The New Zealand Story
| Developer: Taito | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Ocean | Sound: |
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| Year: 1989 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Platformer | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
5/10 | |
Some games grab you at first glance, pin you to your chair, and make you want to play all night. It doesn’t matter if they’re as old as your grandmother or so punishing that you just keep looping through level 1. It’s almost magical. Makes you wonder if they’re laced with additives or subliminal messages—who knows?
The New Zealand Story is firmly in that category. On the surface, it seems dead simple, yet you’ll find yourself having an absolute blast with this quirky arcade game bursting with funny details and lively animations.
Brutally difficult it may be, but it’s fast, responsive, and … packed with colourful doodads! What more could you ask for?
At the risk of repeating myself: stick to the original arcade version rather than the port.
And for the record, it’s not a chicken—it’s a kiwi!
Update:
Like Alfred Chicken, I had an epiphany when replaying it (in 2022), but this time, it went the other way. Despite an initially charming impression, I couldn’t make much progress without switching on “infinite lives”. Even then, I suffered. The music—shrill, repetitive, unbearable; the relentless enemies; the spikes; the tooth-rattlingly ugly backgrounds; the oppressive time limit … I can’t find a single redeeming quality. Makes me wonder if I was sober when I wrote this page!
The NES version is called Kiwi Kraze (1988).
And for fans of the genre: MagiCat (2017).
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