Game:

Penguin Wars (1985)

Duration: 10:45

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Kitten Kaboodle is an obscure, extremely cutesy Konami action game released in 1988, and uses the same processor board as Gradius and Salamander / Life Force. The game is essentially a variant of the oldie but goodie, Pengo, but features more complex gameplay additions and additional inspirations. In the game, you play as either a male or female kitten who are stuck in a magical world and must defeat a variety of strange adversaries across multiple stages before they can be set free. While it doesn't look like much for its time of release, there are several qualities that much it worth playing and it has some catchy tunes.

The main goal of the game is to run around and crush enemies with boxes, and they'll sometimes drop a key. Collect four keys and the door on the stage will be unlocked, allowing you to exit and clear the stage. Crushing an enemy can earn you coins that can be collected to improve your score, but crushing multiple foes with one attack nets more coins as well as diamonds to get even more points. You can also jump around enemies and obstacles to survive longer as well as pair special blocks together to utilize special abilities, which helps as foes quickly become crafty and faster as time runs down. When time runs out, a special enemy will basically chase you and kill you.

There are a few other things about the game that help it stand out however. For one, the game has hidden items which can be unearthed on stages that give great score bonuses and there are also special zones that you can go to (which seem almost random) such as a gambling parlor and item shop, where you can spend points to have a easier time clearing the game. It's an unorthodox but welcome addition that separates the boys from the men (or the kittens from the cats) as you're rewarded with more skillful playing and have more control over the difficulty of the game at the expense of an altered high score. Secondly, you confront a boss every five levels that you must defeat by hitting with bombs and putting more bombs on their side of the screen before time runs out. It's like a simplified Penguin Wars (or "Penguin-Kun Wars"). Lastly, enemies have a variety of traits beyond mere chasing patterns. These traits range from jumping and pushing to flying and breaking, so you have to be quick on your feet to survive.

The game is weird, but ultimately worth tracking down if you're into these types of classic games. This is a video showing various things in the game. Enjoy.