Copyright July 22, 2005, Akemi Saoshi Email: hasuko AT gmail DOT com
If you would like to host this FAQ, please send me an e-mail.
Do not reproduce or repost anywhere without permission. Do not claim this work
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=================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
NOTE: All of my information is coming from the Japanese version of
Twinklestar Sprites, because my MVS board is Japanese region so the
cartridge displays in Japanese.
December 04, 2007 - Version 0.2
- Fixed some things in character section.
- Added Tinker and Linker information.
- Added more speech lines.
- Added some more boss attack information.
- Fixed Dark Ran's Extra Attack information.
- Fixed musical score (had Griffon's and Macky & Pentell's backwards).
- Various typo fixes and format fixes.
July 22, 2005 - Version 0.1.
- First release of this FAQ.
Joystick (8-way) - This moves your character around.
A Button - Fires your character's special shot.
Hold A button - Character's chargeup shot (game term: Attack Stopper).
B Button - Bomb Attack.
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GAME INFORMATION
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Twinklestar Sprites is classified by SNK as "competitive shooting". It is
the only game of its kind - and it's certainly a lot of fun! It was released
by ADK (a smaller part of SNK) in 1996. It was also released on Dreamcast and
Sega Saturn. There is a new Twinklestar Sprites port coming to PS2 in addition
to a brand new game with a new cast of characters.
You choose from thirteen different characters and play on a vertically
scrolling screen, much like a normal shooter. You and your opponent can send
attacks at each other over the middle of the screen. The goal? Empty your
opponent's health metre to win!
2. GAMEPLAY
====================
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WEAPONS, ATTACKS, AND ZAKO
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1. A Button Shots.
Tap the A button to produce a shot that weakens zako (literally means "small
fry", these are the creatures in the stages that fly around) by one colour
(covered below). These can also reverse kougeki zako ("attack small fry",
the fiery looking things) and destroy the green flashing kougeki zako) to
make tokushuu kougeki ("Special Attack", the game calls it "Extra Attack").
2. Charged A Button Shots (Attack Stopper).
Looking at the bottom left corner of the 1P side or bottom right corner of
the 2P side, you can see a little gauge there - this shows the maximum
power of your attack stopper shot. The longer you hold the A button, the
more the gauge will charge. A level 1 shot is simply the normal attack
stopper, a level 2 shot sends several (ranging from two to four, depending
on character) Extra Attacks to your opponent's screen. Charging to MAX
releases a Boss Attack. Every time you destroy zako, your attack stopper
gauge will increase. Destroy all zako onscreen in a full combo to receive
a "Perfect!" and receive extra points and a little bonus on your gauge.
3. Bombs.
Every character starts with two bombs, but more can be collected from the
rotating coins dropped by the puffy bunny things. It will say "GET BOMS' [sic]"
when you have picked up a bomb coin, and raise your bomb metre by one. When a
coin is going to be deposited, you will see a little blue bubble with two "!!"
pop out of the top of the screen.
4. Zako.
The zako that float through your screen come in patterns - there's only
about fifteen to twenty pattern sets, growing more complex as you progress
through the stages. Usually, the zako come in different colours:
Purple (usually large), Blue (slightly smaller), Green (medium-sized),
Yellow (small), and Red (usually tiny).
This also describes their "hitpoints" and how many shots it will take to blow
them up. If you are struck by a zako, it will remove one heart (you cannot
die from zako) and send half a heart to your opponent. You'll be slowed and
your shots will do less damage. You can only get struck twice by zako
in one go - at least, until you recover.
5. Zako Chains.
If you shoot a zako, it will lose one "hitpoint" and go to the colour below it.
The only exception is shabon zako (lit: bubble zako) and red zako. When you
shoot a bubble zako, it will pop the bubble, and when you shoot a red zako,
it will explode. If you blow up a red zako next to a bubble zako, the bubble
will pop, but not the zako inside. The goal is to combo as many zako as possible
in one go - this can usually be accomplished by popping all bubble zako first
and then shooting the large purple zako until it explodes. Occasionally, there
are strange setups that take a little while to learn, but if you play enough the
sequences are easy to memorise. If you're having trouble learning the order of
some of the more difficult patterns, the easiest way to learn them is watch the
computer player blow them up. That is how I learned some of the tougher chains.
The bigger combo you make, the more kougeki zako will fly at your opponent. They
usually fly up to the top of the screen and fly downwards, but occasionally they
will arc over and catch somebody hiding in the corner.
Another note on bubble zako: certain sequences of zako will have all of the zako
inside of bubbles. These are usually brought into the screen with a "!!" bubble
and a coin with a star on it. Collecting the coin when the star side is up will
pop all the bubbles onscreen.
6. The ORB!
The orb is a very important item - it will also come with a "!!" bubble and
will always come out in a zako chain. It looks like a little blue orb with
a crescent moon that spins. You cannot blow this up with any sort of A button
shot - you must either combo it with its surrounding zako or use a bomb.
When you collect the orb, a voice will announce, "FEVER!" and you will enter
"fever mode". Any combos you do with zako will send DOUBLE attack characters
that fly faster and glow yellow like your character. This is the best
time to KO somebody. Rack up big combos in fever mode!
Another note about fever mode: bubble zako will never appear while you
have fever mode active. This allows you to chain easier!
7. Reversal Attacks.
As I already covered above, shooting plain kougeki zako will create a
"reversal" (the announcer says this) and send green flashing zako over to
the other screen. You want to avoid doing this as much as possible
because of...
8. Special Attacks!
You cannot destroy these, not with shots or bombs. Special attacks are created
from these green flashing zako when they are shot and returned! You can also
create these by shooting level 2 attack stoppers. However, the green flashing
zako behave a bit differently, because if you manage to blow up normal zako and
reverse three flashing green zako in the combo, it creates...
9. Boss Attacks!
THIS is the main reason you want to avoid sending reversal green flashing zako
to your opponent - somebody who's smart will wait for a set of zako to float
down and blow them up and counter your green flashing zako to create a boss.
It takes three green flashing zako countered with plain zako to create a boss.
A REVERSAL boss happens when you counter three green flashing zako or more when
there is a boss on your screen, or you shoot a MAX attack stopper when there is
a boss on your screen. This sends the boss on your screen away and creates a
boss on your opponent's screen. The only time this will not happen is if you
and your opponent create a boss simultaneously (or within a few seconds before
yours or theirs has appeared) - the two bosses will cancel out and neither
of you will receive/send a boss.
Every character's boss attack is different and usually lasts for ten to fifteen
seconds and has two special attacks and can create your character's extra attack
characters. The more times you summon a boss in one round, the stronger it
gets. Normal bosses are killed with several shots and also take damage from
bombs. Certain characters have better attack stoppers for killing bosses, such
as Kesubei.
One nice thing to note about boss attacks, if you have one in your screen
and it begins to do a special attack (spawning extra attacks, or one of
its two special attacks) you can throw a bomb to negate the attack and
clear it off your screen. This helps especially versus Memory when her
cake boss spawns six extra attacks - as it's spawning them you can
bomb and they will never appear!
10. DEATH.
If your match goes on for too long, a tiny version of the reaper himself will
fly out onto the field - he can be killed by shooting him or blowing him up
in a combo or with a bomb, but the longer the match goes on, the stronger
he gets. Touching him once will kill you instantly, no matter how much
health you have. This is a "Death KO".
3. CHARACTERS
====================
NOTE: I list the characters' statistics in the following order:
Name: Well really, come on.
Title: Character's title. (They appear above their name in Japanese)
B Colours: B button colours.
Speed: Number of dots in the character's "speed" metre.
Power: Number of dots in the character's "power" metre.
Bomb: Bomb attack description.
Attack Stopper: Attack stopper description and features.
Extra Attack: Extra attack description and features.
Boss: Boss attack description and attacks.
Character Story: Character's story.
Rating: My rating of the character.
Difficulty: How hard it is to use this character.
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LOAD RAN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Load Ran.
Title: Magical Sprite.
B Colours: Her red costume is replaced with blue.
Speed: Two.
Power: Two.
Bomb: Ran flies upside down and a large star fills the screen.
Attack Stopper: A blue energy burst.
Extra Attack: "Rabibomu!" Ran shoots a rabicat bomb that explodes. If
a character touches the remnant of the bomb, you will still
take damage.
Boss: A large rabicat appears in the opponent's screen - its attacks
consist of dropping of carrots in a row across the screen,
dropping rabibombs, and shooting stars out of its chest.
Character Story: Ran is the daughter of the magical queen, Memory. She's got
the ability to transform into Sprites using the power of
the Twinklestar.
Rating: Ran is a solid 5/10, average all around. She's good to
use if you are just starting out.
Difficulty: 5/10. Average.
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DO KESUBEI
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Do Kesubei.
Title: Doraneko Sennin (Wizard Cat).
B Colours: He is black and grey instead of orange and grey, his scarf is
purple instead of green.
Speed: Three.
Power: One.
Bomb: A large wave of water flows through, complete with mermaid!
It washes Kesubei away.
Attack Stopper: Kesubei's robot alternates punching fists. EXCELLENT for
destroying bosses!
Extra Attack: Kesubei shoots several robotic fists that explode into cat
heads. If your character touches the remnant of the bomb,
you will still take damage.
Boss: Kesubei's robot appears on the opponent's screen. Its attacks
are: laser eye shot that scans across the screen (this is VERY
hard to dodge), and a set of bouncing triangles.
Character Story: Kesubei is an ancient magician cat. He is out to capture the
Twinklestar to wish to be 3,000 years younger.
Rating: His attack stopper excels at destroying bosses,
just simply get up close and let go. 7/10.
Difficulty: 6/10. Slightly difficult.
Name: Nanja Monja.
Title: Nazo no Ikimono (Mysterious Living Things).
B Colours: They are blue, green, yellow, and purple.
Speed: Two.
Power: Three.
Bomb: Several large nanja monja fly through.
Attack Stopper: A bolt of lightning - this can be shot in one of three ways,
depending on the direction the joystick is held.
Diagram: \ | /
Extra Attack: A large, bouncing nanja monja bounces down the screen.
This is very hard to dodge if there's more than one.
Boss: A very large, very ANGRY nanja monja - it's wearing a crown so
perhaps it is the king of nanja monja? It shoots spikes from
its body, creates bouncing nanja monja like the extra attack,
and shoots lightning bolts straight down.
Character Story: Nobody knows what these things are, or why they venture out.
Apparently they hate little girls with red ribbons, though.
Rating: These guys are a joke. You can beat Memory without being very
good at all by using them. Their attacks are very strong and
they are extremely overpowered. 8/10.
Difficulty: 2/10. Very easy.
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TINKER AND LINKER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Tinker and Linker.
Title: Yousei KONBI (Faerie Combination).
B Colours: Their hair is pink and their outfits are blue. Their
faeries and bosses are golden. I love their B Colours best.
Speed: Two.
Power: Two.
Bomb: Linker flies in and shoots a blue beam with Tinker.
Attack Stopper: Their attack stopper is the best in the game - it is the
most versatile and once you've learned how to use it can
save you. They have an EIGHT WAY shot - it will fire in
the direction you hold the joystick upon shooting. It's a
large crystal bit.
Extra Attack: A faerie with a glowing aura flies into the screen,
she'll bounce off the wall (the aura then goes away) and then
fly off the screen.
Boss: A large faerie appears, wielding a sword. She looks so awesome!
She can create a rain of crystals and a small target that flies
around, extra attack faeries, or a rain of sparkling diamonds.
Character Story: Tinker and Linker are Load Ran's escort. They think it is
fun to do chores like cleaning and homework. Ran disagrees.
Their wish is to bring the princess back to the castle to
finish her work!
Rating: Tinker and Linker are my personal choice, and I never use
anyone else but them anymore, reason being their excellent
extra attacks (very annoying and tough to dodge) and attack
stopper. It's hard to learn their attack stopper but it's
worth learning how to use. 10/10.
Difficulty: 7/10. Difficult.
* SOMETHING TO NOTE ABOUT TINKER AND LINKER *
When you have a boss out on the opponent's screen, you can usually charge
up a "MAX" and shoot double your Extra Attack characters. However, with
Tinker and Linker, they only shoot four instead of six. Their level 2
attack shoots three faeries, so stick with shooting two level 2 attack
stoppers instead of shooting a "MAX" when you have a boss out.
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REALY TILL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Realy Till.
Title: Dragon Star.
B Colours: Her hair is pink and blue, her skirt is pink.
Speed: Three.
Power: Two.
Bomb: Several large fireballs fill the screen. It's hard to see,
but there's a dragon head in each fireball's tip!
Attack Stopper: This is pretty useless - it's a flame-thrower type shot, very
short range and the damage is abysmal. If it did the damage
Kesubei's did, it would be worth the time, but it doesn't.
Its only redeeming factor is you can move around while you shoot
it. I never use it except to launch level 2 and MAX attacks.
Extra Attack: "Ike! Drapy!" Drapy flies down and turns at a 90 degree angle
left or right.
Boss: Drapy appears and breathes fire, creates extra attack
dragons, or shoots out small orange bullets.
Character Story: Realy wishes to become a great singer - her kingdom of Dragons
seems to be at war with the kingdom of Sprites and Faeries
(Ran's kingdom). Her dragon's name is Drapy.
Rating: Realy suffers where other characters shine - because of her high
statistics, her extra attack and charge attack are lacking, unlike
Nanja Monja. Therefore, she is useless, except by cosmetic choice if
you like her look. 3/10.
Difficulty: 3/10. Easy.
Name: Griffon, Ebin, Burn.
Title: Mevious Bodyguards.
B Colours: Griffon's hair is yellow, Ebin's hair is grey, and Burn's
is red.
Speed: Two.
Power: One.
Bomb: Ebin and Burn fly in and create a maelstrom.
Attack Stopper: Another useless attack stopper. Two sawblades, their damage
is pathetic and they are difficult to hit with. If you feel like it,
you can circle Griffon around the blades and they will stay out.
Usually though, you'll get hit while maneuvering.
Extra Attack: A hippogriff flies straight down. Easy to dodge.
Boss: A large hippogriff appears, and shoots either round electrical rings,
creates hippogriff extra attacks, or creates four swords that shoot
in one direction.
Character Story: Apparently, these three want one girlfriend. That's right, one
girlfriend to share. Somehow they created Dark Ran.. Why don't they
date her?
Rating: How the hell can somebody with crappier power be somebody's
bodyguard? Overall, these guys are pretty pathetic. Normally,
somebody with low stats has something to make up for it. These
guys have nothing going for them. 2/10.
Difficulty: 8/10. Very difficult.
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YAN YANYAN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Yan Yanyan.
Title: Beast Master.
B Colours: Her hair is yellow.
Speed: One.
Power: One.
Bomb: Yanyan yells "Aaa!" and several large pigbirds fly in.
Attack Stopper: Yanyan's attack stopper is the fastest charge in the game,
possibly to compensate for her horrible stats. It's a large
green wave that flies out and covers most of the screen.
Extra Attack: A pigbird appears and flies down the screen.
Boss: A large pigbird appears and sneezes two large booger waves out of
its nose (eww), creates flying pigbirds, or sends a wave of green
energy out around it.
Character Story: Yanyan needs nothing!
Rating: Yanyan's extra attacks are annoying, and her charge shot
is pretty slick. Overall though, she's not very good. 4/10.
Difficulty: 10/10. Insane.
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ARTHUR SCHMITT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Arthur Schmitt.
Title: Rocket Man.
B Colours: His hair is blue, and his rockets are blue.
Speed: Three.
Power: One.
Bomb: A beam sears the top of the screen and explosions occur.
Attack Stopper: Arthur shoots out a column of blue energy.
Extra Attack: "PURASUMA SHUUTO!" A rocket appears at the bottom of the screen
and flies up. You can be damaged by the fire coming out of it,
so be careful!
Boss: A large rocket appears and shoots either a large, black bullet,
mini-ascending rockets, or shoots two large lasers.
Character Story: Arthur is in love with Ran, and wants to find the Twinklestar
to become the most handsome man in the world.
Rating: Arthur is FAST. I always end up running into zako with him.
His extra attacks are annoying if they don't overlap. 6/10.
Difficulty: 7/10. Difficult.
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MACKY AND PENTELL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Macky and Pentell.
Title: Treasure Hunters.
B Colours: Macky's hair is blue and Pentell's is pink.
Speed: One.
Power: Three.
Bomb: A large like the one Pentell holds flies in.
Attack Stopper: This is an interesting attack stopper. Macky fires a small
character (like the one Pentell holds) and if you press the
A button again, it will detonate into Pentell. (WTF?)
Extra Attack: The little thing in Pentell's arms flies out and sweeps
across the screen. It locks on to your position, so move quickly.
Boss: Another one of those weird things, but giant this time. It can
shoot its arm off, create extra attack characters, or throw large
pencils.
Character Story: Macky wants to find the most expensive items in the world.
Pentell just wants to hug her teddy bear.
Rating: These two are the inverse of Arthur. Slow and hard-hitting,
Macky and Pentell are the powerhouse of the game. 7/10.
Difficulty: 7/10. Difficult.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DARK RAN
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: To play as Dark Ran, select Griffon and move the joystick down four
times. Press A or B.
Name: Dark Ran.
Title: Anguro SUPURAITO (Dark Sprite).
B Colours: Black with brown rabicat. This is my favourite colour in
the whole game.
Speed: Two.
Power: Two.
Bomb: Dark Ran flies downward, and a large evil star fills the screen.
Attack Stopper: A black ball of energy.
Extra Attack: "Darabi bomu!" Just like Load Ran's, but with DarkRabicat.
Boss: A large rabicat. It either shoots carrots, rabibombs, or stars.
Character Story: She is the evil version of Ran, created by Griffon.
She wants to change the game name to Twinklestar Dark Ran.
Rating: Plays exactly like Load Ran. 5/10.
Difficulty: 5/10. Average.
NOTE: To play as Sprites, select Load Ran and move the joystick up four
times. Press A or B.
Name: Sprites.
Title: Hikari no Joou (trans: Queen of Light).
B Colours: Blue outfit.
Speed: Two.
Power: Three.
Bomb: Sprites appears and holds out her hands with a burst of energy.
Attack Stopper: Just like Load Ran's but with circling energy around it.
Extra Attack: "Rabicat Attaku!" A rabicat flies in and twirls in circles, It
locks on like Macky and Pentell's. It doesn't explode like Load
Ran's do.
Boss: A large rabicat in a dress. It drops fireballs, creates
tracking extra attacks, or a large electrical attack (deadly).
Character Story: This is Load Ran's adult form, she can change into it using
the Twinklestar. She wants to be able to stay this way
forever.
Rating: Plays a lot like Load Ran, but is stronger. 6/10.
Difficulty: 5/10. Average.
NOTE: To play as Mevious, select Griffon and move the joystick up four
times. Press A or B.
Name: Mevious.
Title: Aku no Mikado (trans: Emperor of Evil).
B Colours: Purple hair.
Speed: Three.
Power: Three.
Bomb: A bat in the middle of a black hole shoots out electricity.
Attack Stopper: Three red balls shoot in a \ | / formation from Mevious.
Extra Attack: "Koumori funka!" Bats fly in and lock onto the opponent.
Boss: A large bat/cat thing appears, it can extend its tail, create
homing bats, or do a diving attack.
Character Story: Mevious wants to take over the world. In the story mode,
he has mind-controlled Memory, Load Ran's mother.
Rating: Very fast and very strong. He's kind of hard to get used to,
though. 9/10.
Difficulty: 3/10. Easy.
NOTE: To play as Memory, select Load Ran and move the joystick down four
times. Press A or B.
Name: Memory Joou. (trans: Queen Memory)
Title: Magical Queen.
B Colours: Blue hair.
Speed: Three.
Power: Three.
Bomb: Memory's face appears and she winks.
Attack Stopper: Balls with Memory's face in them appear and bounce around.
Memory's attack stopper charges slowly (holding the A button)
and usually it's hard to fire anything above a level 2 because
she takes so long, she usually gets hit and dies. This is
pretty much the only way to kill CPU memory.
Extra Attack: Any manner of food appears, locks on, and flies at
the opponent. Some of the objects are: odango, sushi,
hot dogs, slices of cake, whole cakes, burgers, double
burgers, round waffles, square waffles, candy, coffee,
and a loaf of bread.
Boss: A large cake with "ADK" on it - it can fire a row of forks,
create six extra attack foods, or shoot orange bullets.
Character Story: Memory is mind-controlled by Mevious. She is the queen of
the Sprites and Faeries; however she loves food and is always
eating. Never seems to gain any weight though.
Rating: Very fast and very strong, like Mevious. Her charged attack
hurts her though as you not only charge slowly but reverse kougeki
zako easily allowing for your opponent to punish you with bosses,
but her extra and boss attacks are supreme. If you can get two
charged attack stoppers off, it usually kills a boss though. 9/10.
Difficulty: 3/10. Easy.
Overall, the first few stages are very easy. It starts to get hard around
stage four, but Mevious is where the difficulty scale goes insane.
Before you start playing the computer, know this: no matter who you
pick, the last two bosses will always be stronger and faster than you,
even if you play one of the bosses. They also have splitsecond accuracy.
This means it's best to kill them while they're busy doing something else,
i.e. charging an attack stopper, countering a flood of kougeki zako, or
dealing with a boss.
Stage by stage:
Yanyan and Till should give you no problem - just breeze past them.
Kesubei and Nanja Monja are also easy to pass, just watch out
for Nanja's extra attacks and Kesubei's boss' eye laser.
Kesubei shouldn't have time to create a boss, though.
Arthur and Tinker are relatively easy, just make sure they don't
get a lucky boss attack off. Watch out for Tinker's extra attacks,
as they bounce around and if you get two going in different directions
they can pincer you.
Griffon likes to flood you with extra attacks, so be ready for
a flood of hippogriffs. Macky and Pentell will also send
over several little bears that lock on - if you get more than four
you may have to use a bomb.
Dark Ran is a joke, just stomp her into the ground.
The best way to defeat Mevious and Memory is to enter fever mode
and launch as many attacks as possible WHILE THEY ARE CHARGING.
Mevious has a faster charge than Memory, but every time I have
defeated Memory she has been charging her attack stopper.
Mevious loves to send extra attacks, so watch your reversals.
It's best to punish him as you would with Memory by
countering his reversals with bosses.
Another way to defeat Memory quickly is punish all of her reversals
with bosses. Eventually your boss will become so strong she can't
kill it quickly and will eventually die while charging.
Never, ever, EVER send flashing green reverse attack zako if you can.
Period. A good player will counter it with their normal zako and boss
attack you until you are dead.
A good trick with fever mode is to send a large flood just as your
opponent is creating a chain with zako - if you're lucky they will
end up reversing most of your kougeki zako and you will get a free boss
attack! This works especially well with fever mode.
Another good strategy is for characters like Memory and Tinker who
have excellent extra attacks, garner a full gauge and shoot
two sets of level 2 attacks - this gives you six bouncing faeries
with Tinker and EIGHT pieces of food with Memory. NOTE THAT THIS
DOES NOT WORK IF YOU USE "MAX" WHEN YOU HAVE A BOSS OUT. Tinker
will only shoot FOUR faeries, NOT six.
The enemies here are usually red, since this is the "newbie" stage.
The zako are fat little bird creatures. You will play against either
Realy Till or Yan Yanyan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
WONDER WORLD
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory awaits you in space, with an army of star zako. The backgrounds
are really weird - there's some floating eyes, strange alien planets,
and other miscellaneous stuff. Enjoy the music!
