Meikyuu Jiin Dababa

Overview

Meikyuu Jiin Dababa (lit: "Labyrinth/Maze Temple Dababa") is a top-down action-adventure game from Konami that is unusual in a few respects: The first is that the entire game takes place on a grid-like structure and the main character can only hop to and from each square on the grid. The second is the theme; a sort of Indian Buddhist aesthetic with plenty of iconography and odd enemies.

The goal of each stage is to find certain tiles that break once the player steps on them. Uncovering every tile will reveal a book which in turn reveals the exit to the next stage. The hero can take out enemies by lining up with them and shooting them with his projectiles - though it's worth noting that the enemies are constantly moving from tile to tile as well. Occasionally there are stages with more of a puzzle theme, such as one stage that doesn't contain enemies but rather creates a ticking clock by having the walls slowly come in.

Bosses are fought in a more traditional side-view setting, such as those in Konami's earlier hit Castlevania, but the player character is still limited to jumping left and right.

Items

• The trident: The starting weapon. Flies in a direction until it hits something. Relatively weak, but easy to use.
• Lotus leaves: Allows the hero to breathe flames. Slower than the trident, but hits harder.
• Prayer beads: Allows the hero to throw boulders. Is slow and will vanish after a short distance, but does the most damage of all the weapons.
• Cards: Creates three projectiles at once, but takes a while to launch.
• Question mark: Grants the player a random number of points.
• Heart: Recovers one unit of health.
• Potion: A more powerful version of the Heart. Recovers all health and adds an extra unit to the maximum.
• Character: A Japanese character, rarely seen. Adds an extra life.
• Cloth: Halves damage taken.
• Blue orb: Freezes time temporarily.
• Red orb: Eliminates all enemies on screen briefly. They will respawn.
• Book: Opens the door to the next level and will also eliminate enemies in the same way as the red orb.
• Key: Necessary for reaching the boss of the third area.
• Mirror: Necessary for reaching the boss of the third area.