Video Game / Adventures of Lolo

The Adventures of Lolo is a trilogy of Block Puzzle games released on the NES, and part of Hal Laboratory's Eggerland series (which began its life in Japan on the MSX computer system). A beast known as the Great Devil (King Egger) has kidnapped Princess Lala and, in typical bad guy fashion, imprisoned her at the top of a Death Trap and monster-laden tower. It's usually up to Lolo to solve the puzzles with and climb to the top and rescue her. The third game in the trilogy allows you to play as either character.

Interestingly, despite Hal being an associate of Nintendo, Hal owns the Lolo series independently and completely, unlike some of their more popular titles.

List of games in the franchise:

1. Eggerland Mystery (1985; MSX; Japan and Europe only)
2. Meikyuu Shinhwa (1986; MSX2^note Also works with the original MSX, with a background change being the only difference.; Japan and Europe only), re-released as "Eggerland 2" and later as "Eggerland"^note An adaptation of Meikyuu Shinhwa. (1987; Famicom Disk System)
3. Eggerland: Meikyuu no Fukkatsu (1988; Famicom)
4. Eggerland: Souzouhe no Tabidachi (1988; Famicom Disk System), remade for the Western countries as Adventures of Lolo (1989; NES)
5. Adventures of Lolo (1990; Famicom; Japan only)
6. Adventures of Lolo 2 (1990; Famicom; Japan only)
7. Adventures of Lolo 2 (1990; NES; North America & Europe only)
8. Adventures of Lolo 3 (1990; NES; North America & Europe only)
9. Lolo no Daibouken/Adventures of Lolo (1994; Game Boy; Japan and Europe only)
10. Eggerland Episode 0: Quest of Lala (1996; PC)^note A demo for the below title
11. Eggerland for Windows '95 (1996; PC), re-released as Fukkatsu!! Eggerland (2000; PC)

---

The Lolo games provide examples of:

• 100% Completion: Necessary to finish Eggerland 2 and Revival of the Labyrinth- you need five keys and four helper characters to access and then complete King Egger's rooms respectfully. In addition, the main dungeon of both games are designed in such a way that you will ultimately complete every room to get all the necessary items.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore:
  • Inverted with Adventures of Lolo 1 (Japan) and the corresponding American Adventures of Lolo 2. The American boxart shows a simplified Lolo jumping onto the castle's balcony with King Egger watching with Lala in his grasp. The Japanese boxart, by contrast, shows an angry Lolo with his fists pumped standing beside the tower most of the game takes place in while thunder strikes and a giant Medusa watches on in the sky.
  • Inverted again by the Game Boy's Lolo no Daibouken, which shows Lolo giving King Egger in the background an angry look as he grasps Lala, who in turn is holding onto Lulu. Contrast the European localization which shows Lolo jumping in the air with Lala and Lulu in Gentryland, both with a pleasant look.
• Block Puzzle: The games are made up entirely of these.
• Collision Damage: Only Armas, awaken Skulls and sometimes Don Medusas (if you step halfway into one's patrol path). All other enemies either have specific attacks or can't kill you on their own. You can even push against the dangerous ones without harm if they are trapped or retreating; the kill only happens when the enemy decides to move onto Lolo/Lala.
• Cutscene Boss: The Great Devil gets defeated in a cutscene at the end of the first NES game, being encased in an egg and then launched just like every other defeatable enemy.
• Damsel in Distress: Lala, natch. She does, however, become a playable character in III; in fact, depending on how you play that game, Lala may find herself having to save Lolo for a change. The plot(s) of the original Eggerland Mystery, Departure to Creation, and the Game Boy releases avert this.
• Destructible Projectiles: Starting on the Famicom, Gol's Breath Weapon can be nullified by throwing a Magic Shot at it. This can be helpful for passing a Gol when even the One Bullet at a Time effect is insufficient to allow dodging.
• Difficulty by Region:
  • The American Adventures of Lolo is a remake of Eggerland: Souzouhe no Tabidachi, where the hardest puzzles were replaced by easier ones copied from older Eggerland games.
  • The Japanese Adventures of Lolo and Adventures of Lolo II were never released in North America and Europe. Instead, HAL of America re-used the same graphics, music, introduction and cutscene and created two games (Adventures of Lolo 2 and Adventures of Lolo 3) that have completely different, easier puzzles.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Adventures of Lolo III pulls this twice. After beating every level except King Egger's castle, the protagonists get on a boat to get there...which then gets shot down and they end up underwater, where they have to clear 4 more levels to sink the castle so that they can reach it. After going through the castle, whoever the player is controlling gets captured and the other protagonist chases after them through an underground passage to Egger's real castle, which requires another three levels to access.
• Easter Egg: In the password screen for Adventures of Lolo 3, different password codes could cause characters to walk over the screen.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first game, Eggerland Mystery, is the only one to contain Diamond Framers instead of Heart Framers (which otherwise function the same), a "Type B" gameplay mode in which each puzzle is timed, or points. Some monsters (Leeper, Don Medusa, and Rocky) and some terrains (trees, flowerbeds, sand, and lava) would not appear until the second game, and neither would the hammer power-up; instead, it was a "Emerald Power" that allowed Lolo to conjure up an Emerald Frame directly in front of him. Only three Rounds (22, 83, and 85) ever used it.
• Eye Beams: Medusa, who'll petrify and zap Lolo with them if he walks within her field of linear vision. Don Medusa, who has the same ability (but is more dangerous because he can move back and forth), uses knives instead. Lolo doesn't even have to be looking at them for the eye beams to work.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The first time you face King Egger in III, he's immune to your shots and your only option is to lose to him. He will then take your character into the underworld, and from that point on you must take control of the character you were not playing in order to rescue him/her.
• Forced Transformation: Lolo can use Magic Shots to zap enemies and turn them into eggs to be used for various purposes.
• The Ghost: King Egger until the Famicom Disk System.
• Giant Mook: What amounts to the bosses in Adventures of Lolo 3. All except for Moby get one.
• Golem: Rocky, a block-like golem. Like Snakey, Rocky doesn't kill Lolo upon contact, but will use his enormous bulk to trap him in corners, forcing a Puzzle Reset.
• The Goomba: Snakey is often the first enemy Lolo comes across in his journey and has no abilities but spinning in place to follow Lolo's progress.
• Guide Dang It!: If you block an enemy's spawn point with something other than yourself (which will just get you killed), they'll get Tele Fragged when they respawn. But certain enemies will just respawn in a preset location instead. Certain puzzles require you to pull off the latter, sometimes twice in a row to get an enemy into position. Good luck finding out when (it doesn't help that the games don't even tell you you can do this until the sixth one).
• Happily Married: Lolo marries Lala at the end of Eggerland 2/FDS, and their relationship never shows signs of faltering.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Whenever there's an actual boss fight in the series, it's usually just a "Dodge giant enemy moving in a preset pattern while shooting him a bajillion times" that isn't really challenging at all once you know the pattern.
• Helpful Mook: The Snakeys are of the Genuinely Gentle variety, being completely incapable of attack and sometimes even used to solve puzzles. The only way they can kill Lolo is by sinking while being used to cross water while encased in an egg, and even then that can occur with any egged enemy used as a raft.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fight with King Egger in Adventures of Lolo 2 (Japan) and in Adventures of Lolo 3 (USA); the only way to progress is to lose the fight and get your current character captured.
• Instant-Win Condition: Once you collect the item from the chest, all enemies in the level (and their shots) disappear (though Medusa can still kill you if it's not blocked). You still have to make it to the exit to officially clear the room, though. And it is possible to irreparably block the exit in some way.
• King Mook: The bosses in Adventures of Lolo 2 (Japan) and in Adventures of Lolo 3 (USA).
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Lava functions similarly to water across all three games, differing only in that bridges built over them collapse over time. In a few rare cases, you can even ride eggs in lava.
• Level Editor: Featured in three of the Japan-only releases, the one in Revival! Eggerland being the most detailed featured, while Departure to Creation has features accurate to the NES Eggerland games.
• Meaningless Lives: Running out of lives in Adventures of Lolo forced the player to start the entire floor over again. The NES games, though, let the player continue from the room they were in, effectively making lives meaningless other than showing them the password screen (the third game removes lives altogether).
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Lolo delivers one to King Egger at the end of Eggerland 2 following the Rock–Paper–Scissors duel.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Lolo (and Lala)
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Lala and Lolo, respectively.
• Press X to Die: In the Famicom/NES games, pressing the Select button allows you to die instantly in case you get stuck to the point where you cannot be killed by any other means. In the MSX games, this method was done by pressing the Stop button.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: In the third game, you have the option of playing as either Lolo or Lala. Gameplay-wise, there is absolutely no difference between them. However, Grandpa of the tutorial house shows a clear favoritism towards Lala, offering her helpful tips while merely scolding Lolo if he has trouble clearing the stages.
• Pushy Mooks: Rocky, who either pushes you into hazards or gets you stuck in such a way that you have to restart the level.
• Regional Bonus: The Japanese version of Adventures of Lolo for the Game Boy had only 50 levels. The European version increased this to 144 levels, and added a tutorial, extra story, and Super Game Boy support.
• Respawning Enemies: Enemies will return to the board after 10-15 seconds.
• Rolling Attack: Alma, if the player steps into its axis.
• Save the Princess: All the games excluding Mystery, Departure to Creation, and Lolo no Daibouken/Adventures of Lolo. The third NES Lolo game potentially inverts this if you go into the Hopeless Boss Fight with King Egger as Lolo, which causes him to get captured instead.
• Secret Level: In Adventures of Lolo 2, there are four hidden challenging levels called The Pro Level. They can only be accessed by entering the passwords: PROA, PROB, PROC, and PROD.
• Sleepyhead:
  • Leeper is initially a very spry-looking creature, but it spontaneously falls asleep upon coming into contact with Lolo. It is in such a Deep Sleep that Magic Shots no longer affect it, so Leeper can never be moved again without a Puzzle Reset.
  • Lolo also dozes off as his Idle Animation in some games.
  • Conversely, Gol and Skull appear to be asleep until they are instantly awakened by collecting the last Heart Framer.
• Spell My Name With An S: The armadillo enemies have been referred to as Alma, Arma, and Armma. Lolo and Lala has also been referred to as Roro and Rara in-game before, but this could simply be a case of l and r mixups.
• Sudden Anatomy: Lolo and Lala appear not to have mouths until certain animations, usually their death animations.
• Super Drowning Skills: Lolo and Lala can float on rivers using eggs, but if they should sink while one is still riding on them, they'll die instantly.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Alma. Once she gets rolling, she'll chase you throughout the level until you stop on a flower bed, the only other terrain beside water/lava where she can't follow you.
• Taken for Granite: Happens to the people of Lolo and Lala's kingdom in the third game, prompting the two to set out on their adventure.
• Tele-Frag: Snakey is normally harmless, but can still harm the player in Eggerland Mystery upon respawning.
• Temporary Platform: Eggs in still water and bridges over lava disappear after a few seconds, and Adventures of Lolo III introduces bridges that crumble away after being stepped over twice.
• Timed Mission:
  • Game B of Eggerland Mystery puts every puzzle on a timer- awarding more points if the room is finished quickly. The bonus rooms are also on timers.
  • Hidden rooms in the second Eggerland game and its Famicom Disk System port give Lolo only a limited time to reach the treasure chest containing either one of the five keys needed to access the final dungeon, or the Guardians needed to complete them.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The game does not disclose to players which Heart Framers contain Magic Shots until they are collected, how many Heart Framers activate each Power Option (until the player is one Heart Framer away from receiving one), the number and locations of alternate Respawn Points, or (until the Windows games) where water has currents in what direction. Sometimes it is essential to know this information from the beginning of a puzzle. The first labyrinth-based game also has rooms with multiple entrances that become Unwinnable by Design if Lolo chooses the wrong entrance.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Some games' fights with King Egger don't use the puzzle rooms at all and will change genre just for fun. The first Eggerland for Famicom Disk System has a Rock–Paper–Scissors duel, the Windows series ends with a crude Fighting Game, and Revival of the Labyrinth features comical Turn-Based Combat derived from Dragon Quest, while the first international Adventures of Lolo simply has a Cutscene Boss. All are Foregone Victories; in fact, the rock-paper-scissors matches will have all the same outcomes in the same total time regardless of input.
• Updated Re-release: Revival! Eggerland was Eggerland for Windows 95 updated to run on Windows 98 and ME.
• Vacuum Mouth: Adventures of Lolo III introduces Moby, a small whale that opens its mouth to suck Lolo/Lala from across the room towards itself when in its line of sight.
• Variable Mix: The "Dance & Music" episode in Adventures of Lolo for the Game Boy changed the BGM depending on which direction Lolo was facing and whether or not he was standing on flowers.
• Video Game Remake: The American Adventures of Lolo is a remake of Eggerland: Souzouhe no Tabidachi, where the hardest puzzles were replaced by easier ones copied from older Eggerland games.
• Villain Decay: Any semblance of threat King Egger had is thrown away by the Game Boy installment, in which he surrenders without a fight after the final room's cleared.
• Wronski Feint: A good way to trap mobile enemies in improvised cages, this is most easily performed on Alma, who tucks into a roll when horizontally aligned with Lolo and can't change direction until colliding.

---