PixlBit

I've been watching BaD since it began on 1UP years ago. That said, I've never managed to complete a blog a day, even with it being in February and even with weekends exempted. My blogging has always been sporadic, but nevertheless, due to the increase in new blog it brings, I look forward to BaD and try to contribute at least one thing to it.

My latest gaming video: I play the Mr Do! series by Universal Co, Ltd (no relation to Universal Studios).

Mr. Do! was actually fairly popular in its day. Playing a bit like Dig-Dug, you control Mr Do!, a circus clown (he was originally a snowman, but Universal's American staff convinced the Japanese brass to market him as a clown), digging through a bizarre underground world full of cherries and giant apples. Mr. Do fights with a bouncing energy ball. It was ported to every platform under the sun in the early 1980s, with one glaring omission: the NES. Instead, it got ported to the Game Boy, then the Super NES, 15 years after it came out! Since Universal was and is a slot manufacturer (it's still in business but hasn't made video games in nearly 20 years), there are a lot of slot machine elements like cherries, extra lives, and even a rare diamond which gives you an extra game!

Mr. Do's Castle originally had nothing to do with Mr Do, and was simply called Knight and Unicorns. Again, Universal USA convinced Universal Japan to tie it into Mr Do so as to have a known character to market with. In Japan, it was called Mr Do & Unicorns. You use a hammer to smash blocks and crush the unicorns. I had the Atari 8-bit version of this game at home.

Mr Do's Wild Ride is a platformer where Mr Do is climbing up a rollercoaster and has to avoid the cars. Since he can't jump, he has to do so by climbing ladders. I never really saw this game in the wild back in the 1980s so this was my first time playing it. Definitely the weakest game here.

Do! Run Run was a sort of return to roots for Mr Do, as the last couple of games were platformers instead of the Dig-Dug style game that the original was. You again fight enemies on a board in which you can move in four directions and are armed with a super ball. I actually did see a Do! Run Run machine in the wild at my local Walmart.

There was a fifth game called Neo Mr Do!, which was made for SNK's Neo-Geo hardware, but I never saw that one. After that Universal stopped making video games.

What I've been playing:  Besides the games in my videos, Yakuza 0. Best game in the series yet.

What else? It looks like, after two years in Maryland, I will likely be moving again, this time to Phoenix. I have lots of family in Arizona, and a job offer that pays much better than anything I've found in Maryland.

And that's all for now. Happy BaD, everyone!