Introduction

Scenario

Mayhem didn't enjoy living in Monsterland. It was always cold. It was always windy. And it rained every Sunday. It was clearly no place for a cute baby dinosaur.

However, rumour had it that Monsterland had not always been such an unpleasant place to live. The sun used to shine onto green fields with luscious vegetation and scenic mountains - until an apprentice magic dinosaur had too much cactus juice and decided to practise a few of his master's spells. The next morning, when all the monsters awoke, Monsterland had been transformed into a very dark and unhappy place. Mayhem wants to change Monsterland back, but has no magic powers to do this, so he enlists the help of his friend Theo Saurus, the dinosaur responsible for Monsterland's ghastly state. Theo lives below Monsterland in a hidden cave to avoid the wrath of the monsters; here he waits for Mayhem to collect magic dust. With this in his possession, he flies across Monsterland sprinkling the magic dust in order to transform it back to a happy place.

However, because Theo is only a trainee, his magic doesn't always work as well as he'd like it to. Some of the magic dust that he spreads over Monsterland is a little excessive, and clumps together to form magic stars. The magic could be dangerous in the wrong hands - so Mayhe, must collect any magic stars he finds to prevent any further disasters.

Gameplay

Monsterland consists of five different levels: Jellyland, Pipeland, Spottyland, Cherryland and Rockland. When Mayhem starts a level, the land is dark, dismal and downright miserable - the aim of each level is to find all the bags of magic dust and give them to Theo to make the level 'happy' again. Each level has a different quota of magic dust bags to collect, and only certain monsters leave them behind. When all the dust has been collected (See "Status"), the entrance to Theo's cave will start to animate - Mayhem must find this entrance and drop down to hand over the dust.

Once the land has been converted, Mayhem will re-emerge in the happy version of the level. His task here is to collect a desginated amount of stars. Again, each level has a different quota, but bonus points can be earned by collecting more stars than necessary (See "Status"). The rotating stars spin at different speeds - the faster they spin the more points they are worth. As well as the rotating stars, certain monsters leave stars behind when they are killed (See "Bonuses"). Once the star quota has been collected, Mayhem must find the 'finish line' (which is surrounded by black and white checkers) and cross over it. Skidding over the line will result in an extra bonus (see "Control").

Control

RUN/STOP - Pause. Move joystick to resume. When paused, Q will Quit the game.

Pushing left/right on the joystick will make Mayhem walk left/right, increasing in speed the longer the joystick is held left/right. When Mayhem is walking at his fastest, pressing fire (still holding the joystick) will engage his charge mode if the charge icon has been collected (See "Bonuses"). Pushing the joystick in the opposite direction to the charge will make Mayhem skid (the longer the joystick is held, the shorter the skid).

Pushing up on the joystick will make Mayhem jump up, increasing in height the longer the joystick is held up. Mayhem can also jump up through certain platforms during the game, and these vary from level to level.

Pulling down on the joystick will cause Mayhem to duck. Pulling down and pressing fire will make Mayhem drop through certain platforms (again, these vary from level to level).

Mayhem is also equipped with a 'half life', which effectively gives him two chances. If hit by a monster, Mayhem will lose his half life. If he gets hit again, he will die (unless he picks up another half life, see "Bonuses").

Bonuses

Certain monsters, when killed, will leave behind a bonus icon for Mayhem to collect...

Status Panel

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Hold down SHIFT and press RUN/STOP.