Mr Do!'s Castle, 1984 Parker Bros. (20 From Colecovision #10)
17We kick off the 2nd half of my 20 From The Colecovision series with a great port of the first sequel to Mr. Do!. This changes the gameplay from a "dig your own maze" game ala Dig Dug, to a multi-floor castle setting and replace Mr. Do!'s power ball with a mallet. Mr. Do! can break blocks of the floors with his mallet and smash them onto his foes, or early on in the game he can smash a monster walking on a block (you can't do that later in the game-- sucks, I know; but it's the same in the arcade). The monsters are called "Unicorns"-- not the pretty horses with a horn like in mythology, but monsters of various color (and speed) with a single horn on their head. The blocks you can break are cherry blocks (you can break them all to end the level), skull blocks (break two close to each other to knock down the blocks between them and flatten a monster walking right over one), and key blocks. The key blocks are important because if you break all 3 of them there is an opportunity to turn the tables on the unicorns. A cross will appear at the top floor and if you collect it all the unicorns turn into the famed "letter monsters" from Mr. Do! And even better, they can't hurt you! Smack them or smack blocks down on them to try to spell EXTRA for an extra life. If you break a block and a monster falls into the gap they will wiggle around a bit before digging themselves out and leaving a plain block in the hole. Early on you can smash them right after they leave it but later on it doesn't work.. that just frosts me! But again, that's how the arcade plays it too. If a unicorn is hot on your tail and climbs up one of the diagonal ladders, you can push the top of it to send it the other way, forcing them to go a different way to reach you. Yet another outstanding arcade port on the Colecovision.. and plenty more to come! Stay safe and keep up the social distancing/hand sanitizing and we'll get through this mess eventually. I hope my videos bring you at least a little sunshine in these dark times.