Dynamite Headdy

Dynamite Headdy is a video game released in 1994 by Sega and produced by Treasure Co. Ltd. It was released on the Sega Genesis system, with ports to the Sega Game Gear and Sega Master System. A port for the Sega 32X was planned, but due to the system's low popularity, the port was canceled. It was released for the Wii's Virtual Console on July 30, 2007.

The style of the game is platform/action. In the game you play as the star puppet Headdy who can attack his enemies by shooting his detachable head at them.

Dynamite Headdy is one of the 3 games included with Gunstar Heroes: Treasure Box Collection, a compilation of Treasure-produced Mega Drive games for the Playstation 2.

Storyline
Headdy, the central protagonist of the game, is the star of the Treasure Theatre production of Dynamite Headdy. He has come to North Town from the country in order to visit his friends HeadCase, HangMan and Beau, but arrives to find that the evil puppet king Dark Demon is in the midst of attacking the puppet town to select which of the peaceful toys should live and which should be converted into his evil minions. Headdy is captured by the Robo-Collector and rejected by D.D.'s forces, and is dropped into the dust cargo to be thrown into the incinerator. However, Headdy escapes the clutches of Dark Demon's minions and sets off to defeat the evil king.

However, trouble is afoot. Not only is the puppet world filled with Dark Demon's minions, but to reach the evil overlord's castle Headdy must defeat Dark Demon's Keymasters, who serve as the king's elite guard. To make matters worse, Headdy is followed by his lifelong rival Trouble Bruin, a puppet jealous of Headdy's success. Bruin wants to be the star instead of Headdy, and will stop at nothing to get rid of him.

Characters
Note: The names of many of the characters were changed for the North American and European versions of the game. The Japanese names were also used in all versions of the "sequel" released for the Sega Game Gear, but not the Master System version. The North American and European names are given first, followed by the Japanese names in parenthesis. Notably, when Headdy defeats a major boss, an off-screen voice claims "I cannot believe it!" while the boss explodes into pieces.

Dynamite Headdy The hero of the game, he uses his head as his main form of attack.

Trouble Bruin (Maruyama) Headdy's arch-rival and elite henchman of Dark Demon, he is a puppet bear. His head attaches to many bodies, and is often seen in his "Kuma (Bear) Body". In the Game Gear game he can operate the Keymasters. In the Japanese version, Bruin is purple and smiles constantly. In the US/European version he is brown and constantly frowning.

Heather (Fingy) The mysterious woman in Headdy's life. Unlike Headdy, who has a detachable head, she has a floating pair of hands, hence her Japanese name.

HangMan (Fukkun) A orange smiley ball. With his help, Heady can bite him to get onto surfaces of high or drag platforms.

HeadCase (Mokkun) A yellow smiley ball inside a box. He can give Headdy a new head temporarily, and it grants him special abilities.

Beau (Yakkun) A white angel-like figure with a smiley face. He points to the weak spot of a Keymaster or other large boss.

Bino A man with large ears and a smiley face. Supposedly a "maintenance guy", Bino hides around the scenes most of the time, occasionally getting in Headdy's way. Beating him up will usually earn Headdy a Secret Bonus Point.

Robo-Collector (Toruzo-Kun) A giant red robot. The first "boss" of the game. He goes after the escaping Townfolk Puppets to recapture them.

Mad Dog (Bounty Boundy) A gigantic dog-like puppet whose body is a pink tube. The first Keymaster that Headdy encounters. He accidentally falls on top of Trouble Bruin before their fight. Like many other enemies, his colour scheme is very different in the Japanese version.

Gentleman Jim & The Puppeteer (Nettoh & Marrio) A dancing marionette in a top hat and tuxedo controlled by a floating clownlike puppetmaster. They are also referred to as the "Special Guest."

Wooden Dresser (Jacqueline Dressy) A huge wooden robot mannequin. The second Keymaster that Headdy encounters, she is an actress and fights by changing into costumes with unique capabilities.

Spinderella (Motor Hand) A gargantuan red sphere with many smaller spheres orbiting it. The third Keymaster that Headdy encounters, she fights Headdy atop of Puppet Tower and can use her spheres to form arms which can pound Headdy and twist the scenery.

Baby Face (Mitsuru) A giant baby's head on a long pole. The fourth Keymaster that Headdy encounters, he transforms into several different forms (baby, child/teenager, man, old man) to fight Headdy.

Gatekeeper/Nasty Gatekeeper (Yayoi/Izayoi) A blue robot with extend-able arms with spike balls at the end of them. Gatekeeper holds the secret of D.D. Castle, the imperial stronghold of Dark Demon. After it is defeated once, it becomes demonic and attacks much faster. In the Japanese version it resembles a female Japanese Kabuki dancer wearing a red kimono. In its "demonic" form it resembles robot hands with spikes at the end of them and sharp teeth, red eyes. it has a terrifying appearance. It attacks a little bit differently in its demon form but similar to its normal form.

Twin Freaks (Rever Face) A big green robot with a big grinning face, Twin Freaks is encountered by Headdy deep within D.D. Castle. He uses the terrain to his advantage, and when Headdy turns it upside down his face will reverse which will make his face look angry and turn red. when he is angry he will begin to chase headdy faster in the "Death Race".

Dark Demon (King Dark Demon) A cloak-wearing, green-skinned puppet with a very evil laugh, this is the mysterious sorcerer that took over the self-proclaimed "D.D. Imperial World". He fights Headdy in a colorful void and has a wide range of attacks. Headdy must select a head which can be used to avoid the oncoming attack, determined by D.D.'s crystal ball.

Smiley (Smily) Smiley is a Badge of Honor that was to be delivered to the "Greatest Puppet", and apparently gave Dark Demon enough self-esteem to begin his takeover.

Gameplay
The game is played over a series of "scenes" and "acts", the end of which is often typified by a big boss battle. Headdy's special ability is his launchable head. This can be fired in eight directions: up, down, left, right, and the four diagonals in-between. Launching it at enemies can damage or destroy them.

His head can also be used to hold on to a "HangMan", a character that acts like a hook. By grabbing a HangMan with your head, the player can then use it to hurl themselves in its direction, as if connected by an elastic band. Headdy can also swap his head for a special head, if he attacks a HeadCase. Depending on the symbol that the HeadCase is showing, Headdy will get a different head with a different special power.

Scattered across the levels are a number of Secret Bonus Points. These can be collected by performing a strange or skilled action, such as finding a hidden item or defeating an enemy that is difficult to reach.

Available Heads
By getting powerups from HeadCase, it is possible to collect 15 heads in the main levels, and three others in the flying sections. Most of them last until they wear off, or until the A button is pressed. However, Head Trip can only be removed by it wearing off after a period of time. Pin Head and the flying-level heads can only be removed by changing to another head.

Regional variations
There are a few small differences between the Japanese version of Dynamite Headdy and the US and European versions.


 * The North American and European versions are dramatically more difficult than the Japanese version. Some big differences are that bosses require nearly twice as many hits to kill compared to the Japanese version, and that you get no continues in the beginning of the game, while in the Japanese version, you are given continues at the start.


 * The majority of the level names are different between the two regions. In the North American and European versions, the levels are mostly parodies on the titles of films. In the Japanese version the titles are simply descriptions of the levels. Only two level names remained unchanged.


 * In the Japanese version major bosses have short lines of dialogue before you fight them, which appears in a text box. In the western versions the only dialogue appears in the training sections of scene 2-1, and when Beau appears in the "Heathernapped" level.


 * There are some slight changes in the opening menu. In Japan the words "Press Start Button" appear on the title screen but in the west this is instead "Press Start". Additionally, in the controls configuration option the default move for the A button is described as "cancel", whereas in the west it reads "cancel head".


 * Some of the bosses had their designs changed when the game was transferred to the US and European versions. Aside from Trouble Bruin's color and facial change mentioned earlier, the castle-like humanoid robot "Mons Meg" in the US "Terminate Her Too" level was originally a large Alice-in-Wonderland-like doll named "Rebecca" in the Japanese version. In the "Headdy Wonderland" level, you fight a tall thin robot called the "Gatekeeper" in the US version, who turns into the "Nasty Gatekeeper". In the Japanese version, the boss is a tall geisha girl dressed in a kimono named "Yayoi", whose Nasty Gatekeeper counterpart is named "Izayoi". Mad Dog ("Bounty Boundy"), all of Trouble Bruin's (Maruyama's) various bodies (except the Floating Platform, A.K.A the Octopus Trap in Japan), and even a few enemies in scenes 3-1 and 9-1 have different color schemes in the US version, because they use the same palette line as Bruin and the colors were changed to look better within the level and compared to Bruin.


 * In the Japanese version's ending, the four Townsfolk from scene 1-1 are actually given individual names. They are "Maruco", "Mathai", "Luca", and "Johane". (Oddly enough, these names are references to the disciples Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.) Also, in the Japanese version, Maruyama's main body is identified as the "Kuma Body" (Bear Body), but went unmentioned in the US version.


 * The ending is quite different. In the US version, Smiley ("Smily") is overjoyed upon seeing Heather ("Fingy"), and Heather hugs Headdy. In the Japanese version, Smily is told that he is a badge belonging to the greatest puppet ever (up until that point, he is under delusions that he actually is the greatest puppet ever), and Smily proceeds to pin himself upon Headdy's face. Later on, where Headdy would see Heather off in the US version, he is busy trying to pull Smily off his face in the Japanese version. He manages to succeed in doing so, but Smily pins himself back on Headdy soon after.


 * There is a secret ending that can only be accessed by playing the basketball minigame four times and remembering or otherwise recording the "secret numbers" that are displayed. If this is accomplished, after the usual ending, Headdy will wander backstage and find a door that is locked with a digital keypad. By entering the secret number you were given, Headdy opens the door only to find himself in the office of the theatre's owner. The owner, incensed that a puppet escaped, orders his thugs to attack Headdy by throwing dollar bills at him (which are extremely damaging; three hits from the money can kill you). The battle is made easier by the fact that Headdy has unlimited lives at this point, so the player can take as many tries as needed. After the owner's thugs are defeated, he starts throwing homing bills at Headdy. Eventually, the owner of the theatre is defeated, and Headdy runs outside, flings his head upwards, and pulls down a "The End" sign. In the Japanese version of the game, the theatre owner and his thugs are replaced by the then-president of Sega of Japan (Hayao Nakayama) and two security agents, who act no differently from the owner and thugs. The American secret ending can be interpreted as Headdy triumphing over the greedy theatre owner (who most likely caused Smiley to become evil as a way of spicing up the play) and freeing his fellow puppets, while the Japanese secret ending is just a surreal jab at the then-president of Sega of Japan.


 * In the practice areas in Scene 2-1 in the Japanese version, the player is presented with a "yes/no" text box asking if he or she is sure that Headdy would practice utilizing his friends' abilities. If "no" is chosen, Headdy returns to the main section of Scene 2-1 after a few more words with the friend. Furthermore, if Headdy fails any of the practice areas in the Japanese version, his friend in that area would talk to him before he returns to the main field.