Taito‘s 1988 arcade release, The NewZealand Story, is a super-cute platform game featuring a kiwi called Tiki, who is on a rescue mission to save his friends who have been kidnapped by a Leopard Seal. Tiki can jump and shoot arrows from his bow (as kiwis do), as well as commandeer various different floating or flying vehicles to get around in.

The NewZealand Story was an instant hit with gamers and is still much loved today.

Gameplay revolves around exploration of big, scrolling levels, looking for the exit, and with a boss battle waiting at the end of each section. There are four main sections in total, each with four fairly sizeable levels.

The graphics are beautifully drawn, crisp, and colourful – everything you’d come to expect from Taito (who are masters of ‘cute’ and colourful).

Gameplay is actually quite tough; The NewZealand Story is much more challenging than it might appear on the surface. It’s definitely not a kid’s game. You have to know how to ‘float’ and how to effectively shoot your arrows to really get anywhere. Not to mention evade everything coming at you.

The NewZealand Story is popular enough to have been converted to quite a few consoles and home systems. Ocean Software made a bunch in 1989/90. I’ll be looking at a few of those in due course.

More: The NewZealand Story on Wikipedia