The Berlin Wall (Arcade)

We all know that many people "antagonize" German in WW 2 and many games (especially FPS) have that kind of mind. But they seems don't care about what German have to experience bleak moment in few years after WW 2: the separation of German because of Cold War. Okay, not all people like that. For example, Pink Floyd held concert The Wall in Berlin to commemorate the fall of The Berlin Wall. Also Kaneko attempt of charity act via its game: The Berlin Wall (1991).  

Look at those German people look so bright now that there's no wall separating them. The beauty of re-unity. As 1991 there's no drone, i imagine the photographer uses step ladder to take this photoshoot. Or maybe he positions himself in high place and takes the photo by using the famous: Acme Sniper Camera.

 

Here's the in-game claim says that the profit from this game (machine and probably the credits too), will be for charity via Red Cross Society of Japan. I assume it's for victim of Berlin Wall incident. I'm certainly not good person to play this game because: 1) Kaneko is long deceased 2) Berlin Wall tragedy happened dozens year ago 3) I played this with emulator. That's right, i'm lowly evil person. Not fair gentleman that you may think i am.

 

So, what's the game is all about? It doesn't contain any of gruesome violent from Berlin Wall tragedy itself. So you can feel relieved. But it still contain violent action, cute ones. By reading the instruction here, i can describe the game as Lode Runner-clone. Joystick button to move left/right or climb ladder up/down. One button to punch floor in front of the player, to make a hole. While another button to cover the hole with player's feet. So the enemy who got trapped in hole doesn't get buried alive like in Lode Runner. You have to either punch/kick trapped enemy to send it plummet to its death. Or you can do more complicated procedure as instructed here: fall to its head from above hole you dig.

 

There's few power-up item to help player to clear all the monster, such as hammer to upgrade player's dig/cover-hole capability, iron ball to instantly make hole in front of the player and below, and dinosaur power-up so player can forget about makes hole and just straight burn the monster with fireball. The Dinosaur icon doesn't resemble bubble-blowing dinosaurs in Bubble Bobble at all. [Light Sarcasm]   

Before the 1st stage begins, there's this wall falls over. Is the real Berlin Wall has childish drawing/graffiti on it, before brought down? Please, let me know!

 

Here's the 1st stage, there's color-uniformed hedgehogs and walking bomb. They have to go out, because it's written in 101 Gaming codex that every monster is evil, despite its cute looking. As you expected from 1st stage that's simple for warm-up although i die a couple of time because i'm not getting used to the game for long time. The background is quite gorgeous yet surreal. Yes, it's Brandenburg Gate but there's earth behinds it, implying that we're in Planet German-01 which has air, cute monsters and nearer to Earth than Mars.

 

There's another instruction. This time explain how to defeat the Boss Monster, which is by digging 2 holes side by side to trap it. Then stomp/punch it to defeat it like how to deal with lesser monsters.

 

Of course, the boss won't be dealt that easily. It's accompanied by smaller hedgehogs  Also it can roll away and can extends its spikes like what happens in screenshot. Still it's not too hard to deal with.

 

Shh. No more tears. Only dreams now.

 

After every 5 stages, the game shifts into new world and there's this intermission. Let's call him "Herr Schutzhelm". His mission is to break the wall and gain freedom. To accomplish that he simply punches the wall and then he breaks apart. Not good starter, there. By the way, this is first GIF in this Blog. Hooray!

 

There's another instruction on how to defeat with this green baldy monster. You have to kill it with 2-level hole. Doing standard procedure with 1 hole, won't kill it and to further humiliate you, it laugh arrogantly. The annoying git.

 

On previous screenshot, there's walking bomb. Here's the explosive *hah!* effect if you kill it. The big explosion will kill any enemy including that baldy bastard and leave the player unharmed. Use this knowledge well!

Here i become the dinosaur and burn a monster in point-blank range. The charred monster will yield higher score-up item.    

 

There's also flood icon which can make flood that sweep and kill any enemy that pass through it. Unfortunately, its move in random way from top to bottom depends on hole you make and ladders. So, it's quite unreliable.

On this stage, there a big fan that does nothing but sits there and blows me should i'm in front of it. You don't have to get rid of it to clear the stage just kill the monsters. On the other hand, the black devil there appear suddenly from a corner and then close any hole that you dig. Basically, he can't be defeated.

 

The boss monster: Cyclops pumpkin that adept at side jaywalking and occasionally stomp to make quake that immobilize everyone except itself. Not so threatening. It's right time to explain further about the monsters. They are lethal to touch as written in 101 Gaming codex. So don't try to run through them! But you can run safely over their head while trapped in hole. Their move speed is slower than player. But the monster can around as fast as the player if it's the only surviving ones. The standard monsters are in green, red, or yellow color. Green monsters move fluidly and normally. Red ones will chases you if it see you. And yellow ones sometime pause in confusion then most likely to change direction of its move.

 

Here's another power-up you can obtain which can makes all monsters fell asleep, giving you breathing/planning moment for quite a time. By the way, sleeping on ladder seems uncomfortable idea but those monster can sleep soundly there. Strange.

 

Herr Schutzhelm becomes hammer-copter! Leonardo Da Vinci should proud of him. 

 

Here come the most atrocious monsters: The hopping pinkies. As the name suggests. They fond on hopping which makes them un-trap-able. Not only they can jump over the hole, but also hop pass it! Absolute madness!  3:

 

The only time when they can be trapped is when they walk casually in short moment. In this stage, you'll be introduced with elevator ladder in the middle. You can use it for bit faster transport between floor or you feel you don't want to press up or down. But you can get stuck in the middle of it, leaving you vulnerable to enemy's touch.

On this stage i manage to capture moment where i can do short kill-chain with other than walking-bomb monster. Yes, the explosion is quite small but helpful especially to deal with the baldy gits. There's also snail monster which walk normally and suddenly it rolls really fast, catching you off-guard.

The boss monster is bigger robot that can launches gloved spring in front of it. You can deal with boss monster with kill-chain trick. It's way easier. I notice that bloke who's second in front row on photo, seems has Acrophobia.   

 

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There's another new enemy type. That robot who is about to plummet to its death, can throw its mohawk like boomerang for limited range. Not's so difficult to deal with.

 

Actually there's new type enemy on earlier stage: the pink vampire. I try to put less screenshot as i can. The vampire can fly anywhere slowly before it's back on its feet and can't use ladder. It's much fairer than the hoping blob. The walrus over there -you can guess- is the boss monster. Who else befit to be the boss of the penguins? The emperor penguins? Forget it! They're all eaten by the Walrus because they don't recognize the walrus as the boss of this Berlin Wall's pole.

Jackhammer is for ground work, not wall breaking, dummy. -_- 

 

If you think the green baldy is aggravating to deal. Here comes new enemy that can be killed by 3-level hole. You really know how to make someone's gaming miserable, Kaneko.

 

Luckily i have picked the iron ball item to make things bit easier. Still it's up to enemy's random-y A.I to fall into the right hole and that's really awful. Your gallant crown won't save you now, bastard.

I happen to obtain the Dinosaurs power-up. But, alas. Its skin is fireproof. Well, i have to go back to tedious dig work, then. On next stage there's Octopus boss who can spray ink up close range, but is still not (unfairly) tough as this crowny bastard.  

Herr Schutzhelm: Medic_cheers05.wav

Wall: Engineer_no01.wav

 

There's another new enemy type: the horned version of baldy bastard! But it only split into smaller monsters if you just 1 level hole, not completely immune to basic trick. Luckily.

 

Or it dies normally through explosion of other deceased monster. It drops larger score-up item than its younglings if you can kill it without being split into them. Another way to accomplish that is to use 2-level hole method but -you know- tedious. Worth to mention: the carrot monsters sometime drill some floor for no reason. That's quite helpful to me.

 

Here comes another new enemy type: the living flame. It got eyes and mouth, you see. If you kill it, it will burst into a flame stream which could be helpful to deal with other enemy. I got to admit about the creativity of Kaneko's in enemy design. As they're quite plenty and have interesting feature except for those bastards who need more than 1 level hole to kill and the hopping gits.

 

When i first playing this game which is several years ago, i'm bolted with the instruction that to deal with the crowny git, i have to make 3-level hole. But now i have this divine inspiration! [mid-high exaggeration]. You can kill them with well-falling other monster as i was about to do here or you can drop them exactly into other enemy. Brilliant!

Up he goes....not for long time. He probably bumped into passing plane or sort like that. But you don't bolted into breaking the wall to gain freedom, wise thinking.

 

Next level is.....AAAAAAH! So many hopping blobs!

 

Sometime if you take too much time on a stage, boss monsters join the fray. But you only need to kill the initially existing monsters to clear the stage. The extra will die once you do that and they will drop large score-up item. I take it as "more score accumulating" trick of this game. Also i have no idea with the game says "Copy Board!".

 

I managed to trap one of the blob but suddenly another one jump from middle place to my face. I really hate them. And shut up about "Copy Board!" rubbish, game!

 

Herr Schutzhelm seems out of idea but then the wall has secret hole. Somehow i can relate this with finding secret doors in classic Doom.

 

I have two holes here. The left ones is three-staged with shallower falling depth the right one which only one-staged hole. Guess which the only one that can kill the crowny monster! Freak you, game!

 

You may think Herr Schutzhelm can taste true freedom but no. There's another wall.

Okay, you really bite me badly here, game. The only dig-able floors in this stage that appropriate to kill these bastards are on most left and most right column. I only manage to kill 2 of them by directly drop one of them into another. While the rest is by using the instructed method. Needless to say this takes so many time. And if the time's up the dig-able become un-dig-able ones slowly. Might as well as kill me instantly, game.      

 

I believe that stone wasn't there before. The game blatantly show itself to be unfair as the game goes on, huh?     

 

At the last world, the game won't accept credit-feeding to progress. If you die here, you have to start from the beginning condition instead from the point when you die. This may seem like legit promotion toward skilful play if not for (again) unpredictable monster's A.I. Also there's no dinosaurs or flood power-up here and beyond.

I have quite little problem with 3 top monsters. The real problem comes in 2 way: the crowny monster that i have to drop first then make it goes to top around where i have set 3-stages hole and that yellow robot that "patrolling" on left side. When i approach it movement change slightly that could help me. Eventually, i clear this final stage in time.

 

You could do that earlier, creator/animator. That's the end of Herr Schutzhelm's grueling story and he can gain freedom like what he really want.  

 

After the white-haired man (that presumably the Kaneko's CEO) bows to me, thanking for playing this game. Then the credit rolls with this caricature picture of him along with his crews. The one on top-right is idiotic and tacky as he really desperate to get clear picture of him alone to the point he seems about to fall himself. The cat on bottom-left corner looks bad. I have no idea with that sneaky bloke on left wall. Maybe he get his eyes on that green car. Once the photography session over, he will hi-jacks it immediately.

 

That's The Berlin Wall (1991) a game about one or two hard-hat guy which adapt Mickey Mouse's fashion a bit, battling colorful monster horde with comical intermission. If i take account of the presence of kill-chain mechanism, it could be regarded as arcade puzzle platform like Bubble Bobble, Tumblepop, or Snow Bros. Sadly unlike its brethren, The Berlin Wall has grim flaw that makes the game really tedious, especially the basic mechanism that's altered version of Lode Runner's. For instance, if you're in the most bottom level you simply can't do anything but run. And those "hardened" monsters and hopping blobs are really troublesome to deal. If the game makes you can kill the monster at the bottom level and the tough monster has "health" more than 1 "point" instead solely need "2/3-level hole method", the game become more playable and fun. The art style is retro-arcade comic that's quite fine. The characters design is neat. The game consist 10 world with 5 stages each which mean there's total 50 stages. Because of the number of stage and the obnoxiousness of A.I, the game can be finished in 2 hours or even more. The musics are quite rough/gritty but quite good. The photo backgrounds are quite nice. The power-up are quite helpful but the game quite stingy about it. Even though, you can get free hammer power-up everytime you use credit. But that's only enhance your digging/filling power. From 3 execution to 1. Maybe the charity motive is sole justification of why the game is tedious. If someone can finish the game via normal mean, his/her credits is enough for daily needs of 3-4 Berlin Wall's victim. Kaneko isn't 100% Saint, huh? The only thing that keep me from continue the game: the intermission story. Not the charity reason, obviously.

To sums things up, i can recommend The Berlin Wall (1991), only for 20 stages or so. Beyond that's really inadvisable. If you want to play the game for the intermissions, you can just see them here (although in GIF format). I'm generous, afterall.