Taito Legends 2: Day Five.

Nastar Warrior is the 1988 sequel to the 1987 game Rastan. The game is the classic platformer. One button to jump and another to attack. You get three weapon types based on collected icons in the game. Sword and shield, broadsword, and claws. The big deal with this one is being able to block enemy attacks, even those from bosses. You can block standard by centering the joystick. You can block high by pushing up and block low by pushing down-forward. The game features very large and detailed sprites. Especially the bosses. The game employs a mythological theme in the design of all the creatures. The game is decent fun but shares the same stiff animation and sort of floaty jumping from Rastan that makes some of the platforming more difficult than it should be.

 

Jumping ahead a year to 1989 for Don Doko Don, which happens to be a pseudo-sequel to The Fairyland Story. Instead of an elf with magic turning enemies into cakes you play as dwarf with a mallet that smashes enemies. A smashed enemy can then be picked up and thrown at other enemies. A smashed enemy not picked up with regain its normal shape. You're able to pick up and stack multiple enemies to be thrown in a single toss thereby doing that much more damage. The game shares the simplistic environmental puzzle aspect of its predecessor.  This time they've added a slight narrative that has you moving around a map to a new section every ten stages. Each new area results in a different graphic theme and enemies. And every ten stages sees an actual boss encounter. The graphics are very cute and cartoonish and they're filled with bright and crisp colors. The music is appropriately fitting the cartoonish look. The Fairyland Story was great and Don Doko Don is that much more impressive. It's a great game.

 

Sonic the Hedgehog hit the Genesis in 1991 and featured exceptionally cool bonus stages. What does that have to do with anything you ask? Well, Cameltry came out in 1989 and it clearly was the inspiration for Sonic the Hedgehog's wonderful bonus stages. Instead of controlling a hedgehog while moving through a rotating maze trying to reach a Chaos Emeraldyou're controlling a maze trying to move a glass ball to the goal. You can rotate the maze to the left and right. You get a jump button and if you hold it you can speed up the ball. You have only a set amount of time to move the ball through the maze. Along the way through the twists and turns and other obstructions you'll find plus and minus blocks that add or take away time. The game offers four courses of varying difficulty levels. The game even has the swimming fish and flying parrots in the backgrounds that show up in Sonic the Hedgehog's bonus stages. Cameltry clearly impressed someone at Sonic Team and it's easy to see why. The game is great fun.