Minky Monkey, 1982 Technos Japan/Roller Tron
17Inspector Clouseau's wildest fantasies come true-- a game with the word "Minky" in the title! This weirdo game is Technos' first game and features a guy with-- perhaps-- a tomato for a head?? You must control this hydrocephalic freak of nature and make him climb vines/ropes/whatever they are and jump across platforms to put fruits in their designated place-- this constitutes what's called a "SUCCESS" (a monkey at the top shows which fruit is to pushed where). Another monkey is out to throw a (ahem) monkey wrench into your plans, by either wrecking the fruits or catching you or nailing you with a rock (the latter 2 eventualities are fatal). If the monkey wrecks a fruit you can't complete that part of the success and it counts as a FAILURE. 5 successes end the stage and you advance; 5 failures cost you a life. On occasion a soda pop bottle will appear; this is your chance to collect it and catch the monkey, putting it out of commission for a while. Use this opportunity, since the monkey is a serious pain in the ass! I hate the ugly look of your protagonist, the fact that you don't know which side the monkey will first appear (he can score a quick failure when he's close to a fruit since they're on either the far left or the far right vine), and your jump mechanics are so lame that you don't seem to jump far enough. Note: landing on the bottom floor of the screen is fatal! Rather odd, ugly initial effort by Technos, though obviously they would get much, much better (Double Dragon, Renegade, Combatribes, etc.). Suggested by YouTube user Splatter.