The Return of Ishtar/Gameplay

Controls

 * Joystick: Use the 8-way joystick to direct Ki (or Gil if you're player 2) around each room. (The screen will only scroll according to Ki's location). While holding down the second button, Ki can use her joystick to cycle through the six different types of magic spells ("ATTACK", "PROTECT", "ASSIST", "LIGHT", "MEDICAL" and "SPECIAL") and select them with first button.
 * First Button: Use this button to make Ki cast her currently-selected spell at the enemies. (Gil will automatically draw his sword whenever an enemy gets close enough to him). While holding down the second button, Ki can use this button to select a different spell. There are a total of sixty-four different spells in the game - but she will only start out with ten of them.
 * Second Button: Use this button to make the menu of spells appear in the bottom-left corner of the screen. As mentioned in the section on the joystick above, Ki can cycle through the six different types of spells with her joystick, and select them with first button, but she will lose the ability to move and cast her currently-selected spell at the enemies while doing so.

Ki and Gil
The two protagonists of the game; player 1 controls the spell-casting Princess Ki (shown in the image to the left), while player 2 controls the sword-wielding Prince Gilgamesh (shown in the image to the right). The screen will only scroll according to Ki's location - so if you are player 2, you will have to stay close to your partner if you want to explore the rooms. Ki will attack by casting spells at the enemies, while Gil automatically draws his sword whenever an enemy gets close enough to him; however, each time Gil kills an enemy with his sword, the numerator of the fraction in the bottom-right corner of the screen (the denominator starts at 15) will decrease by a preset amount depending on what enemy type it was. If it goes down to 0, he will evaporate, and it is game over for both players - and it is also game over for both players if Ki is touched by any enemy at all, which instantly makes her evaporate.

Vampires
These blood-sucking monsters come in four different colours - purple, orange, green and black. The purple ones take two hits to kill, the orange ones take four hits to kill, the green ones take ten hits to kill, and the black ones take twenty hits to kill. None of the four varieties of Vampires have any recovery points.

Slimes
These oozing blobs come in eight different colours - green, black, red, blue, yellow, pink, dark yellow, and dark green. The green ones will take 6 hits to kill, the black ones take 10 hits to kill, the red ones take 34 hits to kill, the blue ones take 56 hits to kill, the yellow ones take 106 hits to kill, the pink ones take 136 hits to kill, the dark yellow ones take 168 hits to kill, and the dark green ones take 208 hits to kill. The green ones will also have a singular recovery point, the black ones will have 2 recovery points, the red ones will have 3 recovery points, the blue ones will have 4 recovery points, the yellow ones will have 5 recovery points, the pink ones will have 6 recovery points, the dark yellow ones will have 7 recovery points, and the dark green ones will have 8 recovery points. They also from the original game.

Bats
These nocturnal animals come in four different colours - purple, orange, blue and black. The purple ones take four hits to kill, the orange ones take ten hits to kill, the blue ones take twenty-six hits to kill, and the black ones take seventy-two hits to kill. The purple ones don't have any recovery points, but the orange ones do have one recovery point, the blue ones have five recovery points, and the black ones have twenty recovery points. The blue ones are also known as "Hambrabi" (Katakana: ハンブラビ) - literally "Hanburabi".

Snakes
These reptilan animals come in four different colours - green, blue, orange and black. The green ones take 8 hits to kill, the blue ones take 20 hits to kill, the orange ones take 72 hits to kill, and the black ones take 136 hits to kill. The green ones don't have any recovery points, but the blue ones have 6 recovery points, the orange ones have 19 recovery points, and the black ones have 32 recovery points. The black ones are also known as "Otapyon" (Katakana: オタピョン) - literally how spelled in Romanji, unlike "Hamburabi".

Oozes
These smaller versions of the Slimes come in eight different colours - green, black, red, blue, yellow, pink, dark yellow, and dark green. The green ones take 18 hits to kill, the black ones take 96 hits to kill, the red ones take 296 hits to kill, the blue ones take 462 hits to kill, the yellow ones take 560 hits to kill, the pink ones take 666 hits to kill, the dark yellow ones take 842 hits to kill, and the dark green ones take 1039 hits to kill. And the green ones have 2 recovery points, the black ones have 15 recovery points, the red ones have 47 recovery points, the blue ones have 75 recovery points, the yellow ones have 92 recovery points, the pink ones have 110 recovery points,, the dark yellow ones have 139 recovery points and the dark green ones have 171 recovery points. They may be smaller than the aforementioned Slimes, but they are certainly tougher...

Magicians
These warlocks come in four different classes - Mages, Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards. All four classes will take five hits to kill and have no recovery points.

Hyper Magicians
These "hyper" warlocks (which are identical in appearance to the regular ones) also come in four classes - Hyper Mages, Hyper Druids, Hyper Sorcerers and Hyper Wizards. As with the regular ones, all four classes take five hits to kill, and have no recovery points, but they materialize at faster rate than regular ones.

Ropers
These many-tentacle mounds come in five different colours - orange with green tentacles, green with red tentacles, yellow with blue tentacles, blue with yellow tentacles, and white with pink tentacles. The "green" ones take 52 hits to kill, the "red" ones take 134 hits to kill, the "blue" ones take 254 hits to kill, the "yellow" ones take 414 hits to kill, and the "pink" ones take 568 hits to kill. None of them have any recovery points, but the "pink" ones also have an "AC" after their colour.

Super Ropers
These "super" many-tentacle mounds (which, like the Hyper Magicians, are identical in appearance to the regular ones) only come in three different colours - orange with green tentacles, green with red tentacles, and yellow with blue tentacles. The "green" ones take 780 hits to kill, the "red" ones take 926 hits to kill, and the "blue" ones take 1026 hits to kill. As with the regular ones, none of them have any recovery points, but they move at a slightly faster speed than the regular ones (and also take more hits to kill).

Knights
These armoured warriors come in total eighteen different classes (a lot) - Blue, Blue Captain, Black, Blue Eye, Black Captain, Mirror, Golden Mirror, Hyper, Steel Hyper, Silver Hyper, Golden Hyper, Green Lizardman, Pink Sword (L?), Black Lizardman, Brown Lizardman, Red, Blue Shield, and Akynd. The Blue ones take 13 hits to kill, the Blue Captain ones take 50 hits to kill, the Black ones take 22 hits to kill, the Blue Eye ones take 82 hits to kill, the Black Captain ones take 142 hits to kill, the Mirror ones take 59 hits to kill, the Golden Mirror ones take 175 hits to kill, the Hyper ones take 306 hits to kill, the Steel Hyper ones take 556 hits to kill, the Silver Hyper ones take 856 hits to kill, the Golden Hyper ones take 1300 hits to kill, the Gren Lizardmen take 402 hits to kill, the Pink Sword (L?) ones take 482 hits to kill, the Black Lizardmen take 602 hits to kill, the Brown Lizardmen take 762 hits to kill, the Red ones take 590 hits to kill, the Blue Shield ones take 906 hits to kill, and the Akynd ones take 2490 hits to kill. None of the three (four?) types of Lizardmen have recovery points - but the Blue ones have single recovery point, the Blue Captain ones have 4 recovery points, the Black ones have 2 recovery points, the Blue Eye ones have 82 recovery points, the Black Captain ones have 16 recovery points, the Mirror ones have 7 recovery points, the Golden Mirror ones have 18 recovery points, the Hyper ones have 34 recovery points, the Steel Hyper ones have 63 recovery points, the Silver Hyper ones have 98 recovery points and the Golden Hyper ones have 149 recovery points, the Red ones have 68 recovery points, the Blue Shield ones have 104 recovery points, and the Akynd ones have 255 recovery points. As with the Slimes (but not the Oozes), they're also from the original game.

Will O' Wisps and Land Urchins
Will O' Wisps (shown in the images to the left) come in two different colours (red and blue), but Land Urchins (shown in the image to the right) only come in one (green). If Ki and Gil spend too long in any room after the song they are hearing from the Yamaha YM-2151 has increased in tempo, four Will O' Wisps will appear in the centre of the room and make their way to the corners before homing in on the heroes' current position; it is not known how many hits they take to kill or how many recovery points they have, but your best way of escaping is to collect the nearest key and head for the door that it opens. Land Urchins, however, will appear in both the third-last and second-last rooms of the game under the trap doors that you have to fall down if you step on them - and as with the Will O' Wisps, it is not known how many hits they take to kill, or how many recovery points they have.