No One Can Stop Mr. Domino

Overview

No One Can Stop Mr. Domino is an unorthodox puzzle game for the Sony Playstation. The game was released in 1998 to mixed reviews. The aim of the game is to guide one of five personified dominoes across six different stages. The two characters selectable from the beginning of the game are Mr. and Miss Domino, both characters move at regular speed except that Miss Domino skips instead of running. Additional characters can be unlocked by completing tasks and stages. The way that Mr. Domino must advance through stages is by clearing all obstacles and tiles on a given stage. The stages are set up like board games, the player can go around the board as many times as needed until all of the obstacles are cleared. Moving around the board however presents a challenge by itself because once Mr. Domino starts running he stops for no one, the only way to control his direction is by aiming his body in the right way by tapping the directional pad. On top of trying to navigate the course enemy dominoes will try and hinder the player’s progress by throwing fruit and dice on the track and triggering electrical wires.

The player only has a small amount of time to complete the game because as the game progresses Mr. Domino slowly turns from white to black and if the player has not completed the stages by the time that the domino has turned fully black, it’s game over. The only way to prevent Mr. Domino from turning black before time runs up is by properly managing the scarce supply of heal blocks scattered across the courses.

Reception

The game received mostly mediocre to positive reviews, being praised for its interesting and unique style while also being criticized for the very short game length. Game Revolution named it the number 11 all time “worst name for a video game” and Game Informer listed it as one of the top 10 “weirdest games” ever.

The Nintendo Wii game Domino Rally was initially rumoured to be a spiritual successor to No One Can Stop Mr. Domino, but this is not the case; the gameplay of Domino Rally is nothing like that of No One Can Stop Mr. Domino.

Giant Bomb's own Ryan Davis was a gigantic fan of No One Can Stop Mr. Domino.

Unlockable Dominoes

The player can unlock more playable dominoes by doing well on the stages. These dominoes have different abilities than then the starting dominoes, the following is a list of all playable dominoes:

• Mr. Domino- A well balanced character and speedy runner, he moves at a constant pace and is relatively easy to handle. Unstoppable!
• Miss Domino- Exactly the same as Mr. Domino, she skips instead of running, Relatively stoppable.
• Bruce- This character must be unlocked, he is a speed demon and very difficult to control. Hard, but not impossible to stop.
• Pierre- Pierre is an easy to control character but the trade off his he is very slow and becomes fatigued easily. Easily stoppable.
• Alien Domino- The Alien domino is the most difficult to unlock, he looks and moves very unusually. Stoppability unknown.

Other Facts

Ryan Davis has a stack of sealed copies of No One Can Stop Mr. Domino. At last count, he had seven left. He came across them at a Best Buy towards the end of the Playstation's life, each priced at three dollars. He claims it was a good deal at the time, and he admits that he is the only person who cares about No One Can Stop Mr. Domino.