Mr. Do!’s Castle (Atari 2600)

Mr. Do!’s Castle (Atari 2600)


Mr. Do! became quite the popular arcade character after the first game featuring him in 1982 simply titled Mr. Do! The game was popular enough that to speed along a sequel, an existing game in development was modified to be a Mr. Do! game by changing the graphics. The game was originally to be titled Knights vs. Unicorns. The Japanese version became Mr. Do! versus Unicorns and the U.S. release was called Mr. Do!'s Castle. Mr. Do!'s Castle features Mr. Do! climbing up and down ladders in a castle. The goal is to collect cherries by using a hammer to knock out blocks that contain them. The holes left behind can then be used to trap the Unicorn monsters which can then be smashed with another block. Mr. Do!'s Castle was released in 1982 and was ultimately ported to a wide variety of contemporary platforms including the Atari 2600. Unfortunately, the Atari 2600 version just isn't that good. The Atari 2600 was a limited platform anyway but during the 1982 and 1983 time period in general, many games were rushed to try to take advantage of the video game craze. The graphics were never going to be close to the arcade version but they are hardly even recognizable. The game play is not significantly better. While the arcade version is a fun game I would steer clear of the 2600 version and if you want a home version try one of the 8-bit computer versions such as the Commodore 64 port. Really though, you might as well emulate the original arcade version. Screen shots above are from the Atari 2600 version of Mr. Do's Castle.