Adventures of Lolo was the last game I beat before I started this blog. I could've written about it back then, but since I'm a stickler for my own arbitrary and meaningless rules I decided to save it. I'm glad I did it, because I've been on a massive dry spell lately. I keep wandering from game to game without being able to focus on one long enough to finish. I get in moods like this, so it's nice to still have some NES games to fall back on. Hopefully this will help me build up momentum as my blog moves forward.
Lolo is a very good game, and it's one of the genres that I miss most from the 8-bit era. There used to be many of these one screen action/puzzle games. I used to love these for several reasons. First of all, they made me use my brain. Even as a little kid I was sort of a stuck up nerd. Secondly, I loved how many levels they had. This was back during a time when levels were everything, and in my opinion the more there were the better the game would be. I also loved how short the passwords in these games were. The whole concept of passwords made no since to me as a kid. I thought that people picked out any ol' random word they wanted for. I couldn't understand why some of them were so long. Now I understand that they were actually pieces of code, and it makes perfect since why a one screen puzzle game would have a shorter password than an epic rpg. Still, 4 letter passwords are certainly a plus.
Lolo has a fairly simple concept. You collect hearts and then open up a treasure chest before something kills you. You will also occasionally be able to turn some monsters into eggs. It's sort of like Bubble Bobble without all the jumping. Some of the puzzles are quite fiendish while others just require walking very fast or not being an idiot. I'm proud of myself for being able to get through this whole game without looking up any of the puzzles. At least that's what I did the first time through. The second time I was in a big hurry so I looked a couple of things up. I don't figure it's really cheating if I've done it all before.
This is a very good game, but there are a couple of things that really annoy me. The main complaint I have about this game is how exact it requires you to be. Now I understand that action/puzzle games are very much about the planning and need to be exact, but the problems in Lolo appear to be more control issues than design flaws. Imagine that you have just spend several minutes plotting out a level and have executed everything personally. Now it is time to go move the final block. But wait a second, the block was moved an inch closer to the wall, and now it is impossible to move. You can imagine my frustration as this happens over and over. This isn't from the design either. It's from the controls allowing Lolo to push things to quickly. I know that the game would be incredibly slow without the fast block moving action, but there has to be a happy medium somewhere. If you push your block even a hair in the wrong direction it will become impossible to move and that only leads to suicide. Poor Lolo had to commit suicide dozens of times while I was playing, and it's a game that was still fairly fresh on my mind. Would it have killed the gameplay if Lolo was able to pull as well as push? I suppose it would change that way the levels were designed, but I'm sure there would be a lot less broken controllers in the world from angry gamers.
So anyway I did have fun with Lolo. It's not so long and difficult that it becomes impossible. The levels aren't numbered so I don't know exactly how many there are, but I think it's around 60. As I said before, I miss these old one screen action/puzzle games. I can only think of a handful coming out after the NES went under. It's to the point now that if one did come out, it would only be a novelty and not proof that the genre still existed. And while this game isn't the strongest in the genre, it's still a lot of fun. It's also not as expensive as Bubble Bobble or Kickle Cubicle which knocks it up a couple of points on my list.
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