MEIKYŪ JIIN DABABA
Game Cover
Game Disk
迷宮寺院ダババ
©Konami 1987
Release: 1987-05-29 (¥2980)
DiskCard KDS-MIK
Action/Puzzle game

Meikyū Jiin Dababa is an action/puzzle game by Konami. A long time ago, an evil spirit called Dababa was summoned in a temple of the enchant indian village of Pātariputora. But the almighty Sakura defeated the demon and sealed his soul deep inside a complex and deadly labyrinth. Peace returned to the village for hundreds of years, until the day when Lydon, a disciple of Shiva's temple, found a sacred book that once kept Dabada prisoner in his eternal prison. Incidents about young girls being kidnapped started to emerge at the village and when Tanya, the Vimara's daughter disappeared, the courageous Shiva decided to embark on a long journey to save her. Meikyū Jiin Dababa uses a fairly unique gameplay at its core - Shiva can only jump (or literally 'hop') from tiles to tiles. However, although he moves around one square at the time, he can also jump over relatively large distances and fly over pits in one single hop. Each area in the game (except for the last one) starts off with a fairly large stage where Shiva must find the temple's entrance. Each temple features a set of rooms, each connected by a locked door. The goal of the game is to find a way to open each door - although they can sometimes be already opened in early stages, Shiva must usually find a specific object in order to unlock them. The only way to achieve this is by jumping over tiles and cracking them open to release magical seals. Shiva can also find a plethora of special items using the same technique, from more powerful weapons such as the ability to throw fire (Lotus) or the powerful Monk Beads to extra lives (Heart), health (potions) or the Red Orb that kills all enemies on screen at once. Meikyū Jiin Dababa is single-player only and consists of four large areas, each made up of several sub-levels.
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Meikyū Jiin Dababa Konami Cards
Japanese Konami Card Japanese Konami Card Japanese Konami Card
Japanese Konami Card Japanese Konami Card

Konami Cards Like several other early Konami games released in the 1980s/1990s, Meikyū Jiin Dababa included a numbered collector card also known in Japan as コナミ キャラカード (aka 'Konami Chara Cards' or 'Konami Character Cards'). Each card featured an illustration or a snapshot from the game (picture on the right), and the back of each card showed a serial number as well as the game's title. They were randomly included with the games and Konami produced several variations of each card. That's it, each game included a card from a series related to the game, it is however not known how many different card variations were made for each game. Apparently six cards (on average) were produced for each game, except for Doremikko (1 card), Exciting Boxing (1 card) and Meikyū Jiin Dababa (which, curiously, only seem to feature five cards). The list of Konami games to include such cards are believed to be : Ai Senshi Nicol (FDS), Dracula II Noroi no Fuin (FDS), Arumana no Kiseki (FDS), Contra (FC), Doremikko (FDS), Dragon Scroll (FC), Exciting Baseball (FDS), Exciting Basketball (FDS), Exciting Billard (FDS), Exciting Boxing (FDS), Exciting Soccer (FDS), Falsion (FDS), Getsu Fūma Den (FC), Majō Densetsu II Daimashikyō Galious(FC), Meikyū Jiin Dababa (FDS), Metal Gear (FC), Salamander (FC), Tetsuwan Atom (FC), Top Gun (FC) and Wai Wai World (FC).


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Japanese Guidebook
Japanese Guidebook
Japanese Guidebook
Japanese Guidebook


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Meikyū Jiin Dababa manual
Click on picture to enlarge

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Meikyū Jiin Dababa is overall fairly easy to figure out overall, but some levels are particularly difficult and don't follow any logic laid down by previous levels. Here is some information about the trickiest ones:

Area 2:
Although the entrance to the temple is clearly visible, it is sadly out of reach. To reveal it, you must shoot several times at the entrance, this will activate a new platform.

Meikyū Jiin Dababa - cheat Area 3:
In this area, only shooting at the entrance doesn't activate it. You must first collect a key from one of the monks that wanders around the area.

Area 3 - level 4:
In the third area, the forth stage gives you two exits - the one on the right leads back to the current stage whereas the one on the lefts leads to the previous level... the only way to proceed forward is to collect the mirror and to jump into the waterfall (picture on the right).

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Konami games in the 1980s oozed charm and imagination and Meikyū Jiin Dababa is another of these obscure and yet unique Konami titles that never made it outside of Japan. Meikyū Jiin Dababa features a really unusual gameplay, always walking a fine line between action and puzzle but never fully committing to neither of them. And I must say, Konami really managed to deliver a really unique game that doesn't play like any others. The puzzle side gets you to often scratch your head on how to solve each room's intricate layout, but the action side constantly throws enemies at you and certainly keeps your adrenaline levels pumping and constantly on high alert. Some levels even literally disappear in front of your very eyes and force you to think fast! I must warn you though, the game has a couple of frustrating moments that feel simply designed to sell the official guidebook (the waterfall and mirror combination is the worst offender). But all in all, Meikyū Jiin Dababa's uses an unquestionably clever concept at its core (although not for everyone) that doesn't really squarely fit in any category, and yet the game is overall fairly addictive and fun to play.




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