ROD-LAND
ST WHY U M YOU .. .. ..
Y A PL
[Arcade] Rod-Land may look impossibly cute but don’t be fooled. A rock hard game exists beneath the cheery exterior.
[Arcade] Rit is an impossibly cute fairy on a mission. Just don’t get in her way okay?
FROM A LOFTY TOWER FILLED WITH THE CUTEST CRITTERS IN GAMING, MIKE BEVAN EXAMINES WHY THIS FAIRY STORY REMAINS ONE OF THE BEST ARCADE CONVERSIONS OF THE NINETIES
W IN THE KNOW » PUBLISHER: JALECO » DEVELOPER: JALECO » FEATURED HARDWARE: ARCADE » GENRE: PLATFORMER » RELEASED: 1990 » EXPECT TO PAY: £70+
e imagine the design meeting for Jaleco’s Rod-Land might have gone something like this… “So we’ll have these two fairies with really big hair. Carrying invisible ladders around with them. And they’ll be some baddies that look like wobbly potatoes. We’ll call them Spuds. Plus some bunny rabbits, sharks, bumble-bees and squirrels and stuff. It’ll be cute.” “Right, so how do these pixie gals despatch the meanies? Lightning bolts, fireballs, rocks dropped on their heads?” “Nope, we’ll give them magic rods.” On paper it sounds sickeningly twee, but Rod-Land is actually really great. Dismissed by some as little more than a Bubble Bobble clone, it has more in common with the bash-the-baddie antics
of Parasol Stars or the rather jolly (though little-remembered) classic-era arcade game Mr Do’s Castle. Presented in cheerful ‘platform-and-ladder-vision’ ™, Rod-Land is an unpretentiously old-school arcade game with bags of playability and charm. Thanks to Storm – the talented bunch behind SWIV, and the home versions of Silkworm – it avoided relative arcade obscurity by hitting most of the key platforms of the day. Tam and Rit, Rod-Land’s garishly coiffured fairy folk, wake up one morning to find their ’mom’ has been kidnapped by a nasty demon, and taken to the top of the Maboots Tower. Equipped with the aforementioned rods of maximum hurt, they formulate a rescue plan involving flower-picking and 40 rounds of terminally cute monsters. The twin heroines proceed to dash around the single-screen levels,
Flying kicks are a great way of taking down motorbikes and keeping your distance.
hoovering up blooming bonuses, Pac-Manstyle, while purging the various furry fuzzwits by walloping them about the scenery. It’s an odd but strangely satisfying method of attack. Jamming your rod into a monster’s side (steady…) stuns it briefly, while continuing to bash the joystick button throws it repeatedly back and forth over your ahead. If there’s a platform underneath it’ll be smacked painfully to death, leaving a bonus item in its wake. Otherwise this method can be used to stop enemies in their tracks for a split-second, bash other baddies, flip them out of your path, or (in the home versions) dump them off platforms out of harm’s way. The various items left behind in cute baddies’ death-throes cue further welcome destruction, from rockets and bouncing projectiles to exploding dynamite and
WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE THAT ROD Deceptively innocuous to look at, this powerful device turns your cute avatar into a deadly killing machine. Use with care.
MAKE YOUR OWN LEVEL Well not exactly, but the ability to create ladders on the fly certainly makes your life a lot easier when you’re zipping around each stage.
PINBALL MADNESS Play Super Breakout with your furry friends by sending these lethal power-balls bouncing all over the shop. It’s like pinball, with squirrels.
DEATH BY LIGHTER Leave your enemies crunchy on the outside and toasty in the middle with this portable flamethrower. Rarely seen, but much fun to use.
72 | RETRO GAMER
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