PrinceWatercress plays Rod Land (Game Boy) - Part 1 of 4

A shame this didn't come to the States. Fun game!

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When you start a one-player game, you'll have a choice between Tam and Rit. Both characters play exactly the same. The aim of the game is to rescue Tam and Rit's mother, who is trapped in a tower. There are 40 levels, or "scenes," and you must beat all of them to rescue her.

Left and Right let you move left and right, while Up and Down allow you to climb up and down ladders. A and B allow you to use the rod, while Up+A or B and Down+A or B allow you to create a ladder going up or down. You can only create one magic ladder at a time, and if you make another one, the previous one will disappear and the new one will appear where you created it. Keep in mind that enemies can use ladders, including the one that you created, so be ready to move.

The first enemies that you see that look like cat slimes just move back and forth and also climb up and down ladders when they want to. You can zap them with the wand, then keep pressing the button to slam them back and forth until they turn into an item. Sometimes they will turn into fruits that give you bonus points, and other times, they will turn into weapons such as bombs that you can move towards to send them towards other enemies to defeat them. Whatever you do, don't let enemies touch you, as this game is a "one hit and you're dead" affair and getting hit will cost you a life.

There are sixteen flowers in a scene, and when you collect them all, the enemies all temporarily turn into slimes that move towards you. If you defeat them, they turn into circles with letters that cycle between E-X-T-R-A. If you can spell EXTRA, not only will you be able to end the scene early and go on to the next one, but you'll also get an extra life and 10,000 points. If you want to play for score, this is how you do it. Just be careful, as these enemies can still hurt you and cost you a life, and they won't keep their blob-like slime forms forever.

The level usually ends when all enemies are defeated. If you take too much time, the enemies change into more aggressive ones that will do their darndest to try to destroy you, and even those enemies will eventually fly away and leave you moving on to the next scene, anyway.

The shark enemies will charge at you if you happen to be across from them, if you give them the chance.

Make sure you are standing above the balloons so that you can ride them to higher areas. 

The worm enemies with the horns will charge at you, much like the shark enemies, and they're much better at doing it, too. 

At the end of every tenth scene is a boss. The first boss is a set of six crocodiles. You'll want to stand two tiles away from one and keep hitting it with the rod, not only to defeat the crocodiles, but to attack the birds that they spit out. When you take one out, it makes it easier for other crocodiles to ascend or descend to your level so you don't have to create ladders to get around.