Yo! Noid (Game)

Yo! Noid

GAME » on March 16, 1990

Nintendo Entertainment System (Platform)

A side-scrolling plaformer featuring either a masked ninja-in-training (Japanese version) or the 1980's Domino's Pizza mascot (NA version).

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Overview

Go, Noid!

Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru, loosely translated to "Masked Ninja Hanamaru", is a side-scrolling platformer developed by Now Production and published by Capcom (Company) for the Family Computer in Japan on March 16, 1990. It later received a heavily-localized advergame release for the NIntendo Entertainment System in North America on November 1990 as Yo! Noid.

While nearly identical in terms of gameplay, both versions of the game have heavily altered story and graphics:

In the original Japanese release, players control the eponymous masked ninja-in-training Hanamaru as he sets out to rescue missing children throughout Asobi no Shima ("Play Island"). He attacks with his robotic hawk companion Takamaru.
In the localized North American release, players control the normally-antagonistic Domino's Pizza mascot known as "The Noid" as he sets out to stop his doppelgangers from causing chaos in New York City (Location). He attacks with his yo-yo.

Along with the game's high difficulty, the game is known for its card-based boss battles, where both the player and their opponent are given a selection of numbered cards and must determine which ones to "attack" with (with the JP version having ninja combat and the NA version having a "pizza eating contest"). The main game's engine is a successor to the one used in the studio's earlier Wagyan Land (Game).

It is the second and final game that The Noid officially appears in, as he previously appeared in the computer game Avoid the Noid (Game) as an antagonist. The game later received an unofficial surreal 3D spiritual successor in 2017 with Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void.

Gameplay

Standard Levels

The majority of the game can be classified as standard 2D platforming, requiring the player to guide the character to the end of the level without being hit or falling off the bottom of the screen. A few levels have variations, such as one in which the Noid rides a skateboard, another auto-scroll level, and two levels where the player is required to control a gyrocopter. In all levels, being hit once will cause the player to lose a life. The difficulty is harsh, mainly due to the fact that losing a life means the player will have to restart the entire level again because there are no checkpoints.

Pizza Eating Contest

Yo! Noid may be most memorable for its Pizza Eating Contests at the end of most levels, which seemed to function as a replacement for boss battles (even the final stage in the game does not have a traditional boss battle). These contests are essentially math-based puzzle mini-games. The players objective is to bet more pizzas than the 'boss.' (If the 'boss' bets 2 pizzas the player must bet 3 or more to win.) The 'boss' will normally be able to bet high pizza amounts than the player but the player has 4 power ups to use against the boss. (2 types of peppers that will cause the 'boss' to not eat his pizzas and two types of multipliers.)

Whac-A-Mole

There's also a whac-a-mole mini-game.

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