Happy Friday, everyone. Today I’m going to talk about another Famicom game: Devil World. Developed and published by Nintendo, Devil World was released for the Famicom in 1984. It was conceived by Nintendo’s very own Shigeru Miyamoto, responsible for such legendary franchises as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and more.
Devil World was never released in North America due to Nintendo of America’s strict policies regarding content. The company was notorious for censoring things like violence, nudity, religious symbolism, and more in order to keep their games “family-friendly.” Devil World would be the only game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto to never see a North American release, even to this day, although it did get an NES release in Europe in 1987. Were gamers missing out on something big? Let’s take a look.
The game boots up with a simple title screen and cute music, typical for Black Box NES games. The story is that a devil has invaded an unnamed world, and a dragon that inhabits the world (named Tamagon) sets off to stop him from taking over.
Devil World is a maze game similar to Pac-Man. I won’t talk about the graphics and music too much because the former is just what you’d expect from an early NES game (especially if you’ve played Super Mario Bros.). The music is almost nonexistent, with only a couple of short jingles and sound effects.
In Devil World, you must walk around the map and collect pellets for points while shooting fire at several bizarre creatures along the way. But you can’t just shoot fire willy-nilly; you have to collect crosses that will allow you to do it. Crosses only last for a limited time before they disappear, which is why there are several ridden throughout the stage. Without them, Tamagon is completely defenseless. It’s a one-hit death game, so be careful! There’s also food that Tamagon can collect for bonus points.
Devil World sounds just like a slightly beefed-up version of Pac-Man, but here’s what makes it unique: at the top of the screen, the Devil will dance in several different poses. Depending on which direction he is facing, his minions will move the screen in that direction. There are no boundaries outside the frame, so you will be pushed in the direction the frame is moving. This adds to the game’s challenge, as not only will it render parts of the maze off-limits, but it can severely restrict Tamagon to the point where he can be crushed between the edge of the frame and a wall in the maze. The frame changes direction every few seconds, which creates the challenge of collecting all the dots while trying to stay alive.
At the end of the first stage, you will move onto a bonus stage where you have to collect four different bibles and place them in a huge red box with a skull on it. The bibles don’t move along with the frame; they stay where they are programmed, even in the boundaries outside the frame. At the end of the second level, there will be another bonus stage where Tamagon has to collect six bonus boxes under a time limit. If he does, he will be awarded massive points.
That’s Devil World in a nutshell. The game repeats its pattern after the second bonus stage, so in the end, it’s all about how many points you can rack up.
Now let’s talk about the reason why Devil World never came to North America. As I said before, Nintendo of America was very strict when it came to censoring inappropriate language and imagery in their games. Notable examples of this include Bionic Commando on NES and Mortal Kombat on SNES. Devil World contains several biblical references, including the bible, the cross, and of course the titular villain.
You’d think those would be perfectly legit reasons to keep the game on the Famicom. However, I’m going to argue that logic. Devil World’s concept is that a dragon is trying to stop a devil from taking over the world. That’s it. Had they left out the biblical references in the North American release, it would not have affected the game. The bibles could’ve been changed to keys and the crosses could’ve been changed to magic, and it would not have affected the game in the slightest.
It’s a shame Nintendo of America didn’t think that through, because Devil World is a very solid, albeit mostly unoriginal, maze game. It may get tiresome after a while due to its relatively short gameplay pattern, but it’s still fun for what it is: a beefed-up Pac-Man clone.
Rating: 8/10
Fun fact: Tamagon appears as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee but was only distributed via a giveaway Nintendo held in the early 2000’s. Now he’s only obtainable via a cheat device.