Silkworm (NES) - Full Run using Heli
36Full run of Silkworm for the NES! I'm playing as the Helicopter and my final score was 1,300,800. This was played using the real cart on a real NES, with autofire/turbo controller.
Stage Listing:
00:00 - Start
00:32 - Wave 01
02:55 - Wave 02
05:23 - Wave 03
08:09 - Wave 04
10:41 - Wave 05
13:37 - Wave 06
17:01 - Wave 07
20:19 - Wave 08
23:53 - Final Boss + Ending
Silkworm is one of the better shoot em ups for the NES, and also a unique one in that it lets you play as 2 different vehicles. When you start the game you get to pick as either the Heli or the Jeep, and both have different playstyles along with pros and cons. This may remind people of Firepower 2000 on the SNES, and sure enough, this game was basically the prototype for that one.
I picked the default, which is the Helicopter. It's advantages include being able to fly around the screen and also shoot downward at the ground. If you use the Jeep you are confined to the ground (although you can jump) but you also get the ability to fire your gun in any direction.
For my money it's probably easier to use the Helipcopter, as aiming with the Jeep can be a bit difficult to control. At some point I will also do a full run with the Jeep and can go into greater detail about it, but for now I have only played it a few times.
As for powerups, they come by way of destroying specific formations of enemies. You will see a "parade" of ships show up that will combine into one larger ship if you let them. The goal is to kill the formation before they combine, and if you do this, it will yield 2 powerups instead of 1. You will want to kill the second ship or the formation in order to take them all out. If you let them combine they will form a larger ship that needs to be shot from either the top or bottom to kill it, and it will only release 1 powerup.
The first powerup youi collect will increase the power of your gun, while the second powerup increases the speed of your ship. Further powerups from that point give you points and after collecting a certain number, you will no longer powerdown on death. This last bit is critical as dying and in the later stages will mean certain doom unless you can remain powered up, especially for the final stage and boss.
I feel Silkworm is one of the more underrated shmups on the NES, and certainly one worth playing.
Other Videos By PEG
Other Statistics
Silkworm Statistics For PEG
PEG presently has 1,470 views for Silkworm across 1 video, and less than an hour worth of Silkworm videos were uploaded to his channel. This makes up less than 0.33% of the total overall content on PEG's YouTube channel.