Rod Land

Jaleco's answer to Bubble Bobble, Rod Land (known as Yousei Monogatari Rod Land (妖精物語ロッドランド, lit. ""Rod Land: A Fairy Tale" in Japan) is a platformer arcade game. Rit and Tam must save their kidnapped mother.

The gameplay is fairly simple. On each screen, there is a set amount of enemies, and you must kill all of them to advance to the next screen. Your weapon is a magic rod that can immobilize enemies. You use the rod to beat enemies against the floor, or each other, until they poof. The magic rods are also capable of creating ladders, since your character cannot jump.

Tropes used in Rod Land include:

• AI Roulette: Sometimes the enemies swarm you and kill you to death immediately. Other times they just derp around at the tops of ladders and stare into space.
• Ambidextrous Sprite
• Arcade Game: Originally. It was later ported to just about everything that existed in the early 90's, including the NES, the Game Boy and the Amiga.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: All the bosses.
• Badass Adorable: Rit and Tam beat up sharks with magic wands.
• Black Bead Eyes
• Blind Idiot Translation: "Mom! We will rescue." And other such gems.
• Co-Op Multiplayer: You can play by yourself, or cooperate with a partner.
• Collision Damage
• Damsel in Distress: Rit and Tam's mom.
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Emulate the arcade version. Assign "insert coin" to desired key...
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Kind of a given.
• Excuse Plot: Mom is kidnapped!
• Hair Decorations: Rit and Tam each have a headband.
• Kawaisa: Even the bosses are cute.
• Mercy Invincibility: When killed and respawned or transported to a new level, you are temporarily invulnerable.
• New Game+: Complete the arcade version and you'll get a code for the second quest where you have to rescue Rit and Tam's father.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Getting hit will cost you a life every time. This is basically the only thing that makes the game hard.
• Scoring Points: Points are your reward for picking up flowers and killing enemies.
• Spelling Bonus: If you collect all the flowers in a level before you kill all the enemies, the enemies transform into Kaburas. When Kaburas are killed, they drop letters. If you collect enough to spell the word "EXTRA," you get an extra life.
• Stalked by the Bell: If you take too long to complete a level, the game yells at you to hurry up.
• Sugar Bowl: The game's world, even in the later levels.
• Super-Deformed
• Victory Pose: At the end of every level.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair