Dynamite Headdy FAQ and Walkthrough Final Version
            Completed on 13th November 2007

            Written by Minty Fresh Death

                            TABLE OF CONTENTS

I     Table of Contents
II    Introduction
      A     Version Updates
      B     Preface and Legalities
      C     About the Game
      D     Game Characters
III   Playing the Game
      A     Game Basics and Movement
      B     Power-Ups
      C     The Heads
      D     Intermission Bonus Game
      E     Damage / Health Calculation Tables
IV    The Scenes
V     Cheats
VI    Misc Stuff
      A     Movie References
      B     English / Japanese / Beta Version Differences
      C     Other Tidbits
VII   Frequently Asked Questions
VIII  The Final Word (Thanks Section)



25/09/09 - Updated Preface and Legalities section as I am now 
allowing sites other than GameFAQs to host this FAQ / Walkthrough. 
See that section for more details though.

Final - The final version.
        The links to the comparison pictures have now 
        been removed, as my website no longer exists.
        Subsequently, Misc Stuff section B has also been 
        Various minor updates and corrections throughout sections.
        Redone the Final Word section.

1.55 - Corrected the dodgy date issue on the second line. :D
       Info on the Beta version of Dynamite Headdy added.
       Corrected info on the Scene 9-2 bonus point.
       A bit more text has been put in the Walkthrough.
       Exclusive to GameFAQs.

1.5 - Added English / Japanese version differences to Misc Stuff.
      All round minor text changes / discrepancy clean-ups.
      Exclusive to GameFAQs.

1.45 - Entered extra info in Misc Stuff section.
       Entered third code in Cheats section.
       Miscallaneous text changes in various sections.
       Exclusive to GameFAQs.

1.41 - Slight format edit before the FAQ section.
       Exclusive to http://faqs.ign.com.

1.4 - Added a Misc Stuff section.
      Made some additions and corrections on the
      Damage / Health Calculation Tables.
      Added some tips on Scenes 8-3 and 9-2.
      Exclusive to GameFAQs.

1.3 - Added info on Super Bino.
      Added Damage / Health Calculation Tables.
      Cleaned up a couple of errors regarding Sparky 
      and the Scene 6 heads.
      Added some more info for the Bonus Game.
      Added a FAQ section.
      Still exclusive to GameFAQs.

1.2 - After much internal debate, I have decided to add 
      info on ALL of the secret bonuses within the game.
      Added a walkthrough to the Final Final Scene.
      Exclusive to GameFAQs.

1.1 - Updated a year after intital release for GameFAQS.
      Contains much more detail, wrapped to ruler length.
      Exclusive to Delta Strike.

1.0 - The very first version, completed Tuesday 19th July, 2001.
      Contains most of the information about the game.
      Exclusive to GameFAQs.


Yo there. After feeling bored one Tuesday night, I decided to 
write the lowdown on one of the greatest Genesis (hearafter 
referred to by it's European name 'Megadrive', cause I'm British) 
games I've ever played - Dynamite Headdy.

The two other (Internet mainstream) FAQs out there, by Bob 
Tomasevich and Micheal Sterns, did a pretty fine job at 
uncovering the secret bonus points in the game, but didn't 
provide anything else in terms of how to beat the game. Having 
beaten it many a time now on my Megadrive, I felt it deserved a 
complete walkthrough.
After many a persistant arguing, I felt it necessary to add all 
the secret bonuses that have been uncovered in the afformentioned
FAQs, simply because they weren't available for viewing on 

This version of the Dynamite Headdy FAQ / Walkthrough (Final Version) 
used to be exclusive to GameFAQs. As of the 25th of September 2009,
I will allow hosting on this FAQ / Walkthrough on any website that 
asks PROVIDED that (and ONLY on this stipulation) that you first 
e-mail me asking for permission. My e-mail is under "The Final Word" 
section if you wish to contact me. 
You may not copy any of the things you see in any version of this 
FAQ / Walkthrough and stick it into your own. You are also not allowed 
to plaguerise this FAQ / Walkthrough (don't steal the information and 
type it up in your own way) and you are not allowed to use it in any 
way to gain profit.

This FAQ / Walkthrough is not property of Treasure or Sega and was 
not written or supported by them.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned 
by their respective trademark and copyright holders.

Copyright 2001-2009 by Dan Gallagher, AKA Minty Fresh Death.


Dynamite Headdy was released for the Sega Megadrive sometime around 
late 1994. It was the third game (credit goes to Ryan Schmidt for
telling me that McDonald's TreasureLand Adventure preceded this game;
it was never released in Europe so I was unawares) produced by 
Treasure, the company responsible for the very successful Gunstar 
Heroes about a year earlier. Sadly, it never really gained much 
critical acclaim overseas due to it's incredible difficulty level 
(bounced up from the Japanese version) and general obscurity 
amongst the long line of platform games available at the time. 
That and the Megadrive cover picture absolutely SUCKED! (The Genesis
cover picture looked about 50 times better though.)


Headdy = The main puppet. The star. This is the guy you play as 
throughout the game. Headdy is somewhat of an oddity - his head 
hovers above his body, and can be regularly swapped about for a new 
one. As you may have guessed, his incredibally strange head does all 
his dirty work for him (in other words, you defeat enemies by 
headbutting them. Happy?)

Heather = There's always a mysterious woman in every plot that's
ever existed, and Dynamite Headdy is no exception. What's her 
motives? Why does she want those keys? How do her hands hover in 
midair? That's up to you to find out.

Trouble Bruin = Either this strange bear is the Dark Demon's right 
hand puppet, or he's jealous that Headdy got the center stage. 
Whatever it is, he took it personally, and stops at nothing to 
dispatch Headdy with whatever methods and contraptions he can muster.
(NOTE: Trouble Bruin is a bear, and NOT a cat puppet as I originally 
thought. In the Japanese version of the game, Bruin is purple with 
cuter eyes and goes by the name of Maruyama, which only refers to 
his head, strangely. His body is called "Kuma Body", meaning 
"Bear Body". This also explains why you can hear "Kuma" being rapped 
later on in the "Maruyama" theme tune, should you listen to it
in the Options screen.)

Headcase, Hangman and Beau = The 3 friends of Headdy. Headcase 
provides Headdy with extra heads, Hangman gives a lift up to various 
platforms when needed, and Beau points out Keymaster weak spots. More 
on these guys later.

The Keymasters = They come in all different shapes and sizes (well 
actually, they all come in one size - BIG) and each of them has their 
own different way of being defeated. More on them later as well.

Dark Demon = This guy is the force that took the Puppet World by 
storm and tried to rearrange it to his liking. In other words, he's 
the Big Bad Guy. Destroy him and free the world. Lose to him and 
it's Game Over.

Bino = This funny little maintenance guy has an annoying tendancy of 
popping up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seems to be like 
he's always in the way...

Smiley = Well, I'll spoil the (little) plot provided for you if I 
tell you who Smiley is, but let's just say he's the reason why the 
Puppet World ended up in the mess it was. If you want to know more, 
read the section about the Japanese / English version differences.

                            PLAYING THE GAME

GAME BASICS AND MOVEMENT                          

Headdy's health is displayed in the top left corner of the screen 
by a stagelight. As you take damage, the stagelight changes colour 
and the "H" in the middle decreases in size. The colour changes from 
green, to yellow, to orange, to red, and finally to black. When the 
stagelight turns black, you will die and be forced to start the 
level again. The only times this will not happen are in the Practice 
Area and the Intermission Bonus Game. 

Through careful playing of the game, I have determined that Headdy 
has 16 hit points when he is at maximum health. My definition of 
these hit points are given as the lowest possible damage that any 
attack can do which isn't zero. 1 hit point is equivalent to being 
hit by Headdy's normal head.

Keymasters, when you face them, will also have a stagelight 
representing their health. It will be displayed in the right hand 
corner of your screen and has an "E" in the middle. If their 
stagelight turns black, the Keymaster will be destroyed.

Falling off the edge of the level will not kill you instantly. 
Instead, it will take off a bit of health (2 hit points, to be 
exact). If you are too low on health, you will be killed. 
Damage done to you by enemies or hazardous objects varies 
considerably, depending largely on the type of enemy or object. 
Generally speaking though, damage done to Headdy will increase in 
power as the levels become more difficult. If you are at any point 
squashed between a solid object and a part of the level, you will 
be killed instantly.

Headdy's remaining lives are displayed every time you begin a new 
level or restart a level. If you run out of lives, it's Game Over. 
It is possible to gain a continue, but this will be covered later 
on in the Power-Ups section.

As Dynamite Headdy is a platform game, the controls aren't that 
complex, but I'll explain them anyway:

D-Pad = Moves Headdy. If Down is pressed, Headdy will duck. The 
D-Pad also functions as the head-aimer. Namely, if you press 
right and up at the same time and fire your head, it will travel 
in a north-east direction (North referring to Up on the D-Pad.)

A = Cancels your current head, if it isn't already the default. 
Note that some power-up heads cannot be cancelled.

B = Fires your head. Your default head can be used to activate 
switches, grapple onto Hangmen, or attack enemies. You can fire in 
7 directions while on the ground, and 8 when in mid-air. Note that 
not all power-up heads will revolve around your head flying off, 
and these will be covered in more detail in the section about heads.

C = Makes you jump. Pressing Down and C can make you jump down off 
a platform if you are on one.


Here's a run down of the collectables in the Puppet World. You can 
collect these by either touching them or smashing them with your 

500 = Gives you a nice 500 point bonus.

Banana = Replenishes half your health (8 hit points). In game 
terms, this means if your health is in at least orange, you will 
be replenished to full health. If you are nearly dead (rapidly 
flashing red light) then you will be replenished up to bright 

1 Up = Gives you one extra life.

Continues = Continues are made up of the debris of a Keymaster. 
When the Keymaster is destroyed, red coloured blocks with "T" on 
them will be thrown out of it's body. If you collect enough of 
them, you will hear a voice say "You've got another try!" and 
will be given the option to continue playing on the Game Over 
screen should you lose all your lives.

Secret Bonuses = These are spread throughout the scenes, but you 
have to do a whole load of strange things to uncover them. These 
will be touched upon more in the actual Walkthrough and are
denoted by "SECRET BONUS" appearing, followed by a brief 
explanation of what you need to do to earn the point. Whenever 
you get one you'll hear a voice say "You've got a secret bonus 
point", unsuprisingly.


Now it gets interesting. Every so often in a level, Headcase 
will appear and he'll present to you the heads you can use. 
When one appears to your suiting, hit Headcase and you'll get it. 
Here is the entire list, in alphabetical order and off the top of 
my head:

Bomb Head = This is a head with a 5 second timer. Set it down 
wherever you want with a press of B and BOOM! This kills normal 
enemies instantly and does major damage to bosses. Beware though: 
if you don't throw it before the fuse goes, you will get blown up 
and killed. You will not be able to use this head to grab Hangmen 
or activate switches.

Empty Head = This makes you invulnerable to nearly all attacks 
by enemies. Very useful, but you can still get hurt from falling
off the screen. The only attack which will still hurt you with this 
head is if you attack Heather in "Headdy Wonderland". 
This head is on offer at several key points throughout the game 
where there is a good chance of you being hurt, so use it wisely. 
You can still use this head to grapple Hangmen and objects.

Hammer Head = Well, this looks more like a large chunk of rock 
than a hammer, but it does have it's uses. This deals out double 
the damage per attack to your foes, making it very useful against 
Keymasters. Other than that, you can still use it normally. You'll 
be able to find this head on almost every scene of the game.

Liberty Head = Takes you to the Intermission Bonus Game. More on that 

Melon Head = This was actually called "Head Trip" in the instruction 
manual, but I changed the name because some people may think it's a 
drug reference. :) As it is, this head clamps on and slows you to a 
crawl, it's too heavy to use for ANYTHING and you can't jump at all 
with it. Yes, it's a bad head and nope, you can't cancel it. This 
head is usually offered at the very worst times possible, and it's 
the only head in the game you can get outside of Headcase if you do 
something stupid (you'll see what I mean in the later levels).

Mini-Head = Use this and you shrink, allowing you to slip through 
tight gaps with ease. This head cannot be cancelled, although you
can still hit Headcase and exchange it with a different head if you
wish, and is only offered a select few times. You can still grab 
Hangmen and activate switches with this head, providing you can reach 

Pig Head = No, you don't eat your enemies with this, but with a 
press of B you fire out homing stars from your nose. Truly bizzare, 
and useful against hard to hit enemies. You will not be able to use 
this head to grapple Hangmen or switches.

Protection Head = This head provides you with a circling fireball 
ring around your body, killing or damaging any enemies who step too 
close. Note that these fireballs don't protect you from damage per se,
which means you'll still have to avoid projectiles and not get too 
close to enemies who can't be killed in one hit. Other than that, 
you remain normal.

Sleep Head = This head replenishes all your health with a quick nap. 
While this occurs, you are temporarily incapacitated for about 5 
seconds or so. If you are touched by an enemy or hazard, then you 
will instantly wake up and get hurt. This head can actually be 
cancelled, so don't be afraid to do so if you suddenly spot an 
enemy close by.

Spike Head = Smash your head against a wall and you'll be able to 
climb it with this head. This is a pretty tricky technique, but the 
best way to do so is to fire the head in a north-east/west direction. 
You will automatically be pulled upwards. Then, the moment your head 
is released from the wall, fire your head north and in the OPPOSITE 
horizontal axis to where you initally fired (in other words, if you 
fired north-east 1st time, fire north-west.) Repeat the process 
until you reach the top. 
There are only two instances in the game where you need to do this, 
and only one of those is essential. The spike head appears a couple
more times though, but I'll save spoilers for the Walkthrough

Super Head = With this head, you get to move twice as fast, jump 
twice and high and your head will extend to double it's normal 
range. Note that there is no increase in the actual damage your 
head does to your enemies, just like with the Spike Head, and you 
can still grab Hangmen and so forth. There are only about three or 
four instances in the game where this head appears, but it is a real 
joy to use when you do find it. Be warned though, just because it 
is a Super Head does not mean you are invincible when using it. Don't 
get too cocky.

Ticker Head = A bit of an oddity, this one. Grabbing this head will 
freeze all enemies and objects within the game for about 8 seconds, 
including bosses. However, you are still able to move around as 
normal and attack them. The enemies and hazards will still hurt you 
if you touch them with your body though, so be wary. You can still 
grab Hangmen and activate switches with this head.

Triple Head = This head allows you to shoot in 3 directions at once. 
Put simply, if you shoot directly east, two other heads will shoot 
north east and south east. Shoot north-west, two extra heads shoot 
west and north. Any of the 3 heads can be used to grab Hangmen or 
activate switches, and there is no increase in power for any of them.

Vacuum Head = This head, when used, will suck in all normal enemies, 
objects and bonuses in the range of about two screens. The enemies 
are automatically destroyed while the bonuses are automatically 
given to you. Certain projectiles fired from enemies will also be 
sucked in and will not harm you. Objects that may be sucked in will 
have no effect on you. This head does bugger all good in harming 
bosses, and you cannot use it to grab Hangmen or activate switches.

War Head = In addition to looking cool, this head shoots out missile 
stars in all 8 aimable directions, practically filling up the 
screen. This takes all the complexity of aiming your head at 
enemies out of the window. You can still grapple Hangmen and 
activate switches using this head.

The following heads are only available in Scene 6. If you hold down 
the B button with these heads you get rapid fire. ALL the heads in
this scene do the same amount of damage with their projectiles.
In alphabetical order, they are:

Biplane Head = This head provides bullet fire in 3 directions, in 
the same fashion as the Triple Head. It is also the only head capable 
of firing both east and west (the other two can only fire east.) 
The problem is that this can be a hinderance at times.

Bird Head = This head produces the most potent stream of fire in 
a massive torrent of birds. The main advantage this head has is the 
large spread that the birds cover, allowing you to hit multiple 
targets all clustered together. However, the stream is limited in 
that all the birds fly downwards and you can't turn backwards.

Laser Head = This head's advantage is that it's able to penetrate any 
force fields put up by an enemy. The problem is the stream doesn't 
widen like the others and you can't fire backwards.


If you can grab a Liberty Head from Headcase, then you'll be taken to 
the Intermission Bonus Game. Essentially, you have to place 
basketballs that are fired out of two machines in the loops by 
hitting them with your head. From time to time, the machines may 
shoot out a bomb. You can either avoid them or smash them with your 
head. The loops move from left to right, in a sequential order, of 
which 4 hoops appear on each line. There are two sets of loops and 
hence two separate sequences. Here's a run down of the different loops 
and their effects:

Star = Gives you a point. This is good. These loops are available on 
both lines - 3 on the lower and 1 on the higher.

1/4 = Slows down the hoops for a limited time. This is also good. 
This loop appears on the top line.

Basketball = Shoots out more basketballs from the machines. While 
this is generally good, don't get too cocky with them, or you'll be 
putting them in the wrong basket. There are two of these on the upper 

Key = Put a ball in here and one of the machines goes boom. This is 
bad. There is one of them, on the lower line.

The bonus game ends when either both machines explode, you take too 
much damage, press A to cancel it or make the required amount of 
shots. If you do make the shots required, then you'll be given a 
number to remember. If you get 4 numbers, wait till the end of the 
credits for your reward. These numbers are random for every new 
game you play.
There are 6 Liberty Heads throughout the game, namely found in:

Scene 2-2 = Toys in the Hood. The Headcase next to the 2nd ball you
            find in the level will have it.
Scene 3-3 = The Green Room. It's right at the beginning of the 
Scene 4-2 = Mad Mechs. Again, the first Headcase you encounter.
Scene 5-1 = Go Headdy Go. See above.
Scene 7-1 = Headdy Wonderland. See above the above.
Scene 8-3 = Fun Forgiven. Go right past the penguins. Freeze one of
            them and use it to jump onto the unreachable ledge.
            Headcase will have the Liberty Head up for grabs.

The best tactic to use for the Bonus Game is to focus on one ball at 
a time. Hitting multiple balls is a lot quicker, but it also 
increases the chances of you getting two in the Key basket and 
failing. Practice working from the machine on the right if you can. 
While it is more difficult (because there is less time to tell which 
basket the ball will go in), it will also mean that if you do get a 
ball in the Key basket, your flow will not be interrupted (because 
the leftmost machine always blows up first.)
Shoot the ball directly up when attempting to put it in the basket. 
To reach the higher baskets, you will need to jump and hit a ball 
upwards in mid-jump. Don't try getting cocky and shoot 
north-west/east because there is a very slim chance of you actually 
getting the ball in a basket, so you end up wasting time. In the 
later games, there is a much stronger bomb ratio than ball ratio, 
so you cannot afford to waste those balls.

Good luck!


This section of the Walkthrough deals with both what damage certain
heads do to enemies and also on how much health enemies have.
1 Damage Point = 1 Hit of Headdy's Normal Head.
If a head has a number under "Striking", then it can be used to 
activate switches and grapple Hangmen as well as attack enemies.

 |                    DAMAGE CALCULATION TABLE                     |
 | Normal  |   1      |   -  |   -       |   -     |      -        | 
 | Biplane |   -      |   1  |   -       |   -     | Scene 6 only  |
 | Bird    |   -      |   1  |   -       |   -     | Scene 6 only  |
 | Bomb    |   -      |   -  |   8       |   -     |      -        |
 | Empty   |   1      |   -  |   -       |   -     | Invincibility |
 | Hammer  |   2      |   -  |   -       |   -     |      -        |
 | Laser   |   -      |   1  |   -       |   -     | Scene 6 only  |
 | Liberty |   -      |   -  |   -       |   -     |  Bonus Stage  |
 | Melon   |   -      |   -  |   -       |   -     |  Hinderance   |
 | Mini    |   1      |   -  |   -       |   -     | Reduces Size  |
 | Pig     |   -      |1 x 2 |   -       |   -     |  Homing Shot  |  
 | Protect |   1      |   -  |   1 x 8*  |   -     |      -        |
 | Sleep   |   -      |   -  |   -       |   -     | Restores NRG  |
 | Spike   |   1      |   -  |   -       |   -     | Climbs Walls  |
 | Super   |   1      |   -  |   -       |   -     | x 2 Abilities |  
 | Ticker  |   1      |   -  |   -       |   -     | Freezes Enemy |
 | Triple  |   1 x 3  |   -  |   -       |   -     |      -        |  
 | Vacumn  |   -      |   -  |   -       |  Inf    |      -        |  
 | War     |   1      |1 x 8 |   -       |   -     |      -        |  

* = I couldn't judge where to place the Protector Head's fireballs, 
so I stuck them under the explosion bracket. That doesn't mean they
actually explode, though.

And now, the Health Calculation Tables, the 1st for Normal Enemies
(enemies you can complete the game without defeating), 
and the second for Bosses (enemies which you MUST kill in order to
complete the game). Enemies appear in approximate order of 
appearance in the game and are given the same names they have in 
the Curtain Call at the end of the game (or, if they don't appear 
there, they are made up by me).

Again, 1 Damage Point = 1 Hit of Headdy's Normal Head.

 |              HEALTH CALCULATION TABLE #1                |
 |      ENEMY NAME       | HEALTH |    SCENE APPEARENCE    |
 | Super Bino            |  Inf   |   1-1 (Occasionally)   |
 | Robo Collector        |   32   |           1-1          |
 | Practice Tintoy       |   1    |           2-1          |
 | Jumping Tintoy        |   2    |           2-1          |
 | Tintoy w/ Sword       |   3    |           2-1          |
 | Tintoy w/ Cannon      |   2    |           2-1          |
 | Test Men              |   13   |           2-1          |
 | Soldiers (All)        |   1*   |    2-2, 3-1 and 8-1    |
 | Climbing Soldiers     |   2    |           2-2          |
 | Old McGee             |   1    |           2-2          |
 | Mule McGee            |   1    |           2-2          |
 | Hunter Dog            |   1    |           2-2          |
 | Hunter Joe            |   1    |           2-2          |
 | Caterpillar           |   3    |           2-3          |
 | Unicyclist            |   1    |           2-3          |
 | Dazed Bino            |   2    |           2-3          |
 | Paddock               |   1    |           3-1          |
 | Mario Net             |   1    |           3-1          |
 | Mini Bruins           |   1    |           3-2          |
 | Funky Jeep Man        |   1    |           4-1          |
 | Wise Woman            |   1    |           4-2          |
 | Blind Flying Soldiers |   1    |           4-3          |
 | Ceiling Grapplers     |   1    |           4-3          |
 | Window Cleaner Bino   |   17   |           4-4          |
 | Balloon Kelly         |   1    |           5-3          |
 | Running Bino          |   4    |           5-4          |
 | Flying Shark          |   1    |           6-1          |
 | Rocket Soldier        |   3    |           6-1          |
 | Hover                 |   1    |           6-1          |
 | Wheeler Balls         |   3    |           6-2          |
 | Fly Hard 2 Turrets    |   1    |           6-3          |
 | Balloons              |   1    |           6-3          |
 | Spiders               |  Inf   |           6-3          |
 | Hog Tied Bino         |   1    |           6-4          |
 | Grabbed Bino          |   1    |           7-1          |
 | Penguin               |  Inf   |           8-3          |
 | Anubis                |   5    |           8-3          |
 | Moloch                |  Inf   |           8-3          |
 | Buzzsaw               |   1    |           8-3          |
 | Venus Headdy Trap     |   1    |           8-3          |
 | Oarsman               |   3    |           8-4          |
 | Shogun                |   3    |           8-4          |
 | Bean Head             |   1    |           8-5          |
 | Money Head            |   1    |           8-5          |
 | Bino Head             |   1    |           8-5          |
 | Propellor Head        |   1    |           9-1          |
 | Cocoa Head            |   1    |           9-1          |
 | Julian                |  Inf   |           9-1          |
 | Tiny Tank             |   1    |           9-1          |
 | Spike Men             |   2+   |       Final Scene      |
 | Plague Creatures      |   2    |       Final Scene      |

* = Some soldiers wear protective armour or have swords to
defend themselves. In these cases, they can only be killed when
they make themselves vulnerable (either by preparing to swipe
or exposing their faces).

+ = This enemy can only be destroyed with the Hammer Head.

And now, the Health Calculation Table for the Bosses. Note
that Keymasters have their own unique weak points that will
be covered in the walkthrough. Any special cases in the table
below will be highlighted and explained at the end of the
All Bosses are invulnerable to Suction attacks.

 |               HEALTH CALCULATION TABLE #2               |
 |      ENEMY NAME       | HEALTH |    SCENE APPEARENCE    |
 | Trouble Bruin         |   2    |           1-1          |
 | Catherine Deringuer   |   9    |           2-2          |
 | Snake Eyes +          | 14 + 8 |           2-2          |
 | Mad Dog               |   17   |           2-3          |
 | Flying Soldiers       | 4 x 3  |           3-1          |
 | Rocket Grappler       |   16   |           3-2          |
 | Puppeteer             |   17   |           3-3          |
 | Gentleman Jim         |   17   |           3-3          |
 | Wooden Dresser        |   9    |           3-4          |
 | Mons Meg              |   24   |           4-1          |
 | Super Tank Machine #  |  Inf   |           4-1          |
 | Flying Scythe         |   8    |           5-2          |
 | Wrecking Balls        | 5 x 2  |           5-3          |
 | ArmorDillo            |   16   |           5-3          |
 | Spinderella           |   17   |           5-4          |
 | Sky Battleship *      | App 60 |           6-1          |     
 | Wheeler Dealer *      | App 50 |           6-2          |
 | Baby Face **          | 35 x 4 |           6-4          |
 | Gatekeeper #          |  Inf   |           7-1          |
 | Nasty Gatekeeper      |   17   |           7-1          |
 | Missile Man           |   17   |           8-2          |
 | Tarot ^               |   17   |           8-3          |
 | Sparky ^^             |   9    |           8-4          |
 | Twin Freaks           |   17   |           8-5          |
 | Super Finagler #      |  Inf   |       9-1 and 9-2      |
 | Dark Demon            |   17   |       Final Scene      |
 | Hitmen                |   17   |    Final Final Scene   |
 | Boss                  |   15   |    Final Final Scene   |
+ = The first damage count indicates the scales that must be
smashed off Snake Eyes. The second damage count indicates the 
number of hits that must be made to his head to destroy him.

# = This boss is not destroyed by conventional means.

* = These numbers are approximations because there are other
circumstances which must be active before the boss is defeated.
The Sky Battleship will not fall out of the sky until the 
cloud turbulence has cleared up. The Wheeler Dealer is an
approximation because every time I fight it, the number varies
by a small amount.

** = Baby Face's hit points are based upon how many shots are 
needed to kill Grandpa Face. He can be hit more times in his other
forms and not take any additional damage.

^ = Before you can destroy Tarot, you must first make his face 
fully exposed. To do this, hit him with the 2, 4 and 8 balls until 
the total number exceeds 33 (i.e. Hit him with the 8 ball four 
times, and then once with the 2 ball).

^^ = Sparky can only be damaged by the three balls that you can 
drop on him when you flip the switch. The balls all do equal 
amounts of damage.

                                THE SCENES

Dynamite Headdy consists of 9 scenes, each divided into subsections. 
In the obvious order that they appear in, here they are, written in 


The spikes that appear from the left side of the screen are merely 
for show, they don't hurt you a bit, so don't panic! The 
Robo-Collector is intimidating, but he ultimately doesn't swipe you, 
so feel free to take him apart whenever you want. When the Yellow 
Baron starts chucking bombs at you, dodge in between them to 
avoid getting hurt. Ignore Super Bino if he happens to show up as 
he won't hurt, hinder or help you in anyway.

That's it? Well, it is until the backdrop falls on you (you don't 
actually lose health when this happens) and Trouble Bruin makes 
his first appearence of the game. To beat him, stay where you are 
and duck to avoid the energy balls. He'll now jump four times and 
run at you. Jump over him when he does, and he'll crash into the 
edge of the screen and fall backward. Dodge in between the energy 
balls, and headbutt him when he's panting. Repeat this process once 
more and he's history.

SECRET BONUS = Destroy the Robo Collector.


Well, not much can be said about this other than how to win the 
practices. Press UP to enter a door containing one of the 3 friends 
of Headdy.

Headcase = Every head comes in handy here, but the order I found 
useful was = Protection, Bomb, Hammer, War, Vacuum, Empty.

Hangman = Make sure you only grapple when you have a good idea of 
where you're going to go. Master use of grappling while in 
mid-flight, and watch out for the bottom of the screen!

Beau = Hit every weak point as soon as you can. Once the funny man 
inside the weak point goes green and you smash him he won't reappear 
again, so concentrate on the other ones. If you have a Rapid Fire
controller, I suggest you use it here.

SECRET BONUS = Completion each of these tasks will earn you one 
secret bonus point per task.


Kill the soldier coming towards you and go forward. Grab the 
floating platform with your head and jump on it. Go left, kill 
another soldier and grab Hangman. Kill the soldier with the sword by 
knocking him off the platform or smashing him when he pauses to 
swipe you. Grab the 500 point bonus and go right. 

SECRET BONUS = Grab the Hammer Head from Headcase and dispose of the 
green soldier by knocking him off the tower with the Hammer Head. 

Grapple onto Hangman and go up. Kill the red soldier when he exposes 
his face and knock the huge ball off the platform. Grab another 500 
point bonus when you jump off the platform by jumping right as far as 
you can.

Kill the sword soldier and jump into the wall. Grab the banana, 
grapple onto Hangman on the left and kill the red soldier. Move up 
till you see Headcase. Knock the ball off ONE platform and stand on 
it, then jump left for an extra life. Grab a Vacuum Head from 
Headcase and jump to the right of him. Ignore the ball above Hangman 
for now and move to the right, until you see soldiers climbing up a 
ladder. Suck 'em all in with the Vacuum Head until it runs out. When 
it does, run up the hill and grab Hangman. Move SHARPLY to the left 
to avoid the ball, and watch it destroy the ladder.

Go past this and grab either a Super Head or Empty Head. Grapple onto 
Hangman till you reach the top, then step carefully between the feet 
and grab a 500 point bonus. Proceed to the right (and grab another 
500 point bonus if you're quick enough) and smash the cage till it 
falls in the hole. You'll now fight Catherine Derigueur. Keep 
smashing her until she reaches the left of the screen. When she does, 
back away, as she attempts to suck you into her grasp. When she 
starts moving, attack her again. You should be able to kill her 
before she reaches the right side of the screen. 

SECRET BONUS = When you dispose of Catherine, Old Mcgee and Mule 
McGee will charge at you. Nail both of them for two secret bonus 

Grab the Sleep head from Headcase to replenish any health you lost. 
Now you can either take the Mini-Head and travel through the maze 
defeating little men and dogs that stand in your way, or you can take 
the Spike Head upwards. The Mini-Head route is easy, but the Spike 
head is a little more challenging. If you choose the Spike head, 
ascend left into the top of the wall for some 500 point bonuses. When  
grabbing the last one, use your head, as the purple block makes you 
fall through the floor. 

When you are ready, use the Spike head and climb to the top and move 
right. You will now face Snake Eyes. Stand in the second gap and aim 
north east. Smash ALL of his scales, then grab the Ticker Head when 
you have a clear shot to his head. Hit his head until he blows up. 
If he's got his mouth open, you won't be able to hurt him because 
he's about to shoot a fireball. You'll have to use your own judgement 
when dodging the fireball, because he fires it at random. When he's 
dead, proceed right and exit the stage.

SECRET BONUS = Destroy Snake Eyes.


Trouble Bruin will once again show up here - but this time he'll 
get squashed by the Keymaster for this stage - a giant sausage dog 
named the Mad Dog. The weak spot of this Keymaster is it's tail, so 
open fire on that. When Mad Dog jumps up into the air, stand WELL 
away from the arrow. He'll come down with something in his mouth, 
which will be one of the following:

A basketball, which bounces around the screen after he drops it. 
It can't be destroyed but it isn't that tricky to dodge just as 
long as you keep a cool head.
A huge bomb, which damages you if you stand too far to the right 
of the screen.
A caterpillar, who meanders about the right side of the screen and 
dies after three hits or self-destructs after a while.
An egg, which lets out 3 unicycle riders, whom you can destroy 
relatively easily.
Bino, who wanders off the screen unless you smash him.

SECRET BONUS = Smash Bino twice (or once with the Hammer Head).

That's pretty much all the attacks he does - hit his tail with the 
bonus heads from Headcase and you'll put the Dog to sleep with ease. 
End Scene.


To avoid falling off the screen, you can hold up or down to move in 
that direction on this level. Kill the miner soldier and move 
forward to the next platform. Jump over the ball-bombs and move on. 

SECRET BONUS = Go past the second ball-bomb launcher and wait for a 
few seconds. Ball-bombs with happy faces will start to emerge instead 
of the regular ball-bombs. Smash one of the faces for the bonus point.

Don't travel too fast on this level because the enemies tend to pop up 
and catch you unawares if you do. Kill the puppet on strings, then 
jump on to the next platform and take care of the two frogs. Swipe 
the banana, then on the next platform, pick up the 500 point bonuses 
and dodge the ball-bombs once more.

On the next platform, you'll face some flying soldiers. Be patient, 
get underneath their shadows and aim upward. There are three of them 
and they take four hits each. Don't attack them if they're gonna drop 
a bomb. From there, proceed to the right, swipe the banana and the 
1-Up, then proceed right some more. Trouble Bruin will then grab you 
with his Rocket Grappler and the fight will continue backstage.


For this scene, your movement is restricted because you're trapped.
You can move the grappler you're stuck in up and down slightly 
when it's flying straight, but that's about it. You can still fire 
your head as normal. Bruin's first method of attack is by releasing 
minature versions of himself from his ship. If you grab the 
Protection Head this isn't too bad, but if you can't, try and get 
on a horizontal axis with them and fire your head. 

SECRET BONUS = Bruin will randomly release a puppet who has a green 
head about twice as large as the regular mini-Bruins. Destroy this 
puppet for the bonus.

Soonafter, Bruin will start swiping you in circles around the Rocket 
Grappler. This gives you plenty of time to hit him repeatedly. Make 
sure you hit him when you are in fairly close proximity and on the 
same horizontal axis, as this reduces your chances of missing.

Once you've been round him a few times, Bruin try to smash you 
against the ceiling and floor. Look at which way the arrow is facing 
and push that way (hold UP if the arrow points up and DOWN if it 
points down.) After this, the pattern repeats itself, so keep 
attacking throughout with whatever head you can grab from Headcase, 
and Bruin will fall to pieces, along with his Rocket Grappler. 
You'll then be freed and move onto the next stage.


If you lost health during that battle, grab the Sleep Head from 
Headcase. Go right and you'll end up in the Battle Show. The two 
opponents you face here are your toughest challenge yet; The 
Puppeteer and Gentlemen Jim.

Once the two split from each other, they are vulnerable to attack. 
Always try to keep to Jim's right, as this way you'll avoid his 
cane attack. When he turns into a wrecking ball, time your jumps 
so it goes between your two opponents - the strings will not hurt 
you. Balance your attacks between both of them, as this makes it 
easier to take them down.

SECRET BONUS = Kill the Puppeteer before killing Jim.

If you kill Jim first, the Puppeteer will attempt to grab your 
head using his strings. If he succeeds, try and avoid it as much 
as possible, as it hurts you if it touches. Keep jumping and 
smashing him and you'll be ok.
If you kill the Puppeteer first, Jim will dance about the screen. 
He is invulnerable to attacks during this, so jump over him if 
he gets too close. When he stops, smash him repeatedly, avoiding 
the projectiles he spews out.

Once you finish them both, grab the Sleep Head from Headcase to 
replenish and health you lost and move right.


The Keymaster for this scene is the Wooden Dresser (who, according 
to the Japanese version, is female and not male). At first, her 
health will be purple and you cannot damage her. Watch her dance 
to the left of the screen and she will stomp on the ground and 
assume the identity of a dragon (she puts on a dragon suit). Beau 
will identify the weak points of the dragon (they're random every 
time) for you to hit. Watch for the fire stream that comes out of 
her mouth, grab the War Head from Headcase and let 'er rip. Once she 
loses her clothes, the Dresser is vulnerable. Hit her heart several 
times and she'll jump into the air.

When she comes down again, the Dresser will put on a ballerina's 
outfit and begin dancing. Beware, the clothes will hurt you this 
time, so when she comes in close, grab the Ticker Head and attack 
the weak points. Once you dispose of her clothes, she'll become 
vulnerable again. 

If you don't manage to kill her, she'll jump off again and this time 
put on a robot suit. This is similar to the dragon, but she has 
more attacks. If her chest explodes, then back away, as projectiles 
are going to come out. If she aims one of her arms at you, back off, 
cause if it grabs you you lose health. Finally, if she stomps the 
ground you have to dodge in between the falling debris.

From there on, she recycles between the three outfits. Fortunately, 
the Dresser is much weaker than the other Keymasters, so it 
generally doesn't take long to send her packing.

SECRET BONUS = At random intervals, the Dresser will put on a Bino 
Head. Destroy the head for the bonus point. There is a glitch in 
the game that allows for the Dresser to put this on more than once 
when you fight her, meaning you can get multiple bonus points! 
Beware though, this sometimes causes the game to freeze when you 
finish the battle. The glitch itself is triggered randomly.


SECRET BONUS = Smash the orange / blue balls repeatedly until you 
hear that you've got the bonus.

Begin this level by smashing the orange ball, and watch out for the 
Tumblee. Once he stops moving you can jump on him. The orange / 
blue balls will raise the land up or down, so if your path seems 
blocked, smash one to advance. After that you'll reach a platform 
with Headdy drawn on it. Grab Hangman and you'll change the 
backdrop. Jump onto the platform to your right.

Don't go right too fast - Headcase will fall from the top of the 
screen and you may miss him if you go too fast. Grab the Bomb Head 
and place it in the dip in the platform. Mons Meg will now appear, 
and the bomb will go off and do massive damage to her. When a 
targeter appears on the screen, keep moving to avoid getting shot. 
Keep headbutting her throughout and she'll explode with ease.

Go right and grab onto Hangman, then jump up the platforms (use 
Hangman again if you didn't manage to pull them down). Grab a 
Vacuum Head from Headcase if you want to suck up some bonuses, or 
grab the Hammer Head to knock out the platforms. Keep moving right 
until you see another platform with you on it. Grab Hangman to 
change the backdrop again.

Go right and hit the Happy Campers onto the pole. Don't worry if 
you miss, they'll come back if you do. Once you hit four onto it, 
jump onto them. Meet Headcase and go left from him. Hit the four 
remaining campers onto the pole on the left, then jump over for 
an extra life. Grab a Sleep Head from Headcase, and then the Empty 
Head. You'll now face the Super Tank Machine. 

SECRET BONUS = Destroy a cannonball fired from the Tank.

Stand as close as you can to the cannon (but NOT underneath it), 
then when it shoots a straight cannonball, hit it north-east. The 
ball should stick to the ceiling, then fall on the operator and 
kill him. After that, the machine blows up. If you miss with the 
first cannonball, keep trying until you get it. Go back and grab 
the Sleep Head, followed by the Triple Head. Use this to collect 
the difficult to reach 500 point bonuses, then smash the wierd 
looking thing until water comes out of the chute.

SECRET BONUS = Jump on the water chute and land on the top of the
weird thing's head. Jump up and headbutt downwards on the top of 
it's head. Repeat until destroyed and you've got the bonus.
Jump on the water and over to a platform with Headdy drawn on it.
Grab Hangman to change the backdrop again. The blue / orange balls 
will change the direction of the conveyor belts, and if you wish to 
attack the Funky Jeep Men with your default head, be aware that you 
need to hit them in the back, so use the conveyor belts to achieve 
this. Alternately, you can just grab the Vacuum Head and tear 
right, while sucking in anything that stands in your way.


If you want to go a quick way, grab the Mini-Head and go underneath 
the barriers. For a more complex - albeit with more bonuses - 
method, grab the Hammer Head and smash the blue ball until you 
manage to knock the platform to you. Jump on that and you'll find 
some blocks with a hammer icon on them. Destroy the blocks to reach 
some 500 point bonuses. There is no pattern as to when the Wise 
Women will appear on the moving platforms, so you'll have to look 
before you leap. They die with one hit though so don't be too 

When you reach the second set of moving platforms, make sure you 
have the Hammer Head, as you can't get through to the end of the 
scene without it. Just before the end there is an extra life, which 
you can reach if you hit the yellow thing underneath the moving 
platforms and jump down a few levels.

SECRET BONUS = Destroy all of the Hammer Head blocks on the level.


This scene revolves around the use of spinning platforms. You may 
get a few problems here with the screen that when you hit the 
spinning platforms, you are moved so fast the game doesn't register 
and doesn't move the screen, so you can't see what you're doing. 
If this occurs, simply hit the platform back to where you 
originally were, move a little in the direction you intend to go so 
the screen follows and resume play. 

Anyway, kill the flying soldier, then hit the platform right, 
followed by down. Grab the Sleep Head, followed by the Hammer Head. 
Kill another flying soldier then jump over to the right. Proceed to 
Hangman and destroy the hammer blocks for a 500 point bonus. Fall 
down to the platform with Headcase on. Watch out for the bottom of 
the screen. Now you can either grab the Hammer Head and go upwards, 
destroying the fans and the hammer blocks, or down and kill the 
ceiling creatures, smashing platforms to move on. Make sure you
grab the three 500 point bonuses on the way out.

SECRET BONUS = Destroy the two fans for two secret bonuses.


Not much can be said here. You can either wait for Bino to appear 
and beat him up, or go right. Lo and behold.....no Keymaster! 
What a level.

SECRET BONUS = Wait for a few seconds as you begin the level. Bino 
will appear and wipe the windows. Beat him up for the bonus.


Another useless scene. Go right past Headcase and you'll see 
Trouble Bruin. You'll automatically jump up on to the Puppet 
Tower and into the next scene.


This is a fairly linear level, but can be tricky. Trouble Bruin 
appears with his Flying Scythe, which takes large chunks out of the 
tower. When he nods his head, jump as high as you can get. You MUST 
get higher than the scythe otherwise there is a very good chance 
you'll fall off the bottom of the screen and get hurt.

When Bruin's eyes go funny, he'll move in to ram you. This is the 
only time when you can attack him. As you go further up the tower, 
he'll move in faster and faster, so watch out because he does a lot 
of damage if he touches you. The speed of the scythe does not change. 
After enough hits, he'll fall out of the sky and you'll be able to 
climb the tower.

SECRET BONUS = Keep climbing the tower until you hear the message. 
Note that you must lay off attacking Bruin for a while to achieve 


As soon as this level starts, grab Hangman and ascend up. There is NO 
POINT in attacking the Balloon Kellys unless you like getting hurt. 
Avoiding the flamethrowers is no big deal - don't climb when you see 

Climb up past them and you'll face two wrecking balls. The balls are 
both vulnerable to your head but they both deliver damage to you. 
Their first attack is to pound random parts of the floor you are on, 
which is easily dodgeable. The second attack revolves around them 
spinning around the center tower in an attempt to hit you. Make sure 
you time your jumps well - remember the connecting chains will not 
hurt you. The final attack will involve one ball spinning on the
ground level and the other spinning above you, which is a bit 
trickier but not a problem if you can keep your timing.

SECRET BONUS = Survive from the beginning of the level until 
when you pass the wrecking balls without getting hurt AT ALL for 
the point.

After you take care of the wrecking balls, climb up Hangman again 
and start moving fast. There are some cannons on the sides of the 
tower that will hit you unless you keep in constant motion. Keep 
moving and you'll reach a part with bomb launchers on top. Grab 
Hangman again, avoiding the bombs, and you'll face the ArmorDillo.

He is invulnerable to attack while he is rolling, so jump over him
as he approaches. When he exposes himself, he is only vulnerable to
attack from underneath. So when he starts jumping around, grab the 
Ticker Head from Headcase, timing it so that you freeze him in
mid-jump, and get under him and smash him repeatedly. Do that a few 
more times and he's history. If you take too long, he starts a new
pattern when he uncurls - he'll fire his shields across the screen
at you. Simply jump over them when he does and attack him, but make
sure to jump over them again as they come back.

From there, climb up the tower, grab the banana and prepare for 


The target for this Keymaster is her rear-end, but the problem is 
you can't reach it right now. Don't panic, you will in due time. 
Once you can move again, you'll hear a funny sound effect, and
this is the cue that tells you you're going to have to dodge her 
arms. When she attacks with the left arm, (that's YOUR left, not 
hers) move right and move left when she hits with the right arm. 
Try to keep away from the spikes dotted around the arena, as 
running into these makes the task of dodging her arms infinitely 
more tricky. Eventually, both arms will stick in the ground and 
you can get a few cheap shots on her ass. Then repeat the process 
outlined. The second time you try though, Bino will rush in and 
break your attack pattern, so feel free to beat him up.

SECRET BONUS = Bash Bino until he falls off the screen.

Now Spinderella will switch the backgrounds around, making it seem 
you have the Mini Head active. Annoyingly, her body will now obstruct 
half of your view. Don't panic. Just concentrate on dodging her arms. 
You'll have to judge the ass-shots yourself. After two of these, 
Spinderella will switch the background back to normal, allowing you 
to finish the job on her. End Scene.


At the start of this scene, Headcase will provide you with the 3 
flying heads. These have been covered in the head section, and which 
one you choose is a matter of opinion. You can only change heads in 
this level by picking up an icon when it appears in the scene. 

SECRET BONUS = Wait until Headcase produces a head that looks like 
Bino. Smash it for a secret bonus point.

Choose your head and the screen starts scrolling right. The first 
wave of attackers are some rockets shape liked sharks, which hurt you
by trying to burn you up in their exhausts. Dodge to the top right of
the screen and then bottom left when they start moving. Then some soldiers 
going to the moon will appear, so shoot them at will. 

SECRET BONUS = Destroy the moon-rocket with the cow on it's side.

After that, 8 bombs will appear around you and move in. Shoot the ones 
on your right and move quickly before you get hurt. You'll face a few 
more shark rockets, then a clamp will come down from the top of the 
screen and bring up the Sky Battleship.

Begin initially by firing on the turrets and the clamp, taking care 
to dodge the shots. When the mouth opens, fire with EVERYTHING you 
have and destroy it quickly. If you don't, it shoots out this VERY 
annoying worm creature that is a real pain to kill. With the mouth 
down, the Battleship releases little choppers that drop mines that 
explode in 8 directions. Those are irritating, but not as much as 
the worm.

Focus fire on all 3 turrets and they'll cave in as well, leaving the 
Battleship only able to release the helicopters. Now focus fire on 
the clamp, dodging the mines from the choppers. Around this point 
you'll run into some cloud turbulance, which does a very good job of
blocking the screen up, making it difficult to see what the hell 
you're doing. Keep a cool head and keep firing at the clamp. After 
repeated hits, the clamp will be destroyed and the Battleship will 
fall out of the sky. You'll now continue into a Zepplin for the next 


In this scene, Trouble Bruin will appear again, this time with a 
contraption called the Wheeler Dealer. At first, you can't attack him 
because he's in the background, but he'll release little mines that 
home in on you. These can be destroyed with ease. Grab your favourite 
head and the banana, and he'll move in to your level. Open fire with 
everything you have on his head. Beware though, every two seconds he
releases an indestructible energy ball. This can be dodged easily, 
but it tends to break your pattern up a bit. The other thing he lets 
out are two little machines that grapple to the top and bottom of the 
screen. You can ignore the bottom one, but the top one shoots out an 
electrical bolt after a few seconds, targeted at the bottom. This can 
get annoying if you're trying to avoid the energy ball, so destroy 
the top one.

After you hit Bruin enough, he'll fall to the background and release 
more mines. Waste them and he'll come back to the foreground. Repeat 
the process described in the previous paragraph.
The funny thing about this boss is that you can't completely destroy 
it. No matter how hard you try, you can't blow it up. Once you DO 
make enough hits though, Bruin will fall back and release an EN MASSE 
barrage of mines. Hang to the left of the screen and gun them down. 
After this, Bruin will be stopped (literally) and you'll continue to 
the next stage.


This level has a linear pathway, so there isn't much that can be 
written here. I'm afraid it's mostly up to your own skill at flying
and dodging between objects. Generally speaking, when you are given 
a choice between going top or bottom, going top means you'll face 
more enemies, while going bottom means you'll have to dodge more 

The floor and the ceiling will often be electric, so try and stay in 
the center of the screen. The turrets and balloons can be destroyed 
in one hit. The balloons will drop the energy ball they carry though 
so watch out. The spiders are indestructible so all you can do is 
dodge them. If a barrier is blocking your way, shoot it and it will 
rise. Towards the end of the level you'll have to dodge between 
several spiders, but once you get past them you can grab a banana.


This Keymaster doesn't have a weak point - you simply target the 
face. Baby Face's attack is to shoot you with energy balls. These 
move very slowly and don't home in on you, so you can just hang to 
the left of the screen (or right if you have the biplane) and keep 
your finger on fire. After a few hits, Baby Face will move to the 
center of the screen. IMMEDIATELY move to the top left corner, and 
he'll turn into Boy Face.

Boy Face will move to the right of the screen, so keep shooting him. 
If you have the biplane head, keep to the left of the screen. If 
you have the bird head, stay center. If you have the laser, get as 
close to Boy Face as you can. The reason for this is that his hand 
will come out of the cloud after a few seconds (watch the bottom of 
the screen) and only lasers can penetrate his hand to hurt his face.
His hand will fire static electricity in 8 directions, and his face 
will now move from right to left. Keep shooting him and repeat the 
process. After enough shots, he'll move to the center. Move back to 
the top left corner and he'll turn into Man Face.

Man Face will keep to the right and he'll pull up a hooked hand and 
bring down a banner, dragging it randomly across the screen. The 
banner won't hurt you but his hand will. To make it worse, he now 
shoots laser bolts from his eyes, and the banner tends to obstruct 
your view. The laser bolt patterns are in an 8 burst, covering the 
screen and an additional 4 in one, which fires on one of those 8 
axis. His head remains to the right of the screen, so it isn't tough 
to target, but remember his hand obstructs all but laser fire. After
enough hits, he'll move to the center of the screen. Move once again 
to the top left and he'll transform into Grandpa Face.

You can now either let Grandpa Face grab you or shoot him to the very 
end. His hand is quick so watch out. Don't worry if he grabs you, he 
dies before he can finish you off. Either way, when you beat him, 
the scene ends.

SECRET BONUS = Shoot Grandpa Face to the last. His face will peel 
off to reveal Bino hog-tied to the pole. Shoot Bino for the point.


Err.....go right. 

SECRET BONUS = The last cow you see will sound like a horse when 
you jump on it. Destroy it.

Keep going right until you meet the Gatekeeper. 

SECRET BONUS = Just before you meet the Gatekeeper, note the birds 
on the totem pole. The leftmost looks like the ugly duckling of sorts. 
Smash him before he flies off for the point.

Hmmm, Heather's there as well? What's going on? (Go to that link in
the Japanese / English version differences section for more info. 
Oh, and I'm referring to the Gatekeeper as a he, unlike the twin 
female counterparts that were decipted in the Japanese version.)

Defeating the Gatekeeper relies mostly on the positioning of Heather. 
If Heather is standing on the right side of the screen, you have to 
stand on the left side of the Gatekeeper in order for Heather to be 
able to chuck the key in his backpack (and vice versa). When the 
Gatekeeper swings his arm back to ram you, move to the other side 
of him. Repeat this process until all the key's have been placed in 
his backpack and he falls off the screen.

Hmmm.....the Dark Demon's castle was behind Headdy Wonderland? Well, 
just as you're about to act, a robot hand comes out of nowhere and 
grabs Heather. The Gatekeeper's back - only this time he's turned 
NASTY! Beau will appear and give you the target; his eyes. Note 
that if he has a hand or Heather to his face, he cannot be harmed 
(and if you hit Heather, then you lose health.) Jump the projectile 
the Gatekeeper drops and give him a quick taste of your hit power. 
While you're at it, smack Beau out of the air as well (it doesn't
affect gameplay if you do or don't, but I prefer the little bugger
out of the way). Note the smoke coming coming from his head - you 
just pissed him off. Oops.

He'll now try to smash you with his free hand. He'll target your 
head, which is invulnerable, but his hand is large enough to hit 
your body as well. When he tries to grab you, throw your head as far 
away from your body as possible and jump around like a lunatic. 
He'll try to "fast grab" you 5 times in succession, so watch out.

After that, he'll do one of two things. He may jump around the 
screen, swiping a hand around him while doing so, meaning all you 
can do is dodge him. Or he may try and target your head again. If 
he does the latter, make sure his hand targets you so that it flies 
off the screen (jump in the air and this will be acheived). 
Provided it's his free hand that he threw off the screen, he'll 
either bring back Bino or Headcase. 

SECRET BONUS = Smash Bino off screen for the bonus.

Once the Gatekeeper holds Headcase, you now have three ways of 
taking him out.

SUICIDE WAY = Grab the Melon Head and get your ass kicked (not 

LONG WAY = Grab the Empty Head from Headcase and smash him when both 
his hands are away from his body. Remember to re-new the head 
repeatedly. If you hit Heather though, you will still lose energy.

SHORT WAY = Grab the Bomb Head and place it at his feet. With a 
little luck (correction, with a LOT of luck) it should go off 
when he is vulnerable. Repeat this twice and he's scrap metal.

Should you not like the selection of heads on offer, you can get
the Gatekeeper to throw away Headcase by making him throw his 
hand off-screen using the technique above. Then repeat the action
and he'll bring Headcase back, this time with a Hammer or War Head
for the selection. However, I do not condone using this technique,
because it's pointless when you have two entirely safer methods
outlined above.


This level is just simply a long walk from left to right, but at 
regular intervals, rockets will come blazing down the tunnel 
you're in from right to left. The rockets cover about a third of 
the screen so normal jumping is useless. Listen out for the warning 
siren and look for rapidly flashing lights, because the rockets do a 
LOT of damage. There are only two ways to avoid them:

COWARDLY WAY = Grab a Mini Head and dive into the small cracks in the 
floor when you hear a siren.

DAREDEVIL WAY = Grab a Spike Head and grapple to the ceiling when you 
hear a siren. You will have to grapple to the ceiling in rapid 
succession to avoid getting hurt. This way allows you to pick up the 
various 500 bonus points scattered on the ceiling.

SECRET BONUS = Pick up ALL of the 500 point bonuses on the level.

Other than that, it's a linear path. Don't worry about the soldiers, 
they get destroyed when the rockets blast through or you can explode 
them with one hit of your head. Go right throughout and you'll end 
up in the next scene.


On this level you'll fight the Missile Man. His only form of attack 
is to release rockets at you. These are excatly the same as in the 
previous level, with the only difference being they don't come 
roaring at you immediately after the warning siren - there is a 
slight delay for the rocket to charge up. The best way to deal with 
this guy is to grab the Mini Head and hit the tower he is on 
repeatedly. The only problem is he may release a rocket immediately 
after one is fired, making your life troublesome. Keep it cool and 
don't lose your head (no pun intended), and you'll destroy him fairly 

SECRET BONUS = Destroy one of the orange soldiers who fall from the 
platform once you defeat the Missile Man. Destroying more than one
will not net you furthur bonus points.


When you begin this level, note the funny penguin dancer to your 
right. He can only be destroyed by falling, and if you hit him with 
your head, he freezes. The way to kill him is to freeze him when 
he's over the blue blocks, clearing a path for you at the same time.

Watch the spikes on your way down, as these hurt a fair bit. Once 
you've descended enough, you'll see a funny blue thing on a wheel 
moving toward you. Hit the thing's head but NOT it's body. You must 
jump onto it's head to avoid getting crushed against the wall. Move 
right and you'll see another one. Repeat the process.

Continue right and you'll face the mid-scene boss, Tarot. Initially, 
he cannot be harmed by your head, but instead there are several balls 
with numbers on circling him (2, 4 and 8), a heart circle, Headcase 
and Hangman. You have to ram the number circles into him to do 
damage. Ignore Headcase and Hangman. Ramming the heart into him makes 
him regain energy. Naturally, the 8 ball does more damage than the 2 
ball. Tarot's only attack for now is to move the balls outward in an 
attempt to hurt you with them. Keep to the extreme left or right when 
he does this.

SECRET BONUS = Ram the heart circle three times to get the bonus
point. Thanks to Char for clarifying that you do NOT need to hit Tarot
with the heart to gain the point.

After several hits, Tarot's face will blow up and everything but 
Headcase will fall off from around him (Headcase falls to the floor). 
Now Tarot is vulnerable to your head. His only attack is to scrape 
the sun-spike along the floor. This does a LOT of damage so jump
over it when it happens. After repeated hits (the Triple Head from 
Headcase works wonders), he'll fall to the floor and explode.

Grab the Sleep Head if you lost some energy, then use the Spike Head 
to ascend the wall to your left. Watch out for the buzzsaws, you can 
destroy them if need be. Once you reach the top, you'll see some 
Venus Headdy Traps. Attack them by ducking down and hitting their 
root (you can only do this once their head reaches it's full height).
If you don't, they'll chomp on your head and spit it out, and it 
hurts you if it touches your body.

After you take care of the annoying plants, you'll face a very 
difficult part of the game. There are Hangmen all over the place, 
but they swap around to an empty tile every second. Below them are 
some straw patches you can safely land on, and some spikes which you 
To get past the final part of the course (which is exceedingly 
frustrating), here's what you have to do. Make sure you're on the 
fourth straw patch. Wait until the Hangman closest to your position 
is ready and available. Grapple him, then as you're released, 
grapple him again in mid air and swing to the right as you pass him. 
The Hangman to the right of your initial position is now available. 
Grab him and swing to the ledge and move on to the next scene.

SECRET BONUS = The "Don't Shoot" block to the left of where you land 
after getting past the Hangman course contains a secret bonus point.
Smash it.


This level has a linear pathway, and the mid air switches can be used 
to put the level upside down (switch the top for the bottom and vice 
versa) or the right way up. The people in the blocks are useful for 
getting over spike traps and obstacles, so head butt them into 
position to proceed.

SECRET BONUS = Smash three of the projectiles shot by the upside 
down heads.

Sparky, the end-scene boss, can only be damaged by the balls that
appear with him. The balls will fall onto him if you flip the switch. 
Do NOT be deceived by the appearance of the balls; they all do the 
same amount of damage.
His only attack is to hit you with lightning, but this is slow to 
charge, so you can avoid it with ease. Beware though, the balls 
can hurt you as well as Sparky. After you defeat him, move on to 
the final part of the level.


This Keymaster is the most difficult boss in the entire game, 
even more than Dark Demon. He has two colours: Red and Green. While 
green, he fires out enemies from his ears and moves relatively 
slowly. When red, he concentrates on crushing you against the wall, 
and moves a LOT faster. He changes between colours when you smash the 
mid-air switches.

SECRET BONUS = At random intervals, Twin Freaks will fire out an 
enemy with a Bino head. Destroy it for a bonus point. This is 
EXTREMELY difficult to get.

His target is the ear closest to you, but you can only damage him 
while he's green. To make matters worse, the vast majority of spike 
traps appear on the level when he's green. 
When the battle begins, jump up and hit his ear a couple of times,
then jump right onto the nearest platform, position yourself
underneath the mid-air switch and aim diagonally left. Hit his ear 
as many times as you can before he gets too close and then hit the 
From there, your best strategy is to get as much distance between 
him and you while he's in either form (though keeping him in green
as long as possible contributes greatly to surviving the level), 
and survive long enough until you see Headcase. Grab the Hammer / 
Triple Head from him and headbutt like mad. If you can complete this 
boss without losing any health, you have my respect and admiration. 
Either that or you're a liar. :)


When this level starts, Trouble Bruin shows up with one hell of a 
machine, called the Super Finagler. This guy never gives up, does 
he? Don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him, but for now, you 
have to concentrate on surviving.

The platform you are on starts moving upwards. Ignore Bruin's 
machine, but watch out for the occasional projectile he shoots at 
you. Grab the Hammer Head from Headcase, but watch out for the Melon 
Head (getting this assures death). Use the Hammer Head to destroy 
the blocks on the left. After this, ram the blue blocks upwards. 
Make sure you choose the one that the brown Cocoa head is NOT on. 

SECRET BONUS = Destroy one of the Cocoa heads (you can't get them 

Once you've dodged past the spikey balls, run IMMEDIATELY to the 
right once you get the chance. Jump up to the platform above the one 
you're on and run sharply to the left - if you wait for the moving 
platform to catch up, you'll get crushed by the spikes.

Once you clear the spiky ceiling section, you'll have to dodge 
between more spikes. These are more avoidable though, and there are 
some 500 point bonuses as well. After that, you have a choice of 
where to go. You can either grab the Hammer Head and ram the women 
on platforms repeatedly so you can get past, or you can grab the Mini
Head, destroy the tiny tanks and pick up two extra lives when you're 
done. Either way, you'll come up against some more blocks which need 
to be destroyed after you pass. 

SECRET BONUS = Destroy ALL of the blocks (Hammer and Normal) on the 
level. To achieve this for the last part of the level, you'll need 
to grab the Hammer Head at the very last moment and destroy the 
Hammer blocks first.

Once you finish destroying the blocks, the Super Finagler will 
attempt to destroy you, malfunction and go on a mission to destroy 
you and Trouble Bruin. Oh dear.


This level isn't too complicated. Whenever Trouble Bruin tries to 
grab you, smash him a few times to get him off. The Super Finagler 
has trouble targeting you in two places; to the extreme right of the 
screen and directly underneath it. Split your time between these two 
areas and you should be able to dodge most of the laser shots.
Eventually, Bruin will trip up and the Finagler falls behind as well, 
blowing up as it goes, allowing you to run right to the final scene.

SECRET BONUS = Survive the scene without Trouble Bruin grabbing onto 
you. After about 52 seconds, he will start running in the same place 
and this is when you will hear you've got it. Thanks to JDAdams on 
the GameFAQs forums for clearing up the deal on this bonus point once 
and for all.

In addition, Char also gave me some good tactics to get the point:
"The best way to survive without caught by Trouble Bruin 
is to:
1. If you aren't getting completely bombarded by lasers, stay close 
to Bruin. It will keep him from jumping, which means he will not 
cover as much ground.
2. The best way to pass Bruin is to go underneath him when he's 
jumping. In a pinch, you can jump over him, but make sure that no 
lasers are coming at you.
3. Try to stay near the middle of the screen when you're not moving. 
When you are moving, however, try to keep the Super Finagler's gun 
barrel from staying in one place. Just alternate between moving just 
to the left and right of the barrel. This will keep the lasers from 
piling up in one direction, as when that happens, it's much harder 
to dodge the lasers."


Well, here it is. You've fought your way to one of the toughest 
bosses ever. Heather will show up, but she won't be much use (she 
gets captured before the fight even begins). The background will now 
pan out from the throne room to a frankly amazing looking space 
backdrop and you'll face the Demon.

The Dark Demon will allow you to pick a head to attack him with. A 
good tactic is to pause the game and see what options you have. When 
he turns blue, you can attack him. You can only do this once per 
choice, so obviously the Hammer Head does the most damage here. 
If you're fast enough, you can hit him with one head and grab another
in anticipation of his attack. The colour of Dark Demon's crystal 
ball indicates what attack he'll use, and here they all are:

PINK = A plague of either jumping or flying creatures that look like
evil pumpkins. The flying creatures will fly around for a few seconds 
before diving at you, while the jumping ones will just jump off the 
screen. The War Head is recommended for this, but failing that, get 
the Pig Head or the Super Head.

GREEN = Spike men appear from the bottom of the screen and attempt 
to rip you a new ass. You can either use the Mini Head and hide 
under Dark Demon's cloak, or use the Hammer Head to destroy them.

SECRET BONUS = Destroy ALL of the spike men with the Hammer Head 
for a bonus. This is INCREDIBLY difficult to acheive.

BLUE = A load of projectiles are fired from the Dark Demon's hand 
along ground level. He also puts up a barrier protecting him from 
you. The barrier can be destroyed after a few hits though. The 
recommended heads are either the Super Head (allows you to jump 
higher) or the Mini Head (allowing you to hide underneath his cloak).

ORANGE = Dark Demon disappears off screen and a wall appears at the 
top of the screen. Only one spot in the wall can protect you from 
being squashed UNLESS you have the Mini Head, in which case there 
are 3 other spots. The spots are shuffled randomly by the wall 
before it comes crashing down on you. Getting crushed does not kill 
you instantly, but it takes away a whole lotta health.

FLASHES BETWEEN ALL OF THE ABOVE = Dark Demon disappears and a HUGE 
blast charges across the screen. The only way to avoid this attack 
is with the Mini Head. This attack takes away almost half your 
health so watch out for it.

That's all of his attacks, keep smashing him when he turns blue and 
he'll explode in a gigantic fireworks display. Congratulations, you've 
won the game! Now sit back and watch the incredibly dumb ending. :)


If you managed to get all 4 bonus numbers from the Intermission 
Bonus Game, watch until the end of the credits. You'll now get to 
type the code in and play the last scene.

You have infinite lives to complete this part of the game. 
The first phase is disposing of the "hitmen". Simply hit them 
and dodge between the money. It falls in a pattern so it's 
possible to predict where it lands. Beware, the money does 
MASSIVE damage - three hits and you're dead. But once you take out 
the two men, you're left with the boss.

Get on one of the far sides of the screen and hit the boss. Money 
will fly out of him and home in on you. Dodge it by running to the 
other side of the screen. Repeat this process until you knock him 
senseless. Congratuations, now you've _really_ completed the game!

Oh, and those secret bonuses? Sorry, all you get is the satisfaction 
of getting them all. :)


It has come to my attention that there are actually THREE, rather
than two, cheat codes available for the English version of
Dynamite Headdy. The first two are common knowledge, so I'll
explain them here:

On the Start Screen, highlight "Start Game" and press C, A, Left, 
Right, B (a correct entry will result in Headdy saying "Nice!")
Press Start for the Level Select.
Alternatively, highlight "Options", enter the exact same code and 
then press Start for the Head Check (a screen which allows you
to see all of Headdy's different animations).

Credit goes out to DRR Phantom for discovering the third code,
also known as the "Hard Mode Code", however he worded it a little 
incorrectly on the GameFAQs website and was unable to change it, 
so I'll do it for him here. 

Right, B, making sure you HOLD down the B button, even when you hear 
Headdy saying "Nice!" Now, with the B button still held down, press 
and HOLD the Start button. Continue pressing both until you see the 
"Opening Demo" scene appear. Now you can release the buttons and 
continue as normal. 
Be warned however, one hit is all it takes to kill you now. Frankly,
I've never tried completing the game with this code on, because I know 
it'd be downright impossible to finish the later stages. :)

                               MISC STUFF        

Ok, I've decided to make this section because there's several 
parts to the weirdness that is Dynamite Headdy that can't be put into
gameplay values.


As most people can guess, a lot of Dynamite Headdy's scene names are
puns on various movies. As such (and as some people might not get
the jokes) I'm putting down a brief reference guide to the scene names
and their movie comparisons. If anyone can help fill in the gaps left
by me here or correct any mistakes I make, please contact me and 
you'll get credit for it. Thanks to IMDB.com for the following:

The Escape = The Great Escape (The Steve McQueen classic)
Toys in the Hood = Boyz 'n the Hood (Ghetto film starring 
Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr and Ice Cube)
Mad Dog and Headdy = Mad Dog and Glory (Comedy starring Robert De Niro
and Uma Thurman)
Clothes Encounters = Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Another classic)
Terminate Her Too = Terminator 2 (Everyone knows this one)
Mad Mechs = Mad Max (The movies that made Mel Gibson)
Heathernapped = Kidnapped (There's about 10 variations on this movie)
Stair Wars = Star Wars (Everyone knows this one too)
Towering Internal = The Towering Inferno (Another Steve McQueen classic)
Spinderella = Cinderella (Another one everyone knows)
The Flying Game = The Crying Game (Drama about a British soldier captured
by IRA terrorists)
Fly Hard = Die Hard (The movies that made Bruce Willis)
Baby Face = Scarface (There's probably a million movies that could match
this scene name, but the closest I thought of was the Al Pacino classic)
Headdy Wonderland = Alice in Wonderland (Yet another well known one)
The Rocket Tier = The Rocketeer (Action film about a guy who finds a
prototype jetpack and becomes a masked hero)
Illegal Weapon 3 = Lethal Weapon 3 (You know this one too)
Fun Forgiven = Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood directed Western)
Twin Freaks = Twin Peaks (David Lynch directed film / TV series)
Fatal Contraption = Fatal Attraction (Drama starring Michael Douglas and
Glenn Close)
Far Trek = Star Trek (Only hermits wouldn't know this one)
Finale Analysis = Final Analysis (Romantic drama starring Richard Gere and
Kim Basinger)

Credit goes to Joe Zovko and Nick "Wibblewozzer" Garboden for identifying
the Twin Freaks level stage, and Mr Garboden again for identifying Fun 


Finally, the big update I promised would be coming on the forums is
ultimately delivered. :)

Ok, brief background info. As you may or may not be aware, there are
actually THREE versions of Dynamite Headdy; a beta never released to
the public, the English version and the original Japanese edition. I'll
speak more about the beta in a while, but first I'll cover the
major differences between the Japanese and English versions.

First point to note is, though English is used for the stage names
and vocals, a great deal of the text is written in Japanese (Kajin?), 
and there is also a lot more of it, mostly spoken before you
fight Trouble Bruin (Maruyama) and the Keymasters.

I was, at one point, going to write out the translated "plot" of the 
game, but decided to bail out after I realised just how damn long it 
would take to actually make SENSE of it. Fortunately, I learned later 
that Michael Stearns did the job for Madam Luna, who's Headdy-holic
site has been sadly taken down at the time of writing this
FAQ / Walkthrough. With help from a persons by the name of Freakservo,
the translated plot is now available for your viewing pleasure at
the following address:


Now onto the rest of the differences.

When you start the Japenese game, "Press Start" has now become "Press 
Start Button" and "Start Game" is "Game Start". Trivial, but
noticable. :)

Talking of trivial, the "Game Over" Screen shows either 
"Try Again" and how many continues you have or "Give Up". Ok, now
onto some _real_ info. :D

You will also notice on the intro that several characters have 
different names then their American incarnates. For details on who's
who, check out the link above.

All of the stage names (with the exception of Backstage Battle
and Baby Face) are different between the versions. Here are the 
stage names in both (English on the left, Japanese on the right):

The Escape = Escape Hero!
Practice Area = Three Friends
Meet Whoever = Friend's Room
Toyz N The Hood = North Town
Madd Dogg N Headdy = Concert Panic!
Down Under = Fire Carnival
Green Room = Guest Area
Clothes Encounters = Starlight Storm
Terminate Her Too = South Town
Mad Mechs = Working Gear
Mad Mechs 2 = Restless Factory
Heathernapped = Mystery Spot
Go Headdy Go = Puppet Tower
Stair Wars = Go Up!
Towering Internal = Rolling Rolling
Spinderella = On The Sky
The Flying Game = Air Walker
Fly Hard = Reckless Wheel
Fly Hard 2 = Light Velocity
Headdy Wonderland = Paradise?
The Rocket Tier = Fight!
Illegal Weapon 4 = Missile Base
Fun Forgiven = Radical Party
Vice Versa = Reverse World
Twin Freaks = Funny Angry
Fatal Contraption = The Rival
Far Trek = Brain Break!
Finale Analysis = Final Attack

As you play throughout the game, you will notice certain enemies and 
bosses have different colour schemes. These are a bit TOO trivial to
write down in detail here, but in my opinion they look much nicer in 
the English version. :)

A few noticeable graphic changes worth mentioning though are that 
the stagelights of Headdy and the Keymasters don't have "H" or "E" 
in the middle and the Melon Head Icon viewable on Headcase is now 
a Japanese symbol instead of a melon. Even more bizarrely, this 
symbol translates as "Buddha", meaning the Melon Head is in fact a
Buddha head, which although explaining the in-game appearance of
the head, leaves me to wonder if the programmers really weren't
going on a head trip themselves when they made the game. :D

The Intermission Bonus Game also has slightly different messages
on it (English on left, Japanese on right):
Get ** Shots = Get ** Items. 
1/4 Icon = I< (it looks like the 'slow' function on a remote control)

Remember (x) = Secret Number (x)

As mentioned before, Trouble Bruin is now called Maruyama in the 
Japanese version, and he is a purple colour and looks rather cute,
compared to his brown and evil-eyed look in the English version.
His appearance was most likely changed for the English version to 
look more like his namesake (a bear) and also to give the impression
you're actually fighting a bad guy and not a cute looking cat. :D

When you fight Maruyama at the end of Scene 1-1, the energy balls
he summons to his body don't hurt you. He still does, though.
Obviously, this makes the battle between him a lot easier.
Also, when he rebounds off the edge of the screen, the balls that 
fall out of his form start out small and then grow to their normal 
size. Quite a cool looking effect, but I guess as the balls hurt 
you in the English version it wouldn't make sense to keep it the 
way it was.
Finally, when you hit Maruyama for the last time and he falls
offscreen, instead of hearing the "neutralised" sound effect 
you hear the "Haunx" vocal he says everytime he gets hurt.

Headdy's end stage "Head Juggle" does not have crowd applause in 
the background.

In Scene 3-1, Headcase shows up for the fight with the three 
Flying Soldiers. He has the Hammer and Empty Heads available.

In Scene 4-2, Mons Meg looks VASTLY different in the Japanese 
version. Rather than a castle-like humanoid robot, she looks
like a large girl doll and is called "Rebecca".
The most likely answer to the obvious graphic and name change 
is that Sega America didn't feel too happy about having the 
player headbutt a gigantic girl doll to death, but a robot 
who vaguely resembles a girl would be much more satisfactory. 

In Scene 5-3, Bino runs in slightly earlier during your
fight with Spinderella, thus making him about 10 times MORE 
annoying (if that's possible in the first place).

In Scene 6-1, there are less Flying Sharks to dodge in the 
first part of the scene. However, there are two waves of the
bombs that surround you as compensation.
Also, the wire that picks up The Flying Battleship is longer, 
meaning there's more of a delay to you fighting it. The mouth-gun 
of the Flying Battleship is also more difficult to destroy, and
green lights appear in between the cloud turbulence during the

In Scene 6-4, there is a longer pause between the head selections, 
and subsequently a longer pause before facing Baby Face.

In Scene 7-1, the Gatekeeper is, like Mons Meg, completely 
different. In the Japanese version, the Gatekeeper is 
actually two twin sisters, Yayoi and Izayoi. Upon appearance, 
Yayoi (Gatekeeper) resembles a female Japanese Kabuki dancer wearing 
a pink kimono. Izayoi (Nasty Gatekeeper) is similarly designed, but
with Nasty's robot hands (coloured pink) and with sharp teeth and 
red eyes. Unlike Sega America's politically correct evil robot, 
the two are distinctly different characters. 
Also, the boss theme for this scene now has the drum beat heard at 
the beginning, like when it's played in the Sound Test.
Finally, one blast with the Bomb Head is all that's needed to kill 

In Scene 7-3, the Hangmen in the final puzzle at the end of the scene 
hang around for double the time than in the English version, making 
it about 100 times easier.

In Scene 7-5, notice in the English version, Headdy is briefly in 
his "confused" look for a split-second after Twin Freaks makes his 
presence seen? Well, that's because of the dialogue exchanged here 
that is ommitted in the English version, which called for his 
confused look throughout it.
Amazingly, Twin Freaks is even HARDER to fight in the Japanese 
version, because he appears to have double (!) the health he has 
in the English version. However, there is a neat trick you can use 
in the fight - aim north-east and headbutt like mad when he's green 
- even though you're not hitting his ear, he'll still get hurt. And
before you ask, SEGA did indeed catch on with that little trick
for the English version and made sure you have to hit his ear. :(

The ending of Dynamite Headdy is VASTLY different from the English 
version. As well as added dialogue from Smiley and Heather, 
instead of Heather and Headdy making out to the trumpet fanfare, 
Smiley jumps up and latches himself on Headdy's face, 
much to the chagrin of Headdy. Heather, evil bitch that she is, 
just watches with amusement as the trumpets sound.
In the ending demo, Heather gives her goodbye salute to Headcase, 
Hangman and Beau. Headdy is shown a while after trying to remove 
Smiley from his face. He succeeds briefly and flashes a silly 
grin at the camera, before Smiley jumps back on there. 
The rest is as normal.

Finally, the Curtain Call is called "Puppet Introduction". 
All the enemies have different names which I'm NOT about to spell 
out here. Suffice to say, I think the English names are better in 
almost every case.

And now, for info on the beta. While I don't have the beta, here's 
a synopsis from the ever-awesome Madam Luna, posted on the Treasure 
Gamer's Community on LiveJournal 
(http://www.livejournal.com/community/treasure_gamers), with comments
from yours truly inserted in [] parenthesis:

"The Japanese version wasn't modified very much from [the beta], 
basically they added a boss in the Guest Area/Green Room, added the 
"Hit Me!" wheels in South Town/Terminate Her Too, and Dark Demon's a 
lot easier in the beta because there's an invisibility head in the 
circle every time. As well as a few other things, like adding voices 
and an ending animation."

In a screenshot she provided there, there is also a difficulty 
selection and 2 player mode in the Options Screen, although both 
options apparently had no changes on the game itself.

I later received a mail from NES Boy, who not only gave me more
interesting info on the beta, but also provided comparison screenshots
as well. Here's what he had to say:

"Okay, so I was watching the opening demo of Dynamite Headdy, and I 
noticed an oddity in the second scene. Mainly the monitors in the 
background. At the time I first noticed, I had the Japanese and Beta 
versions. I noticed that two of the silhouettes in the monitors are 
different than in the final versions. In the attached picture, I 
compared the two versions of the scene. I also threw in a close up of 
each of the silhouettes (changed and unchanged from the Beta) and 
identified who they are supposed to be. 
Anyway, in the Beta, instead of Baby Face, you see Twin Freaks on the 
second monitor. This is because Scenes 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, and 6-4 of the 
final game do not exist at the time of the beta. Even the various 
"Scene X-X" signs you see after Spinderella's stage have the first 
digit lowered by one number. For example, Stage 8-4 in the final 
game was Stage 7-4. Another odd change was that Yayoi/Izayoi looks 
slightly different in both the Beta and Final versions (you can see most 
of the minor differences in the pictures comparing the silhouettes, 
except they don't show you that the top stripe on the bottom of her 
kimono is missing). The reason that the Gatekeeper does not get a 
silhouette is because you can still see the final Yayoi/Izayoi 
silhouette in the American version of the game. Go ahead and see for 

Sadly, I can no longer provide the comparison picture for viewing, but
if you really want to see it I'm sure you can ask NES Boy for it
yourselves. :)

So, to sum up, the beta version is remarkably similar to the Japanese
version except that there are no vocal sound effects, a few extra
options that amounted to nothing, a few graphical changes in the 
opening demo, the Puppeteer and Gentlemen Jim are nonexistant, the 
beginning puzzle in Scene 4-1 is absent, there are no flying scenes, 
no ending animation and the Dark Demon end fight sounds ridiculously 
easy if you pick the right head.

No real difference, then. :D


Credit goes to Char for discovering this funny little side effect:

"If you have your spike head at the end of a stage, connect your head 
to a wall or ceiling.  Walk your body to the end of the level, and 
your body will go back to your head, and then you'll go to the next 
stage. It's kind of wierd. An example of this is in stage 8-2. 
Beat the Missile Man, then connect your spike head to the ceiling and 
walk off to the next stage."

Also, new_challeger from the GameFAQs forums presented this
interesting tidbit (with corrective parenthesis added by me, because
I'm a grammar whore):

"A gigantic movie reference most people missed would be the relation 
between the Keymasters and the Gatekeeper, anyone remember 
[Ghostbusters]? [Near the end of] the movie, 2 ghosts possess a nerdy 
guy and a woman [and] they call themselves the Keymaster and the 
Gatekeeper. When they meet, they open up the way for [Gozer] to enter 
into the world. And in Dynamite Headdy, you collect the Keymasters' 
keys, throw them into the Gatekeeper's backpack and it opens the way 
to Dark Demon's castle."

Interesting indeed! Although I must also add the Gatekeeper didn't 
exist in the original Japanese version - instead there was those 
freaky geisha dolls, so I doubt the Treasure programmers intended to 
reference the movie in such a fashion.

                    FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)        

Ok, in actuality, I've been asked very FEW questions about my 
guide to Dynamite Headdy, but one day there might actually come 
some questions...someday. So, to avoid clogging up my mailbox, 
I'll answer them here.

Q: How does your hit points theory work?
A: It's very simple; it's based around an attack which 
does the lowest amount of damage in the game. In actuality, there
are several, but I figured the one term everyone would recognise 
would be the fact it's Headdy's normal head attack.

Q: But you can't get hit with your own head! How can you say 
Headdy has 16 hit points?!
A: Yes you can. Either let the Puppeteer grab your head on his 
strings or let a Venus Headdy Trap eat your head and spit it out. 
THEN tell me how many hit points Headdy has.

Q: Ok then, but how come Keymasters have 17 hit points? They 
have the same stagelight as Headdy!
A: Perhaps, but they don't take damage in the same way. Your 
first hit to them does not change their stagelight at all, hence 
the extra hit point.

Q: Can you give a guide as to what enemy projectiles do what 
amounts of damage?
A: Not any more.

Q: The Damage Calculation Sheet is wrong! Lasers do much more 
damage then the wimpy birds! You even said so in an earlier version!
A: I was wrong then. I actually went and did a hell of a lotta testing.
Each shot that connects does 1 point of damage each.

Q: No, you're wrong. This Magazine / Website / Strategy Guide said so.
A: Tell you what. Why don't you test for yourself and see? Personally, 
I wouldn't wipe my rear end with what self-proclaimed "gaming experts" 
who give theories without proof say. I've explained how I came to the 
conclusions I have, and they are accurate. You're welcome to try them 
yourself and see. I have yet to see anyone else provide their own 
plausible theory about how damage is dished out in the game.

Q: But I fired three hundred shots into Baby Face in five seconds and 
he didn't die!
A: Well, remember that in about 50 of those, only 1 hits. 
All enemies with more than 1 hit point are invulnerable to hits for 
about a second after they're hit. You forgot about that, didn't you?

Q: What's the best head in the game?
A: There is no best head. All heads, with the exception of the Melon 
Head, have a use in the game. MY personal favourite is the Bomb Head.

Q: What about the flying scenes?
A: I go with the Laser Head, simply because of it's ability to 
penetrate enemy barriers. Most people go with the Biplane Head though,
for obvious reasons.

Q: What's the worst head then?
A: The Melon Head. Duh.

Q: You suck! You got [so and so] wrong! Idiot!
A: One - That's not a question. Two - Get bent. Three - I went to 
the trouble of writing this, if you don't like it, don't read it. 
Four - Everything in this FAQ / Walkthrough has been tested and 
is BELIEVED to be accurate. If there are mistakes in the guide, 
and you have proof of such, and if you can write an e-mail to me 
in good, proper English and not be insulting, then do so. 
Unfortunately, now that I've made this the final version of the
FAQ / Walkthrough, there's nothing that can be done about it. 
You'll just have to live with being too late. :p

Q: Can I put your FAQ on my site?
A: Mail me first and we'll talk about it.

Q: Can I use parts of your FAQ on my site?
A: No.

A: GameFAQs, which is where you'll most likely be if you're reading 
this. If you're not, tell me where you're reading it from so I can 
sue the pants off the git who stole it, unless it's from a site 
who already have my permission.

Q: Dude, Gamespot stole your FAQ!
A: That's not a question, and because GameFAQs let Gamespot advertise
on their site, then it's safe to assume they let them do that.

                             THE FINAL WORD

Well, writing this FAQ / Walkthrough took a lot longer than I thought it 
would. And the updates took even longer when I got round to them! :)

Feedback is welcome provided you can write in good English. My 
e-mail address, as it has now stood for over 6 years now, is 
Unfortunately, my Hotmail account can get quite filled with junk as 
well, so PLEASE ensure that any mail you wish to send me has the 
words "Dynamite Headdy FAQ / Walkthrough" clearly printed in the 
subject title somewhere, otherwise I might mistake it for spam mail 
and delete it.

Now, I know in earlier versions of this FAQ / Walkthrough I said that
I wouldn't be making a final version. Well, to be frank, times change.
It's been 6 years since I first wrote, and subsequently began updating
this FAQ / Walkthrough and I think it's safe to say, after reading all
the messages left on these boards and others, watching speedrunners play
the game at a level I could never manage, providing both comments and 
commentary on a "Let's Play Dynamite Headdy" run with Madam Luna and 
once again playing and replaying this great game from the 16 bit era of 
awesomeness that I've said everything that needs to be said about 
Dynamite Headdy. 
Plus I've realised, with growing up and becoming an adult in full time 
employment, that I now no longer have the time to persue online Internet 
activities as much as I used to, and in that respect this is just one of 
those many casualties. But that's the way life is - it moves on, even 
when things like this can no longer.

Thanks go out to the following people:

time I have in this world to constantly update this FAQ /
Walkthrough. :)

Treasure and Sega for producing this great game.

Madam Luna for info on the Beta, the Japanese game, her Headdy 
website (which has sadly been taken down) and also for letting
me provide commentary on her "Let's Play Dynamite Headdy" series on 
Google video.

Bob Tomasevich and Micheal Sterns for uncovering all of the 
secret bonus points in this great game.

DDR Phantom for finding out the patented Hard Mode Code.

JDAdams for clarifying the deal behind the Far Trek bonus point.

Char for clarifying some things on the Tarot bonus point and 
providing some tips for the Far Trek bonus point.

NES Boy for providing the sadly no-longer viewable comparison

Ryan Schmidt for the info on McDonald's TreasureLand Adventure.

Joe Voboz and Nick "Wibblewozzer" Garboden for helping me
identify the movie name puns in Dynamite Headdy I missed myself.

New_challeger for the Ghostbusters tidbit.

The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com) for helping me
to track down info on the movies that Dynamite Headdy got it's 
puns from.

GameFAQs for allowing me to put the initial version of this FAQ / 
Walkthrough on their site, and then letting me improve on it
since then.

http://faqs.ign.com for hosting version 1.41 of this FAQ / 

Gredge for allowing me to write version 1.1 of this FAQ / 
Walkthrough for use on his site.

And finally I give thanks to YOU, the adoring fan / Dynamite
Headdy fanatic who decided to read all the way through this 
FAQ / Walkthrough of mine. You guys are the reason I have 
updated this FAQ / Walkthrough until literally nothing more 
can be said about this amazing game. It's been my privilege
and honour to write this for you, and I can only hope many
more people like you will find this game, play it and then
read this FAQ / Walkthrough because they can't get past Scene

So then, all that's left to say is "Catch You'z Laterz, Dudez".

Daniel James Gallagher
AKA Minty Fresh Death