Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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A playthrough of Hal's 1989 puzzle game for the NES, Adventures of Lolo.

When the Great Devil declared his intentions to destroy the kingdom of Eden, Eden's king sent his daughter, Princess Lala, on a trip to secure allies for the fight. As she's returning home, she's kidnapped by the Great Devil. Her husband and escort, Prince Lolo, "is not blessed with strength or agility, but possesses great courage, high IQ and a lot of patience. Can LOLO save LALA after solving an almost endless series of mazes?"

Adventures of Lolo is a Sokoban-inspired puzzler that sees Lolo, a blue ball with hands and feet, making his way to the top of a ten-story castle where the Great Devil is holding the princess.

Every floor has five single-screen puzzle rooms in which Lolo has to collect all of the hearts to open a treasure chest containing a jewel that'll unlock the exit. Each room is full of enemies and traps, and Lolo has to create a safe path through the hazards by pushing around blocks and making thoughtful use of the powers (like shots that trap enemies in eggs, bridges, and boulder-smashing mallets) gained by collecting specific hearts.

The monsters all have ways to make Lolo's life miserable - some will fire at him if he hasn't properly blocked their lines of sight, while others give chase and kill him on impact or trap him in dead ends. The complexity of the puzzles gradually increases as you make your way up the tower, and many toward the end are creative in the ways they force you to manipulate the enemies' movements. It takes a fair amount of effort and focus to make progress, but once you're familiar with the rules, the gameplay becomes quite addictive.

I loved the Lolo series as a kid. It was great brain candy that scratched an itch that the NES's reflex-based action carts couldn't reach, and the character-driven presentation gave the games a sense of personality that you didn't find in stuff like youtu.be/94J97M9_hIs and youtu.be/wylDuj392Gk. In that regard, Lolo reminds me of Irem's youtu.be/pBtt3NTsLxM.

This version of Adventures of Lolo is notable for being the first Lolo game to be released in North America, despite being the fifth entry in Hal's Eggerland (エッガーランド) series that got its start on the MSX in 1985. Its stages are largely based on puzzle designs seen in earlier entries.

Lolo and Lala also made several cameo appearances in the Kirby series, the first being in youtu.be/i2zzwooB_NM where the couple serves as bosses of the second stage.

Adventures of Lolo is a polished, well-designed puzzle game. If you like to think, give it a try!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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