Makai Prince Dorabochan

It's not surprising that so many platformers out there aren't really worth speaking of. I consider it a noble thing I do by telling the greater world which of the woefully inferior to avoid and which to disavow all knowledge of after reading about. Makai Prince Dorabochan isn't the worst you could do, but it isn't really treading any new ground.

I haven't the slightest idea what this game is about, as it doesn't really shed any insight into whom the character is or what he's trying to do. Your character is a magical man in a snappy tuxedo, which immediately scored it a few points in the style department; anyone sporting such a classy ensemble that isn't a valet is okay by me. He doesn't coordinate his wardrobe with an appropriate attack, though. What is it with these Turbo Grafx games and their character's limited attacking abilities? His extends a little farther than say, Impossimole's, but not by much. Forget I even mentioned Impossimole; I'm still trying to forget about that fiasco.

This magical man's journeys take him through sparsely decorated locales, fighting random monsters in his pursuit of tomatoes. I couldn't figure out what the tomatoes were for, but I kept collecting them until I reached the first stages boss, after which it all kind of made sense. The tomatoes collected act as a preliminary attack against the boss; depending on how many you collect, you can damage the boss significantly before the battle even begins. This reminded me of the dungeons in Kid Icarus where you free fairies encased in stone to help defeat the bosses, and that again gave this one a little "sump'n sump'n" for bringing back fond memories of Kid Icarus.

This guy has some serious vert, which helps you to reach far away ledges, but makes attacking advancing enemies a tad too difficult, as you're usually jumping up to fifteen feet above them before you can strike. His horizontal movement while in the air is grossly disproportionate to the insane vertical jumping action.

One of the things I enjoyed most about this game is the bat enemies wearing bells, which, when defeated, spawn Easter Island statues that help you reach new parts of the levels by jumping up and off of them, or by riding them as they pass by. This adds a nice level of exploration to the stages, which, unfortunately, feel a little on the "too long" side. You will also occasionally encounter a power up that transforms you from a Dapper Dan in a tux to a robotic samurai warrior with a much-needed projectile attack.

Overall this experience feels lie it's stretched too thin. Had they boiled the levels down and re-worked the control issues just a little this one would have received a much higher score. But, unless you enjoyed My Hero for the Master System, this is the definitive man-in-tuxedo game from the 8 and 16-Bit era.