Wrath of the Black Manta FAQ/Walkthrough v. 1.0

This FAQ is copyright 2001 by Ezra Poetker(Epoetker.) It may not be 
distributed publicly without the prior consent of the author, which may be 
obtained handily at epoetker@hotmail.com.  Posting it on your website 
without my consent is copyright infringement and will result in legal 
action.  Copying it and printing it out for your own personal use will 
result in absolutely nothing done by me.  Distributing it in a 
magazine...heck...why would anyone want to do that?  This game's like 12 
years old by now!  Only GameFAQS and about.com are authorized to use this 
FAQ as of this moment.  All other rights reserved.

Ninjas are cool.  Even in the years after the 80s, the height of ninja fame, 
they were cool enough to be mascots for anything from pizza to cigarettes.  
(A ninja Joe Camel would have been UNSTOPPABLE, I tell you!) So it pretty 
much figured that the government would work one or two of them into the WAR 
ON DRUGS, and boy, did they ever pick the right one!  The Black Manta 
doesn't take crap from bad guys wielding guns-he either tosses a few 
shurikens their way, busts out his knives on their blue-jumpsuited hides, or 
interrogates them...then kills them. For the love of God, don't mess with 
this guy.

Anyhoo, it seems that children are disappearing around New York lately, and 
rather than work with the police and FBI to find the criminal mastermind 
that started all of this, our hero decides to use this episode to gain 
enough brownie points with his master to complete his training.  It's sort 
of like Luke Skywalker showing that he can slaughter a whole horde of people 
to "prove" to Yoda that he's advanced far enough to learn the new hidden 
Jedi skills.  But, unlike most instances of Nintendo Logic, this actually 
makes a whole lot of sense in context.  Police have the fussy little problem 
of "civil rights laws" that keeps them from blowing criminals off the 
street, so any police Manta brought with him would have just slowed him down 
with paperwork.  Besides, when they go back to an area Manta's been through 
and find only a bunch of free children and dead guys in jumpsuits with ninja 
stars protruding from their chests and throats, there aren't likely to be 
any major questions.  You just clean up the bodies, send the children home, 
and celebrate the guy who just made police work in that precinct a whole lot 
easier with doughnuts and beer.

A word on Arts:

This is probably one of the coolest things about this game, although not 
strictly necessary until the very end.  If you get tired of simply tossing 
out clouds of shuriken, you can charge up your POW gauge and execute an art 
of some sort.  Note that the type of Art used depends on when you RELEASE 
the B button, not when you first press it.

Arts you start out with and how to activate them:

SHADOW: Causes a copy of yourself to appear above you, will basically 
imatate whatever you do, which in practical terms means you now have a wider 
field of shuriken-fire.  Release the B button while standing still.

FIRE WHEEL: Much more useful than it looks, and really strong to boot.  
Great for bosses.  Release the B button while walking left or right.

MISSILE: These fireballs are much more powerful than regular ninja stars.  
Hold UP when you release B.

GROUND FIRE: Maybe you can find a use for them in hopping over crates to hit 
enemies there.  I didn't, but you can try.  Release B while crouching.

Act 1: No, this game did NOT rip off Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden!  Honest!

After a rousing chat with your master on the situation, you set out to 
explore the odd back alleys of New York, frequented by gymnasts and former 
basketball players who can jump as high as you can.  The first note you get 
erroneously tells you that the man in red "knows something."  Well, go run 
into the man in red if you want.  Sure, he looks like a criminal-the type 
you'd find in a 1920's silent film who ties damsels to railroad tracks and 
can be taken out in one punch by ERROL FLYNN.  Dastardly Dan doesn't seem to 
know anything, so just kill the man and say bye-bye. The note on the other 
side of the hole(if you didn't fall in already) says that the left wall has 
a secret door-just shoot it (stand on the pipe, not the floor) and get the 
POW box on the bottom. It's fairly necessary...you can theoretically make 
your arts last longer, go faster, or do more damage with this extra 
extension to your charge gauge.  Grab the next red guy and threaten him 
nicely, and he'll tell you he was involved in the kidnappings but not much 
else.  Once you get to the door with the exit sign, keep going in and 
killing the guys inside until your life fills up to a healthy eight blocks.  
Head on up and jump back out on the streets. The next two doors just go to 
enemy rooms, and the third red guy tells you that his organization is 
"pretty big" after you tell him to "be a good boy." I kinda figured out the 
"pretty big" already, Einstein-how many criminal organizations are so big 
and powerful that they can give identical blue and red jumpsuits to their 
employees?  SO hard to get good info these days...now the next door has a 
life bar in it(you don't need to fight any guys) and the next red guy 
promises to talk but fails to deliver.  Gut 'im.  Drop down the hole and 
shoot the left wall again(note: you have to get really close and shoot 
really fast to do this right) and pick up the POW block.  Enter the door to 
get the note that told you to shoot the door.  Interrogate the first red 
guy, he tells you that the reasons for kidnapping the kids are "Business 
reasons."  This leads me to think Donald Trump may be involved in this.  The 
next red guy by the door at the end talks about spies infiltrating the 
governments of the world.  Spies everywhere.  I've got it, Watson, the red 
men are Commies!  Enter the door and kill all the people in the room to save 
the kid, who for some odd reason is encased in a block of ice.  WHY?  What 
conceivable purpose is there in putting someone in an ice block?  A gag 
would be just as useful, less time-consuming, and slightly less likely to 
have chances of killing the person!  Still, the kid seems happy enough with 
his 80s hairstyle, so give a few encouraging words and shoot the right wall 
that he was talking about.  Advance upward and get back to the streets.  Get 
the note in the room, shoot the right wall while standing on top of the 
doorpost, clear out all the doors in the hidden side street(taking time out 
to make your name known among the children and to spread a few anti-drug 
messages)and double back right.  The commies know pretty much nothing, and 
the doors are all uneventful, but for the one that warns: "TINY is in the 
next room."  Heh...walk through the big hole in the wall and meet him.

BOSS: Tiny
Obviously the name was an evil plot to FOOL the young ninja into thinking it 
would be an easy fight.  Actually, it still is, beacuse with the art of the 
SHADOW, you can jump up and make Tiny take it on the chin easily.  Just 
avoid the nasty falling bricks.

Interlude: You learn the arts of INVISIBILITY and SPIDER, and Raffish Raplh 
goes and tells his boss (Donald Trump with a mustache, looks like) that they 
got their butts whooped.  The boss, being an intelligent person when it 
comes to ninjas, decides to go to Japan, where the leagues of ninjas on his 
side shall SURELY destroy the intrepid, drug-busting Manta!  What will 
happen next?  Tune in next week for:

Japan: What kind of crappy unskilled assembly-line ninjas carry guns?

Changing Arts:

Not that you have more than four Arts, you'll probably be wondering how to 
unlock the new ones.  Press SELECT to go to the Art subscreen, hit UP or 
DOWN to go through the Art positions, and when you come to a position that 
has more than one Art, hit RIGHT to bring up the little red cursor.  Move it 
UP or DOWN and press A to select which art you want in that position.  Yeah, 
they could have made the selection process just a LITTLE bit more intuitive.

If you haven't been practicing your arts yet, now would be a good time.  You 
really can't kill the red guys on carpets with shurikens before they just 
float away...use the art of the FIRE WHEEL to knock them out quickly.  Grab 
the carpet and get ready to fly the not-so-friendly skies. Again, your 
shuriken are BAD when it comes to fighting the dudes on carpets, so just 
charge up your gauge to fire MISSILES at them instead.  After finishing the 
harrowing carpet ride, you drop down, whereupon I suggest you go right 
first.  Use the art of the SPIDER to roll underground and avoid the spiky 
things falling from the trees, then roll back up to take on the next wave of 
baddies.  The first room can be used to refill your life, and the first red 
guy shows, unlike most of the other commies, a thorough knowledge of his 
company's mission statement.  The next door contains a Japanese kid who 
looks remarkably like that American Daniel-san guy from The Karate Kid.  In 
fact, only the bad guys actually LOOK Japanese in this stage(insert 
anti-Asian comment here).  Go left until you hit the wall(next commie has no 
info for ya) and "shoot low," i.e: Duck and shoot.  More POW for me!  Go all 
the way back through the throng of baddies till you get to the place where 
you fight some REAL ninjas-these guys have knives, know how to teleport, and 
carry firearms.  Worst of all, they take from two to three shuriken hits to 
kill, which means that they'll probably get close enough to inflict some 
heavy damage with those knives before you get through here.  Before you go 
down the hole, duck and shoot the bottom wall(you'll have to duck to shoot 
pretty much every other hidden wall in this game now, so just do that in the 
future) to find a note that says kids are in the lower rooms.  Bleh.  Go 
down, free the kid, and shoot the wall to find another POW block.  Advance, 
find out from Red that Japan is already completely controlled by crime 
syndicates(like we hadn't already learned from anime that the entire 
Japanese police force consists of a bunch of freelance heroes like Manta, 
and most don't even carry guns...) get back up to the surface, learn from 
the next native-Japanese commie that the boss is "like, a pretty heavy dude, 
you know?"  Head on down, free the kid who, though he says he doesn't know 
Taro, somehow could identify him as he guy who left a note in the next 
room(should have killed him...he's probably a double agent...) Next red guy 
has nothing to say, just go up and shoot the bottom wall to get a life bar.  
Then go into the first door to get ANOTHER one.  Then get ready to face 
another wave of EVIL ninjas...and after that, the REALLY evil ninjas that 
turn into totem poles!

Boss: Ninja(s)

When these guys start dropping in the center, take that moment to stand 
close and knife them, as it does a heck of a lot more damage than the 
shurikens.  Just dodge the fire that the totem pole spits at you, jump 
around dodging the last piece when it begins to fly, and try to get close 
and knife it for a quick and easy win...I beat this battle in about 15-20 
seconds, maybe.

Interlude: You gain the art of the FIRE BOMB, and learn that the boss's name 
ISN'T Donald Trump, it's El Toro!( Coincidentally, the same name as my city. 
)  Toro alludes to "this weapon...", but other than that, this encounter 
doesn't reveal too much more.

Rio de Janiero: Arrgh, matey, I've noticed that the sewers look the same the 
world over!

Make your way up the platforms, using the art of the FIRE BOMB to kill the 
ninjas before they can descend to your level.  Use the FIRE WHEEL to snag 
another magic carpet, and (glitch heaven!) fly right through the metal post 
if you want to.  MISSILE the wave of baddies, and make your way to the ship, 
dodging ninjas and refilling your life from the first door, and ignoring the 
note in the second.  Advance to port, and find out from the first door that 
you're saving Rastafarian minors now-who'da thunk it!  Shoot the bottom half 
of the wall to find a life bar, then go down. Pirate Red don't know nuthin', 
and even the kid you save doesn't tell you about an hidden doors-fortunately 
her friend at the last door does, and you get a POW for the trouble of 
shooting at the right wall.  Get on up, find an L bar in the third door and 
a not in the last one...which leads you to a kid who tells you to shoot the 
bottom left wall down in the hole for another POW block.  The second door 
has a life block, and RedBeard the Pirate's an idiot, as usual.  Head on up 
and out; and enter the door to face...THE HORRIBLY EASY VOODOO WARRIOR!

Boss: Voodoo Warrior

Rather than being smart and killing you by, say, sticking pins in a doll, 
this guy has to get out and make a volcano explode between two skull shaped 
rocks to give himself the power of flight.  If you have trouble on him, 
there's no way you'll ever beat this game...

Interlude: You get the FIRE RAIN, basically a slower version of the FIRE 
BOMB.  Long John Silver goes and tells El Toro that the voodoo warrior was 
defeated.  Classic response: "What?  That's...IMPOSSIBLE...no one could do 
it except...(cue music) THE BLACK MANTA!!!"  Yeah.  Him and anybody else 
with half a brain, doofus.  That was the weakest boss yet...

New York: Aww, crap, now the CIA's in on this too!

Yep, you're fighting the U.S. army now, fortunately, in their extensive 
miltary training, Uncle Sam forgot to teach them how to duck.  Or at least, 
duck low enough to dodge your shurikens.  Sad, people.  After you pass the 
wrecking balls, the first door, like, has this, like, totally cool chick 
that tells you to shoot the wall at the end before the hole.  However, the 
only thing in the door above or in the secret rooms are enemy "traps" and 
life bar rooms.  Head on down, past the first door(enemy room), and 
apprehend the red guy for perhaps the greatest anti-drug lecture in Nintendo 
history.  Actual quote: "Drugs kill you think you're cool but you're not."  
Don't laugh...this is what comes of being a ninja with John Brown tendencies 
when it comes to drugs.  Besides, the guy you catch looks like a Dick Tracy 
villain, and you can lecture him all you want.  Leave Muggsy and head on 
past the doors-they all lead to enemy rooms and aren't worth bothering about 
unless you need to refill your life for some reason.  After you come out on 
top, the second room has a girl who tells you to shoot the right wall, head 
on out and do just that.  Again, all there are behind these walls are 
enemies and L bars.  Drop down and pick up the note that tells you to use 
the art of INVISIBILITY when fighting the robots.  The first door takes you 
to a meaningless trap warning, the second to an enemy room, the third to an 
L bar.  The next red guy brags about being bigger than the Mafia (Yeah, if 
you have the US army on your side, you could probably say that...) just kill 
him and ignore the next enemy room.  There's another one on top, along with 
another L bar room.  The third room, as always, contains another kidnapped 
kid, who, yet again, tells you to shoot the wall.( How the heck do they 
always know this, anyway?)  Go ahead and do it(the bottom one, BTW) to find 
another POW, probably your last.  Get down, get in the door, and prepare to 
face...

Boss: The Mousers...ahh...the robots...

All you really have to do is make absolutely sure you hit them in the pods, 
with shurikens, not knives, which for once aren't that useful.  Use 
invisibility if you want, but it doesn't seem to always prevent you from 
getting hit...it's not really INTANGIBILITY, after all.

Interlude: You shall soon become a Master Ninja, Manta-san!  Have fun 
listening to El Toro give the usual evil-villain-in-a-tight-spot speech 
(Quote: "My empire won't be destroyed by a single man!"  He at least sees 
something fishy about a single ninja slaughtering all of his best flunkies.)

Tower: Where's the Matrix team when you need 'em?

Fun place!  The elevator sequences have a transparent behind-the-head view 
of everyone's favorite Ninja in purple, and you get to turn left or right to 
hit bad guys firing guns(and you have such deadly precision with your ninja 
stars that you can HIT THE BULLETS THEY'RE FIRING AT YOU.)  On second 
thought, who needs the Matrix team to storm this building?  There are a 
fairly large number of guys here, but with the arts of LIGHTNING(extremely 
cool to use) and TELEPORTATION(not really useful, but now you can do it too! 
  Door's an enemy room and Lumps don't know nuttin', just head on up to 
Floor 2.  First door here's an enemy room.  Second has an unhelpful kid.  
Get on up the elevators to Floor 3.  Enemy room, a red guy who FINALLY tells 
you exactly where the Big Bull is, L bar, and a guy who actually threatens 
YOU by referring to Taro.  Fiend!  Floor 4: L Bar, Taro's final warning that 
it will take four arts to beat El Toro, a mysteriously...empty...room...and 
a choice of 4 rooms when you enter the elevator.  They basically lead to a 
fight with one of the bosses...choose whichever you think is easiest and use 
LIGHTNING for a quick win.  Then...it's a room with a jukebox!  Time for 
some tuneage...just gotta hit the right button with a shuriken and...aw 
crud, it's Toro and Taro.  Still, this fight is simple enough.  Dodge the 
odd projectile Toro spits at you, use the FIRE BOMB for your first hit, the 
FIRE RING for your second hit, the SPIDER to get behind him, and then 
squeeze off two MISSILES at his back for the coup de grace.  If you use the 
wrong Art, Toro'll regain all his hit points, and if you hit Taro, Toro will 
regain his hit points AND you'll be automatically hurt.  So be careful and 
wait for the explosion and flash when you defeat him.  A winner is you!  All 
your kidnapped children are belong to us!

I won't reveal the ending.  It sucks anyway.

Thanks to...

Masvega, for kindly NOT MAKING his own FAQ when I called dibs on it.
J Dog, if I could ever find him again...
CJayC, for hosting this FAQ.
Al Amaloo, for asking nicely before he uses someone else's toys.
PUhler, for standing up to the Xenogears intifada like no one's business.
Jesus, for standing up to the Pharisees, them that had Manta's philosophy 
but not his outfit.

Comments to epoetker@hotmail.com.  All other rights reserved.

