Originally released for TurboGrafx-16, 1993 (Previously Japan Only)
Wii Points: 600 ($6)
Review it yourself

So far, Wii owners outside of Japan have been given access only to Virtual Console games originally published in their own territories. Hudson is the first publisher to break this trend, with this week's release of Battle Lode Runner. Previously available only in Japan, Hudson's TurboGrafx-16 game adds a multiplayer component to the familiar Lode Runner action puzzle formula.

In addition to its multiplayer options, Battle Lode Runner contains a 100-level single-player campaign typical of the series. As the titular Lode Runner, the player must navigate a vertical maze of blocks, ladders, ropes, and gaps to collect a number of gold bars and escape, all the while evading enemy patrols. The player's sole weapon in achieving these goals is the ability to temporarily destroy brick blocks to the immediate lower right or left, useful both to trap enemies--and, if the block reforms before the enemy escapes, kill the enemy and cause him to respawn elsewhere--and to reach closed areas where gold bars are placed.

Gold bars are frequently placed in devious positions requiring careful consideration of how to best destroy blocks for access. Since only blocks to the left or to the right, but not below, can be destroyed, it is possible to get permanently stuck in a shallow pit of one's own creation, requiring the level to be attempted anew. This puzzle aspect of the game is kept brisk by the constant presence of the game's constantly resurrecting enemies who, in some of the more cleverly designed levels, actually become part of the puzzle's solution in addition to a mere hindrance.

Battle Lode Runner's level design spans the gamut of logic-oriented levels with complex block-destroying solutions to simplistic action-oriented levels largely focused around evading enemies or acquiring all the gold bars with great speed. While the classic Lode Runner formula works as well here as anywhere, the game's more action-oriented levels are not nearly as entertaining or satisfying as the more puzzle-oriented ones. These enemy-infested stages--such as one with few destructible blocks, numerous enemies, and nearly every free space containing a gold bar--grow tiresome and frustrating. Fortunately, they are not unreasonably common.

Though Battle Lode Runner features passwords allowing players to return to previously completed levels, it thankfully includes a more traditional save system as well; It is unclear why the designers felt the need to retain an arcade-style continue system, since continues are unlimited and since players have multiple ways of returning to the last-played level anyway.

Hudson's identity is all over this incarnation of Lode Runner. Those familiar with the well-loved Bomberman games will see shades of that series' colorful sprite and background style being employed here. Approximately every half-dozen tries of a level, enemy sprites are even swapped out to Bomberman-esque figures. Levels are split up into a progression of themed nonsensical visual styles, including one dominated by red brick, one apparently set in ancient China, one serving to pay homage to video games by being filled with brown crates, and one whose unifying theme seems to essentially center around unrelated garish colors and patterns. These visuals are pleasant enough, and the grouped themes provide some nice variety.

Nowhere is this Hudson stamp more evident than in the game's multiplayer modes, which lend the game's title its "Battle" prefix. Three gametypes are available--Survival, Escape, and Tag Match. Survival and Escape are each free for alls supporting up to five players (supporting Wii remotes, Classic Controllers, and GameCube controllers), with any empty spaces being filled in by CPU-controlled bots. Survival sees each player attempting to be the last man standing, by avoiding becoming trapped by any opponent-created holes or being killed by the independent enemies apparently on vacation from single-player mode. Escape contains several hidden gold blocks that must be uncovered by trapping their carriers--non-player enemies--in holes; the first player to obtain the blocks and escape wins the match. Finally, Tag Match is a two-on-two version of Survival mode.

Battle Lode Runner's multiplayer modes feel very much like Bomberman. Its multiplayer presentation is modeled after that franchises' multiplayer games, down to the pickups that spawn, the frantic attempts to outmaneuver opponents in an arena that is fully visible to all, and even the visual design of the scoreboard and victory screen. Bomberman fans will recognize useful items such as the speed increase, as well as frustrating ones such as the contagious poison that inverts directional control. Unfortunately, rather than being an endorsement, the game's similaries to that excellent demolition-happy franchise serve mainly to highlight its own multiplayer deficiencies.

Particularly in Survival mode, Lode Runner's basic design, intended for single-player against mindless AI enemies, simply lacks the necessary depth for playing against human opponents. Even the multiplayer AI is, surely intentionally, more shrewd than its single-player counterpart. While Bomberman is a constant effort to outwit your opponents by creating situations from which they cannot escape, Battle Lode Runner's multiplayer essentially consists of running up to your enemies and hoping you can plant a hole under them before they can do so to you. Since, unlike Bomberman's bombs, holes have no ranged element, they are simply to avoid. This mad dash to lay holes under one another ends up feeling like an instant-kill FPS deathmatch. Of course, since the entire level is always uncovered, there is none of the surprise or thrill of the hunt one would feel in such a game. It's like playing a no-respawn instagib game in a single wide-open room--that is, basically pointless.

Tag Match makes slightly more sense, since the team format allows players to create rudimentary on-the-fly cooperative traps to ensnare enemies, but it still lacks any great sense of variety or depth. Oddly, Escape, which most closely resembles the single-player game with the retention of the gold bar-collecting mechanic, works the best, but the hidden nature of the gold bars makes it annoyingly random.

Despite the game's touted multiplayer component--tellingly situated as the default menu option on the main screen--the main appeal of Battle Lode Runner is its lengthy and generally well designed standard puzzle campaign. Lode Runner fans looking for a new game not previously available in the West will be interested, as will players who have managed to avoid playing a game in the series before, but those hoping for a robust multiplayer action puzzle game will be left wanting. With its Bomberman veneer and lack of Bomberman depth, Battle Lode Runner can be safely passed over by multiplayer fans in favor of Bomberman '93, also available through the Virtual Console.

Turn the page to read David Craddock's review of Konami's Gradius III for the Super Nintendo or go back for Chris Faylor's thoughts on Westone's Wonder Boy in Monster World for the Sega Genesis.