  Devil World - 1984 Nintendo  |
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Devil World is a quirky first-party
NES game released only for the Famicom and in some European
countries. It's one of Nintendo's early efforts, and as such
doesn't have fancy graphics or sound. What it does have is a
heaping amount of fun and character! I don't read Japanese so I
can't tell you too much of the story, but from what I gather you play
the role of a little dinosaur stuck in Hell. You won't find much
in the way of fire and brimstone in this game, but you will find a
menagerie of demons looking to put an end to your little
dinosaur! They chase you through a maze remiscent of the ones
you'll find in Pac-Man, and to make matters worse, Satan himself is out
to get you! He scrolls the screen around, changing its direction
as he chooses. If you happen to get caught in-between the edge of
the screen and a wall, your dinosaur will be crushed to death! Of course, you do have ways of fighting back. You can pick up either a cross or a bible, both of which allow you to breathe demon-roasting fire. As an added benefit, on level 1 when you're armed with a cross you can eat the dots scattered around the map! Eat all of the dots and you'll find yourself at level 2. Now, you'll have to collect the bibles and stuff them into the enemy's hideout to seal it shut. After you've blocked all four entrances, the level's beaten and you proceed to a bonus stage where you have to collect the bonus boxes scattered around the level before time runs up. Regardless of whether or not you get them all, after the timer's up you'll start the game over again with faster enemies, tougher demons, and slightly more difficult level layouts. One fun thing to try is collecting the frozen treats that'll sometimes appear circling around the level -- they're good both for bonus points and for making puns about Hell freezing over! And if you really want to stick it to Satan, team up with a friend and play through the game in its two-player simualtaneous mode. Devil World wasn't released in the USA for obvious reasons, chief of which being Nintendo of America's policy of prohibiting religious iconography in its games. Of course, with a few graphics changes this game could have been easily changed from Devil World to something along the lines of Happy Dinosaur's Maze Adventure. When you look at the lineup of first-generation NES games released in the USA, it's actually rather surprising that they'd release mediocre games like Baseball or difficult to control games like Clu Clu Land instead of this easy to play diversion. It's not a very deep game, but it is fun for a while and has that classic Nintendo charm to it. If you're interested in playing it, it should be a fairly common game in Japan. You can also find it on some multicarts, I believe. Whatever the case, it's worth giving it a try!  |
| Rating: Graphics:  - The game
has colorful, well-drawn
graphics, but there are only a few different enemies and there isn't
much variety between the levels visually. They're a bit better
than the typical first-generation Nintendo fare, but in the end aren't
much more than adequate.Sound: - There isn't
much in the way of
music, and you'll usually just be hearing the sound of your dinosaur
waddling around the level and Satan scrolling the borders around.Control: - It's easy
to control your
dinosaur, and the controls are intuitive. It's basically like
Pac-Man, but with the ability to shoot fire!Fun:  - Devil
World is a thoroughly average game in the end, but it's still
fun to play for a while. It's not worth hunting down, but if you
happen across it in your travels it's worth adding to your collection! |
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