A Guide to Jolly Jugglers

The first thing to know, of course, is the premise to the game. The main characters are, who could've guessed, the Jolly Juggler brothers. They are trying to rescue their dear sister who has been trapped by a mutant Chia who you can *try* to beat.

The controls can be a bit disconcerting for the Hannah and The Pirate/Ice Caves players, re: how to switch between characters and how to jump/move/shoot, etc. To shoot your juggling balls or whatever they are, you have to press the space button. To switch brothers, one must press "z", not "s" like in the Hannah games. I find it's just most convenient to have one finger on the z and one on the space bar- just don't get disconcerted about what you're trying to do!

There are six items of a sort that you may collect after you've battled with an enemy: fruits, ammo, an extra life, jump power, gun power up, and shield power. I will go into those later.

There are 8 levels to the game, and I have labelled them as such:

Levels 1-3= Easy

Levels 4-6= Medium

Levels 7-8= Hard

Level 8 is the Mutant Chia, which I will go into at the end of the article.

There are general tips for the game which I have thought of as I've played:

- When you are jumping, be sure that you don't end up running into a Slorg or the like who are above you: it's hard to remember that, which can make the jumping ability a hassle rather than a benefit.

- When collecting items after you've battled, just leave the items if you'll lose some armour as a result. It's usually not worth it.

- The shield powerup is the powerup I usually try to get to if possible. The shield only lasts for about 10 seconds or so, but often it can buy you time to get past some Drackonacks or jumpy things that you wouldn't be able to go past before.

- I don't remember exactly which colours of the fruits correspond to which points, but they are a nice point boost if you can get to them: the biggest point boost being 20.

- ALWAYS, ALWAYS, at almost any cost, get the extra life powerups. Though not always the case, I have found this to be one of the sole reasons I get to the last level.

- Gun Powerups, I've found, are not typically very helpful unless you're about to jump up to a place where there are more than one green Slorg, for instance, or you're trying to shoot the bouncy things- you have a better chance of hitting them.

- The Drackonacks are very fast, so if you want to battle with all of them, be sure you can quickly switch between the green and purple brothers.

- The same goes for the bouncy things as well, except with those, you have to judge where they'll be when you fire, because they move up and down so much- it can be confusing.

- If you're playing simply to get to that last crazy level, you'll often have to forgo some point boost possibilities, simply due to necessity. The reverse is true if you're playing for points.

-There will be times when one of the brothers has more armour than the other- in that case, if you’re trying to jump quickly past some Drackonacks, for instance, switch to the brother with more armour to avoid having to restart the level.

Now, for the last level of Jolly Jugglers. Once you finish Level 7 and “press any button to continue”, scary music begins to play, and you find yourself confronted with the enemy himself: the big, almost invincible Mutant Chia. Why, one might ask, has this large, probably misunderstood Chia turned to these extremes to defeat the talented Jugglers? That is a subject for another article. For now, once you have reached this level, your unfortunate goal is to defeat him. There will be a day when hopes you have been thinking all this time will come crashing down, but IT IS NOT THIS DAY!! Or maybe it is. It depends on how ready you are to face the Chia.

At the beginning of this level, the minimum number of lives that you need to have to get anywhere would be two, though more is preferable. The Chia is on the bottom step, and there are four or five steps that you can jump onto to escape him. Now, for the nature of this perhaps misunderstood beast: he comes in two colours, just like you: green and purple. When he is showing his green side, only the green brother can damage him. When he is feeling purple, the purple brother has to fire at him. The Chia will walk over you or roll on you, making you lose armour. Also, he will occasionally fire big balls of electricity at you. Sometimes, if you jump onto one of the steps, the electricity balls will miraculously miss you, but it’s not the same level that helps you to miss his firings every time. At the highest step, ammo, gun powerups and shields, etc. will appear. ALWAYS get the shield- in fact, essentially anything that appears there is helpful. You will run out of ammo, and the gun powerups make the Chia lose more damage. For this level, it is IMPERATIVE to remember that, if you lose a life, the Chia goes back to his original power and you have to start all over again.

That is a rough overview of the game- truthfully, the best way to become very experienced at this game is to follow my advice and to play as often as possible! You’ll quickly become addicted. And give the Mutant Chia my love!