"But BBH!" I hear you say. "You get infinite credits on the home versions of the game, and anyone else playing the arcade version on an emulator can use as many credits as they wish. What's the point in trying to play with this thing you call 'skill'?"

...because I worked out all these strategies on my own and I feel they should be shared, okay?!?

If you were paying attention during the overview of controls/attacks, you may recall that I mentioned the knife being a more effective means of attack than punching with the fists. And it is - it comes out faster than a punch, and the third "knockdown" stab is harder for enemies to counter than a third right punch. You really should not be using regular punches to attack at all - the only times you should be pressing A with the fists is to see if you can KO an enemy with an uppercut, because those are fine.

However, there is one little problem - when you get to the higher levels, you may notice that sometimes even when you do a knife stab at an enemy, they still may counter your attack instantly with one of their own before your knife hits. This happens a lot with midbosses/bosses in particular, and generally only happens if the enemy has not already committed to an attack of their own.

How do you get around this? You make the enemy whiff an attack first by strafing past them, of course. Move left or right until you see them startup an attack. You'll keep moving out of range and their attack will whiff. Then take the opportunity to strafe back in front of them, but press the A button early so you sort of "lead" the knife into them. Then keep pressing the A button until two more attacks come out, with the last attack knocking them back (if they're not already dead). Then either another enemy will walk up to fight, or the same enemy will walk back up towards you. You can repeat the process all over again by timing the first knife stab to hit the enemy RIGHT as they have fully walked towards you, right as they become vulnerable. Keep mashing A, get two more hits and knock them back, lather rinse repeat.

"Doint nothing but stabbing all day gets boring though. Isn't there anything else I can do?"

Of course - The Hook Punch Loop.

The hook punch loop is a very effective means of dealing damage, but you MUST have the timing down. The general idea behind this is, well, to keep hitting the enemy with hook punches. Each hook punch knocks the enemy to the left a bit, so you want to start this from however far right you can walk on the screen. The hard part of course, is landing that first hook punch. The AI is programmed to counter-punch you 99% of the time if you just throw out a hook punch out of the blue. To start the loop, you need to connect with a hook punch when the enemy is walking towards you.

This will be started one of two ways - either be doing knife strafing to land three knife stabs and the knockdown, or just pull out your pistol/machinegun and just knock them back with a bullet instead, if you can spare it. Now you have to time that hook punch perfectly so it connects right as their sprite has fully scaled up in your face.

Too early! The hook punch whiffs and they might start an attack while you're recovering.

Too late! You waited too long and triggered their counterpunch.

Eventually you'll hit a [usually invisible] wall on the left side and you won't be able to connect any more hook punches. Throw out a regular A attack to see if you can KO with the uppercut - remember, hook punches don't always KO an enemy immediately. If they can withstand more punishment (which is likely if they're a boss/midboss), then lure them back to the right side and do some more knife strafing. If you need to see the hook punch loop in video format, be sure to watch my video at the end of this article - you'll be seeing PLENTY of hook punches (until you get bored and close the video)

Mastering these techniques will come in very handy as you get farther in the game, because they will be pretty much your only means of doing real damage since bullets get less and less effective with each new level (unlike your fists and knife, your pistol/machinegun do not increase in power as your experience level goes up).

Okay, that's it. We now return you to your regularly scheduled walkthrough, already in progress.

(Note: this floor is so short it doesn't actually have a map room. I found this and the rest of the maps at http://www.jap-sai.com/Games/Super_Spy/Super_Spy.htm. They seem to have been made from scratch, following the same format as the other maps in the game. Sorry for stealing these maps, whoever it was that made these! But one of the maps actually had an error in the level layout that I had to manually fix anyway, so whatever.)

Yeah, so you blew up the terrorists' factory, 6 of the 10 bombs, and their blueprints for an even more deadly bomb. That's some mighty fine spy work, Roy. But the terrorists have taken over the Tadoya (a "clever" spin on Toyota) building, and six bosses are waiting for you.

I guess because you managed to handle that first mission so well, they figure you don't need any help with your next mission either. Hoo boy...

Luckily the first floor of the Tadoya building is the simplest floor yet - literally all you have to do is walk left to right (watch out, there's a security camera along the way) to get to the elevator. Well there is one door, maybe we should see what's inside...

Uhhh, whoops. Sorry Miss. Let's pretend that never happened and move on...

A -

B -

C -

D -

E - Machinegun

Lots of people to talk to on this floor. I guess we learned... some... stuff? Now we know there are 5 leaders to kill besides the last boss himself, although that was easy to piece together from the status bar at the top of the screen. "Are we going to be destroyed as in the last terrorism?" is one of my favorite bits of Engrish from the game though. At least they're using some new sprites for these guys instead of all those factory scientists... although they did just use the exact same head twice on the same floor. Heh.

Enter the last door before the elevator for a machinegun. Sweet!

A - Ambush Trap

B -

C -

Anyway. To get to the exit of this floor, after going north from the first hallway, head all the way to the left, and then Down to reach the elevator. This is like that machinegun in 3F of the first building, but luckily the hallway you need to get to is right next to a wall so you don't have to try to get yourself in an exact position - just go all the way left, and be ready to press Down as soon as the last enemy has faded away from existence.

Enemies on this floor are worth 100 XP, which may make you feel a little bit better. You'll hit Level 5 on this floor if you're not there already.

A - Health Restoration

B -

C -

D -

You can restore some health in the first door you come across. This floor isn't too bad, but you'll reach a strange fork in the road at the end of it - there are TWO elevators to get into. Uh oh, this is a new development. Will both elevators take you to where you need to go? Maybe it's just a matter of alternate routes, with one of the routes being "easier"?

Unfortunately, the answer is the former. Taking the elevator on the left will bring you to the 12th floor, which sounds great except it's a COMPLETE AND TOTAL DEAD END. It's only there as another dick move from the designers to get you lost and make you have to backtrack. There's no doors or anything of interest on that floor, nothing but lots of "random" midbosses. Don't waste your time.

Take the elevator on the right and you'll go to the 5th floor.

A - Ambush Trap

B - Health Restoration

One of the hostages on the last floor said the power was out - and sure enough, this floor is dark. Oooooo! The floor layout is almost identical to the 4th floor too, and luckily it also happens to have another room with health restoration ladies.

Enemies on this floor are worth 200 XP. You could hit Level 6 during this floor if you actually wanted to spend some time "grinding" in front of the health room if you don't need it immediately. (but come on, why would you do that)

Also, if the power's out, why the fuck do the security cameras still work?!?

.....and just like the 4th floor, there's two elevators at the end of this floor too. Fucking fantastic. They did the exact same thing here - the left elevator is a trap to get you lost on the 12th floor (it literally takes you to the same spot). So again, take the elevator on the right to go to the 6th floor. Luckily, there's only one more instance in the game in which they pull this stunt of confusing you with multiple elevators.

A -

B -

C -

D -

E -

F -

G -

H -

I - BOSS

Lotsa people to talk to on this floor (or not, you can just skip them now that you've seen the screenshots and stuff). From them we learn that Nick, the first of the five leaders, is hanging around on this floor! There's not much else to say about this floor other than it's long and has lots of doors. Well I guess it's also worth mentioning those weird rooms where a computer disk drive apparently threatens you. What the fuck?! The game tops it all off by playing a weird ominous noise when you leave the room too. I wonder if the Japanese translation of these rooms means anything different...

Anyway, we've got the first of the five leaders to fight. Let's see who it is...

Oh great, it's a palette swap of the bald scientist guy. Very original, SNK. After all the recycled enemy sprites, you couldn't draw a new boss here?

Zuh?

Fucking. BULLSHIT.

In a game that has quite a few dick moves already, this is the absolute worst.

I've tried using savestates to figure out how quickly one can defeat him, to see the minimum amount of damage the player can take. The best I could do was taking 4 hit points of damage, and that was an obscene amount of luck with the pistol - pretty much every time I tried to do it I'd lose 5 points of health. If you have the machinegun and just spray and pray, you can get through it losing 5 points of health at most, although you'll probably average 6 lost points of health. Maybe even 7 if he leaps off the screen.

So if you go into this battle with 4 points of health or less? Sorry player, it's game over for you! Insert coin, motherfucker!

And the best part about all this? The "antidote" stops the poison but doesn't restore any of the health that the game unfairly stole from you. There isn't even a health restoration room anywhere on this floor!

Yeah, sorry for ranting but this was infuriating to deal with when I took on the challenge to finish the game with no continues. It means having to play perfectly after you restore health on the 5th floor, taking no damage until you reach the boss because you can't afford to make many mistakes. You COULD leave the health room open on the 5th floor and then attempt to backtrack your way there after the boss is dead, but that's a long way to go and is kinda risky.

The point is, 100% unavoidable damage is BAD, you hear me?!??

Calm down.... breathe in... breathe out... okay. The good news is, the biggest load of bullshit in the game is over and dealt with! Hooray! After killing him you'll get key card #1 and can then proceed to the elevator. Five more bosses to go... thank god none of the rest are completely unfair like this...

A - Machinegun

B -

C -	D - Ambush Trap

E - Health Restoration

F - Ambush Trap

G - Ambush Trap

H -

I - BOSS

After the bullshit unavoidable damage you had to take from the last boss, it's nice that the game put a health restoration room on this floor. But it's a bit of a walk to get there! Don't skip the available machinegun on the way there either, more bullets are always a nice thing.

We've got another leader to deal with on this floor... and strangely enough, one of the hostages says that it's King, the big boss of the entire terrorist organization? What an interesting turn of events, you'd think he would be at the highest point of the building. Sure would be nice to catch a break for once...

And located at the last door before the elevator is this dapper fellow in a suit. Hey, maybe it is King after all!

...but for someone who's supposed to be King, he doesn't really put up too much of a fight. He punches and kicks... and does a rapid triple kick... and that's about it. His attacks aren't very fast either, he's actually pretty easy to kill with just the knife if you feel so inclined.

When you do enough of damage to him, he doesn't die immediately. No, instead he walks back up to you, and then... get ready for a surprise...

.....um.... okay...?! What the fuck just happened here???

If you don't have the game manual, here's the lowdown - the man you just killed was not King, but another leader of the group named "Back Gallop" (yes, seriously). The manual also states that "he can disguise himself as other characters so as to sneak into the center of the enemies base". So wait, was he really one of the bad guys? Was he someone on your side who had disguised himself as King and was infiltrating their base, but you accidentally killed him? Or was he a bad guy who just happened to have a cosplay hobby? I'm seriously confused. Maybe there's more explanation about this in the Japanese version which got lot in translation to English? Probably not.

Aaaaanyways. Upon killing him you'll get key card #2, although for some reason the 2nd card replaces the third boss profile at the top instead of the second. Don't worry, you didn't miss anything. Just take the elevator to the next floor.

Holy shit, it's Elevator World! Geez, where do we go from here?

The only enemies on this floor are machinegun guys. This is good since you can get through without having to actually fight anyone but you're going to have to keep crouching to move between all the available elevators.

The first elevator will take you to 9F. This is where you want to go if you're just interested in making progress through the game as quickly as possible.

However, this floor is also the key to... well let's call it a sidequest. The other elevators can be used to pick up the brass knuckles, which greatly increases the power of all attacks done with your right arm (most notably the hook punch). If you're playing the game like a man and doing the hook punch loop, then it's worth your time to go get the brass knuckles. But it's not absolutely necessary for finishing the game, obviously.

If you want to skip it, just go to the next page where 9F starts. Otherwise, keep reading.

Okay, so the set of three elevators in a row. The first one will take you to 13F, which is not where we want to go yet. Go in the elevator in the middle, which will take you to 12F. Strangely, the two "dead end" elevators on 4F and 5F also lead to 12F, but this elevator takes you to a completely different section.

This floor is kind of a pain in the ass because most of the encounters you seem to run into will involve midbosses. Gandhi and Muscle Dude will show up often to slow down your progress. Hopefully you've hit experience level 7 by now.

However, there's another strange quirk to this floor - all the enemies you fight in the vertical corridors award a whopping 600 EXP for some reason! This is the highest amount of EXP you can get from a single enemy in the game, even the enemies on the final floor are only worth 400 EXP. By comparison, the annoying midbosses that will plague you in the horizontal sections of this floor are only worth 300 EXP. If you're somehow interested in leveling up as quickly as possible before doing the rest of the game, you could stay in these hallways for a while to build up EXP faster than you would wasting your time fighting midbosses. I'm not sure why you would want to do this though!

Anyways. Your goal on this floor is to reach room A at the very end. You'll see an elevator along the way... DO NOT GO INTO THE ELEVATOR WHEN YOU FIRST REACH IT! It's a one-way elevator that takes you back to 8F, which would be a colossal waste of time.

After you've talked to the goofball in room A, now you can go back and take the elevator at the top.

It will bring you back to 8F, and now you'll be at the easternmost part of the floor. Start walking to the left, skip the first elevator you come across (it's the one that goes to 12F, which you just came from), and then enter the elevator to the left of that to go to 13F.

Gandhi and Muscle Dude are all over this floor too, but hey at least it's a lot shorter than the 12th floor was.

The guy in room A has something else to say about the shutter, but it's not necessary to talk to him, you can skip this room if you like.

Instead, go to room B at the end. If you talked to the guy about the shutter on 12F, then this door should be open. If you skipped 12F, this door will remain locked and you'll have wasted your time. But if you followed these directions it should be open, and so...

The brass knuckles are a strange item - it goes over your right fist and permanently increases the attack power on two of your attacks - the hook punch, and the third punch in an A-A-A combo. Strangely, it does not seem to powerup the charge punch at all (unless it's charged up all the way, maybe? it doesn't seem to increase damage on partial charges... and since you almost never get a chance to fully charge a punch then why bother). More importantly though, the brass knuckles are a PERMANENT item that stays with you even if you die and continue! So at least all that sidequesting wasn't for nothing if you die now.

Improving the damage on the third A-A-A punch isn't that helpful - although you do seem to get counterattacked less by enemies with the brass knuckle equipped, you should still be using the knife if you're using the strafing strategy. However, if you do knock an enemy down and have the chance to go for the hook punch loop, the brass knuckles will increase the damage on every hook punch, making it the fastest way to take down midbosses/bosses. I don't know the exact amount of damage that the brass knuckles add - for the most part, it'll usually do double the damage of a regular punch / rusty knife stab. If you're "overleveled" and killing enemies with only a few hits, the brass knuckles seem to do a little less extra damage than they would if you were "underleveled" in the same situation, if that makes any sense. Either way, it's some nice extra damage so pick it up! Just a shame that it appears so late in the game...

Now then. After you've gotten the knuckles, fight your way back to where you came from, which will put you back on 8F yet again. Walk to the left to the first elevator you see, and proceed to the 9th floor.