Adventures of Lolo
(c) 1989
HAL Laboratory
Genre: Puzzle

I have had relatively little exposure to the NES, and since it doesn’t hold much nostalgia for me, I tend to avoid exploring the system.  While having a few drinks at a friends house and playing around on his Wii-U, we were downloading the games he had previously purchased.  I spotted Adventures of Lolo, and it’s sequel, and asked him about it – I hadn’t seen them before.  He happily informed me that Adventurers of Lolo was one of the first games he had owned, and asked if I would like to play it.  I made the mistake of saying “Sure, of course!”

Six hours later, the game was defeated, and my tears were dried.

The gameplay is simple: it’s a puzzle.  You pick up enough heart boxes to open up the chest in the room, then grab the key from the chest to go on to the next room.   Some heart boxes give you powers to use to help solve the puzzle, such as crossing a stream or turning an enemy into an egg / knocking that egg off screen.  Enemies are broken into different categories – ones who are active before all of the heart boxes are grabbed, and ones who are perpetually active (the exception being these slugsnakes that you see – they just kind of stand there regardless).

Though it is a simple premise, the puzzles are fiendishly clever.  Sometimes you have to time the movements of one enemy in front of another enemy.  If you misuse an item, one of the games mechanics is to have to end it all and start the level over.  My smile dropped at the novelty of playing the lovable spherical Lolo when my friend kept shouting “KILL YOURSELF!” over and over whenever I would screw up on a level.

The ten stages were broken up into five portions a piece, for a total of fifty puzzles.  They are actually a compilation of different levels from earlier games in the series that were released in Japan.  The biggest difference is that The Adventures of Lolo was only released in North America and Europe.  The game spawned two sequels in America, though Adventurers of Lolo 2 and Adventures of Lolo 3 were unnumbered and titled as the second one, respectively, when ported over to Japan.  The primary game play didn’t change between them, though the third game did feature an overworld map where you could control Lolo’s love interest, Lala.

Though these two direct sequels existed, there are actually other games within the Eggerland franchise.

The games plot is simple enough: there are two kingdoms, Eden and Eggerland.  Eggerland is a nightmarish place, and the king of Eggerland is envious of Eden.  He proceeds to kidnap the princess of that kingdom, Lala, while she is out on a date with the love of her life, Lolo.  As is always the case with kidnapped royalty, Lolo sets out on his quest to go and defeat him.

Music for the game is horrifically repetitive.  It’s an NES game with a small sound loop.  Prepare yourself.

Some of the imagery for the storyline just makes it seem darker, as if Lala has been disturbed by her kidnapping.  The opening sequence has also become an in joke between my friend, wife, 3P and I, as Lolo futilely stretches out his hand to try and grasp her before she is taken off to Eggerland.

Overall, I do think it’s a worthwhile game, and probably the most fun when taking turns with friends.  It’s challenging, it’s enjoyable, and despite having become permanently scarred by my friend laughing while shouting at me to kill myself, I can safely say that its worth a playthrough.  It’s easy to find a copy online, as well as on the Wii store.