Tama and Friends: 3 Choume Daibouken

Tama and Friends: 3 Choume Daibouken (TAMA & FRIENDS 3丁目大冒険) is a platformer published by Bandai for Nintendo's Famicom Disk System in 1989. It is based on a manga and anime for children of the same name that concerns the cats and dogs of a close-knit neighborhood. The anime was eventually licensed to 4Kids Entertainment and aired on a US cable channel.

The game has a subtitle: 3 Choume Daibouken. The "3 Choume" part refers to the district in which Tama and his friends live, while "Daibouken" simply means "great adventure".

As a game, Tama and Friends is very basic, and quite clearly meant for very young children. The goal is to simply walk right across a suburban environment while avoiding enemies like birds and random flying junk. Tama can also climb telegraph poles to help him get higher, which occasionally lead to bonus areas, and there are also bosses to be fought at the end of certain stages.

Controls

 * : Use the direction pad to control Tama. Press left and right to make Tama run in either direction. Press up to make Tama climb up a pole if he's standing in front of one. Press down to make Tama crouch, or to drop down a pipe.
 * : Press the A button to make Tama jump. The longer you hold A, the higher he will jump.
 * : Press the B button to summon a friend of Tama's who will run around and attack enemies if you have any fish in your inventory. The friend you summon varies each stage.
 * : Press the Start button to begin a new game, or to pause the action mid-game.
 * : Not used.

Tama
You control Tama throughout the game. Your goal in each stage is to survive a run all the way to the right until you come face to face with a bull dog, and defeat it in a boss battle. To do this, Tama must avoid colliding with any moving enemy, or jump on top of the enemy to remove them as a threat. Tama and run either left or right, and he can jump in both directions. He has few other abilities, but one thing he can do to help himself out is summon a friend. In order to summon a friend, he must possess at least one fish. Each summon costs a fish, and fish can be collected from hidden underground locations, as well as obtaining one randomly from a defeated enemy. If Tama can reach and defeat the bull dog at the end of the fifth stage, he wins the game.

Stage 1
This stage serves as your introduction to the game. The first enemy that you encounter are three nut dropping birds. They are actually easier to deal with if you use the staircase of boxes to leap up to the fence so you can jump on top of them and remove them. Following the third bird, you will encounter a series of bouncing balls. As long as you keep moving right, you'll safely run beneath all of them. When you see a garbage can ahead, watch out for a falling can. These cans land behind you and bounce forward. If you don't turn around and run the other way, the cans will hit you. The bouncing balls resume, and more cans will drop, but they will bounce off the fence and fly over your head. When a third can falls, two dragonflies will approach. The lower one will adjust its height to hit you, so try to jump over it if you can. After another can drops from the sky, you'll encounter some puddles. These puddles hurt Tama so jump over them. More sets of dragonflies will appear, with a bird in between. Avoid more puddles and continue until a can falls out of the sky. Another one will hit the fence, followed by two dragonflies. Another set of dragonflies will appear before a can falls from the sky. Prepare for the last obstacle, which is two cans that fall out of the sky together. Make sure you backtrack after the second can hits the ground so the first bounces over your head.

Then you'll encounter the boss fight with a bull dog. It will bounce around the screen, yelling out barks which are visible and can hurt you if you touch them. To defeat him, you must jump on his head seven times. You are a little bit safer on the right side of the screen, since he only ever barks to the left. You are also a bit safer up on the fence, since he stays on the ground, but it can be more difficult to hit him from up there. If you lose in this fight, you can continue, but you will be sent back to the beginning of the stage.

Stage 2
The second stage resembles the first stage quite a bit, but the roster of enemies changes completely. In some ways, this stage is easier than the first, due to the long breaks in enemies. The first enemy to appear are paper airplanes. They fly in a zigzagging motion from the top right corner of the screen to the bottom left. You are actually safe from harm if you remain up on top of the fence while they fly across. After they stop, you will begin to encounter butterflies, who fly up and down in a wave-like pattern. Jump on top of them if you are able, as they sometimes leave fish behind for you to collect. After some puddles on the ground, bouncing balls will appear. Run under them as you did in the previous stage. A mix of puddles and butterflies will appear along with the balls. When you start to see paper airplanes again, climb up to the top of the fence and continue. No enemies will appear for a while except the occasional butterfly and puddle. A short burst of airplanes will appear. After a while, the bouncing balls will resume. Along with them, you will see a bee, which approaches and does a loop in the middle of the screen. You can safely run under them. Beyond the balls, you will encounter the second boss bulldog, which is nearly identical to the first.

Stage 3
This is the first stage where you can enter into pipes. This gives you a huge advantage because there are dog enemies in the pipes that give you food which can restore your health up to a maximum of five hearts. After you leave the pipes, you can return back down and the enemies will reappear, giving you another opportunity to stock up on health. In addition to the dogs, you will also find mice who leave two coins behind every time you pounce on one. 100 coins will give you an extra life. You may even find fish underground.

As soon as you start, drop down the first pipe that you see. Collect the fish, and jump on the dog along the floor to collect food for another heart. Then jump back up through the ceiling to return to the outside. Run along the ground and butterflies will appear. The next pipe that you encounter can be explored, so keep running right. After a set of benches, a butterfly and two dragonflies will appear. Pass another pipe, until you reach a body of water. Jump onto the first rock, and then on the back of the turtle to let him ferry you across to the right. Jump to the second turtle and then over to dry land. Continue right, and you'll see a spider and two frogs. These can all easily be pounced on to clear them out of the way. Beyond the next wall is an individual pipe. Drop down and pounce on the mice and dog below. Then pass through the wall to the next room, where you can do the same for more food and money. You can go back and forth between these two rooms to max out on health. Then leap out through the ceiling, and continue right. You encounter a pair of dragonflies, a spider, two frogs, and another pair of dragonflies. You'll next encounter two pairs of dragonflies and two pairs of bees back to back before finding more frogs. As more bees approach, you'll find another pipe that you can explore. If you pounce on all the enemies here, a second hole will open up in the ceiling, advancing you further through the stage. You'll face more insects and frogs until you see a pair of pipes. Drop down the first one, and you'll find a friendly cat who restores all of your missing health. Climb back out, and face the remaining enemies that you encounter as you proceed to the right. You'll reach the end and encounter the boss bull dog who is the same as the previous two. This time you can use the fence as a way to drop down on top of the dog when he passes below you.

Stage 4
The fourth stage takes place underground in a sewer-like environment. Instead of fences, there are many pipes to jump on, some high and some low. A new threat comes in the form of bolts that dislodge themselves from the pipes and fall on Tama's head. Normal bolts are black, but the ones that fall are red and turn for a moment before dropping. Be on the lookout for them. The ability to drop down into pipes and get health continues here, so take advantage of it.

As one might expect, there are an abundance of frogs in the sewers. Joining the frogs are bats which fly back and forth between two points on the ceiling. After some frogs and a set of bats, you will eventually approach your first big pipe. Drop down to collect a fish, and jump on the dog below to collect food for a heart. Do this as many times as necessary to reach five hearts, and then continue. Run past, or leap on the frogs and bats that you encounter. Spiders will start to appear as well. After the first pair of spiders, some bats, and a second pair of spiders, you'll encounter a ceiling pipe with two bolts that drop out, so be careful. When you see a frog sitting below two pipes, drop down the second pipe. You'll enter a room with two dogs to leap on for two hearts. An opening to the right leads to another room with two dogs, enabling you to get to a full five hearts pretty quickly. Climb up through the ceiling of the second room, and keep going past some spiders and bats to find another pipe that you can drop down. Beyond this pipe, you can't drop down the next one, but the one after that allows you to descend. Oddly though, it is empty. From there, run past the remaining frogs, bats, and spiders until you reach the end of the stage.

The boss of this stage is unlike the bulldogs you saw before. This one is a bit more aggressive. It tends to move back and forth over a short area, jumping to the left or right side of the room. Unlike the previous bulldogs, it can also face and bark to the right. The room you fight in is divided into two areas. The right side is open, but the left side has a pipe structure. You can use the pipe structure to your advantage by staying safely up at the top and dropping down on top of the dog when it is beneath you. Or you can use the openness of the right side to cleanly jump on top of the dog. Hit it enough times and it will perish, allowing you to advance to the final stage.

Stage 5
The last stage takes place up on rooftops. This is the only stage that has chasms that you can fall into and die, so it's important to time your jumps carefully and ensure that you will land on something. The good news is that if you press down on a pipe that won't let you in (like the first pipe you see,) you will not fall through it to your death. You can also use any telephone poles that you pass to pull yourself up higher by pressing. Also be careful to jump straight up when leaving pipes, or you may leap to your death when you exit.

The first enemy that you eventually encounter is a butterfly. Beyond that butterfly is the first pipe that you can descend. In it. you'll find a fish and two dogs. Get your hearts up before continuing on to the right. After another butterfly, paper airplanes will start to approach. Try to remain high in the air until the rooftops are high enough to give you protection. Leap up to the tall pipe ahead, and jump over it to find a small floating cloud that glides back and forth. A can will fall out of the sky when you are close enough to reach the cloud, but it shouldn't be much of a threat. Ride the cloud over the gap to the next roof, but watch out for the bird that follows. A second bird will appear, followed by a falling can and a third bird. After a butterfly and another bird, you'll have to jump over to the next building, but the roof will be too high. Instead, catch the telephone pole in front of the building and climb back up to the roof. After a bird and two cans that drop back to back, you'll find another pipe that you can descend for health. Following this pipe, you'll encounter a combination of bees and butterflies. This will happen as you pass one pipe that you can't enter, followed by a second pipe that you can enter, but it's empty. Beyond the empty pipe, the bees are joined by dragonflies until more paper airplanes appear. You can drop down the next pipe for health. Back outside, you'll see another floating cloud that doesn't help very much. Bees and a pair of dragonflies will approach you. The bees will continue as more birds fly overhead. When you see a pair of butterflies, you can drop down another pipe. This one is connected to another room to the right. Clear the rooms out for health and jump up from the right room. From here, avoid all the enemies and make your way to the end of the stage.

The boss fight here is very similar to the previous stage. You face a much more aggressive bulldog who leaps back and forth between two areas and can face and bark in both directions. This time the screen is divided into a left building and a right building with a gap in between. Neither building offers any coverage to protect yourself with, so you remain a little bit exposed. Since the right building is lower, you may find it easier to jump and time pounces on the bulldog on the right building than the left. You should use up all of your fish to summon a friend who will bounce around and attack the bulldog for you, lowering the number of times you have to successfully hit him yourself. If you knock the bulldog out, you will be treated to the ending (after flipping the disk back to side A).