Game of the Day 4/9/2016: Penguin Land

[celerystalker]

My Master System was purchased from a guy named David with about 30 games together back in the day, and it had a LOT of the good stuff... Phantasy Star, Ys, Wonder Boy III, Golvellius, Spellcaster, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Rastan... the guy had taste. Even some harder to find stuff like Alf was in the lot. The game I played all night that night? Freaking Penguin Land. Yup. Penguin Land.

Penguin Land is a puzzle platformer of sorts, and I've always felt like it had a lot in common with Lode Runner. As a penguin parent, your goal is to safely guide an egg from the top of a vertical stage to the bottom, digging through ice blocks and avoiding hazards along the way such as long falls, polar bears, spikes, falling rocks, and more. The digging actually works an awful lot like Lode Runner, where you can only dig out an adjacent square, not the one on which you are standing, and your egg can only withstand a fall of about four tiles, with an on-screen indicator showing the safe line. Make it to the bottom while scoring as many points as possible!

You don't directly attack enemies, but they can attack you or your egg. Your number of lives and eggs are separate, and if you die, you come back on screen where you roughly were. Lose an egg, though, and you restart the stage. You do have the ability to jump, and you can also push rocks down from above in order to stop the enemies below. Do your best to keep your egg from getting stuck in a pit, though, or your only option will be to crush it yourself... then you won't just lose an egg and start the stage anew, but you'll have to come to terms with being a bad parent.

The graphics are okay, perhaps a tad better than most black box NES games, and the control does exactly what it should. Your jumps are a little floaty, but it's actually pretty useful for maneuvering around your egg. You can start from later rounds if you choose, and the Master System version also offers a level editor for you to create your own evil little levels to upset your friends.

I like Penguin Land a lot, and it's also available in Sega Ages Memorial Selection 2 on Saturn and Sega Ages 2500 vol. 23, Sega Memorial Collection, which features the arcade original and a prettied-up remake. Any of these are a fun play, but I believe that the editor mode is exclusive to the Master System.

Played some Penguin Land?

[Niku-Sama]

If only my master system worked. I think this is a game i have and I'd probably spend hours on it to

[Emperor Megas]

Penguin Land rocks! Worse thing is falling atop your egg in a bind because it makes you feel like complete shit. I haven't played this game in decades, but isn't there a slow moving bird that flies across the screen and drops an equally slow falling rock on your egg if you take too long to move it? Also, isn't your penguin a stranded space fairing penguin?

[Emperor Megas]

Never mind, I just looked at the images you posted and yes, it certainly is a space travelling penguin. So weird.

[celerystalker]

God bless Sega, they were always good for something weird. Space penguins are so unnecessary to the concept, but adding interstellar travel only makes it better.

[Emperor Megas]

I agree, 120%. Man, I love classic SEGA.

[tom]

Yeah I remember playing that, and I always admired Sega's awful box art.