Marvel Land

Last updated
Marvel Land
MarvelLand arcadeflyer.png
Arcade flyer
Developer(s) Namco
Publisher(s) Namco
Platform(s) Arcade, Mega Drive, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
Release
  • JP: January 1990
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Arcade system Namco System 2

Marvel Land [1] is a platform game released by Namco in arcades in 1990. It runs on the Namco System 2 hardware. The game was published for the Mega Drive in 1991, with the European version renamed Talmit's Adventure. The game shares its name with the fictitious kingdom where the 1986 Japan-only Famicom game Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu takes place, but has no connections with it otherwise. Likewise the game has no connections with Marvel Comics or any of their associated characters either. In December 2022, the arcade version of Marvel Land was re-released exclusively in Japan on the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4 on the Arcade Archives lineup of digital arcade titles. It was originally planned for worldwide release at one point but was ultimately cancelled due to licensing issues with Disney (who then copyrighted the Marvel brand in 2009) and Hamster Corporation.

Contents

Gameplay

Arcade screenshot ARC Marvel Land.png
Arcade screenshot

In Marvel Land, the player must take control of Prince Paco (Talmit in English), who is on a quest to save Princess Luxie (Wondra in English) from the evil Mole King (Japanese: 魔王モウル; Maō Mōru); the gameplay is similar to that for Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. . Power-ups make it easier for Paco to defeat enemies and collect various items to increase his score; these include dragon wings which allow Paco to jump higher and fly (to a certain extent), shoes that can allow him to walk faster for a while, and a clone powerup which allows him to whip multiple copies of himself at enemies in a line. Each of the game's four worlds take place in an amusement park (which is the eponymous "Marvel Land"), and most areas are set outside with various obstacles that must be overcome; other areas include a ride on a roller coaster, and even a walk through a funhouse. At the end of the regular outside levels, Paco must jump through a huge target to earn between 100 and 7650 (Namco's goroawase number) extra points; the remaining time will also then be added to the score.

The game's enemies are an army of moles known as "Mogles", along with a wide range of other creatures. A boss must also be fought at the end of the last area of all four worlds; they are unique in that they are played more like a minigame (rock paper scissors for Worlds 1 and 4, and tug of war for Worlds 2 and 3). After Paco defeats a boss, he rescues a fairy (Luxie after he defeats the Mole King) and is treated to a bonus stage, where he must catch falling stars for points in a float parade at night.

Some rides featured in the various levels, along with the bonus stage parade floats, contain several of Namco's earlier characters, such as Pac-Man (1980), Pooka from Dig Dug (1982), Solvalou from Xevious (1982), Mappy (1983), Grobda (1984), Gilgamesh and Ki from Tower of Druaga (1984), Paccet from Baraduke (1985), Valkyrie of Valkyrie no Bōken (NES, 1986), Wonder Momo (1987), Amul (in "one-headed" form) from Dragon Spirit (1987) and Beraboh Man (1988). The pink-and-silver female robot who appears at the start of each world, 受付小町 (Uketsuke Komachi), also appears in the Namco System 12-era World Stadium games as the Nikotama Gals' catcher and in the Namco Museum series at the information desk.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Marvel Land on their March 15, 1990 issue as being the eighth most-successful table arcade game of the year. [2]

Legacy

Marvel Land reappears as the setting of one of the chapters of the 2015 Nintendo 3DS game, Project X Zone 2 . The game's party ends up visiting the park due to the park's name being confused with Marvel Land from Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu. The game also showed up as an occasional Video Challenge on the early-1990s Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade .

Related Research Articles

<i>Kung-Fu Master</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Kung-Fu Master, known as Spartan X in Japan, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up developed by Irem as an arcade video game in 1984, and distributed by Data East in North America. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the game was based on Hong Kong martial arts films. It is a loose adaptation of the Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao film Wheels on Meals (1984), called Spartan X in Japan, with the protagonist Thomas named after Jackie Chan's character in the film. The game is also heavily inspired by the Bruce Lee film Game of Death (1972), which was the basis for the game's concept. Nishiyama, who had previously designed the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol (1982), combined fighting elements with a shoot 'em up gameplay rhythm. Irem and Data East exported the game to the West without the Spartan X license.

<i>Bravoman</i> 1988 video game

Chōzetsurin Jin Bravoman is a 1988 beat'em up arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Described as a "comical action game", the player controls the titular character, a bionic superhero with telescopic limbs, as he must defeat the villainous Dr. Bomb before he takes over the world. Bravoman can use his arms, legs and head to defeat enemies, and can also crouch and jump over them. The game ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.

<i>The Tower of Druaga</i> 1984 video game

The Tower of Druaga is a 1984 arcade action role-playing maze game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling the golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player is tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the maiden Ki from Druaga, a demon with eight arms and four legs, who plans to use an artifact known as the Blue Crystal Rod to enslave all of mankind. It ran on the Namco Super Pac-Man arcade hardware, modified with a horizontal-scrolling video system used in Mappy.

<i>Galaga 88</i> 1987 video game

Galaga '88 is a 1987 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published in Japan by Namco and in North America and Europe by Atari Games. It is the third sequel to Galaxian. It features significantly improved graphics over the previous games in the series, including detailed backgrounds, larger enemies and greater ship details. The game runs on Namco System 1 hardware.

<i>Gaplus</i> 1984 video game

Gaplus is a 1984 fixed shooter arcade game developed and released by Namco. It is the third game in the Galaxian series, serving as a direct sequel to Galaga (1981). In North America, a modification kit was later released to change the name to Galaga 3, possibly to reflect its position in the series. It was the only game other than Phozon to run on the Namco Phozon hardware. A contemporary home port for the Commodore 64 was released in 1988. A "demastered" version of the game was included in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 as a bonus title.

<i>Pistol Daimyo no Bōken</i> 1990 video game

Pistol Daimyo no Bōken is a 1990 horizontal-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published in Japan by Namco.

<i>Baraduke</i> 1985 video game

Baraduke, renamed Alien Sector in some regions, is a run and gun video game released for arcades by Namco in 1985. A home version was published for the X68000.

<i>Dragon Spirit</i> 1987 video game

Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was distributed by Atari Games. Controlling the dragon Amur, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Alicia from the demon Zawell. Similar to Namco's own Xevious, Amur has a projectile weapon for destroying air-based enemies and a bomb for destroying ground enemies. It ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.

<i>Toy Pop</i> 1986 video game

Toy Pop is a multidirectional shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1986. The game was later rereleased as part of Namco Museum Vol. 1 for the original Sony PlayStation in 1995.

<i>Burning Force</i> 1989 video game

Burning Force is a 1989 third-person shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan. A home conversion for the Sega Genesis was released worldwide a year later. The player assumes control of the woman space cadet Hiromi Tengenji, a pilot training to become a member of the Space Force, who must complete each level by shooting down enemies with her airbike and avoiding projectiles. Gameplay is similar to Space Harrier, featuring a fixed camera position behind the player and having similar mechanics. It runs on the Namco System 2 arcade hardware.

<i>Dragon Buster</i> 1984 video game

Dragon Buster is a platform, action role-playing dungeon crawl game developed by Namco and released in 1984. It runs on Namco Pac-Land hardware, modified to support vertical scrolling. In Japan, the game was ported to the Family Computer (Famicom), MSX, and X68000; the latter version was later released for the Virtual Console in the same region on November 18, 2008. Dragon Buster has been ported for the PSP and is available as part of Namco Museum Battle Collection. It was followed by a Japan-only Famicom sequel, Dragon Buster II: Yami no Fūin, and was later followed by the PlayStation game Dragon Valor, which was both a remake and sequel.

<i>Valkyrie no Densetsu</i> 1989 action-adventure arcade game

Valkyrie no Densetsu is a 1989 action-adventure role-playing arcade game developed and published in Japan by Namco. It is a follow-up to the Family Computer game Valkyrie no Bōken (1986). Players control the warrior maiden Valkyrie and her lizard-like companion Kurino Xandra as they set out to drop a mythical item called the Golden Seed into the Northern Fountain to replenish the dying crop fields of Xandra Land. Gameplay involves defeating enemies and collecting gold to purchase magical spells and weapons in shops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tose (company)</span> Japanese video game developer

Tose Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development company based in Kyoto. It is mostly known for developing Nintendo's Game & Watch Gallery series, various Dragon Ball games, as well as other Nintendo products. Tose has developed or co-developed over 1,000 games since the company's inception in 1979, but is virtually never credited in the games themselves. Tose maintains a policy of having no creative input into the work they do, going so far as to refuse to put their names in the credits for most of the games they work on. As such, Tose has gained a reputation for being a "ghost developer".

<i>Toki</i> (video game) 1989 video game

Toki is a run and gun platform game released in arcades in Japan in 1989 by TAD Corporation. It was published in North America by Fabtek. Designed by Akira Sakuma, the game has tongue-in-cheek humor mixed with the action. The player controls an enchanted ape who must battle hordes of jungle monsters with energy balls from his mouth. The ultimate goal is to destroy the evil wizard who cast a spell on the title protagonist; thereby transforming him from an ape back into a human, and rescuing the kidnapped princess. The game was ported to several video game consoles and home computers.

<i>Valkyrie no Bōken</i> 1986 video game

Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu is a video game developed and published by Namco. It was released in Japan for the Family Computer on August 1, 1986. It was also released for the Virtual Console of multiple Nintendo consoles, for the Wii on March 20, 2007, for the Nintendo 3DS on September 4, 2013 and for the Wii U on February 4, 2015.

<i>Namco Super Wars</i> 2002 video game

Namco Super Wars (ナムコスーパーウォーズ) is a tactical role-playing game developed by Namco and published by Bandai for the Wonderswan Color. It is a crossover game, featuring characters from several classic Namco titles. This game is one of a few games jointly worked on by Bandai and Namco before their merger into Bandai Namco Holdings in 2005.

<i>Whirlo</i> 1992 video game

Whirlo is a side-scrolling action-platform released by Namco on July 23, 1992 in Japan for the Super Famicom video game system, and in Europe and Australia later during the same year. The game was re-released August 1, 1998 in Nintendo Power flash RAM cartridge format.

<i>Rock n Ball</i> 1989 video game

Rock'n' Ball, released in Japan as Family Pinball (ファミリーピンボール), is a Family Computer video game that was originally released in 1989. The video game was released in both Japan and North America. In the North American version, fictional human characters are used instead of the licensed Namco characters, four male characters and two female characters are at the player's disposal.

<i>Layla</i> (video game) 1986 video game

Layla (レイラ) is a side-scrolling action video game produced by dB-SOFT that was released in 1986 exclusively for the Family Computer.

<i>Mach Breakers: Numan Athletics 2</i> 1995 video game

Mach Breakers: Numan Athletics 2 is a sports arcade game that was released by Namco in 1995; it runs on Namco NB-2 hardware and is the sequel to Numan Athletics, which was released in the previous year.

References

  1. マーベルランド, Māberurando
  2. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 376. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 March 1990. p. 25.