Always try to kill enemies as you see them. If you simply
rush past, you may find that you miss an exit to a bonus
screen or some cheese and remember the locations of bonus
(gumby-spring) screens.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, but should you come
up against Cardinal Ximinez and his cohorts, here is what to
do: Position yourself underneath the arc of the flying
cushions and open fire with your fish.(there is a Safe spot).
If you want a maxi-maximum score, you can also knock out
the pillows (they take six hits and are worth 400 points
each)
Dead parrots don't do much, they are dead, after all, but
they can give Gumby grief if he is not careful. Please note
that they appear from the top if you are at the bottom half
of the screen and from the bottom if you are at the top.
Feet move very in a predictable pattern and do not fire
bullets. All you have to do is find a safe place to sit and
come up every now and them to shoot them.
Hamsters are easily shot down, but it is often necessary to
fly past them instead. This is not easy as they fire up or
down depending on your relative position. Note that they
always fire bullets at the same point across he screen
which means you can get past them with a bit of careful
timing.
Piggy banks always travel from right to left and are
predictable in their movements. However, they are prone to
fire up or down depending on your position but unlike the
hamsters, the point at which they fire is not predictable.
Keep Left Signs travel vertically, firing bullets that are
easy enough to dodge but a nuisance when you want to find
that elusive SPAM tin. The signs appear in gangs of three; it
is best to destroy each whole group before progressing.
Thankfully, there is only one 17th Century European
Monarch to deal with but it has to be killed quickly. Move
ahead of his anti-clockwise path around the screen (thus
drawing his fire) and when you see the change, turn and get
a few shots in. In this way, it is quite possible to destroy
him without getting hurt. Patience and anticipation is the
key.
LEVEL TWO:
Take your time with level two. Every cheese block can be
destroyed and every Spam tin collected, no matter how mush
it looks like it can't be done. In most cases it is a matter if
not shooting away these cheese blocks without thinking
about if they can be used as platforms to jump on to get
Gumby to other block or bonuses' first.
Level two also conceals exits to bonus screens, not only in
the form of the standard exits, such as the mysterious
black holes in the background, but in the form of pull-down
exits which can be activated by pulling the joystick while
Gumby is standing in certain pieces of background scenery.
Explore the level and find them.
16 ton weights are invincible. You can not kill them, so stay
clear. They only understand two things - acceleration due
to gravity and causing physical harm, neither of which are
terrible helpful to Gumby.
Sill Walk Ministers appear in groups from the top of the
screen, so try to dispatch the entire group before moving
on.
Disembodied limps simply move vertically, up or down. To get
past them, chuck a fish at them. It is worth nothing that on
the skeleton section that features them in conjunction with
some snapping teeth, they enter the screen the same way the
dead parrots on level one - from the top if Gumby is in the
bottom half of the screen and vice versa.
Confused cats can not be hurt by fish. The only way to get
points is by setting off a trap. These stationary felines
explode should Gumby get too close to them. Cheese blocks
shot from beneath them will make the cats fall and this can
sometimes be used to get them out of harms way. For most
confused cats, it is best to walk up close to make them
explode and jump to dodge the fragments.
Big Toes usually drop off bits of landscape and fly to the
left. Some may be set off to destroy other aliens that get
in their way (particularly the Spanish Inquisition) but all
of them hurt. Toes can be shot if Gumby is quick enough, but
this is only for the danger freaks among you)
This is the first - no - second unexpected appearance of the
Spanish Inquisitors. This time they have taken to the air and
will follow Gumby at the top of the screen, dropping bombs.
Their balloons can be burst at the end of the section in
which they appear by setting the Big Toe Trap at the top
right of the last screen of the section. This produces a
SPAM Bonus.
Snapping teeth start firing horizontal bullets at regular
intervals when Gumby gets too close. It is best to try and
shoot them from a distance before they fire, otherwise it's a
question of timing between the bullets and hurling the fish
at them when you can.
Squelchy Heads are invincible. The easy way to get past one
is to time running beneath the arc that they jump in. Then,
jump left, then right, so getting past should be no problem
if you are patient enough.
Walking hands patrol left and right for a limited distance.
They are no problem unless they are patrolling an area
that is too restrictive for Gumby to enter. In these cases, it
is worth studying the landscape and using something else to
kill them.
Warts are invincible as with the fists, timing is the key.
Bombs are invincible. They are produced from the top of the
giant hands in the later part of the level. They roll left,
stop and then explode. Without giving too much away about
the puzzles in this section, when the bombs explode they
blow up any aliens that get caught in the explosion. As a
result, they are idea to use to get rid of those awkwardly
placed aliens that are difficult to hit with a fish.
The Toe-Nose Elephant is hard. The method to use with this
end of level beast is simple: run beneath its firing nose so
that it fires as it leaps to the left, take a hit in the
noseless elephant, and jump back to the right before the
elephant fires its nose again. The elephant then jumps back
to the right before starting its movement pattern again
`
LEVEL THREE:
On level three it is back to blasting, but here the timing is
rather important considering the number of adversaries
Gumby faces. Search every conceivable exit off screen to
get to hidden bonus screens. Try to take out every block of
cheese for end level bonuses. Take advantage of the Lupins -
they remove many creatures and generate plenty of food
bonuses. The Gumby-Bird control is very similar to that of
Gumby-Fish, only the bird drifts slowly down the screen.
Cherubs come in almost unlimited numbers, so blasting your
way through them is about your best bet. They enter the
screen vertically and then turn and fly off horizontally
depending on which side of them Gumby is at the time they
change direction. You may also find it useful to
occasionally make space by setting off the 16 ton weights
that fall out of the holes in the floor above.
Little men sit and fire regular sprays of bullets at you. It
is recommended that you always find ways of ducking down
and out of the way of the bullets and then pop back up to
throw a fish at them. This requires timing, but it is the
safest way to deal with them. The more gung-ho players may
favor killing Little Men with a carefully activated 16 ton
weight, whatever way you kill them, you will end up with a
food bonus when they expire.
Hell's Grannies are invulnerable. They hand upside down
from ropes and explode should Gumby get too close.
Upper Class Twists move vertically only, but turn to face
Gumby so there is no nipping around the back of them to get
some shots in. The best tactic for these is to use cheese
blocks as cover from their bullets. Lobbing the odd well-
placed halibut between the gaps in the blocks. Some of the
upper class twists reward you with food bonus when shot
but you have to be quick to collect it before it falls off
the screen.
By a strange twist of program design, the flying sheep
operate in virtually the same manner as the piggy banks on
level one. They fire vertically in Gumby's direction, but
when they fire is decided at random. The best tactic for the
flying sheep is to try to get rid of them as soon as they
appear. It is also helpful to let them gather in groups
behind these cheese blocks so that when the block is shot
away, the flock quickly goes off to the left giving Gumby a
reprieve from the constant triggering of sheep.
Constantly produced by the Gas Cooker at the end of the
section in question, Gasmen shuffle left across the screen.
However, should Gumby get in a vertical line of fire with one
of them, he automatically launches himself up the screen
straight at Gumby. Gasmen explode on contact with the
landscape, so it is not altogether a bad idea to hide from
them ensuring that there are some cheese blocks between
them and Gumby.
The Gas Cooker ultimately turns into a SPAM bonus. You can
not exit this section without killing the Cooker. It
generates Gasmen at an alarming rate along with the odd
trajectory bullet. Tactics for this one are to lead its fire
and Gasmen by placing Gumby to the left of it, doing your
best to get a shot in at it when you can.. Then once, say, two
or three Gasmen are heading towards Gumby, fly up and to
the right, above the cooker and this will make the Gasmen
launch up the screen. As soon as it is safe to do so, fly
quickly back to the position you were in and repeat the
method. The trick here is to not try to blast away the
Gasmen, but to get shots in at the cooker and get rid of the
Gasmen by forcing them to fly up and off the screen. The
trajectory bullets should take care of themselves, but
watch out for them; they still hurt.
Lumberjacks always appear in the windows in the
background and throw three regular sprays of pressed
flowers, followed by an ax. It takes eight hits to kill a
lumberjack, so it is a matter of positioning Gumby to that
fish may be thrown during the time that the sprays of
flowers are thrown. Keep in mind that the axes follow an
unusual arc which forces Gumby out of line with the
Lumberjacks. The trick here is to get back in the line as
fast as possible after each ax has been thrown.
Flying hands follow regular paths and do not shoot
bullets. It is worth blasting these cannon fodder
completely away - particularly the ones that appear
before Gumby gets to the second lumberjack on the
lumberjack section.
As if you had not expected it, the Spanish Inquisition are
back once more, hurling pillows and turning into SPAM when
shot. To exit the lumberjack section, completely remove the
Spanish Inquisition - a task which requires similar timing to
that employed earlier with the lumberjacks themselves.
Position Gumby in the line with the Spanish Inquisitor to get
some shots in, allowing the feathers from the pillow cover
the space Gumby occupies, so it is a good idea to learn timing,
anticipate the shots and move away as quickly as possible.
As with the lumberjacks, returning to your relatively safe
position as quickly as possible determines how quickly you
can kill them all.
LEVEL FOUR:
Gumby has found his body again and remains upright for the
most of this level (except for the odd bonus screen). Give
plenty of thought to the cheese block puzzles - as with
level two, do not shoot away the cheese blocks without
considering first whether it can be used as a step up to a
sneakily placed SPAM bonus. Trying to pull down on the
joystick when you are over the large steel pipes - some lead
to bonus screens. This is the only level with conveyer belts
on it. Conveyers not only affect Gumby but the adversaries
too, so they must move towards Gumby against the direction
of a conveyer. Oh, watch out for the falling pigs...
Crushers are invulnerable. Crushers crush things,
including Gumby. It is a good idea to carefully time your
progress past these particularly the ones that appear
around the conveyor belt sections.
Spots generally get in the way, just do not do anything
stupid like allow yourself to be dragged into them by a
conveyer belt...
The stupid Prince explodes into not only a SPAM bonus but
also into a food bonus. Trajectory shoots fire from his
face, so watch out for those. All movements and bullet
firing is regular so it is simply a matter of taking your time
leaping over bullets, using background as the cover and
seven balls of whatever out of him...
Killer cars all from their fixed points when Gumby closes in
on them. They may be leaped over, which is tricky, or shoot
as they head for Gumby. They yield a food bonus when
destroyed, so the more that can be dealt with a fish, the
better.
If you see a Baby Gangster, take it out as quickly as
possible. Baby Gangsters are produced by the end of level
gangster chicken, eggs, Diamond. Position yourself at the
top of their movement and let lose a couple of fish.
As mentioned, Eggs Diamond is dangerous and constantly
spawns a great many lethal offspring as well as a fair few
bullets. This piece of not-so-paltry poultry isn't terribly
difficult to kill; as long as you can maintain a position that
gets hits on the Baby Gangsters as well as Eggs herself.
Cheat mode: There is a rumor, published by a European
magazine that says to enter "SEMPRINI" in the high score
table (you need to get the high score first) to be presented
with some handy new options the next time you play. The
most useful one allows you to skip levels already
completed, although to complete Python properly, you must
start on level one. Simon's regular cheat mode name "POOKY"
also gives a suitable Python-esque response. HOWEVER, the
staff at Virgin U.S, have yet to be able to duplicate the
cheat mode properly. If you manage to do it, please drop us
a line and tell us about it at: VIRGIN GAMES, 18061 Fitch Ave,
Irvine, CA 92714.
