Almost every game that Nintendo makes comes to America. Almost. There are a few that didn't make it over here. One such title is Devil World.
Devil World is a maze game in the same vein as Pac-Man, but with religious undertones. Players control Tamagon, a dragon that decides to attack the devil's world. The maze has dots, crosses, and bibles. Grabbing crosses and bibles enables Tamagon to breathe fire and eat the dots. The devil's minions not only patrol the maze, like Pac-Man's ghosts, but some of them actually move the maze, too, adding a new challenge to the game. Tamagon could easily get squished between a wall and the maze barrier.
Nintendo released this game in Japan and Europe, but decided that us Americans might be offended by the theme of it. But let me ask you this question: how sensitive are we? We have movies like The Omen, The Exorcist, and Rosemary's Baby. But wait, those were movies, and not video games, and as we all know, video games are for kids. I used to be opposed to the rating system, but if we had the rating system in place, maybe this game would be out here.
Devil World is not the only title made by Nintendo to not see our shores. Another game, Fire Emblem, didn't see American soil until 2003, when it was released internationally on the Game Boy Advance. We got the anime movie long before the game, though. Before that, the game series was released exclusively in Japan. But Fire Emblem eventually made it over here.
Nintendo decided Devil World would not fly in America because of the use of crosses as power-ups. Weird, because there are other games released in the NES era that have crosses in them. In Legend Of Zelda, the earliest designs of Link had a cross on his shield. In Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link, a cross is an item that allows you to fight ghosts. I'm not finished there. Do you remember Ghosts 'N Goblins? The cross was the ultra powerful weapon, and the final boss was named Lucifer. One of his minions was named Satan. They were even listed in the Official Nintendo Player's Guide. Do I need to go further? Midway released an arcade game called Satan's Hollow 1982. It played a lot like Galaga, and dare I say it, it was fun to play, too.
This Examiner learned that Devil World was released on the Virtual Console in Japan and Europe, but not here in America, not yet. I think we're ready. If it can appear on those illegally made TV game systems with the Nintendo games on them, if the ROMs can appear on the internet, Nintendo doesn't need to treat it like it's deep dark secret anymore. Nintendo, let us play it.
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