Work Text:
THE GREATEST MAFIAMOVIE EVER MADE
MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS
* GOMENCIO PROCACCI PRODCTION
* A FILM BY MATTEO JWHJ0715
ABOUT THE NAPLES MAFIA
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Contents: Use Cntl+F to search for what you need.
0.a Controls
0.b Pickups
0.c Debug Menu
0.d Enemies
1.a Moscow
1.b Soviet Tank
2.a Naples
2.b Ice Pick Joe (First Fight)
3.a The Chase
4.a The Boat
4.b Sofia Ambrosini
5.a Naples Sewers
5.b Crocomaster
6.a Pompeii
6.b Great Hellhound
7.a The Bridge
7.b Ice Pick Joe (Rematch)
8.a The Clock Tower
8.b Mario Ambrosini / Dragon Mario Ambrosini
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Hello, everyone! I thought it was high time someone put together an FAQ for this thing. While it's by no means a classic, I have a soft spot for it. Honestly, kid me was a bit disappointed by the original film. I mean, where was the high-energy battle over the magma of Mount Vesuvius or the stunning revelation that Ice Pick Joe and Mario Ambrosini were powerful wizards?!
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0.a Controls
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You can swap between some different control schemes in the main menu.
D-Pad: Move Goncharov, aim. You can aim left, right, diagonally and straight up, or crouch and shoot.
Start: Pause
A-Button: Pistol whip
B-Button: Shoot
C-Button: Jump
A+B+C: Grenade. This attack kills every minor enemy on screen and damages bosses. Good for when you get overwhelmed. You'll find ammunition for it scattered throughout the levels.
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0.b Pickups
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There are a variety of pickups along the way. They're encased in floating briefcases throughout the levels: shoot them to get the pickup.
Clock - Your health pickups. Though the game is merciful enough to not have a timer (I can't even imagine the last level with one), it carries over the clock motif from the movie this way.
Guns - Power up your gun, including giving it spread powers and a wider bullet. You lose these when you die. Don't die!
Beer Bottle - Extra lives.
Grenades - Your grenade ammo.
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0.c Debug Menu
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Like in a lot of games, there's a hidden debug menu. To access it, have Goncharov jump while pointing his gun upward, pause the game, and enter A, B, Right, A, C, A, Down, A, B, Right, A (ABRACADABRA). Here you'll find some neat features like being able to give yourself 99 lives, a level warp, and the sound test, including a few unused tracks. (Yes, this is where the Korobeinki cover you've probably seen around comes from. Personally, my favourite is Track A6, the one that sounds a bit like some kind of deranged proto-dubstep.What can I say, I'm a dragon with simple tastes that were deeply influenced by my beloved Yamaha YM2612 fart chip.)
Anyway, trust me. You want the 99 lives cheat if this is your first time playing. The game has no continue system and starting at about Level 3 it gets pretty hard.
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0.d Enemies
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Goncharov allows dead enemies to remain onscreen until you scroll a certain point past them. This ensures that spawn points are only used once, though you'll find that if you backtrack too heavily, they will still respawn. (I guess you can handwave it as someone finding the bodies and setting new guards up!) That said, maybe because of the memory constraints caused by this feature, it doesn't have a whole lot of actual enemy variety. There are a few cool sprites, but when you get down to it most of them are just the basic "mafia goon" enemy with a coat of paint. So, I'll just go over the 'base' enemy types here.
Mafia Goon - The bread and butter of the enemies you'll be facing. They're mafia goons. They shoot at you. Whack them before they whack you.
Bird/Bat - Birds and bats are the same thing in this game. They will swoop you, then fly away. Sometimes you can catch them roosting before they attack: shoot them. Otherwise, it's usually better to doge them.
Animals - Four-legged creatures. Mostly guard dogs, but the later levels have some surprises. They walk their patrol routes back and forth and leap at you if you get too close. It's usually easier to crouch and attack them, because of how low-slung they are.
Animals With Projectiles - Some of the later levels have animals that can shoot at you. Avoid their shots and shoot them first.
Vehicles - Only show up in the chase levels. Cars and boats. Dodge them!
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1.a: Moscow
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Enemies:
Cossack Mafia Goons
Guard Dogs
Hawks
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I've heard the novelisation goes into more detail about Goncharov's time in the Russian Mafia. Presumably this is where this level comes from. Enjoy that really nice background of onion-capped castles as you progress forward, shooting Cossacks and dogs along the way. Most of the hawk spawns here can be avoided by ducking, but watch out for the one right before the boss. There's some grenades scattered around the level: climb up to the left of the start of the level, enter the fence the team of three dogs are guarding, and jump over the garbage fire near the boss. You can use them on the boss if you want, but I'd recommend keeping them for later levels. If you need health, there's a clock near the last grenade.
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1.b Boss: Soviet Tank
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The authorities apparently aren't taking kindly to Goncharov leaving the country. Or maybe the Russian Mafia is peeved at his insubordiance. Either way, easy enough boss: just climb onto the platform and jump to avoid its charge attack, do your best to dodge the shells, and shoot it until it explodes.
Once you win, you'll be treated to a cutscene featuring stills from the movie in glorious 16 bits.
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2.a: Naples
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Enemies:
Italian Mafia Goons
Guard Dogs
Hawks
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Honestly, this level is pretty much the same idea as Moscow, just with a different backdrop. If there's one thing you can say in this game's favour, it has some beautiful background art and music. Though I'm not sure why we can see the Leaning Tower of Pisa from Naples...
Anyway, more of the same. Go from left to right, and be sure to pick up the grenades in the barbershop and over the pizza oven (you'll need to climb the ladder to the left). Watch out for a nasty dog spawn just past the second grenade drop - you might want to use one of your grenades here if you get overwhelmed. There's a hidden clock if you shoot the stop sign just past this encounter.
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2.b Boss: Ice Pick Joe (First Fight)
The dev team apparently picked up on how much of a popular darkhorse Joe is, so he's a recurring boss. In this first encounter it's a fairly normal shootout in first person: snipe Joe before he snipes you, take out his underlings, and marvel at SEGA's lax censorship policies. (Best version of the game for this reason alone - sorry, SNES players!)
Enjoy the cutscene and move on to the most infamous level in the game.
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3.a: The Chase
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Enemies:
Italian Mafia Goons
Cars
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AKA: That Level No One Got Past
Yeah, yeah, this is the most infamous level. The one where Ice Pick Joe chases you. The Turbo Tunnel of Goncharov. The one AVGN blew a fuse at.
Can you believe there's a whole five more levels after this?
The level actually opens with a short platforming section. Avoid the goons as much as possible, especially if you died and lost your weapon powerups during the first fight with Joe, until you come to Goncharov's car. There will be a short cutscene, and then the chase sequence starts. It plays out like a maze: miss the correct turns and Joe will get closer, while making the correct choice lets you get a lead on him. If he catches up, you'll lose a life. Meanwhile, you'll be having to shoot at the rest of Mario's goons trying to ram you. It's a lot to keep track of!
Honestly, any tips I could give you pale in comparison to just playing it to get a feel for the obstacles. I highly recommend topping up your lives in the debug menu before getting in the car, because once you're in, the debug menu won't work: you'll have to, at best, pull the debug up again to come back here if you run out of lives.
But if you'd like a list of the correct options, here we go:
Top
Top
Middle
Bottom
Middle
Bottom
Top
Middle
Bottom
Bottom
Bottom
Middle
At this point the road will now have four forks. You're halfway there!
Topmost
Top middle
Top middle
Bottommost
Bottom middle
Topmost
Bottommost
Top middle
Bottommost
Bottom middle
Top middle
Topmost
Topmost
Topmost
Bottommost
And after that last infuriating fakeout, congrats! You did it! Enjoy the cutscene and move on to The Boat. No boss here, thankfully!
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4.a: The Boat
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Enemies:
Boats
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Ice Pick Joe Chase 2.0! Yay?
The game seems to be trying really hard to get people to stop playing past this point, with two horrible chase levels in a row. It's okay. Persevere and we'll get back to the run-and-gun soon enough. Technically, you're playing as Katya for this level.
The boat chase is distinguished from the car chase by being more about making jumps and dodging than picking the right directions, and it's as or more brutal depending on where you skills as a gamer lie. I honestly can't give you much in the way of tips here... you just have to get a feel for this level.
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4.b Boss: Sofia Ambrosini
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At the end of the stage, instead of a boss, there's a minigame where you try to hold your breath as Sofia tries to drown you. Mash that fire button as hard as you can. There's actually a unique game over screen if you fail, but I'm not sure if it's worth throwing the minigame to see it, since you have to go back to the level's last checkpoint if you die here, right before all that nonsense with the jumping and then jumping onto midair ramps.
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5.a: Naples Sewers
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Enemies:
Italian Mafia Goons
Lizardmen Mafia Goons
Crocodiles (same AI as guard dogs)
Bats
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Come on, don't tell me you don't remember the sewer scene from the movie. :-p
As best I can tell, after Katya barely survives, Goncharov comes to the sewers to look for her. She's been captured by some kind of crocodile monster? Maybe he's the creation of one of Mario's dark experiments (just wait, I promise this will... okay it still won't really make sense, but it might make MORE sense later).
Anyway, we start the level by climbing down the ladder into the sewers. You should probably climb up most of the ladders you see: they usually have health pickups or grenades at the top. The path through is actually pretty linear, but it can be easy to get turned around, so make sure you do kill some enemies so their corpses can act kind of like breadcrumbs behind you. Some of the jumps here are INCREDIBLY obnoxious; just... do your best, and don't be surprised if you fall into the water and die a few times per jump.
Good music, though.
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5.b Boss: Crocomaster
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I think it should be pretty clear by now the developers wanted to make a different game, but it's okay because Crocomaster here (not an official name, it's just what I always called him as a kid) is a fun bossfight after a slog of a level. And at least they do make some nods towards the anchovies here.
Crocomaster has two attacks, both of which should be easy enough to dodge. When he crouches, he's about to use his jump attack; when his mouth opens, he's about to sic the anchovy swarm on you. Shoot him when his mouth's open enough times and you'll win.
Enjoy the cutscene that makes no attempt to reference what just happened; it's the bit from the film where Goncharov pulls Katya out of the river after the boat scene.
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6.a: Pompeii
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Enemies:
Italian Mafia Goons
Hawks
Guard Dogs
Demon Mafia Goons
Fire Bats
Hellhounds
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Ah yes, the famous Pompeii scene. Where Mount Vesuvius went off again and Goncharov had to dodge lava flows and demons.
Look, just go with it. Every Genesis game needs a lava level. It is law.
The first half of the level is fairly normal for the game, though they're starting to throw more enemies at you moment-to-moment. Once you get to the halfway point, though, Joe summons the fires of the volcano to rain hell upon the world, transforming the enemies into their demonic forms or maybe summoning demons? Who knows at this point. Watch out for the hellhounds - they have a fire projectile attack! They're a real pain in the neck since you have to jump to dodge their fire bullets, yet still have to crouch to hit the darn things.
Powerups are getting scarce, but there's a nice little hidden area: fall through the lava between the two stop signs and you'll find a hidden room with clocks, beer bottles, and grenades. Highly recommend grabbing everything you can: you'll need it for the last two levels.
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6.b Boss: Great Hellhound
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Again, no official name that I know of. Joe summons this thing and sics it on you before running off.
I hope you've been saving your grenades, because this thing will summon lesser hellhounds periodically, and the fight can get really chaotic with them on the field. If more than two of them end up summoned, toss off a grenade, and in the meantime focus on dodging Great Hellhound's fire breath and claw swipes as you fire for all you've got.
The cutscene will show the destruction of Pompeii from the movie. Who knew it involved summoning the beasts of Hell, right?
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7.a: The Bridge
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Enemies:
Demon Mafia Goons
Fire Bats
Hellhounds
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"There's an iconic bridge scene, right?"
After the mazelike structure of the last two levels, the bridge level here is very straightforward: left to right, shooting enemies along the way. So many hellhounds. So many.
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7.b Boss: Ice Pick Joe (Rematch)
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Ice Pick Joe, after an entire game of menacing Goncharov, makes his final stand here. I gotta say, the bosses are really the highlight of this game, and Joe is no exception.
Joe, apparently a powerful wizard, uses ice to battle you. His ice attack will come either high, medium, or low. Don't jump if it's high, duck if it's medium, and jump if it's low, and don't be too surprised to get hit by bad spawn patterns. Don't get too close to him, or he'll try to smack you with his ice pick, which does an entire two squares worth of damage. Stay as far away from him as you can and just keep shooting; you'll get him eventually!
At the end of the fight, Mario will appear and cast some kind of fire magic on Joe in the shape of a giant pick, killing him and running off.
Enjoy the 16-bit screenshot of Joe's death from the film, and move on to the final level.
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8.a: The Clock Tower
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Enemies
Demon Mafia Goons
Fire Bats
Hellhounds
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I remember the back of the box said something about "more than seven levels of action!" Well, here's the more than seven part. Hope you took out life insurance, Goncharov!
This level is a nightmare of the game throwing the bats at you. If you have any grenades left after the Great Hellhound, use them here with abandon. I hate the bat spamming so much.
Still, the music is incredible, and the aesthetics of the level - climbing around inside the clock tower - are second to none. It's still fairly straightforward: just MAKE SURE YOU DON'T BACKTRACK. You WILL be torn apart by fire bat spam.
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8.b Boss: Mario Ambrosini
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Mario has two phases. The first is probably about what you might expect: a first-person shootout, similar to the first Ice Pick Joe fight, just faster and with more damage from the boss.
But, once you deplete that health bar, guess what! Yes, that's right, Mario Ambrosini was really a dragon the whole time!
Man, this would have solved so many problems in the movie, mostly by creating new ones.
Dragbrosini (not the official name) has a variety of attacks that you're just going to have to get a feel for. The basic attacks are a claw slash and fire breath, similar to Great Hellhound. As the fight progresses, he'll take off and try to swoop you; watch where he's coming from and jump or duck accordingly. When he lands and raises his head to roar, he's about to try summoning fire bats - set off a grenade or pump as much lead into him as you can and you can sometimes get him to abort the summon. Near the end of the fight, he'll start breathing fire on the ground during his swoop attacks, which feels like it's almost impossible to avoid. Grit your teeth and do your best, because it means he's on the ropes. Eventually, you'll get him!
Still, even though you slew Dragbrosini, the story is after all still a tragedy. Enjoy the final cutscene and the AWESOME credits theme. There's a reason it's the most popular song from this game to arrange over at OC Remix.
Congratulations! You've beaten Goncharov (1993)!