190. Adventures of Lolo (HAL Laboratory, Famicom, 1990)

This one is kind of a technicality: while I've technically played Adventures of Lolo before, I never really gave it a fair shake. I've tried a few times on the Nintendo Switch online to beat the first level of this game, but I could never figure it out. Part of that was a lack of patience on my part, but a big part was also the arcane obliqueness of this game.

Adventures of Lolo is actually the 4th game in the series on the Famicom platform, as the first few titles were released under the series' original Eggerland moniker, before switching to the already-used-outside-Japan Lolo name. Even more confusing, a compilation of levels from the Eggerland games was already released in North America and Europe in 1989 as Adventures of Lolo, so while this new Japanese game uses that same title, it was actually released abroad as Adventures of Lolo 2.

Adventures of Lolo really stands out as a game that does not try to teach the player anything: the first level already requires a deep undertsanding of both block pushing puzzles in general, and a familiarity with all of the game's mechanics, because it just dumps them on you. Adventures of Lolo is a top down puzzle game consisting of 51 single screen rooms to get through. After poking at the first level for a good ten minutes, I looked up a walkthrough, only to find that I had abilities that I was not aware of that made the level trivial.

Adventures of Lolo is a tiny bit merciful in that you have a password system and unlimited continues. You can also push the select button to restart a level, but man I would kill for a button that lets you undo your last move. Because this is predominantly a game about pushing blocks around, you have to be super careful that you won't get stuck in an unwinnable position, which is not super fun. Even when I knew what I had to do, I would often push a block just a little too far, resulting in a forced restart.

After using walkthroughs for the first 2 levels, I decided to go it along on the third level. And eventually I did get through it, but it was a lot of trial an error and not a ton of fun. It's like the most tedious parts of a Zelda game but then you never get the catharsis of wailing on enemies with a sword. To its credit there is a good amount of variety to the levels and enemies, it just doesn't jive with my gameplay sensibilities at all.

2/5, an obtuse punishing puzzle game that is really not up my alley