~B
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from Virgin/Sculptured software
walkthrough by |tsr (k.gifford) 1998.5.20
"Arab dungeons, sunset"
Notes
~~~~~
Sculptured Software was actually already working on a Robin Hood game before
press releases on the movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" were made
available. So, they had little choice but to license the movie and remake
the plot of the game. This is also the reason why the game was nearly half
a year late in getting to shelves in 1991.
It's a good game, and I still think it's one of the better American-made NES
releases (not like there's a lot of competition there; the Japanese and Euro
software houses had us beat pretty soundly). I like the music, and that's
half the battle with US made games.
Items
~~~~~
You start out with a sword, whose first use is in bonking the shit out of the
not very Arabian looking guard at the start of the game. Later on you'll get
some bows (from Long to Cross to Locksley bows). Bow and arrow is the best
weapon for Melee Mode; I find that you can get by with a sword pretty well
the rest of the time. Your friends also have some other weapons, like Little
John's staff.
There's also armor (leather, and Locksley varieties), and gold. You only need
gold once in the game, but strangely they don't take up any weight so stock
up anyway.
Oh.. There's also levels and experience points, but this is pretty much
pointless in an action game like this. EXP buildup is completely
unnecessary.
Here's the rundown on food:
Food HP recovery
==== ===========
Apple 8-30
Loaf of bread 8-20
Leg of meat 8-20
Yellow potion 100
Red potion 50 + faster running speed for awhile
Bandage 1-10 (best to use immediately upon getting them
since they have a tendency to build up in
your inventory)
The walkthrough
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You start out in an Arabian dungeon at sunset, 1194. Your friend Peter is
getting beaten up by a surprisingly English-looking guard; take the sword
and kill the guard to free Peter. By the way, you'll notice that none of the
characters in the game look remotely like the movie characters (I know it's
difficult to make a character look worse than Kevin Costner, but Sculptured
did it). Search the guard to find a key to open the door, and have Charles
Barkley (oh, i mean Azeem) join your party. Search where he says to find
another door key. Open the door and start your first duel. Arab guards look
amazingly merrie olde English, don't they?
The duels in this game are easy peasy, especially since so few duellers seem
to have perfected the "attack *crouching* duellist" technique. Yeah, some
of your fellow duellers crouch on occasion, but if you keep crouching, you
will simply not get hit at all. This guard swings his axe 3 times then rests
in a pattern. Obviously, hit him when he's not swinging.
Search this body for a torch. Walk to the lower right corner and search to
find a staircase. Go down it.
Inside the catacomb
These sewers have you going through a gauntlet of English Arabian guards. It
may be wise to stock up on things like food now; to do this go north until you
find a narrow passageway. Stand in the passage facing the way of the nearest
intersection. Enemies will come to you and basically run into your sword over
and over, leaving lots of goodies for you.
Bear north to hit the exit. When you get near, you'll get surrounded and enter
Melee mode. Again, this is pretty easy; just be sure to avoid dudes firing
arrows all around the joint if you want to live. After the battle, Peter dies
and gives you a ring to give to Marian.
Near hadrians wall
Talk to the old ugly bint. She disappears after you talk to her, the old
hag! Go down and look around until you find a chest key, then go back and to
the west. Eventually you'll run into Guy of Gisbourne and enter another Melee.
Talk to the kid at the tree, open the chest for a yellow potion, and go left.
In sherwood forest
Keep on going....
Outside locksley castle
Walk around the castle to get the schwag lying around. Go in the castle. After
a truly touching Nintendo drama (Robin uses FIVE exclamation points), Robin
enters.
Inside locksley castle
Go ahead north and look for Duncan, your keeper or something. He'll give you
the medallion of Locksley. (After more hot blooded drama, though) Outside,
head left and you'll go through some forest, then..
Outside dubois manor
Replace your armor with the Locksley medallion and the guard will let you
enter Marion's pad. Walk right to find her, picking up the armor first (you
can give the leather armor to Azeem). After some chat, Robin will get attacked
and will have to run out of the castle. Find the horses to the left of the
entrance and bridle them for another action scene!
In this scene you're riding a horse with some other horses with men on them
following you. Just jump over the rocks.. or DIE! It's not so difficult.
Afterwards you'll be in..
In sherwood forest
Go north and you'll come to a bridge guarded by a Mr. Andre the Giant (I mean
John Little). Duel his ass. Just stand on the rock to the left of the log
and turbo the B button. He'll die so easily.
At "his" camp
After some swarthy words, you'll be at the official camp of the merrie crew.
This camp will grow in size as you complete quests, so be sure to check it
out thoroughly after each quest, and now, for that matter. The man standing
right in front of you will be the one giving you your orders. Your first
job is to break up a wedding between a baron and some chick. Walk south out
of the fort, and through some forest, to...
In the church
Enter the castle-like church and start kicking ass. Walk due east to go up
stairs, then enter a Melee. Woo! I wonder how well Duncan will do in this!
Once over, head northwest for the letter. Go back down and discredit the
wedding! The evil Baron will give you a very easy duel. You're on the ground,
the baron's on the table, you'll repeatedly slash his legs.
After the smoke clears, fell free to return to base. That guy whose girl you
saved has joined the crew, and he'll be the one giving you missions from now
on. This one he now gives you involves a huge wild boar killin' nearby
villages and tearin' up their fields. Go south, and...
Inside the boar's lair
Head due northeast to find the cave the boar is in. Killing the boar is easy
enough. Just equip the bow and get to the far left of the screen. Eventually,
the boar will get stuck on the top left side of the screen, and you can just
shoot arrows at him until he dies.
Upon his death, search the skeleton four times. You'll uncover a bandage,
gold, the Locksley Bow, and the Locksley armor! Go ahead and equip the armor.
The Bow uses five arrows per shot, so keep it for later. Go back to camp. This
time, some huts have been built; search them for items. Your questmaster has
noticed that some of your men have right vanished; let's check it out..
Deep within a musky well
Go as far south as you can. You'll find the well and a dead guy; search him
for a threatening letter. Go a little to the right and you'll get a rope. Go
down the well with it. Go north and east until you find an exit and Little
John tells you nicely about he can smell druids. Go through the doors to find
some more letters, including a credits list. Go up until you have a
conversation with Mortianna. You can't fight the skeleton yet, so leave and
return to camp.
In a small chapel
Back at camp, Duncan mentions that Marian wants to see you. Go through some
forest and head for the chapel. Marian is at the left side and she'll give
you the druid's dagger, which you need to beat that skeleton dude. Be sure
not to throw this away!
Back at camp, Mr. Assignment tells you about some tax wagons that you could
plunder. Let's go!
In sherwood forest
The carts are being held up by your friend Guy of Gisbourne. Talk to Friar
Tuck, then duel with Guy.
After the duel, Tuck will join you. Clear out anything you want from Duncan's
inventory, then go back to base. Marian will be there, take Duncan away, then
leave herself.
This time Mr. Piss Boy rags on you on how untrained your men are. Tuck
suggests visiting a local weaponmaster, and we're on our way...
Go to the northwest corner of the map to find the man (who I guess is Mr.
Assignment's twin brother). He'll duel him. It'll be the same background as
with Guy before. Try trapping the dude on a rock and he'll be easy. After
killing him, he'll take 200 gold from you (you'll have a lot more than that by
now). After killing him, enter his pad for some potions, then go back to
camp. (You can climb down the swordmaster's well too, but there's nothing
down there)
This time Mr. Ass (ignment) well tell you that everyone is sick, and you
need to go to this enchanted lake to get some magical water that's
unfortunately guarded by evil green jobbies.
Still in sherwood forest
Head due north to the pond. The pond has a bunch of green jobbies in it that
throw arrows! Stay at the lower end and wait for about half the monsters to
kill themselves, then whip out your locksley bow and start firing like a
flamethrower... the water will turn blue upon killing all the monsters; then
you can take a flask and use it to fill it up. With it in hand, return to
camp to hear the news. This time, that baron from before is about to destroy
a village, and you have to stop him before he does. Duu du duuuuuu..
Once again in sherwood forest
Go to the northeast corner of your map to get the rapid fire crossbow, which
is probably the best one to use. The village is in the northwest corner.
In a small village
The Baron is in the north end of the village and he'll Melee when you get
near. After THAT, he'll duel with you again. Once again, force the baron on
some rocks and beat the crap out of him.
There's a ball and chain in the northwest-corner hut, and a old chick in
another hut who'll sell you a chest key for 20 coins.
Back at camp, Duncan will be a dumbass and get the camp attacked. After a
melee, the celts will set the camp on fire and you'll regroup elsewhere.
Still again in sherwood forest
Go right until you get to a guy. Enter his house and take the Disguise (black
hat thingy) inside. Continue along until you return to camp.
Your huts are all gone, but lucky for you that Mr. Assignment survived! He'll
tell you about how the sheriff is going to hang some of your dudes. Azeem
feels it's time for the final battle, so you all head to town...
Follow sherwood until you find 2 horses. Put the disguise on (it goes on your
chest, not your head as you might surmise from its shape) and put a bridle on
a horse. After another exciting horse racing scene, you'll be...
In town square
In town, equip the Locksley Bow in one hand and the locksley sword in another,
so that you can use both. Attack the castle guard and a mega-melee will take
place.
In the castle
The sheriff's in the upper right hand section of the castle. There'll be
a melee, and then you'll need to get past Mortianna's skeleton first!
Fortunately, since you still have the druid's dagger (you do, right?), you can
attack and kill the skeleton. It's very easy to dodge his sword strikes, but
swig those yellow potions you've been saving up..
Right behind her is the sheriff. He'll challenge you to a duel, of course.
There'll be tables here, though, so you can just slash the fuck out of his
knees and he'll die easily. Congratulations!
Passwords
~~~~~~~~~
It's technically a secret, but you can access a password screen by hitting
A 8 times, then B 8 times on the title screen. Here are the passwords you can
enter:
CATACOMB - outside Arab jail
WALL - Hadrian's Wall
LOCKSLEY - Locksley Castle
DUBOIS - Dubois Manor
CHASE - Horse race to Sherwood
CATHEDRA - Rescue the maiden...
BOAR - Battle the boar
MASTER - Search for Master Trainer
CHAPEL - Meet Marian at chapel
WELL - Search for haunted well
TAX - Attack gold wagons
POND - Search for healing water
VILLAGE - Defense of Sherwood Village
CELTS - Battle Celts
TOWN - Journey to town
TOWNHANG - In town, by gallows
CASTLEIN - Inside Sheriff's castle
WEDDING - View the ending
