Adventures of Lolo

Adventures of Lolo

NES - USA - 1st edition.

Developer HAL Laboratory Publisher HAL Laboratory Published 1989-04-20 Platforms NES Genres Block pusher, Active puzzle, Puzzle Themes Cartoon Series Eggerland Distribution Commercial

Adventures of Lolo is a block pusher developed and published by HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo Entertainment System on 1989-04-20 as the fifth game in the Eggerland series. The game was developed in Japan, but strangely did not see a Japanese release. The game released in Japan as Adventures of Lolo uses the interface of Adventures of Lolo 2, but has a mostly different set of maps.

In the game, you play as Lolo, a fuzzy blue ball, who witnesses Lala, princess of Eden, being kidnapped by the Great Devil and taken to the Haunted Castle. You must guide Lolo through 50 rooms of the castle, each filled with deadly monsters that can only be defeated by a jewel locked in a chest. By collecting all of the heart framers in the room, Lolo can unlock the chest, and move on to the next room. But, reaching each heart framer requires skillful navigation around the hazards and a lot of forethought.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes.
Finished	2022-01-29.

I first learned about the Adventures of Lolo series from a poorly written NES strategy guide from 1990 which covered the second US title. From the screenshots, I could tell it was a puzzle game, and it looked a little interesting, but none of my friends had the game, so I never played it. In the late 1990s, when I learned about NES emulation, I played the first couple levels but was quickly killed and got a game over. Assuming I would only get limited continues, which would mean thousands of play-throughs before I'd be good enough to win with the allotted lives, I gave up. Later, when I got my hands on a Pocket PC that could handle NES emulation, but had awful input controls, I looked for a game that didn't require precision movement, and decided this game would work. I got a few levels in before realizing the game did require precision input after all, and wouldn't work on my Pocket PC, and gave up again. Finally, in 2022, I verified that the game actually has unlimited continues, and I decided to try and beat it and enjoyed almost all of it.

Review

6	4	5	5	6

Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• Several rooms are pretty tricky and had me scratching my head for awhile thinking that it just isn't possible to beat it, before I finally figured out the strategy. This was very fulfilling.
• Through the course of the game, the developers require you to learn new tactics for beating the levels, it's not just about making them longer or requiring more precise movements.
• The pixel art is good and the characters are quite cute.
• The game has only limited music, but, what it has fits the game.
• Though I would have liked some form of boss fight, the ending sequence is likewise limited, but also cute.

Bad

• By the second floor, you've seen almost everything the game has to offer. The later stages, although they keep introducing new puzzle mechanics, don't introduce new monsters, backgrounds, or music. Also, while the graphics are nice, the game subdivides the 50 rooms in to 10 floors, but this is a pointless naming convention. Nothing about the look or feel of the game changes between the floors, not even something minor like a palette swap of the walls. More variation would have been nice.
• Even a single mistaken movement, like pushing and emerald framer a half-square too far, can put the room in an unwinnable state, and this is pretty easy considering how touchy the controls are. This isn't too bad since the small rooms can never become that complicated, but a rewind feature (like the one seen in Baba Is You) would have been really useful.
• The text is hard to read on the yellow brick background, and I would prefer more interesting dialogue between floors.
• The game reveals only one new level each time you complete one. This means, if you ever get stuck, you can't progress any more in the game. A better system would be to open levels in blocks.
• Another damsel in distress. Boring.
• Since you get infinite continues, and you restart on the level you died in, lives are meaningless.
• This is a minor point, but, despite the title, the game is hardly an adventure. The game should have been titled, "Challenge of Lolo," "Labyrinth of Lolo," or something to that effect.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

Both the US and European covers use this same art. It shows Lolo jumping away from the Great Devil with a key in hand.

• 

  US.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - USA.

• 

  Ad - HAL America - 1989.

Maps

• 

  Maps.

Screenshots

• 

  Game over and password screen.

Videos

Review - NES Works.

Longplay.

Play Online

NES (Europe), NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	The only woman is a damsel in distress and reward.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There is only one woman.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no human characters.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Credits

The game doesn't contain credits, and only some of the staff has been determined.

Roles	Staff
Music Composer (uncredited)	Hideki Kanazashi
Music Programmer (uncredited)	Hiroaki Suga

Links