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Felicity in Worcestershire might�ve earned the title �Queen of Hamster Thursday,�
but that�s not all that comes in her care packages to the interstellar underwater oxygen
tent arcade of science. Tucked away in her most recent shipment, obscured by a bag of
Shin Megami Tensei gachapon toys and couple boxes of Hello Panda (which is ridiculous,
as I can get that stuff at Five Below on the cheap AND pick up a couple bags of Haribo
peach gummies as well because HARIBO) was... DEVIL WORLD. And while Mark seemed nonplussed,
I might�ve made a noise reserved for teenage girls at Justin Bieber concerts. A cultural
anomaly, a casualty of Nintendo of America�s crusade against religion (wrap your head around
that one, sports fans), the ONLY Shigeru Miyamoto-designed game never to see a US release. And... well,
it�s a Pac-Man clone. Which is weird when held up to Pac-Man Vs. for the GameCube, which
Shiggy is also responsible for. So what�s the difference? Here�s the difference: A
bubble-bobble-lookin� dinosaur guy, crucifix at the ready, torching demon spawn. If you
listen closely, you can even hear him shouting, THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU! Okay, not
really.
Each round of the game consists of three phases: In the first, you have to grab a cross and
munch all the dots; in the second, you have to grab the bibles at the corners of the screen
and place them into the big seal in the middle there, and in the bonus rounds, you simply
grab boxes that have points or 1-ups inside. Seems simple, right? Well, it would be, if
not for the Devil up there gettin� his groove on and signaling for his minions to move the
frame of the screen around. The playing field is constantly in motion, and should you get
trapped between a wall and the boundaries of the frame... SPLUT. And then you pop back
out on the playing field, so it�s not a game-stopping penalty. Your only defense is
the fireballs you can spew when you�re holding an item. Brimstone not included.
So that�s about it. A simple task, simple execution, with increasing speed being the
primary mode of difficulty. Kinda par for the course for Nintendo back in �84, and
while it might not be the kind of thing that has everyone clamoring for a re-release, it�s
still fun to go back and play. The game�s legacy, though, has long been a stumbling
block for Nintendo, who went from pulling the Tamagon trophy from the US version of
Smash Bros. Melee, to including the Devil himself in Brawl (where he does the same kind
of frame-shifting shenanigans), and even including Devil World stages in Tetris DS and PiCTOBiTS.
Now, if only they could put that kind of reverence (SEE WHAT I DID THERE) toward other games
we didn�t get but really should�ve. Like, say, Mother 1. Or Joy Mech Fight. Or Mario
& Wario. Or...