Mr Do!, 1982 Universal (20 From 1982 #2)
17The first game in a successful series of game starring the titular clown MR. DO! He digs through a maze and kills monsters (sound familiar? Yep-- a bit like Dig Dug, and came after it by several months), drops apples (that squish enemies), and also collects cherries for points. The cherries are grouped in eights, and if you collect all 8 together you will get a 500 point bonus (the old "Do-Re-Mi" tone plays as you collect them), and you can end a stage by collecting all the cherries or killing all the red monsters. The red monsters emerge from a pen in the middle and after 8 emerge a prize will remain. Collecting the prize will freeze all remaining red monsters and then 4 new monsters will appear: One letter monster (sporting an E, X, T, R or A-- killing all of them nets you a free life) and 3 "Munchers" accompany him. These monsters will come after you; mostly the Munchers, and they will eat apples that are in their way or get dropped on them as they're ascending. So either use the "Power Ball" with the fire button-- this is a ball that bounces around until it hits an enemy and takes longer to return to you the longer you play a stage-- or drop apples when they aren't ascending towards the apple. If you kill the Letter Monster he and his lackeys turn into apples themselves! And the regular monsters that were frozen by the prize collection will resume chase. This game which already added new twists to the Dig Dug maze-digging motif adds more cool elements with intermission scenes and a chance to win a free credit by collecting an elusive diamond! So much fun, and so many (mostly good) sequels and home ports. Hope to see you soon for the final game, game #1 in this 20 from 1982 series! Can you guess what it is..?