Climber (1988)

A great game with much better gameplay than you would expect from an LCD. The object is to climb your way up and to eventually fight a dragon. You have to climb 25 levels to reach the top, this is accomplished by jumping to upper platforms, you can only jump to platforms that are to the top left or the top right, if there is a platform right above you, you can break it by jumping against it twice. When you jump to an upper level the whole screen scrolls down one level, which is a bit confusing at first, since it can't do it in a smooth transition due to the limits of the LCD, but later on it works fine. You have to avoid the blockmen by jumping over them or stay out of there way altogether. There are bats flying from either sides which can only hurt you when you are jumping. The platforms are constantly randomly growing, without which you would constantly get yourself trapped when you would break too many platforms for instance. When you fall or get killed you will fall 7 levels down and a miss is registered. Once you reach the top, a bird will fly by at the top of the screen and you get 2 chances to jump up to it rewarding you with a free lift and 20 bonus points.

After this it starts from the bottom again. Only when you've completed this sequence 5 times, which is quite a lot to accomplish, will you be able to fight the dragon at the top. You'll have to jump up to the bird again and hanging from the bird are then allowed to hit the dragon using the up and down buttons. Sometimes thorny plants appear which must be avoided as well. Later on moving platforms are also thrown in for good measure, which are really a bit too difficult too handle for my taste. When you're lucky you'll encounter a flashing platform which, when jumped onto, allows you to rise 7 levels at once! It is just too bad that the game has one very irritating feature, which is the 7 level fall, sometimes you will want avoid an oncoming blockman and instinctively jump back through the hole through which you entered a second ago, this is always punished by a 7 level drop, the annoying thing about this that you know for certain that there is solid ground underneath that hole but will fall 7 levels nevertheless. Despite this flaw a commendable game.

This game bears some gameplay resemblance to Super Mario Bros, it also has the same 'cheat' function that enables you to start at stage 6 (which is after climbing 25 levels 5 times), this is accomplished by holding down the jump button while pressing the game button. The sound can also be turned off by pressing left and down while pressing the game button.