WATCH YOUR BACK!  Don't get spoiled by
the star) so you're not stuck on a ladder.  Also, there will be a
shooter coming up from the bottom level.  Staying to the left of the
down ladder will deal with him too, as you can knife him when he comes
up.  This is in general a good strategy for dealing with shooters.
There will then be mines past the sheds.  Jump over them and wait for
the special weapon guy to come forward.  Knife him and a grenade will
jump up to the second level.  Beware the jumper that comes at you(jump
straight up to kill him) and again wait for the shooter.  Once he's
knifed, climb up, get the grenade, and go right.  Pull up before the
second level ends, waiting for the jumpers to go by.  The next set of
sheds, with mines, is a great place to use grenades.  When a jumper
appears on the bottom level, start throwing them.  Once you get to the
ladder at the pointy shed, run past it, knife the special weapons guy
and the shooter, run left, and knife the shooter coming down the stairs.
The gun that appears isn't terribly useful as it has less power than a
knife(only one enemy dies with one shot) and will run out just when you
don't want it to.  It will, however, get you to the edge of the shed,
and it's the only gun in the game so if you want to sidetrack a bit,
it's a good time to do so.  Otherwise you can just run past it after
knifing the shooters and climb up to the second level.   Jump down after
one jumper runs by and proceed right with caution.  You may be in
trouble if jumpers and soldiers are coming at you from both sides and
will probably need to resort to some ballet moves(i.e. jump back and
forth and turn around in midair) if you run right too quickly.  The
final jumper may be the trickiest--if you can time things so you jump
over the soldier as you hit the jumper(they walk together) you will have
no problem.  The boss scene is very easy--six dogs come from the
right(knife them), six from the left, six from the right, six from the
left, and six alternate left-right-left-right-left-right.  At 1000
points each they're the easiest point source in the game.

LEVEL 4
   General note for this level:  the grenade/cannon launchers that fire
at you in regular intervals drop bombs that don't have as much range as
you'd think and always land in the same place, so they are predictable.
They also swivel if you walk past them, meaning they can shoot you from
behind.  They also don't kill you if you run by them, only if you jump
into them.  So do wipe them out, but don't panic when they fire.  Floor
it right.  When you see the first grenade-launcher guy behind the oil
drum/trash can, jump right and knife him, and you'll get the shooter
that will appear as well.  Past that there's a paratrooper.  If you're
running right, he shouldn't be a problem.  He'll shoot twice, and your
best strategy is to knife the weapons guy, go right, wait for the bullet
to fall, and when the jumper comes from the right of the screen, jump up
and knife him.  If you must, cha-cha back and take out/jump over any
normal soldiers once you see where the shot goes.  Take the shooter(ex-
paratrooper) out by waiting by the ladder.  Climb up and back down(the
missile launcher flies up) and you are in business.  As you go right
three jumpers will soon appear from the left.  Turn around and knife
them before taking out the cannon guy.  The second-next cannon guy will
have a weapons guy underneath.  DON'T shoot him!  You'll lose the
missile launcher he'll throw out, and you want to keep three shots for
the rest of the level.  The best strategy is to get pretty much under
the cannon, knife the weapons guy and the shooter, then fire left to
take out the shooter from that side.  Then walk up and get the missile
launcher, timing the shots from the cannon.  Again, don't use the
missile launcher if possible.  You should just run and jump, knifing
shooters that may climb down ladders.  When the scenery seems to change
to the right, climb up the ladder and jump right off the platform end
over the mine.  Then jump onto the ladder and wait for the jumpers to
pass you by.  The top is a much easier place to survive.  Past the
second ladder there is a shooter, and you will want to run at him and
may have to duck anyway, so it's a good place to watch your back.  Other
than that you will encounter some jumpers, but you can time this pretty
easily.  You will then want to climb down the ladder(jumping is a risk
to your health, and walking off will hit a mine!)  The mines are a good
place to use a shot from your missile launcher, as if you run right
you'll take out some jumpers too.  The last part before the bridge is
the hardest to get down, but when you see the log platform, jump right
to climb onto the first ladder, climb up, and go right.  If you don't
want to use a missile or don't have one, knife the shooter, jump, and
knife the jumper.  Don't worry if your controls jam and you jump over
the shooter, since when he backs up he falls off the log structure and
doesn't bother you.  You'll have to do this again.  There's a third
challenge of three jumpers in a row, who can be taken by one jump or
less riskily by creeping right to take them one-by-one.  Jump off the
platform to the bridge.  Be careful--there will be shooters on each
side.  Knife one, crouching all the time, and when the other lets up
firing, creep right to knife the left guy.  Of course, if you have a
missile left it's no problem to shoot to the left.  The boss scene is
easy to survive if you take care of the soldiers that pass back and
forth and if you stand at the third vertical line from the left--it's a
predetermined patternn and you're safe there.  As you keep track of
stuff on the ground, you'll want to remember that you need to jump and
knife straight up just as the air-gun machines reach your level(they
have five levels total.)  Except for the last one, where you'll want to
move left a bit and wait.  Note that a missile launcher can take out the
machines on the second-lowest level.

LEVEL 5
   The second level of the brown sheds is the easiest if you know how
to time your jumps.  Beware that the third shed has a gunner who jumps
from the very top--you can't jump and knife him(seems like a bug) but
you can wait for him to drop to the first level, climb, and get knifed.
If you can, watch carefully for a weapons guy that will give you
grenades.  They'll make your life easier.  Once you get past the sheds a
shooter is waiting to attack you from the right--watch your back and try
to run at him.  Climb up on the log platform(BTW, can I assume it's not
made of Lincoln Logs :) ?) to avoid a jumper and then jump off.  You
have a mine/jumper combination here.  Whenever you jump over a mine, a
jumper will appear.  The key is to get the weapons guy who'll give you
three grenades.  It will require patience to get the grenades, and
you'll do well to jump straight up instead of over mines when a jumper
runs at you, or you might get caught up in the action and lose
concentration.  I've slipped a lot by jumping over a shooter, who fires
from the left with a jumper coming from the right.  As there's no time
limit, slow and steady is best.  Then just throw the grenades whenever
you see a jumper and you should take out a shooter too--otherwise, the
combination of the two will be very tough.  Continue going right, climb
up the platform, and before you get to the brick wall, wait for a
shooter to climb up and knife him.  Jump right and down and do two
flying jumps left to nail some jumpers.  From there you'll have a few
tense moments with other jumpers(there are about 14,) and you may have
to jump over a soldier.  But you can sneak to the right if you want.
   The boss fight here is close to impossible.  If you have grenades,
they are useful.  The catch is that if you die you can't pick up any
special weapons.  The scene is quasi-random as the paratroopers each
fire two bullets at you depending on where you are and which direction
you're moving, so a slight difference in timing can mean curtains.  I
find my best success occurs when I start in the center and jump to the
left.  It fools the paratroopers into thinking I'm higher up than I am,
and a lot of shots go harmlessly off the left side of the screen.  Even
if they don't and go into the corner, you may be able to creep back to
the right.  If the paratroopers reach the ground and you are not trapped
by bullets, the rest is easy, since they turn into shooters.  Crouch at
the left side and knife to the right.  Often you can jump over bullets
and quickly duck if you need to.  It may take practice to keep your head
with all the bullets flying around.  Continue to level six.

LEVEL 6
 If you stay on the top platform, this is not too bad, if you remember
the standard tricks.  The bottom has mines without any special weapons
guys, so it might be a nice challenge after you've solved the game.
There is of course a standard assortment of twists.  You will want to
stop short of the first ladder as three jumpers come in at awkward
intervals.  Jump straight up and knife them to get rid of them.  Also,
after three jumpers in a row there will be a shooter.  The first ladder
past the first gap you must jump over holds a shooter followed by
jumpers, whom you'd be well-advised to rush at.  At one point there will
be two jumpers side-by-side and there may be a soldier traveling at the
same speed they are(if you're lucky, he'll be slower.)  Jump over the
soldier if you must.  You'll have to jump left and knife them, jumping
over the soldier.  There's also a shooter past the second gap to jump
over--take your time jumping!  At the end of the top platform(i.e. there
will be a gap you can't jump over to stay on top--you will see something
weird on the ceiling, which will shoot lasers at you in short order)
wait 'til the soldiers have passed by and make a similar run to the one
you made at level 2.  You'll probably need to turn around and jump in
midair over the soldier that's running with the jumper(which is
sometimes, if you're lucky, just a plain soldier,) but once you do,
you're at the final scene.  It's a bunch of waves of soldiers, always in
the same order.  Weapons, jumper, jumper, fast soldier, jumper, weapons,
jumper is the order they come out in, but of course the weapons guys
will eventually tag along behind.  My advice is to find a place where
you can knife everyone by jumping straight in the air--you can always
move back between jumpers.  I found a good starting place under a part
of the blinking control panel near the center that looks like follows:
..
....
   Face right from the second dot from the left and jump straight up
and down.  You'll want to jump early to avoid the annoyance of getting
killed by a weapons guy.  Plan to hit the jumper in back of the soldier
early and you won't get killed by the soldier.  Also, if you can, you
should knife the weapons guys in two different places.  When all but a
weapons guy and a jumper are dead, just back up a bit and let them come
at you, jumping straight up and knifing.  That'll give you two missiles.
Once you've got missiles, if you can also time your missile shots so
that you can kill the first five opponents, it is easy to kill the final
two and get another missile, but if not, you can start over again.  You
will need to shoot the rocket in the background twelve times before you
blow it up.  Then enjoy the finale!

QUIRKS

These are quirks related to game control, not shakiness of plot(i.e.
stuff like You Sure Jump High For Wearing Combat Boots :).)

You can jump while crouching if you hit up very quickly.
On the second level, I mentioned an invisible ladder on a truck.
Unlike the arcade, there is no time limit on NES.
Also unlike the arcade, the harbor boss scene isn't very involved.
There are no guys in coats pointing at you for the dogs to attack.
Get killed while you're jumping and you jump even higher to start.
Ammo that you don't use at the end of the level disappears at the start
of the next.
Soldiers don't die from their own shots/grenades, etc.
If you jump and hit a grenade, it won't kill you.
If you jump, the shooter following you on a different level will, too.
You can make him miss his ladder that way.
The shooter may also go off the screen if you can get him to climb a
ladder to the very left and then run right.
If you run RIGHT at a jumper, he'll go over you.
You can knife people jumping off platforms from behind, but it's a bit
risky.
If you throw a grenade and run forward, the explosion won't get you.
Regular soldiers come out from the sides at the same level you're on.
So if you are climbing a tall ladder in level 4, they'll make some
dramatic jumps!
If you're lucky/skillful you may be able to knife a jumper without
jumping.  But you will need to have tracked back left a bit.
Weapons guys who are blown up turn into shooters briefly before dying.

This might not belong in quirks, but I'm wondering what the LOWEST
possible Rush 'n Attack score is.  I can get under 300K.

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END OF FAQ PROPER

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Version info
1.0.0 submitted to GameFAQs.com 11/19/2000
1.1.0 touched up all parts 12/20/2000

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