A Look At Rodland

Rod Land is a platform game originally developed and published in arcades by Jaleco in 1990. Following the success of the arcade, the game was ported to the Amiga and published by Storm in 1991.

The player(s) control one or two fairies, armed with a magic wand (a rod), that has(have) the ability to freeze and subsequently dispose of the enemies. The story begins when the fairies’ mother is kidnapped and trapped in a tower: to rescue her, it will be necessary to traverse a series of screens killing all the monsters until the area is clear.

Each level is composed of only one small screen: different platforms are connected by ladders. The fairies have the ability to use magic in order to cast a spell with a makeshift ladder: only one magic ladder will be present at one time, so summoning a second one will make the first disappear. Such a mechanic can be used to your advantage to injure enemies climbing toward your avatar.

Rodland is a typical Japanese arcade game and it shows: colorful, fast and rewarding, it is a great game to play both with a friend or alone. In his calendars, Martin Grundy quoted a paragraph from the August 1991 issue of CU Amiga (which awarded the game with a score of 87% and a Screen Star): I really do find Rodland hard to fault, both as a conversion and as a stand-alone game. Not only does it ape the coin-op perfectly – but it adds to it as well. It’s almost two games in one, and you can’t fault that value for money. If there’s any justice, this should fly up the software charts. 

So, what are you waiting for? The fairies are out there and they need your help!