| Hopping Mappy |
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Information AboutHopping Mappy |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT HOPPING MAPPY | |
| 1986 video games | |
| arcade games | |
| namco games | |
Hopping Mappy is an Arcade Game that was released by Namco in 1986 . It runs on Namco System '86 hardware and as the name suggests, it is the sequel to Mappy , released 3 years earlier. INTRODUCTION Hopping Mappy brings back the characters from Mappy but it just isn't as effective. The problem is most likely that you don't get any new weapons for each sequence of four levels. The levels don't get more confusing, and the main trick to get through consists of a tricky way to more or less stand still. Plus the enemies move in fixed patterns. But it's a happy and cute little game for a bit, with 31 distinct levels that you can continue through even if you lose all your lives, and it's worth playing through once without the later levels getting too frustrating. GAMEPLAY In Hopping Mappy you control the Micro Police mouse, Mappy, as he bounces on a pogo stick to run circles around pink cats called Meowkies, which patrol either vertically or horizontally. There's also Nyamco, a cat who patrols in a zigzag pattern, but he needs to take occasional breaks. There are eight treasures you must grab to complete a level, except on the bonus level where you just want to grab all the balloons you can. The main intrigue here is getting past a blockade of Meowkies. What's the best way to sneak by? Your controls are really simple: you can bounce in any of the four directions, the only places you can land are the centers of the checkerboard squares (making for very few locations overall), and you will move at the same speed as the cats. If you push the accelerator button and run around, you will go two times as fast. This is not always good--you can run into a bad guy, or it is tougher to turn. Regarding turning, you may want to do this in advance, just after you started jumping onto the square you'll want to land on, if you are running away from Meowkies or trying to reach a square with a treasure first. It will ensure no time is lost. But if you are trailing then obviously you'll want to slow down. There's another case where you'll want to slow down. Say you jump in one direction and want to pull back. You can, as long as your shadow isn't touching an enemy's. This is more than just a way to save yourself, though. TIPS AND TRICKS Say an enemy is to the right, on top of a treasure, and you're just waiting. You can bounce up to the next square and then down once he leaves and go around him. Simple enough. But what if there is a line of enemies? Say there's a treasure under the middle one as they're coming at you, and you're at the edge. You can bounce right, then up just over halfway, then change your mind. The bad guys will be behind you now. You can also stay at the edge, bounce up/midair/down, and follow the line from behind, which is safer short-term if not as exact. On later levels where you need to explore one edge of the board and the other you may wish to clear out one side, go to the left/right side and jump around the bad guys, and then go to the center to up/down jump to get past a phalanx and then clear the other side out. Just remember: to stay on one side of the phalanx, use the edge. To switch, go to the center. Also, beware if there is an up/down phalanx along with a left/right. Be sure you don't go near where they intersect. This point will move diagonally and can be nasty to track. If you really time things right, you can just jump up and split two cats(when they are in midair) but in fact one of the advantages of turning around is that you can do so when you're more than halfway to your intended destination. That means you take up more than double of half the standard jumping time in the air, i.e. more time, period. This does have a drawback; you should try to avoid reversing when your next square is a treasure. Otherwise you may get close to it and bounce back and not collect it. CAST Mappy: The protagonist of the game. Meowkies: There may be over ten of these in any level. They will either have patrols up and down or left and right, no variants. Once they reach a side/edge they bounce the other way--they don't bounce off it. Nyamco: Nyamco always starts four blocks right of you. He goes up to the top, left, down, left and then zags back right once he gets to the side. Occasionally he will fall over, and that allows you to jump on him for 100 points. But you may want to do so from behind in case he wakes up. Nyamco bounces 15 squares before he tires out, and after eight Meowky bounces quits his huffing and puffing and starts bouncing again. TREASURES There are five different types of treasures.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX Generally you want to get matching treasures to get the box to appear. Which happens as follows:
If you get killed between the first and second treasure, the box still appears even with the multipliers reset. But if the box pops up and you die, it's gone for that level. These start off pretty close to you but get farther away as you go along--I suppose the point is to make you work. If you get the box to appear, then it will disperse items that bounce and patrol just like Meowkies, and you can even get a nice boost for stepping on the box twice. However, the items bounce around randomly, so don't expect to track one down easily. Many items have pitfalls, so be careful playing with them. Here is a list of the items:
You also get 765 for all cats after that. This can get you more points than the level proper if you are careful although the red heart wears off sooner on later levels. Of course it's potentially worth more there as there are more enemies. Note that if you feel you can get 6 cats it will on the whole be a better pointwise effort than getting the red diamond--with the mitigating factor being that the enemy paths get messed up. The best bet then is to do this near the end of the level, with just one easy treasure to pick up. Also for the red heart, you'll want to concentrate on levels where Meowkies are bunched together. Especially if they move when their pattern is extra short.
In general if you have the luxury, the hourglass or the red diamond is the best, followed by the red heart, which is especially good if you're close to completing the level anyway. Then you don't have to pay much attention to regenerating enemies. NOTE: items wear off sooner on later levels. BONUS LEVEL POINTS The main source of points will be the bonus level. It's no-risk and fairly brief if not too taxing. Basically, if you see a clump of red balloons, go after it, and if there is one stray one too far away, don't go chasing all the way down/up the screen to get to it. You get 11 points for every regular red balloon you get. You also get 500 for each Nyamco balloon you get. There are around 3 per round. They should be a priority as they are worth at least two regular red balloons. With about 45 balloons (average) the total comes to 4818 per bonus round. ODDS AND ENDS
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