Don Doko Don [Model TP02010]

Don Doko Don © 1990 Taito Corp.

Don Doko Don is a cute platform game by Taito and conversion of the arcade game of the same name originally released in 1989. The kingdom of Marry Land is in sadness and sorrow - the beloved princess has been kidnaped by a mysterious king cow. She is now imprisoned in the dreaded Dragon castle and two courageous dwarves (Bob and Jim) decide to leave their native forest and to embark on a journey to save the young damsel. In a way similar to other classics at the time (such as Bubble Bobble), each level is single-screen in size and is filled with hordes of relentless monsters. The goal of the game is clean and simple - players must defeat all the enemies in sight within a time limit in order to move to the next level. And in Don Doko Don, they use large mallets to smash them flat before sending them bouncing around the screen. Alternately, stunned enemies can also be carried around and thrown against walls or other enemies. But the critters are tougher than they look and regain consciousness after a short period of time, and the dwarves must hurry and finish them off before they get a chance to jolt awake. Defeated enemies drop all kind of valuable items that the player can collect for extra rewards (some items randomly appear during gameplay). Although most of them are fruits that award bonus points, some upgrade the player in various ways, such as speed-ups (blue potion), throwable blue hammers, crushing grey hammers and other items that kill all monsters in one blow, make stars rain from the sky or increase the player's power level (Red Potions or P icons). This is another very important aspect to Don Doko Don - each dwarf comes with a power level (displayed at the bottom of the screen) that represents how many enemies can be disposed at once. When full, the power level flashes and indicates that the player can throw enemies through anything, even walls! This level however decreases each time the player receives a hit from a projectile or collects a rotten (spotted) fruit. Don Doko Don consists of five different themed worlds (made out of ten sub-stages each) and also features a two-simultaneous player mode.