Taito Legends 2 -- Day Three.

Moving ahead to 1985 we find The Fairyland Story. This is an action game where you play as an elf with the power to turn your enemies into cakes. One shot from your magic wand and the enemy is transformed into a cake but it takes a little more than that to defeat them. An enemy that's been turned into a cake can reclaim their natural form after a few seconds. You can continue to shoot magic at them while they're in cake form and they'll eventually be destroyed and vanish. Or you can push the cakes off the ledges to destroy them. You can push the cakes off the ledges and on to your enemies and take them out as well. Random items with different powers like brief invincibility and the ability to shoot fire will appear. Each level has an entirely different layout.  After every six or seven levels the game advances the minimal story with cutscenes. The game has a slight action puzzle feel in figuring out how to take out the enemies due to the environmental nature of the level designs. The game is quite fun.

 

Also in 1985 from is The Legend of Kage. The game has you playing as a ninja out to save a kidnapped princess. You can swing a couple of knives around with one button and the other throws throwing stars. You jump with the stick that controls Kage's left and right movement. Kage is able to leap great distances and the playfield extends upwards more than you'd ordinarily expect. Leaping around can prove dangerous as it leaves you open to projectile attacks. You can throw the throwing stars in eight directions but not normally fast enough to stop an enemy from throwing something your way. You need to make it through a forest, a castle moat, up the castle's outer wall and through the castle itself to rescue the princess.  You'll have to do it all twice to complete the game. The game is frenetic and fun.

 

We're moving ahead to 1986 with KiKi KaiKai. The game has you playing as a priestess trying to repel all the ghosts to save seven trapped gods. The game plays out like Gauntlet without the walls. You'll scroll through the levels with two types of attacks. One has you waving a talisman around that works essentially as a sword type attack. The other is a projectile attack. You'll play through the level to a boss. The game is pretty standard stuff except for the theme of exorcising the dead. It's the only thing to really set the game apart. It's decent enough fun although you'll quickly forget it.

 

We jump all the way to 1988 with Kuri Kinton. The game is a sidescrolling brawler. We're not talking Final Fight here, we're talking on par with Kung Fu Master and Vigilante. You get jump and attack. You fight your way through an underground fortress while fighting spacemen and the like. The lowly enemies that make up the waves you'll plow through are uninspired and just there to tide you over until you reach the midbosses and round bosses. There are five of each. They're all pretty distinct fights each needing a different strategy. They're the only saving grace for this one.