Mendel Palace
System: NES
Release Date: October 1990
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Genre: Puzzle
Head into the dreams of your friend to liberate her in Mendel Palace! Candy’s dolls have all come to life and have trapped her in her dreams. She’s been carried off to Mendel Palace and it’s up to you, her best friend Bon-Bon, to defeat eight dolls on their turf in order to save her. Before all is said and done, you’ll have 100 levels to get past before you can claim victory.
To begin, you choose one of 8 areas to attack. These are all controlled by a specific type of doll that is your enemy for ten rounds. Each level has a field of play that is seven squares by five squares. Each square is invisibly split into nine smaller zones that you can walk on. Pressing the A or B Button shuffles the square. Shuffling the square is your main way of attacking enemies and may unveil a special item panel. These item panels have several different things it can do, but will only activate if you walk over the center zone.
Most prevalent are star panels. If you collect 100 of these, you earn an extra life and a speed increase. The last star panel on each stage begins to blink and is worth 10 stars, making them very attractive to collect. Moon panels turn every open square into stars. The roulette panel gives you points or an elusive 1up. The Cross panels shuffle all squares vertically and horizontally from them. The Sun Panel shuffles every square on the board, which is super useful in wiping the board… most of the time. The glowing panels are enemy panels, which spawns more dolls. If you complete a level and keep shuffling panels, you may accidentally unearth one of these and elongate the amount of time you have to spend. The clock and time panel attacks the direction that is colored in. There are panels that bounce you and allow you to slide tackle enemies into oblivion. Metal block panels block you from moving forward, but can be destroyed by some enemies. And the lock panels stop you from shuffling them any more. Some stages are built around the gimmick of one or more of these panels together.
In order to pass a level, you need to destroy all of the dolls present. This is done by shuffling them back into a wall or metal block, or bouncing through them. You can also pass a level by finding a special bonus panel that takes you to a bunch of stars. Each doll has a different ability to make your job more difficult. This ranges from spinning around like a top. Jumping to avoid being shuffled. Drawing on the ground, effectively locking the panel. Swimming through all open panels. Imitating your movements and floor shuffling. And sumo stomping the ground, causing a row to shuffle. Some of these enemies become very difficult to handle because turning direction when you walk doesn’t happen immediately. This causes many, many deaths. Luckily, continues are unlimited, so you can power your way through any level that you find too difficult.
The end of each area has you face off against a boss. This is either a fight against six stronger versions of the level doll, or against the main kidnapper, who can turn you into the doll of the level. I found the latter to be much more interesting. Once you beat all eight areas, you have access to Mendel Palace and 20 final levels of mind bending action. But if you’ve made it this far, you can totally finish things off.
Graphics: 1.5
It’s more colorful than I would have expected, but the flickering of enemies is really obnoxious.
Sound: 1.5
The music is passable, but nothing more than simple compositions. Sound effects aren’t overpoweringly annoying.
Gameplay: 3.0
The slight delay in turning is incredibly frustrating, but the general gameplay idea is pretty solid and complex.
Difficulty: 3.0
You have unlimited continues and most levels are fair, but others had me scratching my head and testing my patience.
Fun Factor: 3.0
This is a relatively enjoyable game that I sat down and played through to completion because I wasn’t having a bad time.
Overall Rating: 2.4
Mendel Palace earns a C+. Satoshi Tajiri has stolen countless hours from me thanks to Pokemon and two more on top of that because of Mendel Palace. Give it a shot, it’s pretty good.