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Introduction

Welcome to another guide of mine. The subject of this particular one is Free Fall. Free Fall is a prototype game recently added to the GameFAQs databases alongside a number of other games; this is one of them that actually has a feeling of completeness, so it's hard to understand why it wasn't released. I mean, it's a decent enough game itself (there are worse NES games in any case).

Since the cancellation of this game, not a single FAQ has been written for it. Well, there's always a first time for everything, no? Ever since the start of the NES FAQ Completion Project on GameFAQs some years ago - a project designed to get a guide out for every single NES game out there - many people have now been helped because older, rarer, less popular games have gotten guides. So many games, in fact, that all of the North American games have been covered, as have the European games, leaving only those that are homebrews and mostly those released in Japan and the Koreas.

And so, that is how I came upon this game. Thanks for listening to my ramblin'; hope you enjoy!

Basics of the Game

Game Controls

Button	Effects
D-Pad	Move left and right.
A Button	Throw caught people upwards.
B Button	Catch falling people with your hand.
Select Button	N/A
Start Button	Pause and unpause gameplay.

Basics of the Game

At the title screen, you can use the Select Button to choose between two options: "Rock It!" and "Shut Up!", which basically mean to have or to not have music, respectively. Press Start to begin gameplay.

Playing this game is simple enough. Let's begin with the heads-up display, which is at the lateral parts of the screen.

• Score: Your score. This goes down as people die (5 points lost), and up 10 points per second remaining after levels.
• Caught: How many people you have currently caught with B but not thrown back.
• Hands: Equivalent to lives. This goes down as your hand is hurt by enemies.
• Timer: You usually begin each level with 240 seconds (4 minutes) to complete it.
• Saved: How many people you've successfully thrown back into the pipe so far.
• Quota: How many people you must save within the time interval to complete the level.

During gameplay, your ultimate goal is to save the people who are falling. They will always fall down towards your hand, which poses a problem: if they get to the bottom of the screen, they die! The supply of people is pretty much endless, so that in itself is not much to worry about; concern comes in when it begins to make you lose points (again, not particularly important, but some people like to get on the leaderboards and such). To save a person, get under them and press the B Button as they begin to touch your hand; they will then be in your possession for as long as is needed. You can keep, within reason, as many people you want; of course, the maximum is 254, though you can never really expect to have that many: any more than that and the people you grab will not be able to be held and will fall and die.

When you feel the need to get on with gameplay, you'll need to throw the people back into the pipe, which is moving around at the top of the screen. Be careful: if you go past the pipe to the spiky roof above it, the person you throw will also, of course, perish. Some levels will introduce other ways in which people can die, such as the laser barrier in Arena 2. In any case, it's still not that significant to the point that you would have to be anal about every decision you make; simply be careful. When a person does get into the pipe, one point is added to your "Saved" counter; when that counter equals (or, if you cheat, exceeds) the quota counter, the level is over. You will earn 10 points per second remaining on the timer, and then gameplay proceeds to the next level.

There are a few minor bonuses incorporated into some levels. You can hit these with people for various effects: but be quick since they usually only go through the level one timwe.

• Birds: These, when hit, give you another life.
• Rockets: If you hit this and knock it into the pipe, it counts as having rescued 10 people!

Level Overviews

While I cannot give an explicit walkthrough for this game, I would be remiss if I didn't to some extent help to describe the levels and hazards and changes to be aware of.

• Arena 1 - The Slick Beam (Quota: 45): This is the most basic of levels, applying to all of the doctrines previously described with no hazards to be aware of.

• Arena 2 - Happy Landing! (Quota: 50): In this level, the people you save will be paratroopers falling from above. They will slowly zigzag along the screen as they fall, so it's best to stay directly beneath the people you intend to save. Additionally, there will be a white laser barrier at the top: if you throw a person into it, they die. The barrier moves a bit faster than the pipe, so you'll not always be blocked from success. The key is to remember not only to throw a bit ahead of the pipe so as to manage to get in despite movement, but to make sure that that throw will not harm the person being thrown.

• Arena 3 - Don't Blow It! (Quota: 60): This level is quite interesting. Do you see those pipe-like things at the lower-left and lower-right sides of the field? Those pipes will expel a person encased in a bubble at variable rates. They will then float upward to the daggers at the top of the screen, where the bubble will be popped and the person will fall. You have to save them as they fall. They will rise and fall relatively straight up, so sticking beneath a pipe is a good way to keep sure of survival. In any case, that's the main thing in this level.

• Arena 4 - Aim Carefully! (Quota: 60): Another intersting level. The people you initially save will be climbing down a ladder and will fall directly over the center of the pit if uninteruptted. That itself makes the level seem pretty simply, doesn't it? It's a bit more complex than that thanks to the soldiers: there are six ledges on the sides of the field, three per side, from which the soldiers may appear. They will shoot towards the ladder, and thereby shoot anyone who is on it should their bullets hit someone. (The bullets do not extend beyond the ladder, though.) The shot persons will go to the left or right sides of the screen: they are still alive, however, and you can therefore save them if you're quick. The main thing here, therefore, is to be observant and quick.

• Arena 5 - Jungle Hikers (Quota: 50): Another interesting level. In this case, the people you rescue will come from the top-left or top-right parts of the screen and will walk on the ledges in the center of the field. They way they walk is a bit randomized, though you can easily follow them as they'll walk in a straight line until they hit an edge, at which point they will fall to the one below and choose a random path to walk along. You need to be quick on saving them since the final stopping point is so low. I would suggest actually saving the baseline 50 people first before saving them by throwing back for that reason: too many people die as you do the whole "save, return, save, return" style; it would be better to do it altogether.

• Boss Level - Look Out! This Guy is Mad!: When you get in this level, be ready to move quickly. The hand at the top of the screen will launch fireballs down at you, which will instantly kill you if you touch them, causing you to lose a life. Initially, these fireballs are mostly at the sides of the screen rather than in the center; however, about fifteen seconds in, the hand will unleash a stream of fireballs that is nearly unavoidable due to its multilayer nature: at that point, I would mostly just give up. You therefore must win the battle in the first fifteen seconds: persistently follow the hand and use A to throw random crap at it to hit it, and be relentless about it so you can keep the hand still for as long as possible to delay this streaming event. It will likely take a few tries, but it's the best one can really get. You'll get 500 points for winning.

• Arena 6 - Watch Yo Mouth (Quota: 50): In this level, there will be a mouth moving around and releasing people for you to catch. The mouth moves around pretty sporadically, so following it is no mean feat: it will even, at times, launch fireballs to hurt your hand. The main thing you should do is follow the mouth and catch the fifty people you need before bothering with the return process, simply to keep things a bit easier. And, for the record, you are allowed to throw through the mouth.

• Arena 7 - Fire At Will! (Quota: 40): This level works much the same as Arena 3. The people to rescue will be expelled from one of two cannons at the side of the screen, and there will from there zigzag across the screen until a certain unknown point, where they fall straight down. at which point you have to catch them. (This can lead interestingly to a number of collision glitches for some reason: for example, one of my guys got stuck in the wall just above one of the cannons.) The only task impeding you once they are grabbed is the laser barrier, like that in Arena 2: you should be familiar with it, so no worries there.

• Arena 8 - It's a Scorcher (Quota: 50): Nothing much really different from this level versus Arena 2, though the barrier is lower. Additionally, fireballs can fall at random from the roof in addition to people, so take note that fireballs can hurt you. At the same time, though, you're interestingly intended to catch them: these fireballs are actually people on fire! XD If you attempt to catch them, then you will be able to catch the person inside - which means, of course, if you screw up, you'll get hurt! Interesting, isn't it? In any case, it's nonetheless pretty easy.

• Arena 9 - Let's Bungee (Quota: 50): The main problems with this level are the constant presence of annoying enemies, which make it very easy for you to die, and the sporadic nature of the bungee jumpers. The people you are intended to rescue are indeed the bungee jumpers: they will jump off of the bridge at the top of the screen, drop down just within reach of your hand for about two seconds, and then be flung back up to the top of the screen where they will, without exception, fly up to the roof of the cave and impale themselves on the stalactites. The main thing to do about this is to simply be quick and to deal with the enemies as much as you can. You do at least get some mild forewarning as to where the bungee jumpers will fall: when they fall, it will always be straight down and they will leave their white, dashed bungee cord behind them.

• Arena 10 - Platform Hell (Quota: 40): Never would've expected a title like that from a video game that would likely otherwise get an "E" rating from the ESRB. >_> In any case, this level is itself a bit glitchy. See, when the people falling from above, if they hit the top of one of those platforms, they are supposed to bounce up and right a bit, as you'll seem them do. However, hit detection is more than a bit glitchy: I've seen people go straight through the middle of some platforms. >_> In any case, the most you can do it try to get underneath the people who are falling and hope for the best. Do try to account in this way for any people who hit platforms, too, but the main thing you'll do in this level is attempt to abuse the rockets that appear. Also don't forget that throwing people at the underside of a platform kills them.

• Boss Level - Look Out! This Guy is Mad!: This is only slightly different from the previous level. In this case, I didn't see any of those "sweeping fireball" attacks that plagued us in the first one, and there are now two shields to help protect the boss. Other than that, it's really like just aiming at the hand at the top, akin to the normal levels though you will have some barriers in the way now.

• Arena 11 - Dump it Out! (Quota: 65): In this level, logs will come by along the top of the screen and in turn drop out numbers of people; usually 1~4. You'll have to grab them to rescue them, though don't expect to grab them all. There's also a rather low laser barrier you'll basically have to throw around, but it's otherwise a simple enough level.

• Arena 12 - Explosive Fun! (Quota: 55): This is yet another interesting level. At times, large explosives will fall from above and, in the whereabouts of the middle of the screen, explode. In turn, several people will be released. You should try to catch as many as possible from this explosion; don't worry about the returning process until you've caught about 60. After, your main problem will be getting around the laser barriers, which will move in a Space Invaders style, going slowly downward, until warping back to the top. This will be hard to deal with: all you really do is try to get a shot in. Usually, the sides are the easiest. You'll probably have to heavily use the rocketmen to get to the next level.

• Arena 13 - Spaz Serpent (Quota: 35): This level has a low quota for a good reason: mostly because, as the people fall from above, the snake in the middle of the screen will knock them aside, making their trajectories pretty hard to predict, and thus the people hard to catch. Catching someone is mostly about following them vigilantly until grabbing them. Of course, when throwing back the humans, you also have the problem of the snake being able to kill them: however, the snake's rather swift speed actually makes that a negligibility.

• Arena 14 - All That Jazz (Quota: 60): Nothing particularly special about this level. People will come from the sides of the screen rather than the top, and they can go varying distances, though nothing that's hard to track. You'll also see another Space Invaders-style laser barrier, which you should nonetheless still be able to deal with.

• Arena 15 - Pop! Pop! Pop! (Quota: 60): Nothing you shouldn't be able to deal with at this point. People will, shall I say, "pop" out of the tin in the middle of the screen, and you'll have to catch and return them. Simple as that.

• Boss Level - Look Out! This Guy is Mad!: ... To be honest, you can simply sit in the starting position and rapidly mash the A Button until you win. The hand will shoot out fireballs straight down and at 45-degree deviations from that; however, it won't fire if hit, and, when at the start, you can only be hit from directly above!

• Final Conflict - Squishi Time!: This battle is insanely difficult; winning without save-state abuse, even with those five lives you earned from winning the previous level, is pretty unlikely. During the course of the battle, your foe will only be able to shoot one shuriken onto the ground at a time; no matter the circumstance, there can only be such shuriken, so use that to your advantage. The shurikens' motion is predictable enough, so you should be able to adapt to that. The main problem comes later in the fight; as you shoot up the face of the Squishi, you find to split into two, and those smaller heads can also split into two, leaving you with four fast-moving foes to fight by the end. Hitting them is very difficult and will require patience on your part. These smallest of heads like to favor the sides of the arena; you can use that to your advantage by cornering them there. However, that also introduces a flaw: the fact that the shurikens can drop on your head. Honestly, given the difficulty of this battle, it will be best to risk it nonetheless.

After the final level, the ending text will appear and the game will remain like that until the console is reset or turned off. So, congrats on beating this game!

Credits

In no particular order...

• GameFAQs, Neoseeker, and Supercheats:
  • For being the most amazing FAQ-hosting sites I know.

• CJayC, SBAllen, and Devin Morgan:
  • General sucking up to the GameFAQs admins. =P

• Me (KeyBlade999):
  • For making this FAQ. =P

• You, the reader:
  • For hopefully enjoying this FAQ.

Version History

• Final:
  • Completed.
  • Time: 1:31 AM 9/20/2014

Legalities

This FAQ may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.

ｩ 2014 Daniel Chaviers (a.k.a. KeyBlade999).

If you would wish to contact me concerning this or my other FAQs, use this e-mail: keyblade999.faqs@gmail.com, or PM (Private Message) me on the GameFAQs message boards.

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