Yo! Noid

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The Noid and his yo-yo making their way through a N.Y. harbor.

Yo! Noid is a single-player platform video game released in the United States for the NES by Capcom during November, 1990. It stars the Noid, the former clayanimation mascot of Domino's Pizza, traipsing through fourteen different side-scrolling levels throughout various locations of New York City to battle his evil duplicate for the public good, and for the massive pizza reward. The game is a modified version of an earlier Japanese release called Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru (for details, see below).

[edit] Gameplay

The Noid has no lifemeter and loses a life by enemy contact. Levels also have time limits. He's equipped with a short range yo-yo for offense but can gather magic points by collecting scrolls and use them for screen-clearing special attacks or very rare power-ups, both kinds of which are found in large scrolls opened with the yo-yo. Extra lives are awarded at certain scores. Most levels are travelled on foot but one features a skateboard, two a gyrocopter and a part of one a cross between a large weight and a pogo stick.

As was the case with many Capcom games based on cartoon characters, Yo! Noid had excellent cartoon graphics and sound effects in its time. Its high difficulty, though, made it a feat for anyone but the most seasoned player. The back cover of the instruction manual included a $1 off Domino's Pizza coupon.

[edit] Contests

Every odd-numbered round ends with a pizza eating contest in the form of a card game that the game's instruction manual never bothered to explain. The final stage pits the Noid against his evil duplicate. Losing a contest causes the loss of a life and restarts the level, but winning one with the opponent's meter completely empty earns an extra continue.

Four types of bonus cards are scattered through the levels, most of them hidden and revealable by a yo-yo strike:
II - Multiplies a card value by 2.
III - Multiplies a card value by 3.
[!] (gray border) - Red pepper. Wastes the opponent's card.
[!] (red border) - Hot sauce. Wastes the opponent's card and decreases his pizza meter by one.

The player can have up to nine "II" and "III" cards each in stock, but condiments don't stack. Upon winning a pizza eating contest, you will get bonus points for any unused special cards, if you have any.

There is a bug in the game during certain contest scenarios. If the opponent has one card left, playing the hot sauce card will lock up the game after both cards have been played. This can be faithfully replicated throughout the game. Usually the side with no cards left to play loses the round.

[edit] Bonus stages

There are secret and progressively more difficult "Whack-a-Mole" stages in some levels, accessible by jumping into invisible portals. The Noid walks around a top-down view area with 12 holes in the floor, hitting moles as they pop out of their holes. Hitting enough of them within the time limit completes the level and earns an extra continue. Failing costs a life and restarts the level.

[edit] Hanamaru

Hanamaru and his bird companion making their way through a tropical island. Note the simpler graphics.

The duels received the greatest changes.

Yo! Noid is a localization of the lesser-known Masked Ninja Hanamaru, a Famicom game released by Capcom in Japan on March 16, 1990. Much of the presentation, but none of the game mechanics, were changed and it was released in the rest of the world as Yo! Noid.

In the process, the game gained coherence in locations but lost it in plot and character design. Pizza eating contests were originally battles.