Marvel Land
| Marvel Land | |
|---|---|
 Arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Namco Tose |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console |
| Release | 'Sega Genesis/Mega Drive'Virtual Console |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Arcade system | Namco System 2 |
Marvel Land (マーベルランド, Māberurando) is a platform arcade game released by Namco in 1989; it runs on Namco System 2 hardware, was the company's last arcade game of the 1980s, and was later ported to the Sega Genesis in 1991 (the EU version was also released under an alternative name of Talmit's Adventure except in the UK where it retained the name Marvel Land.). It also shares its name with the fictitious kingdom in which the 1986 Japan-only Famicom game Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu took place but has no connections with it otherwise - and it does not have any connections with Marvel Comics and any of the superheroes associated with them, either.
Gameplay
In Marvel Land, the player must take control of Prince Paco (Talmit in English),[1] who's on a quest to save Princess Luxy (Wondra in English) from the evil Mole King (Japanese: 魔王モウル; Maō Mōru); the gameplay is similar to that for Nintendo's Super Mario Bros.. Powerups include dragon wings which allow Prince Paco to jump higher and fly (to a certain extent), shoes that can allow him to walk faster for a while, and a clone powerup which allows him to whip multiple copies of himself at enemies in a line - and collecting these powerups makes it easier for Prince Paco to defeat enemies and collect various items to increase his score. Each of the game's four worlds take place in an amusement park (which is the eponymous "Marvel Land"), and most areas are set outside with various obstacles that must be overcome; other areas include a ride on a roller coaster, and even a walk through a funhouse. At the end of the regular outside levels, Prince Paco must jump through a huge target to earn between 100 and 7650 (Namco's goroawase number) extra points - and his remaining time will also then be added.
The game's enemies are an army of moles known as "Mogles", and a wide range of other creatures; a boss must also be fought at the end of the last area of all four worlds. They are unique in that they are played more like a minigame (rock paper scissors for Worlds 1 and 4, and tug of war for Worlds 2 and 3). After Prince Paco defeats a boss he rescues a fairy (Princess Luxy after he defeats the Mole King), and is treated to a bonus stage where he must catch falling stars for points in a float parade at night - and some rides featured in areas, along with the bonus stage parade floats contain several of Namco's earlier characters, such as: Pac-Man (1980), Pooka from Dig Dug (1982), Solvalou from Xevious (1982), Mappy (1983), Grobda (1984), Paccet off Baraduke (1985), Valkyrie of Valkyrie no Bōken (NES, 1986), Wonder Momo (1987), Amul (in "one-headed" form) off Dragon Spirit (1987) and Beraboh Man (1988). The pink-and-silver female robot who appears at the start of each world, 受付小町 (Uketsuke Komachi) also appears in the Namco System 12-era World Stadium games as the Nikotama Gals' catcher and in the Namco Museum series at the information desk.
After Prince Paco has beaten the Mole King at his minigame, he will state "BLAST! YOUR POINT ARE MORE THAN MINE! THE "POKA-SUKA" SLOT IS YOURS. BUT, I CAN'T RECOGNIZE YOUR WIN BY SUCH A WAY! HERE COMES SEVERE FIGHT!" and the game will take on the normal "final boss" theme; at this time, the chances of Prince Paco's victory are proportional to how many bosses he had defeated earlier. This game features a lot of secret warp areas that allow the player to bypass most of the game (just like with Super Mario Bros.) - but defeating each of the three previous bosses grants the player three powerful "Trident Crystals", which are required to beat the Mole King in the final battle. It is also worth noting that even if Prince Paco manages to defeat the Mole King (and rescue Princess Luxy), he shall also still have to escape with her in tow; however, he only has one chance to do so, because he will have received 1000000 points for all his remaining lives (except his last one) after the Mole King was defeated. As a result, this is probably the hardest Namco game to get to the end of.
Legacy
Marvel Land reappears as the setting of one of the chapters of the 2015 Nintendo 3DS game, Project X Zone 2. The game's party ends up visiting the park due to the park's name being confused with Marvel Land from "Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu". The game also showed up as an occasional Video Challenge on the early-1990's Nickelodeon game show Nick Arcade.