Binary Land

Hudson may no longer be in the limelight these days, there's definitely something to be said for their unique legacy of games, both well-known and obscure. One such title was Binary Land, originally released for the FM-7 computer in 1983. It was later ported to a variety of systems including the MSX and Famicom, and Sharp X68000.

Your objective is to guide a couple in love through a variety of vertically divided mazes to reach the goal at the top of the screen. What made this puzzle game particularly unique was that you controlled both characters at the same time and their movements mirror each other. So depending on which character you selected on the title screen, your counterpart will move in the opposite direction when moving horizontally. If you go left, your partner moves right and vice versa. This mechanic adds an interesting layer of strategy because the mazes are asymmetrical, which means that walls and entryways don't match up perfectly on each side. So essentially, the main challenge of the game is figuring out how to coordinate both characters as they traverse the hazards in each round.

there’s a new post up at the world’s greatest obscure videogames review blog! todays subject features three things that were more popular in videogames during the eighties than they are now: mazes, penguins and romance. go and read about it~!