Rod-Land (Japan)

Rod-Land is a cute and colourful platform game for one or two players in which two fairy sisters - 'Tam' and 'Rit' - must rescue their kidnapped mother from the 'Maboots Tower' fortress.

The fairies are armed with the 'Rods of Sheesanomo' - two magical rods that enable the fairies to catch enemies in a force-field and slam them into the platforms to kill them - and must clear each level of enemies to move onto the next and eventually reach and infiltrate the Tower.

As well as the magical rods used for attacking enemies, the fairies can also create a magical ladder - in a fashion very similar to that used in Taito's "Rainbow islands" - which can be utilised anywhere on a level and allows players to reach other platforms or escape from pursuing enemies. Each player can utilise only one magically-created ladder at any one time and the creation of a new ladder removes the previously-created one.

A level is only completed when all enemies have been killed. Some defeated enemies drop bonus items, such as fruit, missiles and bombs.

Each of the game's levels features brightly coloured flowers. If players manage to collect all of these, the 'Extra Game' mode begins. During this time-limited mode all of the level's enemies turn red and move much faster. If the enemies are killed in time, they drop an alphabetic letter that can be collected to spell the word 'EXTRA' and earn players an extra life.