Builder Land - The Story of Melba [Model MWCD-2003]

Builder Land - The Story of Melba © 1992 Micro World.

Builder Land is a cute puzzle/action game by the now defunct french company Loriciel. The player must help Melba and get him to rescue his beloved girlfriend captured on an island by an evil dude. However, the player doesn't directly control Melba. Instead, in a way similar to Psygnosis's Lemmings, he has to make sure the path in front of our hero is safe to walk through. To do so, elements of the scenery (such as stairs and blocks) can be moved around to prevent Melba to fall into lava pits, or to be stalled against walls. If Melba happens to be hit by anything, or if the horizontal scrolling gets him out of the screen's area, it is game over. Thankfully for Melba, the action can be frozen, giving the player some time to analyze the situation. Items can also be collected, such as weapons, and be used to strike Melba's various crawling and flying enemies when appropriate. Bosses are also hidden inside houses along the way. However, the only way to defeat them is to collect magic fire scattered around their den. This is probably the only part of the game where the players directly controls Melba.