Rod-land

Game cover: Rod-land

Description

Taking a rather literal view of the term 'slap-stick humour', Rod-land features two fairies called Tam and Rit armed with a magic rod and magical rainbow boots. They live a happy life in their fairy village until one morning they realize that all their fellow villagers have turned nasty, kidnapped their mother and locked her away.

There are multiple levels to clear, spanning two stories in the arcade original. The first mission is to rescue their mother who's been captured and taken atop the "Maboots" tower. The objective of the second is to go into a mysterious pyramid in search of your father and defeat an evil demon responsible for all gone wrong in their fair world.

Each level comprises of platforms and ladders and is full of baddies, who are disposed of by grabbing them with the rod, flipping them repeatedly from side to side over your head to inflict damage. It is also possible to release them while flipping, to fling them out of the way. Just zapping enemies with the rod stuns them. Enemies can also be killed by slamming other enemies into them. Certain enemies leave behind some kind of extra, ranging from points bonuses to various devices which can be used to kill other enemies. Various end of level bosses appear throughout the game.

Platforms can only be accessed through ladders, balloons ascending though the level or falling down on them. Your magical boots can conjure a magical ladder that appears right above or below the player. A single such ladder can exist at a time, so conjuring a new one will make an existing one disappear.

Each level also contains a certain amount of flowers. If you can collect all of them (with some bad guys still alive - you move on to the next level immediately once they're gone) you enter a bonus game for a limited amount of time, in which those enemies left turn into a special type of enemy who's elimination results in one of the letters E,X,T,R and A being released - collect them all for an invaluable extra life.

Game Info

Developers
Platforms
2011Arcade1990Amiga1991Amstrad CPC1991Atari ST1991Commodore 641991ZX Spectrum1991NES1992Game Boy1993Symbian2007Windows Mobile2007iPhone2011Antstream2019Nintendo Switch2021PlayStation 42021