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魔界プリンスどらぼっちゃん
©1990 Naxat Soft /©RED
Release : 1990-12-21 (¥6700)
Hucard (3 Mbits) NX90007
Action / Platform game
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Makai Prince Dorabocchan (also known as Son of Dracula
or Dracula Kid) is a cute platformer developed by Red Company and published
by Naxat Soft. The young vampire Dorabo is on a long
journey to help his master and defeat evil demons! Only the
almighty golden armor is powerful enough to strike down their dreadful leader
and our young vampire embarks on a long journey to find it!
Dorabo will meet many enemies and dangers, such as
zombies, mean turtles, red eyed crazy wolves and giant trees. Dorabo
runs, jumps and spends most of his time collecting small tomatoes. They
are an important part of the gameplay and are ultimately dropped over
the boss's head as a preliminary attack at the end of each stage.
Another ability of Dorabo is to hide under his hat - this
doesn't look like much but this technique allows him to throw deadly
tomato-bombs and finish up his enemies.
Our hero starts his journey with a short range magic-staff that
can be upgraded later in the game.
Three sorts or colored armors are also available (blue, red and grey)
and each one of them give Dorabo special abilities such
as high-jumps or faster attacks.
Finally, there is a bunch of other items that will help our little
vampire in his quest but they only work for a limited amount of
time - the blue cape, for instance, gives him the
ability to double-jump, the sword powers-up his
magic staff and injections freeze enemies on the spot and turn
them into platforms!
Another original feature
of Makai Prince Dorabocchan are the blue flying bats with tiny bells
around their necks. They can call weird looking Easter Island
head servants who often unlock secret shortcuts and unreachable areas.
Makai Prince Dorabocchan consists of five large stages and is
single player only.
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A sequel to Makai Prince Dorabocchan named
Chō Makai Taisen: Dorabocchan
(aka Twisted Tales Of Spike McFang) was released in 1993
for Nintendo's Super Famicom system. The game was also published by
Naxat Soft and developed by Red Company.
Interestingly, this sequel is more like a sort of Action/Adventure
game somehow inspired by other smash hits such as Zelda.
It however features all the same crazy characters found in
Makai Prince Dorabocchan, such as the Easter Island head
servants and many more.
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LK
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cosmos99
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Makai Prince Dorabocchan is a cute and fun game.
Red is better known for its classic PC Genjin and
Tengai Makyō series, but Makai exhibits all the qualities
that made the Japanese company so popular. The game is cute beyond
words and instantly puts you in a state of pure happiness.
Levels are also far from linear and several paths often
lead to the exit, with tons of secrets and easter eggs to
uncover along the way. We can only regret the overall
weakness of the power-up system which always gives you
a very limited attack range (except for the red armor). Additionally,
I feel that the graphics are way too simple - enemies look
great but the background elements are usually very bland.
But all in all, Makai Prince Dorabocchan is a fun
little game with a well balanced difficulty level (although
tuned towards the easy side of the spectrum and designed
with a very young audience in mind). It is not a huge and
breathtaking game but definitively a must have for
any platform fan out there who has played PC Genjin to
death and needs to quench his thirst with something fresh and different.
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What a surprise, the game may look childish at first
but it is in fact an excellent platform game full
of surprises and, first and foremost, one of the rare
playable (="completable") ones,
I keep a really good souvenir from it !
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