Sunman FAQ
By: teflon (Jacob M.)
Email: rickdias at gmail.com
A) Intro
B) Version info
C) What the hell is Sunman?
D) Controls
E) General Tips
F) Full walkthrough
S11) Scene 1 Area 1
S12) Scene 1 Area 2
S13) Scene 1 Area 3
S1B) Scene 1 Boss Fight
S21) Scene 2 Area 1
S22) Scene 2 Area 2
S2B) Scene 2 Boss Fight
S31) Scene 3 Area 1
S3B) Scene 3 Boss Fight
S41) Scene 4 Area 1
S4B) Scene 4 Area 2
S51) Scene 5 Area 1
S52) Scene 5 Area 2
S53) Scene 5 Area 3
S54) Final Boss (AKA Scene 5 Area 4)
G) Cheats
H) What needs to be done
I) Credits
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A) Intro
Hello and welcome to (probably) the only FAQ for the game Sunman. This FAQ will
help you through every level and boss in this hard (but rather fun) unreleased
game. Yes, this has actually never been released to the public. Read on...
PROTIP: Pull up your browser's "Find" function, input the letter or string of
numbers (such as S53 if you need help on Scene 5 Area 3) and hit enter. You'll
be sent straight to whatever area you need help on!
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B) Version info.
1.0: Guide started and completed.
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C) What the hell is Sunman?
This game was found by a European collector in Spain. It was then put on Ebay,
where Frank Cifaldi (TheRedEye) purchased it and showed it off at the 2003
Classic Gaming Expo, seeing if anybody knew about it. Nobody did, so the cart
was dumped as a ROM for everybody to examine and play. Danny Cowan (Sardius)
shortly thereafter wrote an article for the website, Lost Levels (find it on
Google, as it has ROMs and junk) explaining the origins and what it possibly
may be. He hypothesized that Sunman might actually be a Superman game that was
changed at the last minute because of some licensing problems. This actually
makes sense, as the logo that appears when you pause looks very similar to
Superman's logo, the Supermanish "Help!" that appears when you start Stage 1,
and that Sunman's sprite uses two pallets, one for the head and another for the
body, which is odd for Sunman, as he only uses few colors but works perfectly
for Superman, who'd need them. In the end, it'll never be known what Sunsoft
wanted to do with this game, or why the licensing deal fell out. It's a shame
too, as it's a rather fun (abit short) game that would've been one of the best
games released, Superman or Sunman, during the NES' dying years.
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Up: Makes Sunman fly. While flying, it moves Sunman up.
Left, Right: Makes Sunman move left or right.
Down: Makes Sunman duck. While flying, it moves Sunman down.
Start: Pauses the game. Duh.
Select: Does nothing.
B: Makes Sunman punch. During certain boss battles, this button makes him shoot
lasers from his eyes. While jumping, hitting this button will make Sunman fly.
A: Makes Sunman jump. If this button is hit while jumping, Sunman will start to
fly. During the button mashing segments, this button will destroy your wrist.
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E) General tips
- The best way to get rid of flying soldiers is to let them come to you. When
they get close, run up to 'em and punch the hell out of them.
- There are no ways to regain health during levels, so be careful! You'll get a
full refresh every time you defeat a boss, though.
- There are no ways to gain extra lives!
- Sometimes, it may be a good idea just to run from fights. Sunman's punch has
rather small range, which can be your downfall while fighting enemies such as
Flying Soldiers.
- During segments where you fly and are attacked by enemies, don't bother
attacking. It'll just set you up to be attacked by more enemies.
- Sunman has VERY short invincibility time, so keep that in mind as you're
running away from a bunch of enemies.
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F) Full Walkthrough
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Stage 1
S11) Area 1
You'll start off with some unknown person in some random city calling for help.
Just like any decent superhero, our good friend Sunman decides to help him/her.
Begin by walking, where you'll soon meet your first enemy, a flying soldier!
Just let him get close, and then punch him a few times. Soon afterwards, you'll
meet a weird purple thing with scissors on top of it. Two punches will kill it,
so they're no trouble at all. Keep on going until you reach the end of the blue
building, where another flying soldier will attack. Like the other one, let him
come to you and then punch him. Soon after, you'll encounter another one, but
he's right in front of you, so just run right into him and use your wussy punch
on him. Keep on killing those weird purple things until you reach a large red
building, which signals the end of Act 1.
S12) Area 2
You'll start off in a factory with weird green cylinders in front of you. Des
troy these with your punch, and you'll see a purple robot moving on the ground.
Get close to it, duck and punch it two times to destroy it. You'll then see
that another group of those green things are separating you from a bizarre
looking orange man. Stand in front of the block and destroy them. Stay exactly
right in front of where the green things were and fly. The man will try to jump
and hit you, but he'll barely miss you instead! Fly past him and go up until
you see two machines generating an electric barrier. Get right in front of the
top one (or drop down to the bottom one) and punch it two times. The part will
be destroyed and so will the barrier! Immediately afterwards you'll see four
pairs of spikes moving in a pattern. When the spike in front of you of going to
the top of the screen, run! You'll pass all of them without taking any damage.
You'll then see that our recently deceased buddy, the electric barrier, wasn't
very happy about dying last time, so he came back from the dead to block you
again. Yawn. Kill him again, and you'll see that asshole orange guy didn't
enjoy being treated like a fool, so he came back to fight you fair and square.
Walk up to him and punch him a few times, and he'll die once and for all.
Soon, you'll meet up with a purple robot on the ceiling. It's impossible to
destroy him, so run and jump onto the green floor as soon as it fired it's
lasers. You'll then see the return of another long lost friend, the spikes!
When the first pair begins to go to the top of the screen, fly past it and fly
over the second pair until the third pair starts to retract, and then fly past
it. You'll then see another laser shooting robot that decided to be on the
ground for some reason. Like the previous one, move past it as soon as it fires
it's lasers, where you'll see the exit of this area!
S13) Area 3
This area starts out with Sunman once again hearing that mysterious "Help!"
again, only it's from the top of a building this time. He then, like any good
hero, begins to fly up the building to save the mysterious person. Game play-
wise, this area's quite different from the previous ones, as this act's a
vertically scrolling stage where you must avoid enemies until you reach the
end. This can be quite difficult, as enemies frequently swarm the screen and
they fire heat-seeking missles! Unlike every other heat-seeking missile ever
made, these only track you for two directions. For example, if an enemy fires a
missile from the left side of the screen and you're at the bottom, the missile
will first face the right, then face the southeast and home in on you. If you
get near it, it'll change it's direction to south. If you move away from it,
you'll see that it' won't track you anymore. While this sounds easy, keep in
mind that enemies will be all over the screen and it's very easy to bump into
one while trying to avoid the missiles, so be careful. Once you reach the top
of the building, you'll learn that the "Help!" was really a trap, and that a
green helicopter is waiting to take Sunman out!
S1B) BOSS FIGHT!
This fight takes place in the sky, where Sunman has somehow gained the ability
to fire lasers from his eyes! This boss has two attacks, depending on what
direction he's facing. If he's in front of Sunman, he'll fire a few missiles at
him. To avoid them, go the far left side of the screen, but make sure Sunman's
facing the facing the helicopter. When it shoots the missiles, simply move to
near the bottom of the screen, and then go to the far right. The missiles will
fly past Sunman. Now comes the tricky part. When the helicopter is behind
Sunman, it'll fire three bullets that come from the gun that's under the
cockpit, two of which fire at a 45 degree angle. To avoid this tricky attack,
place Sunman to the far right of the screen and make it so that his head is
where the helicopter's blades are. When it begins to fire, gently move Sunman
up so that he'll still fit in the small "safe zone" while the helicopter moves
and fires. When it's finished, it'll charge forward, so get out of its way!
While you're avoiding the attacks, you should be shooting the living hell out
of it. After taking enough shots, the gun in front of the plane will blow up,
making it impossible to fire those annoying bullets! When he's near death, his
rocket launcher will also blow up, thus disabling every attack he can do. Just
shoot some for a bit longer and he'll blow up, which signals the end of scene
1!
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Scene 2
S21) Area 1
This Area's similar to Scene 1's boss fight, only the lasers have been replaced
with the good ol' fist. Flying soldiers will begin to appear and randomly fire
lasers. Only three of them can be on the screen, so don't be worried that
you'll get flooded by them. Just avoid them, as your fist doesn't work that
well while flying. Occasionally, a man in an UFO will appear and shoot a laser.
When he appears twice, the area will end, and you'll get sent to Area 2.
S22) Area 2
After that leisurely flight, you'll land in some sort of mine with a ton of
crystals in it. Go down, and you'll see a flying soldier! Let him come to you
and then kill him. Walk forward a bit, and you'll see a crystal that constantly
reaches for the top of the screen, hits it, goes down and repeats and another
flying soldier. Kill the soldier with the usual trick and then wait until the
crystal is retracting, then fly past it. You'll another one, this time hitting
the ground and another soldier. Kill him, and then fly past the crystal when
it's going up. You'll see another moving crystal, but before you pass it, get
in front of the crystal and a soldier will appear. Kill him, fly past the
crystal and yet another one will come from nowhere. Destroy him and you'll come
upon a series of moving crystals pointing in different directions. Just fly
past them while they're retracting, and everything should be fine. Once you get
near the fourth crystal, a soldier will appear, so do the usual. Fly past the
crystal and another will spawn in. Don't try to kill him, as you can easily
"scroll" him (and another one that will appear soon afterwards) off the stage
if you keep on going. You'll soon encounter a new enemy, a purple man that flys
in a line a fires lasers occasionally. He'll make no attempt to pursue you, so
just ignore him by flying over him. You'll come to a wall made out of breakable
brick, where a soldier will appear from the bottom of the screen and corner
you! This is quite difficult, as you have little room to maneuver and he'll
kill you if you try to break the blocks. Lure him over to the left of the
screen, quickly go right, get next to the blocks, duck, face left and punch the
daylights out of him! Once you destroy the blocks, don't fly yet. Walk until
you see two purple laser shooters appear and disappear. You now have two paths
to choose. Each one ends with a flying soldier trying to attack you. The only
difference with each path is what directions the moving crystals are facing and
where you'll be when the flying soldier attacks you. I'd personally choose the
higher one, as the soldier is much easier to kill when you're on that path. If
you choose the higher one, then just stay on the edge of the path and let the
soldier come to you. Jump his lasers, and then kill him. If you choose the
lower path, then get next to the last moving crystal on that path, let him get
near you and defeat him. Once he's dead, jump to where the lower path ended (if
you chose that one, just stay there) and get near the crystal. Another one will
appear, so kill him. Then, fly over the crystal. You'll see another purple
flyer, so go above him and let him pass. Keep on flying until you reach a
triangle made out of bricks popping out of the ground. You'll then see a
soldier appear and try to kill you, so get on top of the triangle and wait for
him to come to you, then kill him. Start flying again and you'll see another
soldier, but ignore him. You'll then be face to face with another breakable set
of bricks and a flying soldier. You'll actually have room to move this time, so
let him get near you, wait for him to pause and then beat the hell out of him.
Destroy the blocks, and a flying soldier will have the guts to attack you. Kill
him as usual and you'll be attacked by the last one in this stage! Just fly
past him. You'll run into a dead end, where Sunman will extend him arms out as
long as possible and the game will ask you to press the A button as fast as you
can. This is rather hard, as it takes a ridiculous amount of quick presses just
to get Sunman moving, much less digging. This is certainly possible, but if you
want to make things MUCH easier, use a turbo pad (or use the turbo function on
your emulator). After digging through the ground (and making your wrist hurt
like hell), you'll finally find the boss!
S2B) BOSS FIGHT!
This boss is divided into two sections, the guns and the missile. The missile
is completely defenseless and is your main target. Every time you hit a certain
section of it, that part'll be destroyed. It's not required to destroy each
section, but it looks really cool if you do. It also has a heath bar, of sorts.
After a certain amount of hits, it'll get redder. If it's dark red, it's almost
dead, so keep on punching it. The guns fire lasers and are quite fast. You can
destroy them, but they'll just come back a second later, so don't even bother.
An easy way of destroying it is to choose one side, and quickly move up and
down while punching it. You'll confuse the lasers, making it nearly impossible
for them to hit you! Once the missile's destroyed, you'll move onto Stage 3.
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This whole stage is quite easy compared to previous ones, which is pretty nice
of the developers, considering you just pounded the A button to the point of
destruction and attacked by an army of those annoying flying soldiers. Anyways,
you'll start off in a cave while on top of a train. DO NOT FLY AT ALL or else
you'll have the living hell beaten out of you via stalagmites hanging from the
roof. Instead, just walk. Occasionally, purple men will appear from under you
and begin shooting at you with a machinegun. Just keep on walking, as you'll be
far away from them long before they can hit you with a bullet. Eventually,
you'll enter some sort of underground base. As soon as you see some of the
"new" background, duck, as a gigantic metal board will appear soon afterwards.
Just keep on walkin', as the stalagmites have been replaced with the previously
mentioned metal boards, but they behave exactly like the rocks did. The only
difference is that the gunners have been replaced with axe- wielding men that
will jump from nowhere and try to ram into you. If you see one, move a few
steps back and they'll miss you and instead hit the ground. Once the background
changes to a nice looking evening sky, START FLYING. The rocks/metal boards
have been replaced with soldiers on the ground that don't notice you until
you've flown past them. Once you reach the end of the stage, get ready for one
hell of a boss fight!
S3B) BOSS FIGHT!
After completing that fun little level, you are thrown into a boss battle, of
sorts. In this pseudo-boss battle, you'll have to stop a runaway train before
it crashes into God-knows-what. In order to save this poor train, you'll have
to hammer the living hell out of the A button in order to make Sunman move it
to the far left side of the screen, where it'll stop for some reason. This
button mashing scenario is FAR worse than the previous one, as you have a timer
and the game actually seems to have a harder time registering presses than it
did with the digging! This is possible to beat without cheating, but I HIGHLY
recommend you use a turbo controller, unless you want to cry many tears of
frustration and give yourself Carpel Tunnel Syndrome!
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Welcome to hell. This level is FILLED to the brim with flying soldiers, cannons
that can fire in 8 directions and karate men that can kick you out of the air.
To top it all off, you have less that half of the screen to move around, making
this level, bar none, the biggest pain in the ass in the game! If you try to
play this level defensively by slowly moving through it and picking off
enemies, you're going to get your ass kicked. Even though this may sound very
amateurish, the only real way to get out alive is to fly and ignore everything.
When you get to the end of the stage, the boat will explode for some reason and
you'll give chase to the motorboat that managed to escape the destruction.
S4B) BOSS FIGHT!
For the boss battle, it's similar to the one in Stage 1, but you can only move
up or down. The boss frequently fills the screen with bullets that behave
similar to the ones that the Stage 1 boss fired and occasionally fires mines at
you. This may not sound too bad, but enemy projectiles will frequently
disappear thanks to all of the (impressive) paralax layers they slapped onto
the background, but they can still harm you. The best way to handle this boss
is to get right in front of him and shoot the stuffing out of him. Don't even
try to dodge any attacks. You'll still get hit regardless of what you do.
Destroying this pest will let you go the final stage.
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This act is EXACTLY like Scene 2 Area 1, so refer to that section if you need
any help. I must admit, this area has probably the best background in NES
history and equally good music, so just sit back and enjoy the scenery.
S52) Area 2.
Now this is where the real fun starts. You'll start off in a factory. Start
walking until you meet one of your long-lost friends, the electric barrier!
Destroy it as you did long ago in Scene 1. Then, you'll see that oh-so-tricky
Specter decided to put shutters to prevent you from advancing. A simple punch
can destroy them, so trash it and move on. Another buddy, the laser shooting,
makes reappearance. Like old times, run past it as soon as it finishes firing
it's lasers. Destroy the shutter that appears and get ready for one hell of a
tricky "puzzle". You'll see that a laser-shooting robot that's on a very small
roof is in front of four breakable blocks. First, wait until the robot's
finished firing, fly up, break the upper right brick and go back to where the
shutters were before the robot fires again. Then, wait until it's fired two
lasers again and then break the lower block and fly into the space you created
before it fires again. Break the other blocks and you'll see ANOTHER laser
shooter, this time on the floor. Just wait until it's fired and fly up to the
small space in front of the blocks and destroy them. Now that over with, you'll
run into a spike ball that quickly moves up and down, similar to the crystals
in Stage 2. As soon as it begins retracting, run under it, as it's quite fast.
You'll see another one, so use the same strategy. You'll then see a shutter, so
destroy it. Two flying soldiers will appear imminently afterwards and attack.
It's nearly impossible not to get hit, so just let them hit you and run away.
As you run, you'll see a third one, but the other two will scroll off by the
time you reach him, so just take him out as normal. You'll then see some more
blocks, so destroy them. You'll see another electric barrier, so do the usual
on it. Now, you'll see a few of those spike balls on top of raised platforms.
Jump over the platform as soon as the spike ball starts retracting after
hitting the platform. After jumping over them, you'll see a laser-shooting
robot on the ground. Destroy it, as usual, and go on. You'll see another
shutter. Destroy it, and get near he edge, but don't fall off! Two flying
soldiers will then fly up to you and attack. Let them get close to you and hit
you, then fly over the silver platform, and they'll disappear. You'll then see
some more blocks. Destroy them, and you'll see a laser-shooting robot on the
ground. Kill it, and you'll run into another electric barrier. Destroy one of
the parts and you'll see a large cylinder going up and down while the roof has
spikes on it. Touching the cylinder will make you loose two health boxes, so
don't think they're harmless. To get out of this without a scratch, start
flying, but don't move. Once it starts going down, you can fly past it with no
problems. After passing two more of them, you'll see a flying soldier. Kill him
and destroy the nearby shutter. Once you destroy it, fly near where it once
was. A soldier will attempt to fly over and kill you, but just stay where you
are and punch him to death. He'll be dead in no time. Fly up the short shaft,
and you'll encounter YOUR FINAL FLYING SOLDIER! Brings a tear to your eye,
doesn't it? Just land on the ground, crouch and punch. He'll fall for it and
die. After this fight, you should take a break and remember all the fun the
both of you had. If you couldn't take it well, I recommend you drink some beer.
It really helps you "digest" what you just did. After recovering from that
life-changing battle, destroy the two blocks in front of you, and get ready for
a really frustrating auto-scroll section!
S53) Area 3
This is an extremely hard auto scrolling level. You have to avoid shutters that
randomly open and close in all sorts of fun directions! Hitting anything will
inflict MAJOR damage and you have about a VERY small amount of time for
invincibility when you get hit/die, so be careful. The only real good tips I
can give your for this sections is that when given the two paths to take at the
beginning of the section, take the lower one, but get down on the ground as
soon as you do. As soon as you pass the last gate, go up. Otherwise, this level
is based on purely on reflexes, so good luck! Once you complete this section,
you'll be thrown into a dead room with Specter, who looks nothing like he did
in the game's intro.
S54) FINAL BOSS FIGHT!
Specter is quite predictable for a final boss. He'll warp to one of the various
spots in the room, which are the middle left and right of the room, the bottom
left and right of the room on the ground and the raised pieces of ground on the
left and right. If he's on the ground, he'll make crystals appear from the
bottom of the screen that go up until they reach the top. Fly over him to avoid
this attack. If he's flying, he'll either launch psychic waves that stun you
momentarily or make crystals appear from the roof and hit the ground. The
crystals will do one health box of damage apiece, while touching him will do
two. Hitting him with your fist will cancel his current attack and make him
change positions. The best way to take him out is to stay in the middle of the
screen by flying. If he gets near you or is on one of the elevated pieces of
land, punch him. If he's on the bottom of the screen, fly to the far left (or
right) side and wait until he's done attacking. Occasionally, he'll disappear
if you try to punch him. Just follow him until you can land a hit. Once he
starts getting low on health, he'll teleport much more often, and it'll be
quite difficult trying to land a hit on him. After about 30 or so punches,
he'll go down for good.
GRATE! You've just beaten Sunman, a really, really hard game! "Enjoy" the
really short ending.
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There's only one, but it's a good one. Pause the game, then press A and B at
the same time in order to go straight to the next area! This is an excellent
way to bypass annoying segments like the train in Scene 3 or all of Scene 4!
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I) What needs to be done
This FAQ is complete. The only real thing I'd like some improvement on is a
better strategy for Scene 4, but I have a gut feeling that mine is the best out
there, which is kinda sad.
If you have anything you want to submit, then E-mail me at rickdias at
gmail.com. Replace the at with @.
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That collector in Spain/Europe: For somehow finding the game and putting it up
on Ebay instead of letting the ROM rot in some bookcase or something cruel
like that.
TheRedEye: For saving the game from fat-ass collectors, showing it to everybody
at the CGE 2003, getting it dumped and having a really, really sexy face.
Sardius: For writing an excellent article about Sunman at Lost Levels and being
the only Sunman champion in the world.
BMF54123: For finding the code that lets you skip BS areas like Scene 3 Area 2
or all of Scene 4.
The screen that appears when you beat a scene in this game: GRATE! For giving
people something to laugh at after going through crap like Scene 4.
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and
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If you wish to use this FAQ on your website, email me at rickdias at gmail.com
and we'll sort something out.
