It is a common thread in the vast tapestry known as the Famicom library to have two penguins in love. Their love is of the purest distillation, a hallowed ambrosia glowing like the smile of Aphrodite. It’s not the pebble, it’s the penguins. And their love makes the entire library fluoresce in the soft effervescence of true destiny. Well, for a handful of games, at any rate.
There is a nice variety of penguin related games available for the Famicom, however and yes – some of these feature the love of two penguin protagonists. Perhaps the most poignant is Binary Land. Gurin and Malon must reach the goal at precisely the same time. No one penguin is more important than the other. Only through togetherness can they arrive a their destination and – indeed their destination is each other. They do not need to find anything else, for they have already found the greatest treasure.
So hyperbole aside Binary Land is a pretty decent title. A lot of early NES and Famicom games featured maze style gameplay with an interesting gimmick. When a game is so close to the pure concept, one extra layer can make a world of difference and craft a unique breed indeed.
Essentially, the goal of Binary Land is to have both Malon and Gurin reach the goal at precisely the same time. The trick is that one penguin will control normally, and the other will have his or her left/right input reversed. At the title screen, you may select which penguin controls normally.
The penguins are otherwise identical. Assigning a penguin this control scheme does not make him or her more important than the other. Can be a level playing field or they could be geared more towards tormenting the left side or right side. In the long run, you should simply decide which penguin comes to you in your scrying pool.
So, you direct your penguin through the maze, avoiding birds, destroying spiders and webs, collecting items. This will soon become tricky as you have to consider the actions of both penguins. The game starts very simply, but can pull some mean tricks on you as you progress.
For instance, when the bird touches a penguin he switches their place. If a spider was on your tail, you could find yourself walking square into his chops! Cripes!
Levels also start putting walls near to the caged heart goal. Meaning you will have to think on your toes to rationalize a path for both penguins to the goal before the time runs out.
So what you have is a simple game, but a great one. It’s the kind of game that demands to be played. Because, yes, its cute. And because, yes, it’s one of those games you will push for a great score – the mind worm that kept us playing and trying to improve our performance back when these games were new out.
I would have touched upon Binary Land eventually, but I wanted it to be the first Famicom article on the site because it just feels natural. This game is an ideal entry point into the console. When I started collecting Famicom games, I was using converters to play the games on my NES. I built a library of what I had known and loved because I had a method of playing them and testing them.
I picked up a dedicated machine because I planned to continue collecting. But if you simply want to enter that scope of collecting with a Famicom from the get-go, then Binary Land is a great choice to start with. It’s common, it’s cheap, and it’s fun. No, it’s not a robust RPG that will demand hours. But it is a terrific game that is so affordable and accessible you really owe it to yourself to pick it up if you like these maze navigation style games.
It’s the perfect tool to test a machine or a converter and it’ll hold up as a great title for your collection. And besides, come on – these are penguins. In love. Are you really going to stand between Malon and Gurin and the euphoria of each other’s embrace. I didn’t know you could be so cruel!
Not to mention, the cartridge is pink.
Nice post man, heartfelt and surprisingly earnest. Put a real Gurin on my face 🙂 Too bad this game is a ripoff of the Double Doshin jumpin’ giants puzzle from teh Twilight Princess. Joke 😉 Funny I never encountered this on multicart. Now when I play Antarctic Adventure I’ll know that Penta must be on a mission for romance. If you win you get to tap flippers with some fly penguin honey and make Pentarou – I’m guessing! Maybe the sea lions that pop up are trying to, erm, capitalize on his excitement 😛
Yeah I now someone who says to seals are popping up to service Pentarou :X. His premiere game in this vein is Yume Penguin Monogatari however. I’ll get that one eventually.
Looking around there’s actually an MSX version of Binary Land but it stars two kids. The fami title seems overall smoother, but this explains the spiders and webs which I thought were an odd choice for penguin enemies.
Worth it for the pink cartridge. Their love in that picture reminds me of Pac and Ms. Pac-Man’s.
So, this is one of those games that goes on forever, or until level/stage 99? Like Ice Climber or Wrecking Crew, though this is a Hudson game. I’ll have to try this one out, but I do prefer games where they can be beaten instead of seemingly going on endlessly.
I don’t know, inverted controls are not my cup of tea. I’ll take normal.
I’ve known about Yume Penguin for some years but still haven’t really tried it.
It was between Binary Land and Devil World honestly, and the pink cart won out ha ha. Devil World is in the same category though – cheap, non-NES, readily available, but it also has the distinction of being iconic through the reasons it was held back. I get the feeling for games with ‘mazes’ you would like Devil World more.
If inverted penguins are not your thing, well Binary Land simply won’t be your thing. It’s an absolutely core function of the gameplay in trying to rationalize the movements of _both_ penguins at the same time. So one’s gotta be inverted or they would never reach the goal at exactly the same time.
I’d have to take a look at the great adaml’s NES Endings Guide to figure out if it has an end. I’m thinking there are either 99 discrete levels or 99 levels consisting of a repeating set with variations. That’s typically how these things go.
I see… will you get Devil World eventually? dnaL yraniB is in reference to the inverted controls? Just wondering.
Oh, I was thinking this was 2P. So, you control both at the same time? Well, I don’t care for inverted but that doesn’t necessarily mean I wouldn’t like the game. I can get used to it.
Yeah, me too. A lot of early Famicom/FDS games were made like that. I still wish they could be beaten, though. Port those suckers with endings.
Yeah, the title is of the article is in reference to the movements of the pengies. I’m going to get Devil World eventually. I think there are some label differences so I want to step lightly as not to get a pirate.
Alright.
Good stuff. Yeah, that’s the thing with cartridges, man. There’s a good chance it could be a pirate, unless you know how to tell the difference between real and fake, probably best to stay away from buying. Fortunately discs don’t have that problem, or at least I think not.
No the disks have a much worse problem.
They were writable so they can be blank or a completely different game. Go figure.
Oh, floppies. I was talking about compact.
So, I just tried this sucker. Got to Round 5 before Game Over. Round 4 is the first round where you could have problems getting to the goal at the same time. I could see if I played further I would be saying “fuuuuck” a lot, lol. Not bad, though like a lot of NES games, they could use infinite continues.
How about this? Infinite continues with an Easy, Normal, Hard mode. Easy: first 33, Normal: second 33, Hard: last 33. Port on 3DS with MIND BLOWING stereoscopic graphics. I would probably get, then.