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SILENT ASSAULT
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FAQ/WALKTHROUGH
v1.0 - Completed 2/13/08
Written and maintained by Adam Lamontagne
Copyright ©2008 Adam Lamontagne
Email: alamont1 [at] maine [dot] rr [dot] com
Silent Assault is an 8-bit NES game published by Color Dreams, Inc. and Joy Van,
Inc. and programmed by Sachen for play on the Nintendo Entertainment System. All
rights reserved.
I'd like to dedicate this guide to the NES FAQ Completion Project on
gamefaqs.com. As of this guide's first release, the project has encouraged
FAQ authors to write games for so many obscure NES/Famicom titles that over
half of the released games now have complete guides. Most of my guides were
written before the project got started, but I figured I was due to contribute
again, albeit with a game that really doesn't need a guide.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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I. Revision History
II. Introduction
III. Game Story
IV. Controls
V. Power Ups
VI. Walkthrough
VII. Game Enhancement
VIII. Disclaimer
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I. REVISION HISTORY
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2/13/08: v1.0
-Completed guide and submitted to Gamefaqs.com
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II. INTRODUCTION
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Back some time in the early 1990s I would go to the local video store and rent
NES games. Lots of NES games. We would get coupons in the mail for Prime Time
Video and the best ones were "Rent 1 game, get 1 free" or the old "Rent 3 games
for $5" coupon. I took full advantage of these coupons and would rent every
game that came through the store, beating most of them. One day a game I had
never heard of appeared on the familiar shelves. It was a yellow box with a cool
looking Rambo-looking guy on the cover getting shot at by an aircraft. The
words SILENT ASSAULT practically jumped out at you. I was pretty familiar with
NES games at the time and had never heard of Color Dreams, but was certainly
intrigued with this box cover. I threw it in with a couple other games and
rented them for the weekend. The first thing I noticed when I cracked open
the case was that the cartridge was light blue! What the hell was that all
about? I quickly plopped it into my trusty NES thinking there was no way it was
going to work, but sure enough the screen with the green soldier appeared.
Anxious as I had been in a long time to play something new and exotic, I hit
the start button and was greeted by the putridity that is Silent Assault. Even
though I was disappointed with what I was playing, I mowed through the game in
about an hour, pulled the game out, and inserted the next game to be added to
my "Games Beaten" list. Now years later, as I perused the list of NES games not
yet covered by FAQs at Gamefaqs, I see Silent Assault listed. The poor game, now
almost 20 years old, has no FAQs, no Codes and no Reviews here on Gamefaqs, a
site that has thousands and thousands of people writing guides and submitting
codes and reviews daily. Since I had not written a guide in awhile and finding
myself with nearly no time to do so, I decided I would bang one out for this old
1-hour stand of a game I had a tryst with all those years ago. After nearly
20 years of semi-obscurity in the NES community, Silent Assault finally gets its
due.
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III. GAME STORY
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The only info on the actual story of the game I could manage to find was found
on this lonely web page:
http://home.earthlink.net/~mwking48/id26.html. I am
guessing this was taken straight from the manual:
A sinister alien power has taken control of the Earth's military forces. Chosen
by fate, you are the only person that the interstellar demon creatures cannot
possess. Engage enemy infantry as you gather additional armament. Infiltrate a
besieged city to secure the heavily guarded munitions factory and nuclear
reactor. Engage bizarre creatures from the scorching desert to the dark and
forbidding forest. It's a race againts time, and your time is almost up.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IV. CONTROLS
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CONTROLLER
-----------------------------
| |
| + |
| +++++ SE ST (*) (*) |
| + B A |
| D |
-----------------------------
Up: Aim gun skyward; climb up ladders
Left: Move Left
Right: Move Right
Down: Duck; climb down ladders
A: Jump
B: Fire weapon
Start: Pause/Unpause
Select: Throw Grenade
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V. POWER UPS
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There are several different power ups you get by defeating enemies. This is what
I have found:
Hearts
-Recover half a shield on your life meter.
Cross
-Temporary invincibility.
Rifle
-Dropped by enemies in the sky. There are 2 types of rifles. One gives you a
spread shot weapon and the other makes your shots more powerful.
Bullet
-Lets you fire more than one bullet at a time.
Grenade
-Gives you another grenade.
I have never come across a 1UP during gameplay. If anyone finds one please
email me and tell me where you found it and what enemy was carrying it.
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VI. WALKTHROUGH
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[NOTE: Keeping powered up weapons throughout the stage is difficult, so when
describing BOSS strategies, the amount of shots required to defeat the BOSS
will be assuming you are using the regular gun you start with. Obviously
better weapons will more than likely do the BOSS in quicker. Also, you cannot
use grenades during BOSS battles. Pressing Select simply does nothing]
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ROUND 1
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Your glider drops you deep into enemy territory. Move right, avoiding the bombs
being dropped on you by the Metroid-looking enemies and shooting the soldiers
that come at you. When you get to those white pillow-like objects on the ground,
avoid them, as they are mines and will kill you with one hit. Grenades will
actually destroy the mines if you want to get them out of your path and don't
mind wasting a grenade.
As you keep moving, keep in mind that you can hold up on the controller to aim
your rifle at the enemies hovering above. You can also duck down and shoot,
which allows you to avoid the soldiers shots and take them out in the process.
You will reach an area where you can go on the upper path or lower path. Take
the upper path, as you have an easier shot at the Metroid enemies which will
sometimes leave behind the spread shot powerup.
The rest of the section is just avoiding enemies and surviving until you reach
the pink building with the blue door. Just move towards it to continue on to
the boss.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: TWIN CANNONS >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Your first boss consists of two cannons. One is embedded in the wall on the
right side of the screen directly across from you and shoots quite possibly
the slowest moving projectiles every programmed into a video game. These are
pretty simple to avoid, as there is a lot of time between shots. The other
cannon is mounted atop the wall and shoots a shot at you every 4 seconds that
will slide along the ground towards you. The only trick part here is timing
a jump every so often where you have to avoid both cannon's shots at the same
time. You will want to take out the upper cannon first, as it only takes 5 shots
to destroy. Just shoot at it at the peak of your jump and you will do away with
it fairly quickly. Once it is destroyed, you can concentrate on knocking out
the lower cannon, which takes 21 shots to beat. Once destroyed you are off to
Round 2.
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ROUND 2
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You begin this round on the upper half of the screen. Proceed to the right,
either ducking or jumping over the soldiers shots while shooting back at them.
You will quickly reach a ladder leading out to the top of the screen. If you
climb up this ladder you will reach the boss(!) of this round. That is quite
the shortcut! However, there is an even better shortcut ahead. Take this ladder
up if you really want to skip to the boss, however, if you keep going right you
will reach a pair of ladders leading up and out of the screen. Take these and
you will skip ahead to Round 3, avoiding both the Round 2 boss and the rest of
Round 2 itself. If you took the first ladder, skip ahead to the BOSS section.
If you took the second pair of ladders, skip to the ROUND 3 section. If you
decide you want to slog through the rest of this round for some reason, read on.
So, you decided to play through the rest of the level. You must be a perfection-
ist! Keep moving, staying to the top path, and you will eventually reach a gray
pipe that won't let you proceed any further. You have to jump over this pipe
to reach the ground area between the 2 rising and falling spikes, but be care-
ful when you do this. Hold to the right as you jump over the top of the pipe.
If you do this it will carry you over and you will land on the bottom of the
screen between the 2 spikes. If you pause during your jump it is possible that
you will get stuck between the top and bottom of the screen and lose a life. If
you want to remove these spikes, you can toss a grenade to destroy them.
Slowly work your way past the moving spikes (you cannot destroy them). Continue
past the jet flames coming out of the ground, past a couple more moving spikes
and you will find the door that leads to the boss.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: GEARS >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
This boss is pretty simple. There are 4 gears stacked vertically. Small buzzsaws
will come out of the space in front of the 3rd gear from the bottom. Stay to the
far left side of the screen and jump these buzzsaws as they come at you. The
only gears that you need to hit are the bottom two, which have red centers. Hit
the bottom gear three times and it will destruct. Hit the upper gear 7 times and
the device will be destroyed.
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ROUND 3
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This round really reminded me of the game Rush'n Attack by Konami, just not as
good. Work your way to the right, avoiding the bombs dropped on you by the small
blue things in the air. In fact, aim your gun skyward and take them out when you
get the chance. Duck down to avoid the tank's shots and then shoot the ground
turret before leaping over the flames. Continue to the right, destroying another
tank and turret along the way. There are background structures with doorways
that are quite inviting, but you cannot go into these doors. I think they are
just there to distract you and get you to waste time and get yourself shot.
Keep slogging through more of the same and try to knock out those enemies in the
air, as they will almost always give you a cool temporary weapon power up, like
the spread shot or the ability to fire more than one shot at a time. After a
few more similar looking areas you will reach a cool looking jet (in the back-
ground) and be at the end of the round.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: MISSILE SILO >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
This uncreative looking boss is just a big green missile silo that shoots out a
couple white missiles in a predictable pattern. Duck down and let both of the
missiles pass over you, then jump up and shoot at the blinking red cannon on top
of the silo. This cannon doesn't shoot at you, so just worry about those white
missiles. After shooting at the cannon once, duck back down under the missiles,
then reapeat. Hit the red spot 10 times and this boss is history.
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ROUND 4
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This is probably the hardest stage in the game.
Now you will find yourself in some weird forest type round with mountains
in the background. There are yetis, long-tailed glowing lizards and stranged
wing creatures coming at you throughout this level. The golden winged creatures
can be dealt with by shooting them once they reach ground level, right before
they hit you. The flaming red things that come out of the sky at you should
just be avoided.
Keep moving through this level. There are no places to hide and a lot of enemies
are thrown at you, so keep blasting or avoiding them and hopefully you will pick
up a spread shot power up or an invincibility power up along the way to help you
through it safely.
You will reach what looks like a small chinese fortress at the end of the round.
enter it to face the boss.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: SKULL >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Finally, a cool looking boss! The big white skull will spit 2 small blue skulls
at you. They will bounce along the ground towards you and then disappear. The
trick is jumping over the skulls as they come at you and trying to fire off a
shot at the eye of the white skull. The only real problem here is that the blue
skulls are sometimes spaced just apart enough that jumping them can be a real
pain. I found out that if you pause the game the second one of the blue skulls
comes out, wait a few seconds, then unpause, the next blue skull will be right
behind the first one. Only 2 skulls can appear on the screen at the same time,
so if you have them right behind each other you can jump over them at the same
time and shoot at the white skull. Keep repeating this pausing method and hit
the skull in the eye 14 times to finish him off.
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ROUND 5
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Wow, right off the bat here you are attacked by jet pack troops, floating red
metroid-looking enemies and these ground crawling things that look like the head
of Admiral Ackbar from Return of the Jedi...seriously. Move through this round
blasting at everything at all times. Never take your finger off the fire button.
Don't waste time ducking to hit the Admiral Ackbar heads, just jump over them,
but be careful to avoid the shots from the jet pack troops. It might be a good
idea to use a grenade when the action gets really hairy.
This level is just like the previous level, in that there is really no place to
hide and you have a lot of enemies coming at you. Toward the end of it there is
a ladder on the screen, but it is just in the background. I tried to climb it
from every angle but you simply cannot. DO NOT waste time trying to do this or
you will get gunned down. I was hoping to find a warp here, but so far only
Round 2 has had a warp in it.
You will finally reach a door and will automatically enter to fight the next
boss.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: COMPUTER TERMINAL>
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
This is creative looking enemy. It is a computer terminal with a giant screen
that shoots pulses out of its opening and closing mouth. Yes, the screen has a
mouth. If you stay to the far left of the screen you can pretty much avoid the
pulses, jumping over the ones that come down at you and trying not to jump into
the ones that come straight out from the mouth. Just avoid the pulses and jump
and shoot into the mouth when you can. Some of your shots will go right through
the mouth, which tells me you only hit the mouth when it is either opened or
closed, but the thing is yapping so quickly you can't exactly time your shots
to hit it opened or closed. Register 10 hits on this thing and it will be toast.
-------
ROUND 6
-------
Looks like the circus is in town. It's funny how you can go from such drab round
designs and then this vibrant array of colors is thrown at you out of nowhere.
Don't let the carnival atmosphere fool you. These enemies want you dead just as
bad as all the other ones. The metroid type eneimes that hover in the air and
drop bombs on you are replaced by yellow balloons here.
As you walk through the round and notice the cool looking blue pods hanging from
the air which look like something out of the game Fantasy Zone, you will come
across a blue giraffe, which is nothing more than a background sprite. Keep
jumping over the yellow balls that roll towards you and shooting skyward to
hopefully knock a power up from the balloons in the air.
Walk carefully past the monkeys in the tents. Sometimes they shoot at you, some-
times they don't. Seems totally random. Continue past the merry-go-round and
past a red giraffe, shooting the clowns that come at you and jumping over the
nearly endless supply of yellow balls being rolled at you from some distant
location off-screen. The clowns don't shoot at you, so either shoot them or jump
over them.
This is one of the most scenic rounds in the game and really breaks up the bleak
setting the game has cast. It is also one of the easiest. You will eventually
reach a tilt-a-whirl ride followed by a lone merry-go-round horse. Pass the
horse and you are on to the boss fight.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: CLOWN HEAD >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
What a goofy looking boss here! I probably could have drawn that guy and my
drawing is comparable to a 2nd grader's scribbling. It's some kind of clown head
resting on a large green clown shoe. Despite the ridiculousness of this guy, he
is not that easy to beat. Use the same strategy that you used against the skull
in Round 4. The clown shoots a couple of shots at you that you must jump over,
but if you pause it the moment he shoots one of them, the other shot will be
right behind the first one when you unpause it, making it much easier to jump
over them. Jump over his shots and fire at his big grey lips. Hit them a total
of 10 times and he will explode, allowing you passage to Round 7.
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ROUND 7
-------
I still can't figure out if this round is meant to be a forest or a jungle. The
boss is a tree, so I would lean toward it being a forest. The stage itself is
a lot easier than most. If you proceed cautiously you have plenty of time to
shoot the enemies out of the air and blast the soldiers and snapdragon plants
that are on the ground. Willowisps will also come out of holes in the ground.
Just let them drift past you, as you cannot damage them anyway.
As is usual here, head to the right and shoot everything that comes your way.
I seemed to have a good amount of luck shooting the smiley faces (this rounds
version of the metroid enemies) and getting a spread shot power up from them.
Make sure to shoot every ground enemy you can, as they tend to leave hearts and
invincibility icons when shot.
You will eventually reach a pond. Walk right to the edge of it and a moving red
platform will appear. You might want to watch it move for a few seconds just to
see where it stops before returning to the other side and back. Make sure you
time your jump perfectly onto the platform, as landing in the water will kill
you. DO NOT shoot in the air while on the platform, as you will not continue to
move with the platform if you are aiming your rifle in the air and you will fall
into the water. You can shoot forward though, which I recommend as there are
enemies waiting for you on the other side. Be prepared to jump off as quickly as
you can.
COntinue moving and you will reach a bridge over water. Just proceed cautiously
over the bridge to the other side. Now there is just a flat stretch of land with
the same enemies you have encountered already until you reach the end of the
round.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: GNARLED TREE >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Guess what? This boss is pretty much the same as the skull and clown bosses. You
can control how far apart his shots are by pausing the game immediately after
he fires one at you, then unpausing to make the shots closer together and easier
to jump over. Coincidentally, this boss is a gnarled looking tree with no
branches and he shoots fire at you. You'd think he would shoot anything BUT fire
at you, but this is what you are dealing with here. The tree has a huge nose,
but you will be aiming for its mouth. Shoot him in the maw 10 times (only 4
times if you have the spread shot and hit him with diagonal blasts while jump-
ing) and he will be toast.
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ROUND 8
-------
This is it, the last round! This isn't so much a round, as it is the final boss
battle.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
BOSS: TWIN SPINXES >
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
You are greeted immediately by a large sphinx. Your target is its mouth. There
are two ways you can go about defeating it. You can stand on the left side of
the screen and jump shoot at its mouth, while dodging the occasional blue sphere
it shoots your way (it shoots a bunch of them, but only a few come towards you).
This method takes longer but if you are good at avoiding shots you will defeat
it with minimal damage. The other method, which is good if you are fast with
the fire button or are using a turbo controller, requires getting right under
the spinx's head and pointing your gun up and opening fire as fast as possible.
Whichever method works for you, go ahead and defeat the spinx.
Now move to the right and there will be another spinx on the other side of the
chamber. If you have enough energy, I suggest planting yourself underneath it
and blasting the hell out of it.
[NOTE: DO NOT use grenades on the sphinx. For some reason you are allowed to use
grenades during the spinx battles, but if you destroy either one of them with a
grenade you will not be able to finish the game. Even if you destroy one sphinx
with your gun and one with a grenade, it does not register as killing both
sphinxes and you will be stuck on the screen and forced to reset.]
Once both sphinxes have been destroyed with your gun, you will proceed to walk
off the screen and be greeted with a podium with a strange object on it (5
purple stars joined together like an upside-down letter T. On the background of
this screen is a portrait of what looks like a general. There are actually 3
identical portraits of him, just in different colors. Perhaps this was the pro-
grammer of the game? It stays on this screen for a moment then returns you to
the title screen.
You have beaten Silent Assault. Yay.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
VII. GAME ENHANCEMENT
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There are no known codes for this game, but I created a couple hex address
cheats using FCE Ultra's cheat search function:
002E:08 - Infinite Lives
002C:06 - Infinite Health
00D9:04 - Infinite Grenades
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V. DISCLAIMER
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This guide is not endorsed by Color Dreams, Joy Van, Sachen or Nintendo of
America. The information contained in this document is provided without
guarantee. All copyrights and trademarks are recognized.
This FAQ may be reprinted, posted in newsgroups or placed on web sites, as long
as the proper credit is given to the author. The most recent version of this
guide can be found on Gamefaqs.com.
©2008 Adam Lamontagne
