Adventures of Lolo
Adventures of Lolo | ||||||||||||||||
NES - USA - 1st edition. |
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Adventures of Lolo is a block pusher developed and published by HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo Entertainment System on 1989-04-20 as the fifth game in the Eggerland series. The game was developed in Japan, but strangely did not see a Japanese release. The game released in Japan as Adventures of Lolo uses the interface of Adventures of Lolo 2, but has a mostly different set of maps.
In the game, you play as Lolo, a fuzzy blue ball, who witnesses Lala, princess of Eden, being kidnapped by the Great Devil and taken to the Haunted Castle. You must guide Lolo through 50 rooms of the castle, each filled with deadly monsters that can only be defeated by a jewel locked in a chest. By collecting all of the heart framers in the room, Lolo can unlock the chest, and move on to the next room. But, reaching each heart framer requires skillful navigation around the hazards and a lot of forethought.
Contents
Personal
Own? | No. |
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Won? | Yes. |
Finished | 2022-01-29. |
I first learned about the Adventures of Lolo series from a poorly written NES strategy guide from 1990 which covered the second US title. From the screenshots, I could tell it was a puzzle game, and it looked a little interesting, but none of my friends had the game, so I never played it. In the late 1990s, when I learned about NES emulation, I played the first couple levels but was quickly killed and got a game over. Assuming I would only get limited continues, which would mean thousands of play-throughs before I'd be good enough to win with the allotted lives, I gave up. Later, when I got my hands on a Pocket PC that could handle NES emulation, but had awful input controls, I looked for a game that didn't require precision movement, and decided this game would work. I got a few levels in before realizing the game did require precision input after all, and wouldn't work on my Pocket PC, and gave up again. Finally, in 2022, I verified that the game actually has unlimited continues, and I decided to try and beat it and enjoyed almost all of it.
Review
6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
Best Version: NES
— This section contains spoilers! —
Good
- Several rooms are pretty tricky and had me scratching my head for awhile thinking that it just isn't possible to beat it, before I finally figured out the strategy. This was very fulfilling.
- Through the course of the game, the developers require you to learn new tactics for beating the levels, it's not just about making them longer or requiring more precise movements.
- The pixel art is good and the characters are quite cute.
- The game has only limited music, but, what it has fits the game.
- Though I would have liked some form of boss fight, the ending sequence is likewise limited, but also cute.
Bad
- By the second floor, you've seen almost everything the game has to offer. The later stages, although they keep introducing new puzzle mechanics, don't introduce new monsters, backgrounds, or music. Also, while the graphics are nice, the game subdivides the 50 rooms in to 10 floors, but this is a pointless naming convention. Nothing about the look or feel of the game changes between the floors, not even something minor like a palette swap of the walls. More variation would have been nice.
- Even a single mistaken movement, like pushing and emerald framer a half-square too far, can put the room in an unwinnable state, and this is pretty easy considering how touchy the controls are. This isn't too bad since the small rooms can never become that complicated, but a rewind feature (like the one seen in Baba Is You) would have been really useful.
- The text is hard to read on the yellow brick background, and I would prefer more interesting dialogue between floors.
- The game reveals only one new level each time you complete one. This means, if you ever get stuck, you can't progress any more in the game. A better system would be to open levels in blocks.
- Another damsel in distress. Boring.
- Since you get infinite continues, and you restart on the level you died in, lives are meaningless.
- This is a minor point, but, despite the title, the game is hardly an adventure. The game should have been titled, "Challenge of Lolo," "Labyrinth of Lolo," or something to that effect.
Ugly
- Nothing.
Media
Box Art
Both the US and European covers use this same art. It shows Lolo jumping away from the Great Devil with a key in hand.
Documentation
Maps
Screenshots
Videos
Play Online
Representation
Strong female character? | Fail | The only woman is a damsel in distress and reward. |
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Bechdel test? | Fail | There is only one woman. |
Strong person of color character? | Fail | There are no human characters. |
Queer character? | Fail | There are no queer characters. |
Credits
The game doesn't contain credits, and only some of the staff has been determined.
Roles | Staff |
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Music Composer (uncredited) | Hideki Kanazashi |
Music Programmer (uncredited) | Hiroaki Suga |
Links
- Video Games
- 1989 Video Games
- Video games developed by HAL Laboratory
- Video games published by HAL Laboratory
- NES Games
- Video Game Genre - Block pusher
- Video Game Genre - Active puzzle
- Video Game Genre - Puzzle
- Media Theme - Cartoon
- Software Distribution Model - Commercial
- Video Games I Don't Own
- Video Games I've Beaten
- Video Game Rating - 6
- Video Game Graphics Rating - 5
- Video Game Sound Rating - 5
- Video games which can be played online
- Video games without a strong female character
- Video games that fail the Bechdel test
- Video games without a strong person of color character
- Video games without a queer character
- Video Game Prime Order - Strategy, Action, Adventure
- Game Mechanic - Block Pushing
- Trope - Damsel In Distress
- Trope - Women As Reward