Combat and weapons
K punches, L kicks, Space jumps, and the differences between them matter more than the manual suggests. Hold L instead of tapping it and Gabe throws a spinning back kick that knocks enemies down. Press K+L for a spinning sweep that costs a bit of health but clears out everyone around him when you're surrounded. Blocking (L+Space) is honestly not worth learning until the late bosses, and it doesn't work on weapons regardless. Double-tapping a direction to dash is far more useful for most of the game. Jump-kicking is the answer against anything that moves faster than Gabe does.
The knife rule
When a Knife Man goes down, pick up his knife. With it, your punches bypass enemy blocking entirely. Just spam K and you are nearly untouchable. The game is a different experience when you have it. Hold onto it. You will want it for Ryan.
The uzi rule
Uzi Men have unlimited ammo and hit hard. Go straight for them the moment you see one. The weapon they drop has limited ammo, so burn it before the next boss rather than saving it for a fight that never comes.
Boss guide
Heldon
Before the fight, there's a Uzi Man on the previous screen. Kill him and pick up the weapon. Unload it on Heldon to bring his health most of the way down before going melee. He jumps, backhands, and charges with wide reach. Move up or down to dodge rather than trying to block.
Delmar and Kynette
You're fighting two of them at once, both with the same moveset: punches, kicks, blocks. If you have a knife, the fight ends quickly — they can't block slashes. Without one, pick your targets and don't let them corner you from both sides.
Ryan
Ryan grabs and pummels. With a knife, he walks right into your slashes and you win easily. Without one, this fight is close to impossible, which is the whole point. The long climb up to him is designed to make you think about whether that knife is still in Gabe's hand when he reaches the top. Protect it.
Travers
The hardest boss before the final. He fires an uzi from the far left in three directions — straight, upper-left, lower-left — and tracks your position by moving up and down. At about two-thirds health he switches to punches and jump kicks. That second phase is manageable. The uzi phase requires patience and positioning.
The chopper
Stage 6 ends on a cliff descent. Qualen fires from the helicopter, someone aboard throws dynamite, debris falls. Make it to the ledge below, then fight the enemies who jump out of the chopper one at a time while landing hits on the helicopter itself.
Qualen
Jump kick, then follow with three punches. He'll counter with a knife slash. That trades four of your hits for one of his. Keep the rhythm and he goes down. His knife can't be knocked out of his hand, so there's no shortcut.
Avalanche and climbing
The avalanche
The first time the avalanche hits, you have about three seconds to react. You need to run without touching drifts or logs, and depending on where you are when you hit one, you get one to three chances to get up before it swallows you. The key thing: you can move in midair. That's not a bonus, it's the mechanic. Steering your jump to clear obstacles mid-arc is what keeps you alive. The avalanche appears twice in the game. Survive the first one and you'll know what to do for the second.
Climbing sections
Think of the climbing sections as a grid. You move up space by space, and Rifle Men fire at you from ledges in eight directions. They have a pattern: three volleys, then a pause. Move during the pause. Don't hold the fast-climb button when a Rifle Man has a line on you. Getting hit while climbing fast drops you. Two shots usually cause a fall, sometimes one is enough.
Some jumps in the cliff sections need near-pixel-perfect timing. If you keep falling at the same spot, the problem is usually launch position, not trajectory. Adjust where you start the jump, not when you press the button. The Genesis/Mega Drive version is online here — and the emulator has save states, so you can pick up exactly where the Rifle Men keep dropping you.