Kidnapping, giant mazes and a Kiwi with a bow and arrow.
Its all part of the surreal world of Taitos NewZealand Story…
Cute smile, vicious bite.
Thats the best way to describeThe NewZealand Story,a colourful platformer first released by Taito in 1988.
Consider the scenario first.
Mazes are narrow and full of hazards.
Spikes will kill you with a solitary touch.
Stretches of water will drown you if you dont swim through them quickly enough.
The NewZealand Storyemerged towards the end of a second golden age for Taito.
Its just possible that the whole game takes place in that birds drug-addled mind.
How else do we explain the sequences where Tiki rides around on the back of a laser-spitting duck?
Like just about everything inThe NewZealand Story,the area bosses are refreshingly off-beat.
Youll also face a robot doll and a huge stone octopus that squirts ink at you.
Naturally, the globs of ink quickly take on the form of deadly bats.
(We told you this was a strange game.)
All we do know is that the result is a quirky, tricky yet insidiously addictive title.
Instead, well leave you with a final conundrum.
But who would buy kiwis from a leopard seal in a beige hat?
And more troublingly still, what on earth would they do with them?
Its yet another mystery in a game packed full of them.
Now, if youll excuse us, were off to steal a UFO from a cat…
