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Stage Sheet
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School name: Gangster High

Description: 
Following the initial section from the school's gymnasium from left to
right, you'll find yourself racing outside around the school's parameter.
Let's say that this school's pretty huge, given the amount of area you'll
end up traversing. As is common in most stages, street thugs and security
guards dot the first few screens (also left to right). As long as nobody
tries to start a fight with them, you can probably sail right by here
without too much trouble. However, this is one of the few areas of the
stage where you'll be able to find weapons - the choice is yours, and
these guys aren't limited to their usual equipment (metal rods, beer
bottles, mag lights, etc). In fact, you can find almost any weapon in the
game held in their hands! You won't want to wear yourself down too much,
since you'll have to do a lot of fighting in this stage.
Before long, you'll find yourself on a concrete road that normally would
be used for track and field. What's the difference here? It's the
recreational grounds for a couple of bike gangs! Various bikers will ride
by from behind, and it's your job to avoid them. At the same time, a
couple more street thugs and punk rockers will leap off and attack as you
cross them. The more fighting you get into, the higher the chaos gauge
will get. Beer is a very common item here, often dropped by attacked
bikers. Some of them are carrying cough syrup as well (trying to get high
off of it?). Even though some will wield weapons like metal rods and
Rock Dock Guitars, you can't pick up any here. After making what seems
like a complete lap around the field, the race will branch one of two
paths - if your character has a jump rating of three or higher, they'll
be able to climb the stands and get over the gap leading to the rooftop
of the school. It's recommended that you have at least four stars of
jumping actually, since the rooftop is one of the more frustrating parts
of the race by far. For now, let's continue with the normal route...
Once again you'll find a repeat scenario of the sequence with the guards
and the punks from left to right. The bikers, still pissed at the
invasion of their turn, will now start riding against the crowd.
Sometimes they even run over the enemies too (heh). Once again, you can
try and avoid trouble by not attacking the guards/thugs about, but the
moment any racer attacks them it'll start getting chaotic again. In
addition to picking up the usual weapons, there'll also be some graffiti
up against the wall. You can attack it to "clean" it up, and items will
pop out from there as a reward for being a model citizen and student.
The next area's difficulty depends on your Chaos Gauge; if you indulged
in a lot of fights during the sequences with the security guards, it'll
be quite high by now. This affects what you have to deal with in the next
section, the basketball court.
The basketball court shows a couple of punks and thugs playing a nice,
happy game of hoops. If it's low enough (25% or less), you can shimmy on
by here without a problem as long as nobody throws a punch at them. This
is very unlikely, seeing how violent the AI-controlled players tend to 
be. Otherwise, they'll be ready to fight the moment anybody sets foot 
inside. The bikers *will* strike again in numbers if the gauge is above
50%. For every 10% above 30%, there'll be more street thugs and punk
rockers to deal with too. Worst part is, nobody's carrying any weapons
or items, but all present runners will be forced to take 'em all out
before they can move on past the chain link fence to the finish line. 
There is the basketball, which is pretty dangerous in that enemies can
and usually will pick it up and toss it around; beat them to the punch!
It'd be awesome to carry about, but sadly it's only for this stage and
this particular section of it. The enemies are as weak as ever, but once
again there's just a whole lot of them if the Chaos Gauge is high enough.
There's only two graffiti drawings on the wall, and that means there's 
only two items in this part of the stage period. Make them count.
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ALTERNATE ROUTE: Reaching the alternate route requires those attempting
it to have at least a three star jump, as that's required to clear the
gap in the bleachers preventing you from reaching the top. You'll avoid
the trouble everyone else may run into (unless the Chaos Gauge is kept
low; if so, the main route is faster), but in exchange for that you'll 
have to deal with platforming hell.
The top of the Gangster High roof is... in dire need of repair. The
surfaces are very uneven, and there's plenty of holes in the ground too.
Stepping/falling onto a crack will make your character fall in for small
damage, and they'll spend a second climbing out. While there are no
enemies (yet), there's also no weapons outside of empty bottles. 
Sometimes you'll find things like milk or whatnot, but they won't come 
full. As little of the route is even-levelled or even connected, there
isn't much running room; this benefits the good jumpers only, and even
those with three stars of it may have some trouble clearing the larger
gaps that mark the fastest way across the section. Little stops you and
your competitors from tossing one another into holes, though.
Towards the end, you'll run into a relatively small number but still
deadly combination of Senile Old Women (pissed teachers?) and security
guards, but they shouldn't be too much of a problem. Ryuuhaku Todoh may
sometimes be meditating at random areas along the roof; he's everywhere,
isn't he? Heck, even a few bikers somehow managed to ride their way up,
but most of them will just fall into pits. You may be able to get by 
without fighting them if you stay to the higher parts of the stage, but 
that's something only the five-star jumpers can pull off almost 
flawlessly. There's no true benefit to fighting them unless you want to 
raise the Chaos Gauge for those below and thus call in more enemies for 
them to fight on the basketball court (Todoh raises it by a *LOT* if you
find and KO him), as they don't drop any weapons even though they may 
wield them. Following that are a couple of hair-raising gaps, and then 
the second set of bleachers conspiciously laid against the outdoor wall 
for you to descend from, and back onto the main track.
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Following the busting of the chain link fence is a descending set of
bleachers. If anybody went the alternate route, they'll come down from
there. This is where the two paths merge together for the final charge 
to the finish line. About time! The last few parts are similar to the 
first, except now just about EVERY enemy in the game is in the act. By 
now, everyone is probably close to being KO'd, if they aren't already. 
Regardless of the Chaos Gauge, you'll have to make your way past them 
in order to reach the finish line. Bikers are still especially prominent
from here, and sometimes actually plow through a couple of enemies too; 
they're coming every which way here.
On the last screen, you'll enter the gymnasium again. Run on up to the 
finish line for the win, if the few present BS:FM fanatics left don't 
stop you that is.

Enemies found: Mostly thugs, security guards, rocker punks, and bikers.
Senile Old Women and Ryuuhaku Todoh can be seen on the alternate route,
along with bikers. Almost every enemy in the game can be found in the 
end, but by then it's usually too late for them to ruin your day.
Weapons found: Any, in very specific places. Plus, the unique Basketball
weapon for this stage is found only on the basketball court.
Items found: Any, in very specific places.
Traps found: All those gaps and pits on the roof (alternate route). 

Strategy/Comments: This stage is a straightforward one, centered mostly
on fighting. Even the pure runners will be forced into eventual conflict,
so characters that pack a punch are the ones that're most likely to come
out in the lead. Jumpers are also in luck by going on the alternate 
route, and in fact probably have it easiest. This is a very, very simple
stage otherwise. (That's kind of to be expected when I'm testing the 
waters for a sheet, heh.) Thanks to the amount of combat, not all races
will be decided by who crosses the finish line first; it's not quite as
drastic as Prison High, but it's still relatively common for a winner to
be decided by the last (wo)man standing.

Creator: Emmy