Category:Eggerland

The Eggerland series made its debut back in 1985 when HAL Laboratory (of Japan) released Eggerland Mystery for the MSX Home Computer. The game starred an egg-like character named Lolo whose significant other, Lala, was captured by the evil King Egger of Eggerland and who had to traverse a complicated series of labyrinths in order to save her, being faced with a plethora of enemies along the way. As the series progressed, eventually making its way to the Famicom Disk System in 1987 and then the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and Europe in 1989 new enemies and challenges were introduced. The series is often complicated to follow because there are many titles that appear only in Japan while others appear only outside of Japan. The Adventures of Lolo 3 (1991, NES) was the last title released in North America while The Adventures of Lolo (1995, Game Boy and Super Game Boy) was the last title released in Europe, but in Japan Eggerland Episode 0: The Quest of Lala was released in 1996 for Windows as a demo for the 2000 release of ''Revival! Eggerland, also for Windows''.

Eggerland releases
The following is a list of the titles released in the Eggerland series. In the table below, every title links to a different video game guide page. Precedence is given to English titles, when available; exception is Lolo's Great Adventure, because its localized title is identical to the title of another game.

The Famicom Disk System game Eggerland is an extended remake of the MSX game Eggerland 2.

The Japanese Adventures of Lolo 2 and the Western Adventures of Lolo 3 have identical introductions and overworlds, but completely different stages.

Additionally, there were several more titles released only in Japan and which fans must import should they wish to play them. The last two titles were released as freeware, and are available for download.

Nomenclature
While the series itself is called the Eggerland series, the games go by two different names depending upon which region they were generally released in. In Japan, the games are called Eggerland, except for the few titles which received global release. However, in Western nations these games are called The Adventures of Lolo, with the rare exception of the European release of the original Eggerland Mystery.

Pay attention to the differences in the nomenclature of the titles:
 * the Western Adventures of Lolo was not released in Japan: it is a collection of stages from previous games;
 * the Japanese Adventures of Lolo was localized as Adventures of Lolo 2 in Western countries.

"Meikyuu Shinwa" and "Meikyuu Shima"
A puzzle video game unrelated to the Eggerland series but with many elements in common is Kickle Cubicle by Irem. Even its original Japanese title, Meikyuu Shima (lit. "Labyrinth Islands") resembles Meikyuu Shinwa (lit. "Labyrinth Myth"), the original title of Eggerland 2.

Story


Though each game has a unique story of its own, the series revolves around a world in which many different kingdoms exist, but which focuses mainly on the kingdoms of Eden Land and Eggerland. The original story goes that King Eden and his three daughters governed Eden Land and were blessed with peace and love, but one day a horde of monsters appeared and sought to make the beautiful country their own, attacking and kidnapping princess Lala in the process. Hope was not lost, however. The guardian of Eden Land, Edenah, confined the invaders to the dark depths of Eggerland and then, in order to deceive the monsters, changed her form into the Diamond Framers, divided her body into four parts, and sought a young man who could rescue her, finding Lolo. Lolo conquered the labyrinth, defeated the monsters, reunited the god, and rescued the princess, and the two married and lived happily ever after...

Yet, the monsters of Eggerland were never satisfied, and they would torment the two and future generations to come. The evil King Egger made several attempts to kidnap Lala and imprison her within the depths of his citadel, forcing Lolo to solve complex puzzles with horrifying monsters waiting to devour him along the way. Yet, time and time again Lolo would prove victorious and defeat Egger over and over again. On one occasion Egger turned the people of Edden Land into stone with a magical powder and both Lala and Lolo worked together to defeat his minions and his puzzles, but in the end, they proved victorious and defeated him. So, try and try as he might, Egger and his lineage have yet to defeat the people of Eden Land!

Lolo


Lolo is occasionally referred to as the prince/king of Eden Land but is generally portrayed as Lala's love. King Egger, in his attempts to have Eden Land for himself, constantly tries to tear the two apart, and therefore it is up to Lolo to fight his way through Eggerland, solving complex and mindboggling puzzles, and in the end, facing off with King Egger himself, saving Lala from certain doom. Whenever injustice is in the air, Lolo is there to answer the call!

Lala


Lala is portrayed as the princess/queen of Eden Land and Lolo's love interest. She is often kidnapped by the evil King Egger and it is often up to Lolo to rescue her from the evil "frog's" clutches. However, in later adventures, King Egger directly attacks the people of Eden Land and Lala sets out with Lolo and the two solve Egger's puzzles together and save their people from the clutches of evil.

King Egger


King Egger is also known as The Great Devil in the Western games. It was Egger who was jealous of Eden Land's great beauty, and so he led his monsters there to take it over and seize it for himself, though he did not count on Lolo's interference and opposition. However, King Egger doesn't give up easily. He cooks up many different schemes, much like the typical arch-fiend, and so he returns over and over again to kidnap Lala and wreak constant havoc on the innocent civilians of the Kingdom of Eden Land.

Gameplay
The basic gameplay of the series seems straightforward at first. Lolo/Lala is presented with a room that contains Heart Framers (Diamond Framers in early games) and a Jewel Box (or Key Box in early games), and when they collect all of the HF's the box will open and they can collect the item inside. While this sounds simple enough (and generally is for the first few rooms), it proves to be quite difficult due to the many different enemies present in the mazes as well as the various obstacles that they have to face (see the Monsters section).

Magic Shots


Lolo/Lala have the ability to pick up HF's that will give them two Magic Shots (these framers are often called Shot Framers, or SF's), and with these shots they can turn most enemies (and all, in the later games with help of the Crystal Framer) into eggs with one shot. While enemies are in the egg form they can be pushed (not pulled) around the level to block other enemies or to be moved out of the way. Additionally, they can be pushed into water and rode across to land on the other side (but only if there is a current present, which is only visible in later games). Enemies do not stay in their egg form forever, however, but after a few seconds the egg will begin to crack, and will eventually hatch. If Lolo/Lala uses two Magic Shots against an enemy, they will be blown off of the screen, but they will return within a few seconds (the length of time that they would normally stay within an egg). A warning for their return is given by a glowing square appearing where they will reappear. For most enemies, if Lolo/Lala stands on them when they appear they can simply walk off of them, but for Skulls or Almas (and later Medusa or Don Medusa) they will die if they occupy the same space (for information on Warp Holes, see that section).

Terrain


the Eggerland series features many different terrain, though the original games only had black floors and featured rocks, trees, and Emerald Framers as part of the movable terrain. However, this would change as the series progressed, and sand, grass, lava, and water would be introduced.

Powers
Aside from the aforementioned Magic Shots, Lolo/Lala will gain certain powers from the Heart Framers that they pick up in certain rooms once they have picked up a designated number of them (this number is unknown but is predetermined per room). These powers will help them conquer their current puzzle if they are used properly.

Warp Holes


Warp Holes are found in certain rooms in order to allow Lolo/Lala to use an enemy (by encasing it in an egg) to block an enemy which would otherwise be impossible to block. Warp Holes are as their name implies- a means of warping something, namely an enemy. When an enemy is shot off the screen, it is possible to force that enemy to reappear (or warp) to a different location of the room. To force this event to occur, Lolo/Lala must use two Magic Shots to blow the enemy away and then either use an Emerald Framer or Crystal Framer to occupy their previous space with or encase a different enemy in an egg and push it to that space. If Lolo/Lala tries to occupy the space of that enemy, one of two things will occur: if the enemy is a Snakey or Gol, they can simply walk off of them, but if it is a strong enemy, such as an Alma, Skull, or in later games Medusa or Don Medusa, then Lolo/Lala will die.

Some rooms may possess more than one warp hole. If this is the case, then the first enemy to be warped will be warped to the first warp hole location. In other words, there is an order of magnitude to these holes that is predetermined in each room, so Lolo/Lala must figure this out in order to solve each puzzle.

There is no definite way to discover whether or not a room contains a warp hole (in other words it is not obvious or stated when Lolo/Lala enters the room), but chances are that if there is an enemy that is definitely impossible to block by any means, there is bound to be one within that room.

Monsters
While the general set-up of a room (its blocks, terrain, arrows, etc.) may provide a challenge in and of itself, the monsters within each room provide a vast challenge in addition to all of that. Five monsters made their debut in the original Eggerland Mystery, three more were added since the second game, and the last one is featured in one game only. Therefore, each monster will be discussed in detail in the following section.

Eggerland Today
Although the last Eggerland game produced was in June of 2000, there is still a great chance that there will be another game in the series sometime in the future. Hal Labs, the company responsible for producing the series since its debut back in 1985, is still in business and producing many major titles for various platforms, such as Super Smash Bros. Melee (in conjunction with Nintendo), the Kirby series, several TV series, and they were responsible for the Earthbound/Mother series. They never did claim that ''Revival! Eggerland'' would be their final title, so it would be no surprise to anyone if they would produce another title in the series (fans all around the world love puzzle/adventure games).

While no official games have been produced since 2000, the fan community has produced many clones for the Windows and MAC platforms and even for the Mobile Phone and PALM platforms.

Additionally, with the 1996/2000 releases of Eggerland Episode 0 and ''Revival! Eggerland'' (respectively), fans have been able to create and share their own custom games with each other via the Internet, and many websites have been created that are dedicated to sharing such fan creations.

For those that are interested, here are a couple such databases:
 * Hole Laboratory - Eggerland Editstage Library (in Japanese)
 * Eggerland & Adventures of Lolo Series (in Japanese)
 * Mittyanland Egger Land Maps (in Japanese)