Stage 3 begins. No, seriously, the President's gotta be here this time, right?

I'm not sure what SNAKE means here, though- does he mean the President's making a lot of work for SNAKE? He's not wrong...



First up, there's a crate out in the open at the very start, so open it for some Powerful Grenades. Now, the mountains have probably the most 'platforming' bits in the game, but they're not much bother- generally, judging where you're going to land from a jump is easy, it's just the hit detection with bullets and jumping that this game gets wrong! After the first gap and a ladder, there's a long vertical trail where that old foe of mountainous stages in video games comes to give you what-for. You know who I'm talking about, right? Falling rocks! Except instead of rocks, it's falling logs. Coming in a few different sizes, these roll down from the top of the screen, and instantly kill you if they ram into you and you don't have more than three health blocks. You can damage them, it seems- they flash if you shoot them- but even a Powerful Grenade won't destroy them, so don't waste any effort. Just jump over them instead.



Once you reach the top, there's a series of cave entrances. Not all of 'em work, but let's go looting anyway!

... But before you do, be careful- when you first get here, logs will still roll from the top of the screen.



First, try the second from the right to get a Bazooka, Muscle Emphasis Tablets, and patronising advice from a hostage.



The next one is the door to the right of this barricade here... But take out that Buoy first.

The bottom crate has a Shotgun- you may wish to keep the Bazooka, it's up to you- but the top one has...



Oh, yes.

The Flamethrower is a sub-weapon- it replaces your grenades- and is by far the most potent weapon in the game.

We'll see its power in a moment, but first, back down the mountain!



This time, the logs appear from behind you, obviously. You'll also be flanked by a group of soldiers, but you can ignore them.

Once you reach the bottom, let's give that Flamethrower a try, eh?



Gahahahaha!
C'mon, boys!
You're mincemeat!
Go home to Mommy~!

... Ah, sorry. Got carried away there. Hopefully I've demonstrated my point about this weapon, though! It has the best range, does a ton of damage, penetrates past any obstacles, and can clear the screen very efficiently! The problem, of course, is that you don't get it too often, and you don't get much fuel to play with. Use it effectively, however, and it'll serve you well. It's especially useful on the upcoming boss fight, so try not to die beforehand.



To help you not die, there's a cave you can go in before the next part with more patronising advice and Medicine.



Even with a health top-up, though, the next section can be tough- it's a narrow bridge that's been poorly maintained as it's got lots of holes in it. You slip up, it's instant death. As well as enemies walking in from the right, paratroopers will swoop in from the top of the screen, and while they' can't hurt you until they land, they can still be distracting and make you fall off out of panic. Your best bet here is to inch across the bridge, taking out any enemies on screen before jumping over gaps- you really don't want to die here, as losing the Flamethrower makes the boss a bit harder.



Speaking of, after a short while, here he is, Stage 3's only boss- Big Sniper.



Not a talkative chap, really.



Big Sniper's basic pattern is to make himself comfy on either the left, right or middle platform, then charge his massive gun for a second- when fully charged, he'll fire a huge laser shot that must be jumped if he's attacking from either side. The timing is a little weird, but the audio cue is what you want to listen for- as soon as the charging sound ends, jump. He might follow it up by charging another shot straight after, but whatever he does, he'll jum across to a different platform. At the start of the fight, he'll usually go to either the left or right platform, but will eventually sit on the middle one instead. If you haven't got the Flamethrower, the only time you can hit him is as he's jumping over the gap and his back is exposed- shoot him before he lands to damage him, then avoid his shots until he jumps over again. If you do have the Flamethrower, you can basically hit him at any time except when he's charging an attack. He does have mercy invincibility after being hit, but this still speeds things up a lot. When he lands on the middle platform, just sit yourself below him and shoot. After shooting him six times...



See you next fall, Big Sniper! Have a nice trip!

... I'm well good at one-liners, me.



Next stage! No, seriously, we're rescuing the President on this one. Promise.



The bad news is Stage 4 starts with a sorta-unfair section- a mountain climb. A big mountain climb. Climbing here is the same as it's been in previous stages, but what you'll notice here is you can't move left or right- only straight up. As you climb, enemy paratroopers will start to float by, and if they're a certain distance from you, they'll fire, so you can only dodge by moving up and down! At the very least, running into them won't hurt you, it's just their bullets. If you start climbing in the cetnre, they'll fire less at you... Problem is, once you get to the top, a soldier will be waiting for you, and since he enters the screen from the middle, you basically can't avoid him. If you try to approach the cliff from the side, the enemy is far more likely to shoot you and actually hit you. So, you're gonna take a hit, no matter what you do. Bit of a shame, that.



On the plus side, once you're up there, go in the first cabin, and after fighting all these dudes, you get Muscle Emphasis Tablets!



After a few more soldiers, there's another shack ahead- as well as several hostages, you've got three crates to choose from. The top crate has Grenades, the middle one has a Bazooka, and the bottom one has a Shotgun. Outside the cabin, a few bikes will appear, so it's tempting to take the Shotgun so you can kill the riders and nick the bike- Bazookas will kill both the rider and trash the bike- but when you exit this area, you lose the bike anyway, and there's loads of armoured soldiers in the areas to come. Go for power over range, trust me! In what's left of this area, there's a few machine gun soldiers and armoured guys, but otherwise getting to the base isn't too troublesome. Just walk right through the front door!



The enemy's base, I presume. Nice place! Let's trash it.



The main threat here comes in the form of a squad of deadly flamethrower guys. They cover each side, and they're staggered vertically so they cover a lot of ground. Yes, their flamethrowers are just as lethal as yours, although luckily they only fire them in one direction, horizontally. Pick a side and take these guys out with your Bazooka before moving forward. The other guys around here are just small-fry in comparison, so deal with them and move on... Except for one guy. Standing in front of the door to the stage's boss is a completely grey-scale soldier (who I'm certain sometimes, if rarely, appears in the previous section, but I can't get him to spawn again) who I call the statue soldier. By far the sturdiest 'standard' soldier, they cannot be injured by knife attacks, and can withstand two to three grenades before snuffing it. Good thing there's only one of them here, then. Consider it practice for later.

Once you've broken through these enemy forces, it's time for the main event!



It's the enemy commander. What's he got to say for himself?



You're damn right I'm a Bloody Wolf!



Wait, what did he just do? Throw a boomerang and miss?



... Oh. Oh.

They're being serious, by the way.



There's nothing I can add to this. It's beautiful.



OK, let's fight!

As you just saw, your gun's been trashed by the enemy commander's boomerang- yes, that is something I just typed out- so this is one of a few sections in the game where you're down to just your knife. Apparently the commander stole your secondary weapons too, so no Grenades (or the Flamethrower if you still had one from the previous stage) either- this battle relies purely on your knife skills. As a fairly unsporting chap, the commander uses his highly advanced weaponry on you while you're unarmed- he starts with a spread of five boomerangs that move slowly but will make their way over to you eventually, then after two of those, he'll start firing his cannon, aiming for you while it charges up, then hopping to another part of the screen and firing again. Like the Big Sniper, this one has an audio cue (the same one, actually) but it's a lot faster, so you've got less time to react. After a few shots, he'll go back to his boomerang and repeat until he's dead. Or you're dead. Whichever.

This is a tricky fight, because your knife range is, to be frank, complete crap, but sticking close to the enemy is actually your best defence against his attacks. If you're close enough and hit the attack button quick enough, you can deflect all the boomerangs he fires the second he throws them, which is the best tactic as they'll get in the way. As for his cannon, it's tempting to move around a lot but instead stand directly in front of him, so your character's head is level with his right leg. It's tricky to get in this position quickly, but if you can, the commander's cannon will be aimed straight ahead, and it'll miss you by a hair's breadth. While you're here, stab him a lot. Like, a whole lot. With a bit of persistence, the boss will go down...



... And he says he'll be back. Of course he does.



Finally, after four stages of a wild goose chase, we've saved the President!

Sadly, he is not the Ultimate President, Michael Wilson, pilot of the Metal Wolf.



After speaking to the President, you'll get your health restored. You'll need it!

With the President in tow, our mission's complete, I guess. Let's go home for a burger.



Bad news! You've got to get the President out of here through the remaining enemy forces, and your gun's still broken so you gotta knife it. Good news! You can mostly just peg it and don't need to worry about your Commander-in-Chief. While you'll want to take out as many soldiers as possible- in particular the machine gun soldiers and the armoured guys- you can actually zip past at least a few of them. It's a good thing too, as the collision detection for going down the screen instead of up is weird- you can usually hit enemies before you think you can, and the same goes for them hitting you. Additionally, while the President will lag behind if you don't wait up for him, he won't die or anything- he'll be fine! He's the President! So, basically, just bomb your ass down the hill and eventually...



... Ah. Now I normally don't do this, as, well, this is a playthrough. You're going to see everything the game has to offer. However, I'm putting a SPOILER WARNING here, because the second half of Bloody Wolf is a beautiful, hilarious thing. The first time I saw- nay, witnessed- what happens next in this story of the world's greatest Rogue Combat Squad, I almost died laughing. It is fantastic. So, if you're playing at home, you may want to stop here and play the game yourself and watch what happens next first-hand before I get there. Admittedly, that defeats the point of this playthrough a tad, but this entire site is a pointless endeavour, so it fits in.

When you think you're ready (and you ain't), move to the next page.

All I'm saying is, don't try the blood and guts routine on the next page.