37. Mr. Do's Castle
Time flies, the world keeps turning, and sometimes it's tough to slip some good old-fashioned gaming into a man's busy schedule. It's been a while since old Hank picked up the joystick, and what better way to get back to basics (or maybe 6502 assembly-s - get it?) than one of the many coin-up arcade conversions of the early 1980s.
Mr. Do!'s Castle by Parker Brothers is a 1984 port of the second game in the Mr. Do! arcade series. The game is a single-screen platformer in which you.. murder unicorns? The sprites are a little indistinct, but I believe that's what's going on. Your goal is to whack the unicorns with a hammer, I think, or also to drop bricks on their heads, and you also get to climb (and position) some ladders, activate some trapdoors, that kind of thing. Over time, the baddies become quicker and less immediately whackable, and you'll need to figure out how to deal with this whole issue.
Though I mentioned that Mr. Do's Castle is the second in a series, it doesn't bear much resemblance to the original Mr. Do, which is a top-down maze game somewhat similar to Dig Dug. Instead, the use of the hammer and vertical-ascent platforming recall Nintendo's Donkey Kong coin-op, yet this game actually controls far more smoothly and avoids the frustration inherent in its barrel-dodging contemporary. The game also bears a little resemblance to the original Mario Bros. arcade game in that monsters are put into a stunned state before being totally defeated.
The graphics get their point across with simple sprites and background elements, though the screen does have a slight horizontal stretch to it vs. the arcade version, and the color palette is a little more weak. Levels also look a little same-y, with only the layout and color of brick at the bottom of the screen changing.
I'd consider the music and sound design simple, but still above average for C64 efforts of the era. There isn't a ton of variation, though this is to be expected. There's really not a lot to say about it, but I didn't want to leave you wondering.
While the gameplay is largely straightforward and easy to learn, there are a few nuances thrown in to spice things up: collecting the letters "E-X-T-R-A" will earn you an extra life, and there's an invincibility power-up at the top of the screen akin to Pac Man's power pellets. There are also a few other niceties attached in the form of a 2-player mode and an option to start with slightly more lives.
I can unfortunately see a few flaws in this game that could have easily been corrected. I can understand that my high scores might not necessarily be saved to disk, but the game doesn't seem to keep track of high scores at all once you lose your lives, which is quite annoying. I'm just punted back to the title screen with nary an idea of how well I did only 10 seconds ago. This was a glaring omission of a feature that could've been implemented in a few minutes by an experienced developer, and it really makes me question how rushed the game's development process may have been if so little consideration was given to such a core element of arcade game mechanics and addictiveness.
Everything I've written above screams "OK game", and I assure you my experience reflected that. Your appreciation for show-stoppingly addictive and masterfully-crafted arcade classics like the aforementioned Pac-Man and Galaga grows even more as you play through the less well-known games of that era and realize that most are merely adequate, often mediocre. Mr. Do's Castle falls into the "lukewarm" segment of the genre, sadly, and I wouldn't consider it an essential play by any stretch. However, it can still be appreciated as a simple, fun arcade port that'll encourage more than a few swings of the hammer by the time all is said and done.
Think you can hammer Hank's high score at Mr. Do's Castle? (I bet you could, he's not very good at it). Check out our High Scores page and submit a screenshot to earn your spot in our Hall of Fame!
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