Finally, a DS game that’s got some kick. After being disappointed with the severely non-taxing difficulty level in games like Princess Peach and Dig Dug, it’s great to play a game where it doesn’t treat you with kid gloves just because the subject matter is fine for a U-rated audience. Perhaps this is to be expected though, because Lode Runner on the DS is a remake of both “Lode Runner” and “Championship Lode Runner”. These were games from the 8-bit age of NES and Commodore and Apple, where challenge came not from how long you could slog through an epic journey in a vast game-world, but instead from instant-death sprite collision and insane puzzles on simple 2D levels that, if you were lucky, scrolled across a few screens.

In this vein, Lode Runner still involves guiding a little man around a series of ladders, ropes, and platforms in search of gold, whilst running (and digging) away from robots. Gun-free, gore-free and ultimately frill-free, it’s very suited to a handheld platform, with simple controls and even simpler graphics.

A lot of the later versions in the Lode Runner series attempted to spruce the game up with fancy visuals such as those on the SNES or even a move to 3D, like on the PS2 and GameCube’s “Cubic Lode Runner” or the N64 version, but on the DS, it has stayed almost entirely faithful to the originals. The only real change to the game proper is that the second screen shows a zoomed-out view of the complete level, complete with tiny icons representing the position of the player, the enemy robots and the location of the gold “lodes”. In the original it was quite easy to run straight into an oncoming robot because there was very little warning whilst pegging it across the screen. So, no excuses like that here, although sometimes it is tempting to navigate looking only at the map view, but this is not nearly as easy as it first seems and best avoided. The game design can be modified from a choice of three styles: Original, Arrange and Pop. Original is pretty basic and the music samples are tinny and harsh. Arrange has much more details on the characters and screen items. Pop is a much more colourful affair.

So why should you buy an (almost) direct port of a couple of old 8-bit games? Mostly because it’s a genius concept. The levels may look like standard arcade stuff, but apart from the first couple, the 50 in Lode Runner gradually get increasingly mentally challenging throughout, although evading the robots is normally more puzzling than how to actually reach the gold. However, in Championship Lode Runner, it sticks you straight in the deep end from the very start with some devious level design that will make even the most hardened puzzle-freaks do mental back-flips. The gold is often seemingly impossible to reach and the satisfaction of figuring it out is immense. This makes it unusual in the platform genre, so it really stands out from the crowd.

The little gold-digger can move along platforms, climb ladders, shuffle along ropes and fall the entire height of the screen, amazingly without accelerating or squishing on impact. However he can’t jump. So to escape the clutches of the chasing drones, he digs through to a level below, as long as it’s earth and not rock. He can dig to his left or to his right at ground level, but not straight down or through walls on either side, so (and here’s where you need to pay attention) just digging one hole and jumping down will only work if there’s no earth underneath. Otherwise you are literally stuffed - into the hole you dug - because you can’t dig further down. So when a bit of gold is buried deep in the earth, it requires careful thought and planning on how to reach it without getting caught out. Hanging around and thinking about it doesn’t help, because either the robots will get you, or your little guy will get buried when the freshly dug earth respawns again after a few seconds. Panic is the major enemy here and the game is all the better for it. Heart-pounding gameplay on the DS? Sign-up here.

The respawning earth can be used to escape the robots briefly – dig a hole before they reach you and they will fall in. They get stuck rather than falling any farther. They try and climb out, but if the earth regenerates before they do, they go to robot heaven and reappear at the top of the screen, ready to relentlessly track you down again. Hudson must have been listening when Ferris said, “You can never go too far”, so if the robots get the gold before you, they’ll pick it up leaving you wondering which robots you have to lure to their doom to reclaim the gold. Once all the gold has been successfully retrieved, there’s a ranking based on time spent. Get used to seeing that B or C a lot until a level has been nailed a few times – to S-rank them, careful thought into robot movement patterns is needed, along with all the cunning you can muster. Challenge is present in abundance and promotes Lode Runner above the norm. The level designs are brilliant and will bring a smile to anyone's face when each one is figured out.

There are a lot of extras. For starters, a comprehensive level editor which uses the touch screen (unlike the main game), and makes it easy to create a level, but also shows how well thought out the developer levels are, since building meaningful puzzles isn’t easy. A good visual tutorial mode explains everything from the basic buttons used, to the more advanced techniques needed to get through the harder stages. Then there’s a pure puzzle mode. No robots to escape from – just the gold to reach whilst still maintaining a path back to the top of the screen. These puzzles look incredibly basic; for example the first one takes place in the space of six blocks. Yet it still takes a few goes to figure out. Just when technique and timing appears to be about right, the next puzzle will throw in a whole new level of confusion. We preferred the frantic nature of the main game to the puzzles, but they are still good in their own right.

Since this will probably never get released outside of Japan, it’s worth noting that there are three save slots. Use one for Lode Runner and the other for Championship Lode Runner, since saving progress in one save slot for one of the games tragically wipes any previously saved progress in the other game (in that same save slot). Stages available as start points only become available if progress has been saved before losing all lives, so save after each complete level, when prompted, to retain some semblance of sanity. The game is hard enough without the above foibles tripping you up. The Japanese menus are initially tricky but then fairly straightforward with experience. Or you could look in our Features/Translations section for a complete breakdown of the menus.

Lode Runner DS will keep you up till the small hours, with that great “I can nail this level, I know it”-type feeling. It has everything it needs to ensure an addictive handheld title, from the simple concept to the rock-hard level design. Even replaying levels that have already been vanquished remains fun and challenging, so it’s a keeper after the first playthrough. Highly recommended for anyone into puzzles or platformers and anyone looking for something they haven’t seen on the DS before.

Score: 8/10

For a translation of the Loderunner DS menus, click here

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