Sqoon: Famicom Game by IREM

Sqoon: Famicom Game by IREM
(http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/425.html).
Released: 6/26/1986 in Japan.
Version 1.11: 3:50 PM 1/18/2003

Frequently Asked Questions and Game Guide by a8o
(http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/28716.html)

Contents: Introduction
Story
Controls
Main Game FAQ
Places of interest
Credits for this guide
Contact Me
Updates

Introduction

This game is a simple side scrolling shooter. If you are experienced with games
of this
type, you should have no real trouble with this. Classicgaming has posted a
quite excellent
overview of this game on their site:
(http://www.classicgaming.com/rotw/sqoon/).

Blah, on with the walkthrough.

Story

This kid at my school (who wasn't very bright) sat in class writing his own
stories, not
doing the work set. I believe he could have writing the entirely
inconsequential story in
the intruction booklet, it takes up four pages. That's probably 3 1/2 too many
so I have
paraphrased it for you (saving you the pain of reading the 4 pages).

Aliens from Neptune melt polar ice caps making cities sink into
the ocean.
This aliens live under the sea and eat humans. "You are the only
one left
who can save Earth [in the SQOON submarine]. If you kill all the
Neptunians
you will be a hero." On your way, you must rescue human
hostages.

A bit of a far-fetched plot, but hey! It’s an action game.

Controls

Press start to begin the game, and, of course, pause and unpause this
masterpiece of 8-bit
programming.

This game controls very sluggishly with the D-PAD moving your ship.

Pressing the A button fires your missiles.
B button fires your ice ball gun.

FAQ:

Well, actually, they are not true Frequently Asked Questions as I have never
been asked a
question of this game since the time I decided to introduce this game to a 12
year old brought
up on the flashy graphics of the Playstation. It does look pretty pithy.

What is the aim of this game?

To rescue human hostages. From the manual: "If you touch the people swimming
toward the
surface with SQOON, they will be rescued. If SQOON is full (nine people
maximum) or is carrying
gold and one or more persons, then the small motorized island will appear. When
you and the
motorized island are aligned on the surface, press the "B" button."

The instruction booklet provided me with a nice map of the world. Indicated
upon it are the
8 areas (New York, Hawaii, China, India, Egypt, Greece, England and the North
Pole) you must
visit in this game to complete it.

What do I get for rescuing people?

Rescuing a person is worth 100 points. Returning him to the motorised island.
In addition,
your ship will be powered up for each successfully returned cargo of humans.
The power ups
will be awarded as follows:

1. Horizon missile
This is what you start out with. It is effective but weak.

2. Bow-wow missle
The first time you power-up, your weapon will be upgraded to
basically a stronger
version of the Horizon Missile.

3. Adenoid missile
“If you have the Bow-wow missile and power-up again, you will have
this weapon at
your disposal. It is the most powerful missile available.” says the
instruction booklet.

How do I get extra lives?

At the very beginning, when you see a church, move you ship past it for a 1-Up.
In fact,
throughout the game, churches seem to give lives. If in doubt, turn to God.
Note that I am not
religious, so take that as you wish.

How do I refuel?

60 units of fuel lasts for 60 seconds. During that time, you must rescue 9
human hostages and
return them to your motorised island. The island will appear when a full cargo
of humans or gold
is on board.

How do I get gold?

Shoot a crab with your ice-shot and run over a golden square that he will leave
behind.

Enemies:

Hamako (Sea Slug) (200pts)

Hitting it with the ice ball will cause it to drop a magic necklage that will
allow you to move
to “another dimension of the world”. Interesting.

Chokkin-kani (crab) ( )
Crabs carry gold which is worth a lot of points. Shooting the crab with the ice
ball will cause
it to reveal its gold for a few seconds. But beware! The crab will reappear if
you do not claim the
gold quickly.

Pirame (flounder) (200pts):
This is the weakest enemy akin the Super Mario Bros’ Goomba.

Jaws (shark) (20pts ):
A man eating shark. This will not hurt your ship directly, but will make it
hard to pick up
hostages. Try to kill these for this very reason.

(from the instruction guide)

Ottotto (50pts ):
Baruban (the ruler of the Neptunians) asked someone to create a smart robot,
but this is the
result. This is a smart robot that needs more brains.

Bakame (turtle) (50pts ):
Get away, get away! This bakame is coming! Try to steer clear of this enemy.

Neptunian mine (1000pts):
Avoid the mines floating in the ocean. You can destroy them with the ice ball
gun.

Kazumi (1000pts):
Baruban turned Miss Neptune into a mermaid when they reached Earth to confuse
the Earth people.
However, Kazumi is innocent Miss Neptune. What should you do?

Kattatsumori (snail) (70pts):
It used to be a toy for Yarukisu, the son of Baruban. Don't restrain your
attack just because
it's a child's toy.

Yarigai (spear shellfish) (cannot be killed)
This is the guard for the Neptunians base. Its thick and hard shell is
indestructible,
even with horizon missles or ice balls. Avoid them.

Kosodate Mambo (big mambo)(sunfish) (Slow: 50pts Fast: 100pts):
It's the only bio-fish that has a family. It spends all of its time looking for
food for its
smaller variety.

Mambouya (child mambo) (50pts):
Don't restrain your attack just because this is a little mambo. It's brave and
quick.

Ancho (angler fish) (Slow: 50pts Fast: 100pts)
Look out! After the first hit the slow moving ‘Ancho’ will swim incredibly fast
and
straight!

Ikasama (squid) (50pts):
This creature rushes forward suddenly and then stops when it moves. It doesn't
play fair-be
careful!

Tobikko (flying fish) (130pts):
This will effectively prevent you from surfacing your submarine.

Paachiki (nautilus shell) (200pts):
It takes three horizon missiles to kill this enemy. If something is spinning
and coming, it
must be Paachiki.

Kaeru (frog) (100pts):
This amphibian is expressionless because it's actually a statue of a sitting
frog.

Dainagon (shrimp) (20pts)
It looks strong, but it can be killed with the ice ball gun. It makes good
sushi.

Tatsunomi (sea horse) (20pts):
This is a lost sea horse child, looking for its mother across the oceans.

Ottobake (Neptunian ghost) (200pts per shot):
This is a strange ghost which followed Baruban from the planet Neptune.

Curly Makigai (shellfish) (50pts):
If this sees an enemy, it wants to kill, Look out!

Places of Interest:

Thanks

The instruction booklet was very helpful in the creation of this guide. I
bought this game
complete, cheap copy a few weeks ago as part of an NES game lot on eBay.

It actually ended up being fun, but an annoyingly bad game. I took most of the
ememies
descriptions from the instruction guide.

And if you are reading this and own the cartridge, give me a shout that another
one exists in the
whole entire world (although it is only rated B+ on the NES Rarity Guide that I
prefer to use at
the moment (can be found at http://antseezee.sphosting.com/).

Anyway, for the completness of GameFAQs as a resource, this guide is submitted
4:00 PM 1/18/2003!

Contact me

I only accept emails sent to [email protected] with the game title as the
subject. Keep it clean.
As I probably won’t be getting a lot of main from this game, you might as well
just go ahead and ask
if it isn’t in the FAQ! I’d be happy to help out. Also, don't ask if you want
to put it up on your web-
site because the answer is that you can! Just remember to leave everything as
is. Nothing's sacred
now.

Updates:
V1.11: I like the sound of version 1.11 as a finished guide. I
am sure I am missing
some things, thus it is not marked final. Updated with more
information about the game
blah blah blah. Release dates. I cannot imagine a huge number of
people who own this game
in its original format will visit sites on which this is posted
so please do not ask
me any emulation questions. I have no use for an emulator as the
original is almost always
a far more satisfying experience. ALso, i added a link to
Classicgaming's excellent overview
of this game. Thanks to Hugh to pointing this site out to me, I
almost forgot they existed!

V1.1: I have played through this game completely (finally
finished it, I can tell you,
it was a frustrating gaming experience!) I can safely say that
this is a very repeditive
title. Played the first level? Played them all. The same old
formula (shoot, shoot, shoot,
rescue humans, shoot, shoot, shoot) continues.

V1.0: Extracted information from the manual. Wrote the controls
section. And formatted the
guide as is. A full walkthough at this time may or may not be
required. I will continue to
attempt to finish this game so I can judge what format this
guide should best take (FAQ or
full blown walkthrough.)

-END-