BFB in the Engine Room of Stage 5
Balloons for Brains (Shortened to BFB in the comic-styled loading screens) is a major antagonist of MDK 2, and arch-nemesis of Doctor Fluke Hawkins. He is a highly intelligent (and highly condescending) alien life form with a lot of pull in the scientific community all across the Milky Way. He sees the doctor as no more than a mere monkey, often making monkey related puns such as referencing evolution or saying the doctor has a "simian brain".
APPEARANCE[]
BFB's appearance in Stage 3 is done just when the doctor reaches the reactor room of the Jim Dandy . He is greeted by the flying alien, and the doctor immediately begins stamping his feet and demanding BFB get off his ship. BFB calls the doctor by his last name, and proceeds to essentially insult his intelligence while promoting the fact that he is published across "500 systems in the galaxy". The doctor then calls BFB "Balloons for Brains" and states he read his paper on Hydrocapacitors and states it was "BORING!". BFB decides it's time to teach the doctor a lesson.
While BFB is highly intelligent, it seems he wasn't prepared for doc's home-field advantage. After the doc injured him with his Atomic Toaster, BFB simply decided to activate a shield. Realizing the firepower he had was only doing scratch damage to his shield, doc switched his attention to repeatedly overloading the reactor, which would hit BFB every time it fired it. Unable to survive the repeated blasts, BFB's chair was destroyed and he fell to the ground dead.
...or at least it seemed.
Doc managed to rescue Kurt from his predicmanent and sent him off to the Alien Orbiter to rescue Max. While the doc's back was turned and he was alone, BFB took the opportunity to capture the doctor and imprison him in a force field in the engine room.
By the time Max returned to the Jim Dandy in Stage 5 to save the doc, it had been partially destroyed and ransacked by the aliens. While the aliens proved a formidable foe to the doc, Max ripped them apart with his incredible firepower and eventually reached the engine room. In the engine room, BFB was waiting for Max, and the two shared some insulting one-liners. BFB eventually decides to release his greatest weapon against Max, Bad Max. While BFB would never stand a chance in a fight with Max, Bad Max was more than a formidable foe, distracting Max long enough for BFB to escape. Luckily, Max not only destroyed Bad Max, but rescued the doctor from the force field holding him hostage. Max would take off to Swizzle Firma and end up there at Stage 8, while doc would stay behind to finish BFB off once and for all.
At the beginning of Stage 6, BFB would inform the doctor that he has prepared a series of bombs to blow the entirety of the Jim Dandy into space debris. He then flees, leaving the doc to tend with the bomb left behind. Luckily the doctor is able to deduce how the device works, and what switches deactivate it. He safely, and quickly, deactivates the bomb.
BFB appears to be finishing up waiting for the bomb to prepare to explode, only to be greeted by the doctor, who has made his way to the lounge. BFB is surprised, but doesn't believe the doctor can pull the same miracle twice, and flees leaving him with yet another bomb.
When the doctor shows up to deactivate the third bomb, BFB admits some respect, and that the doctor has shown far more promise than he expected. Even so, this bomb is designed just to defeat the doctor's abilities of defusing these bombs, and he will fail for sure.
As the doctor arrives to the fourth bomb, BFB finally admits he is very impressed. That said, he expects that the doctor will absolutely fail this time, as he has absolutely no chance with this bomb.
Inside the cargo bay, the doctor dives into the room. BFB is actually astonished, and assumes the doctor has actually become more than just a monkey. Sick and tired of this alien, the doctor shouts "Let me teach you a lesson in Darwinian survival !".
BFB would activate his shield right away this time. Since they were in the cargo hold, the doctor had absolutely no chance of using the environment to damage him this time. Luckily, the doctor had an even better plan: Plutonium. Using the plutonium he had, he transformed himself into Hyde, and managed to breach BFB's shield, slapping him across the face and breaking the shield itself. BFB, desperate and fed up, began chucking bombs at the doctor, but the doctor would prove still too lethal, and a piece of Atomic Toast would become lodged in BFB's brain. He would try to remove it, but would fail to do so before it detonated, killing him.
The doctor took the change to remove the two balloon-sized brains from BFB's carcass, and opened the hatch, causing BFB's empty carcass to go flying off into space with his chair. After shutting the door, Harvey would ascertain the exact coordinates to Swizzle Firma, and would initiate the warp. The doctor would holler in joy as he flew into the warp.
BOSS FIGHT[]
BFB uses three main types of attacks, two of which he shouts out and the other one identifiable by the loud hissing noise.
Bombs[]
The bombs BFB throws are his most lethal attack, but also his most innacurate. The explosion from the bombs is as lethal as being struck directly by the bombs themselves, however they bounce and make a cartoonishly loud bouncing sound, making them extremely noticeable and predictable. In general BFB won't throw these unless he's close to the doctor. In the refight, this one of the most lethal attacks he has as there is little dodging room and they can break the crates around the room which can blow your cover.
Left Brain Attack[]
When BFB shots this, he lets loose what appears to be a duplicate of his brain, which flies around the room in a homing missile stryle. In the first battle in stage 3, the homing brains are limited to the ground, and can be dodged by spinning in a circle while repeatedly jumping. In the refight, the dodging of the brains is much harder as they can actually fly. This is his weakest attack.
Right Brain Attack[]
This is only used in the Stage 3 boss fight. BFB will drop part of his brain to the ground. it will release a shockwave that will travel across the ground perfectly towards both reactor walls from its landing. The position of the brain when dropped is important, as is the doctors position.
If the doctor is near the teleporter, the best strategy is to wait until it is very close and jump into the teleporter. If done correctly, the shockwave should completely miss when the doctor leaves the teleporter.
If the doctor is near the switch, he can use the switch to gain extra height, and can try to jump over the shockwave just as it approaches.
If neither of the above options are possible, the last option is to rush at the shockwave and try to jump over it. This is the most likely option to fail, but is the only option left.
Stage 3[]
The room here is vert long, and Mr. Fizzy soda will spawn regularly around the room. As long as one keeps away from BFB, they can pretty much avoid his bomb attack altogether.
On one side of the room is a large lever switch attached to the reactor on that side of the room, and a teleporter lies nearby that will instantly transport the doctor to the other side of the room. Rather than running acros the room, is is recommended to use the teleporter. Once both levers on both sides of the room are hit, it will release a powerful shockwave from the reactor, damaging BFB and harming his shield. Once BFB takes a certain amount of damage, he will activate a shield that will absorb damage until broken. While it can be broken with just the Atomic Toaster, this can take an extremely long time given his distance from the floor and the fact that he is constantly moving. The reactor will typically shave off one layer of the shield on every hit, so use it constantly. It can also damage BFB even when the shield isn't active. The shield starts blue, moves to a yellow/green color, and finally red. After being broken on red, it will not respawn.
If you do not have the Loaf of Bread, you must use the reactor to do damage to BFB, as he is prone to avoiding the Cocktail Molotov's that the doctor can use.
Stage 6[]
This boss fight is done in a much smaller environment, making battle far more dangerous. Being struck by a bomb or the Left Brain Attack is much easier this time around due to the lowered room.
Phase 1[]
Unlike the previous fight, BFB's shield cannot be destroyed with any weapons. Instead, the player must be Hyde to defeat his shield and be able to harm him at all.
If the doctor is out of plutonium, there is some hidden behind the boxes in the cargo room. Using the plutonium, the player must scale the tallest set of boxes in the room and reach the top. From here, Hyde must wait until BFB stops moving. At this point, he is a vulnerable target. Simply jumping on top of him will have Hyde land in his lap, and proceed to comedically slap him several times. After landing these blows, Hyde will fall to the ground, and BFB's shield will have dropped by one stage.
Phase 2[]
After BFB's shield has vanished, if the player is still in Hyde mode, rush BFB and try to do as much damage as possible with Hyde's incredibly powerful punches. It is likely that Hyde will not kill BFB outright, but every bit of damage is important.
BFB's bombs can now destroy boxes around the room. Sometimes items can be found inside, but the sheer danger of this section of the fight makes trying to search them near suicide. The best strategy is to keep the doctor away from the wall, equip the Atomic Toaster and any Baguettes the player may have, and fire them repeatedly. The baguette's do far more damage than the toast, but the toast still hurts him quite well (it just needs to be aimed). If the doctor drops too low, be prepared to drink a Mr. Fizzy. Because the bombs do such intense damage, this is the point of the fight where a player on Jinkies difficult will most likely die.
NOTES[]
- BFB is one of two aliens to have no artwork on the Dreamcast disc, the other being Sparky.
- BFB is one of the three major antagonists
- BFB is the only major antagonist to be fought solely by the doctor.
- BFB has a special boss theme that does not play for any other boss fights.
- BFB makes up two of the three boss fights for the doctor.
- Max is the only other hero to ever see BFB, Kurt arrives to the Jim Dandy after the fight and never interacts with him. Nobody else fights him directly, however.
- BFB never actually addresses himself as "Balloons for Brains", only the comic loading screens and the doctor do that.