Mendel Palace, originally released in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 as , is a 1989

1989 in video gaming

-Notable releases:* October 3, Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation....

 action

Action game

Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...

/puzzle arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 co-developed by Game Freak

Game Freak

is a Japanese video game developer that currently creates games exclusively for Nintendo. It has developed the Pokémon series of role-playing games and several other games.-History:...

 and KID

KID

KID, whose name is an acronym of Kindle Imagine Develop, was a Japan-based company specializing in porting and developing bishōjo games....

. It was published in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 by Namco

Namco

is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

 and in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 by Hudson Soft

Hudson Soft

, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...

. Mendel Palace was Game Freak's debut title, and the first game designed by Satoshi Tajiri

Satoshi Tajiri

is a Japanese video game designer best known as the creator of Pokémon and the founder of development company Game Freak, Inc. An avid fan of arcade games, Tajiri wrote for and edited his own video gaming fanzine Game Freak with Ken Sugimori, before evolving it into a development company of the...

.

Plot

The player's character must save his girlfriend, who was kidnapped by a young girl. The backstory differs slightly between the Japanese and American versions, although the in-game presentation is the same regardless. In the American version, the player's character is named Bon-Bon and the girl he must rescue is a Princess named Candy, who is trapped in her own dream. In the Japanese version, the main character is named Carton and the girl he must rescue is merely his own girlfriend, Jenny, who has been kidnapped by Carton's younger sister Quinty (the titular character in the Japanese version).

Gameplay

The game can be played by a single player, or by two players co-operatively. The players' characters are a blue and a green-colored boys in a vest and cap. Each level consists of a single room composed of a 5 by 7 grid of floor tiles surrounded by a boundary wall. At the beginning of each level a number of enemy dolls appear and start to wander around, attempting to collide with the player. The characters have the ability to "flip" the floor tile they are standing on or adjacent to in order to propel enemy dolls away, as well as revealing new floor tiles underneath. Enemies can be destroyed by flipping them into a wall or impassable block. The player(s) must destroy every doll to complete the level and move to the next one.

Floor tiles

There are a variety of patterns on the floor tiles that can be collected or effect gameplay. Each particular tile can hide many patterns underneath that can be revealed after multiple flippings:

• Normal floor tiles that can be walked over or flipped.
• Star tiles can be collected by stepping over them. Collecting 100 stars earns the player an extra life. Collecting every star tile in a room will grant the player a bonus.
• Bonus roulette tiles.
• Shockwave tiles. This tile depicts a wave in one or more cardinal directions. When this tile is activated by stepping on it, it will flip over all tiles in that direction.
• Sun tiles. Activating this tile by walking over it will cause every other tile in the room to be flipped, usually defeating all enemies and clearing the stage.
• Moon tiles. Touching this tile will start a "bonus stage" where all floor tiles are replaced with collectible stars.
• Spinner tiles. This tile will shoot the player off in a particular direction, breaking blocks and destroying enemies that he touches.
• Impassible block tiles cannot be walked over by the player. These can be flipped to hide them and allow the player to pass.
• Bolted metal tile. Once this tile is revealed, it can no longer be flipped.
• Glowing portal tile. Once revealed, it will spawn a new enemy doll unless it is quickly flipped again.

Dolls

The level select screen shows each palace along with the enemy dolls that occupy it. Enemy dolls can be destroyed by flipping them into a wall or block, or by slamming into them from a Spinner tile.

• Clone dolls will split into two mini-dolls if flipped.
• Hopping dolls jump around crushing any blocks they land on. They can only be flipped in between jumps.
• Sumo dolls are heavy, and can flip tiles by stomping.
• Swimmer dolls begin offscreen and "swim" across, flipping tiles behind them.
• Ballerina dolls glide along diagonally, bouncing off walls and blocks.
• Artist dolls can graffiti a tile, rendering it un-flippable, or creating a doppelgänger enemy.
• Copycat dolls will mimic the player's movements and actions.

At the 10th floor of each palace is a "boss room", where the players must defeat either one unique boss doll, or six fast-moving normal dolls.