Mr. Do's Castle

A year after the release of the original Mr. Do!, Universal decided to capitalize on its success by releasing a sequel. They called it Mr. Do's Castle (although it was called Mr. Do! vs. Unicorns in Japan) and released in it 1983. Although it bore little similarity to the original game, it still featured the friendly red clown, and had some othe features in common such as cherries and the letters in the word "EXTRA".

In Mr. Do's Castle, it was Mr. Do's job to rid each stage of five enemy creatures known as Unicorns. The stage was made up of various levels that were composed of blocks. Like the first game, there were a couple of ways that Mr. Do could complete a given stage and advance to the next. He could pop every single cherry block out of the floors with his hammer. He could crush all of the monsters that inhabited the stage. Or he could succeed in smashing all of the letters in the word "EXTRA" and earn a free life.

It's hard to say whether Mr. Do's Castle was more or less popular than its predecessor. It was a more original idea (Mr. Do! was routinely compared to Dig Dug), and while it required deeper strategy, some players felt that the game was less approachable. Nevertheless, Parker Bros. took the chance to license the game for home play, and successfully distributed the game on several popular platforms slightly better than Coleco and Datasoft had managed to do with Mr. Do!.



Gameplay Summary

 * You guide Mr. Do through each castle stage. He can climb up and down ladders, and even kick certain ladders from one ledge to another.
 * Mr. Do starts at the bottom while five Unicorns begin at the top and descend to get Mr. Do. Mr. Do loses one life if a Unicorn touches him.
 * Mr. Do can kill Unicorns by dropping blocks on top of them, or by knocking a block out from under their feet if he's fast enough.
 * Three blocks contain keys. If Mr. Do can knock out all three keys, the doors on the roof open and Mr. Do can collect a shield.
 * If Mr. Do collects the shield, the unicorns transform in to "EXTRA" alpha-monsters for a limited time. Mr. Do can hit them to collect letters.
 * Mr. Do can advance to the next stage if he kills all of the Unicorns, knocks out every cherry block, or spells out EXTRA.
 * If Mr. Do takes too long killing the last Unicorn, they begin to transform into blue unicorns which split into two unicorns and multiply at regular intervals.