Taito’s cutesy Don Doko Don joins the arcade Archives

Gnome Sweet Gnome

For this week’s Arcade Archives entry, publisher Hamster is returning to the seemingly endless catalog of coin-op kings Taito — Now available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, it’s one of the studio’s many, many cutesy co-op platformers: Don Doko Don!

Released to the arcade market in 1989, before eventually being ported to the Famicom and PC Engine platforms, is a co-op single-screen platformer, in keeping with Taito’s similar releases Bubble Bobble, Tumble Pop!, and The Fairyland Story. One or two players don (no pun intended) the pointy hats of hard-working gnomes Bob & Jim, who have taken it upon themselves to rescue the abducted king and princess of Merry Land. And so, with mallet in hand, the non-plumbing bros. set out to face an army of particularly angry-looking mushrooms. They’re certainly not fun guys…

…THEY’RE CERTAINLY NOT FUN GI s

…THEY’RE CERTAINLY NOT

As they make their way through the kingdom, Jim & Bob use their mallets to stun the opposition, before tossing the confuddled baddies into each other to knock them out, where they will be replaced with point-boosting fruits. If this all sounds familiar… Well, a lot of these Taito platformers were incredibly similar, albeit with their own adorable sense of style, punctuated by fun pixel art and jolly soundtracks. Oh, and — of course — if you dawdle too long on a stage, an unkillable villain appears. Though clearly not ওas frightening as the notorious Baron von Blubba.

Don Doko Don was followed by a single player side-scrolling sequel in 1992, titled Don Doko Don 2, naturally. This title wo⛄uld not see the neon of arcade centers outside of Japan, and was also not ༒featured in the excellent Taito Legends retro compilations, rendering it something of a rarity today.

Don Doko Don is available to download now on PS4 and N🍃inte🦂ndo Switch, priced at $8.