Developed by Vic Tokai, and based on the “Magical Hat” manga series by Yōji Katakura, Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken was first released, by Sega, for the Megadrive in Japan in 1990. It is a colourful platform game with smooth movement, easy-to-understand controls, and gameplay that is fairly forgiving overall.

Vic Tokai failed to secure the Magical Hat license for the game outside of Japan, though, so decided to completely re-skin and re-structure it for a release in the West. That game became “Decap Attack“, which was released in the rest of the world in 1991.

The graphics in Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken are cartoony, crisp and colourful. The first few levels I thought had a ‘Wonder Boy‘ look and feel to them.

The jump/punch character movement is excellent, once you get used to the way momentum builds up, and the rest of the game’s detail is offered-up in the form of unusual level furniture (springboards; swinging poles; collapsing bridges; etc.); boss battles; bonus games, and special item pickups.

Pressing the ‘C’ button brings up the item menu by default. From here you can get descriptions of each item and what it does, and from there you can boost your abilities, or do something special, by using items.

So which is the better game? Magical Hat or Decap Attack? I’d say that they are BOTH different and interesting enough to be worth playing, and neither seems to particularly eclipse the other. Magical Hat has better use of colour, IMHO, but lacks the oddball humour of Decap Attack.

More: Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken on Wikipedia