Dharma Doujou [Model SHVC-ADRJ-JPN]

だるま道場 © 1995 Denz
(Dharma Doujou)

Dharma Doujou is a puzzle game by Metro and Den'Z, and conversion of an arcade game of the same name. The game stars a little monk and a cute shrine maiden who have both been specially trained by their master to battle Y?kai monsters. As a matter of fact, all kind of Oni demons and other strange apparitions have caused major mayhem and mischief throughout the valley, and the two monks decide to put a decisive stop to all of this. In story mode, the player goes through a series of single-screen puzzles (eight levels each containing three rounds), all made out of stacked up blocks. The goal of the game is a heart pounding race against the clock - in each round, a demon, located on the left of the screen, climbs up a rope and must be stopped before he reaches the ceiling and releases a large temple bell onto the player's blocks. And there is only one way to slow the dreaded foe down - the player must use his or her large mallet to hit blocks and make them fall into a separate compartment located at the bottom of the screen (this aspect of the game certainly reminds of Dharma Otoshi, a traditional Japanese children's game). If three identical blocks (or up to eight later in the game) are aligned correctly inside the compartment, they turn into a good spirit and perform a short strike attack against the demon, thus slowing him down. If not, the blocks are sent back to the main stack, and the player must quickly think of a better way to align or shift more blocks. Interestingly, the gameplay slightly changes depending on which character the player chooses - as the monk, each puzzle must be completed within a time limit, but as the maiden, they have to be completed in a set amount of moves. Dharma Doujou features a couple more play modes such as an unlimited mode (where rows of blocks just keep appearing) and a puzzle mode (where the player must align blocks so they match a pattern within a certain move count or time limit). However, although most of the modes are oriented for single-played sessions, a two-player battle mode is also available and allows two friends to fight head to head. Finally, while levels are apparently randomly generated in the story mode, a clever password system lets player save their progress.