Mr. Do! was released in the arcades by Universal, not the film company, in 1982. It was a conversion kit, which was a cheaper way for companies to sell arcade games, and let arcade owners repurpose an older and less profitable game. It ended up selling over 30,000 units, which is very good for an arcade game.
The game plays like Dig Dug, with a few exceptions. Instead of an air pump, you have a magic ball. This leads to one of the creepier descriptions of a video game that I’ve had to write. In the North American version of the game, you play as a clown who has to dig for cherries and fight off a dragon by throwing your magic balls at him. In the Japanese version of the game, you play as a snowman.
I’ve played two versions of this game. The one I’m going to go over here is the SNES version. It was an odd choice to port this game to the SNES, mostly because it left out all the sequels. Seriously, this is just the arcade port of the 1982 arcade game.
TLDR: A good but disappointing game because of how little there is.
Narrative
If you were hoping for an explanation for all this inexplicable stuff, then you’ll be disappointed. I looked in the manual, and I was more annoyed than anything else. Instead of a story, the person who wrote it just added in a bunch of jokes about the main character’s name (Link).
Gameplay
The gameplay is fine, but there isn’t enough of it. While they tried to do something to make this worthwhile, I don’t think they went far enough. There are only two game modes, which would be fine if this were an NES game, but I expected more from an SNES port.
There are two game modes. The original can be played with one or two players, and there is a battle mode. What is here is fine, but I really want more than this for an SNES port. If this were a compilation of all the Mr. Do games, it would be great.
This is a single button arcade game. You’re playing for a high score, so points are the only thing that matters in the main game. There is a set number of lives, and you can get more as you get more points. It is exactly what you should expect from an arcade game.
There simply isn’t enough. The gameplay is great, and it does a good job of replicating the arcade game. It is disappointing that this is just the first game and not the sequels. I find it hard to believe that the developers couldn’t fit several 1980s arcade games on one SNES cartridge.
Visuals
The graphics are great! It looks like the arcade game, which is nice. They were released about a decade apart from each other, so I would expect this to be a near arcade perfect port. The stages and sprites look good.
This is a single screen arcade game. Each stage looks pretty good, the monsters look okay, and the clown you control looks creepier than intended. The enemies look good, I like how the player’s character looks, and everything is solid from a graphics standpoint.
This is the part of the game that I don’t have anything to really complain about. It is a port of an early 1980s arcade game, and it looks quite good. It is a great looking game.
6/10. I was expecting more from a game released in 1995. It looks great, and the gameplay is solid. There simply isn’t much of it. The SNES port was released thirteen years after the arcade game, so this is just an odd port. It really should’ve been a compilation of all the Mr. Do games.
Pros
- Great Graphics
- Good Gameplay
Cons
- Only two game modes
- Only one of the games is on this cartridge.
Conclusion
This is what I expect from an NES cartridge. It is a port of the first arcade game that adds multiplayer and a battle mode. For an SNES game, there should’ve been more than what is here.
This wasn’t a 1991 release where I could see something like this being pushed out. In 1995, the SNES cartridges were larger, and they could’ve had more on them. There were a handful of Mr. Do games, and they could’ve fit on one cartridge. The game looks great, but there aren’t enough game modes.
Around this time, there were several classic arcade games being reimagined for the SNES, Genesis, and PS1. This series had been dormant for a while, and a reimagining might’ve been pretty cool. I don’t think the parent company was still around at this point, so maybe they didn’t have the rights to all the Mr. Do games.
If this series does come back, I hope it is a horror game. You already have a creepy clown, so maybe have a maze chase game where Mr. Do is trying to kill you. Heck, they could bring in the Japanese version as another enemy since that game changed the clown into a snowman.
If you liked this post, check out some of my other posts about arcade games. Such as Gauntlet or PaperBoy.
That manual 😂😂😂 As bad as it was, this is a media that desperately needs to make a comeback. What am I supposed to read on the ride home from the store???
Yeah! They made a choice, not too sure it was a good one, though. I do wish they would come back. I can’t imagine it costs that much to make them.