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Released In: 1990 Avoid the Noid! Avoid the Noid! Oh wait... you ARE the Noid. Armed with only a yo-yo, you must run around New York City and defeat imposter Noids in pizza-eating contests. That is, if you can make it through the ridiculously hard sidescrolling levels. Syd Lexia: I remember seeing this game at the video store when I was ten and thinking to myself, "Holy crap, it's the Noid! I've got to rent this game!" And I did. It's a pretty fun game, if not surprisingly difficult, but I'm still rather embarrassed that I decided a video game might be enjoyable because it is had a familiar corporate mascot on it. Would I have been just as excited if the game featured Joe Camel or Poppin' Fresh, The Pillsbury Doughboy instead? Perhaps. Come to think of it, I'd probably STILL play a game starring Poppin' Fresh. I command that you make one for me... NOW! Valdronius: The Noid was the mascot for Domino’s pizza until the studio who animated this monstrosity asked for more money than Domino's was willing to spend. That didn't stop the Noid from making the transition to video games though. Depending on how naïve you are, you may not be aware that Domino’s isn’t terrible popular in Japan. In Japan this game is known as Masked Ninja Hanamaru, and was modified for a Western audience. Possibly one of the coolest things about this game are the “boss battles” at the end of each level. I have the term in quotations, because it’s more of a card duel than an actual battle. You know, back before Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon ruined the concept. You take on a rival Noid in a pizza-eating contest, using items you picked up during the level. It’s pretty much just a numbers game with a couple twists, but it’s still good fun. greeneyedzeke: The Noid will go down in history as one of the most bizarre and polarizing corporate mascots ever dreamt up by an advertising board. I mean, really, what the fuck was he supposed to represent? Anyway, some people loved his wacky antics and others were less enthusiastic about his existence. Somehow though, Capcom saw fit to give him his own sidescrolling adventure game (i.e. they localized some Japanese game by replacing all the sprites with Noid ones) and if Capcom knows any genre, it’s the platformer. So what we ended up with here was an odd Domino's commercial with generally sound gameplay mechanics. You don’t have to avoid this Noid! Sorry... I had to. |
