Dark Adventure (Majū no Ōkoku, "The Kingdom of the Evil Beast" in Japan and Devil World outside North America) is a 1987 arcade action game produced by Konami.
The esteemed archeologist Dr. Condor has uncovered a mysterious casket from an expedition, said to contain a powerful Devil King. Deciding to reveal his discovery to the public, Dr. Condor opens the casket during a press conference, which results in an aura of demonic energy that transports Dr. Condor, his assistant Zorlock, and a reporter named Labryna into the world of the Devil King inside said casket.
Depending on regional difference, the game allows one to three players at the same time, taking on the roles of Dr. Condor (who gets a sword), Zorlock (armed with a spear) or Labryna (she cracks a whip) as they battle their way through hordes of monsters before confronting the Devil King in order to earn their exit.
Dark Adventure contain examples of:
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Two of the playable characters, Dr. Condor and Zorlock, who goes toe-to-toe against the Devil King's army.
- Bat Out of Hell: Large bats are the first Airborne Mook enemies you encounter, after slaughtering hordes of Minotaurs and escaping into a cave.
- Beating A Dead Player: In the event of your character dying onscreen from lack of food and turning into a skeleton, expect onscreen enemies nearby to repeatedly rag on your carcass until you respawn.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Our heroes form a Chromatic Arrangement: Condor is blue, Labryna is red, and Zorlock is green.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: Curiosity sends the cast to the Devil King's monster-infested world and must battle their way out, but the point still stands.
- Clown-Car Base: You can expect a small outpost (whose sprite size is barely twice your characters') to repeatedly spawn dozens and dozens of minotaurs until you destroy the structure.
- Critical Annoyance: Taken to the extreme where your adventure comes with a hunger meter - as you progress, your life bar depletes on it's own, and replenishes itself if you pick up food items, only to start depleting after a short while. Should your meter run out, you die right on the spot, keeling over and turning into a skeleton... time to use another life.
- Dem Bones: Walking skeletons shows up in the second half of the game, when you're nearer to the Devil King's quarters.
- Difficulty by Region: The game underwent extensive changes for its Japanese and International releases, titled Majū no Ōkoku and Devil World (not to be confused with the first-party NES game of the same name) respectively, after the original version apparently underperformed in North America. Devil World ditches the melee weapons of the original in favor of giving each character a gun, replaces individual power-up items in favor of a Gradius-style power-up selection meter, and is completely linear in its overall structure (as opposed to Dark Adventure, which forced players to choose from multiple paths and figure out the correct way by themselves).
- Fake Ultimate Mook: The giant lava monsters early on looks intimidating, what with them towering over your players and the common Minotaur enemies, but they're nowhere as tough as they appear. A weak slash or whip will remove their entire arms, you're unlikely to miss a hit because of their size, and rapidly pressing the attack buttons will defeat them in no time.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: You can restore your life bar by picking up cans of soft drink or slabs of meat. No explaination why would a fantasy-themed world would have soft-drink cans from our world, though.
- Impossible Item Drop: Besides having soda cans... what are the odds that you can pick up rocket launchers and grenades in a medieval-themed world?
- Lethal Lava Land: There's an underground cavern where a pool of lava surrounds the area, constantly spewing flaming projectiles at you while you try finding the exit. And another room which is made of lava, with a series of floating platforms serving as a bridge that you need to rush across.
- Living Lava: The volcano caverns have gigantic lava golems as Giant Mook enemies. They lose body parts as they receive damage, the lava on their body turning into volcanic rock before crumbling, and when they're defeated they collapse into a pile of broken rocks.
- Living Statue: The Devil King's throne room is filled with statues of demons, all which comes to life as soon as you enter.
- A Molten Date with Death: One area in the game is a lake of lava, and the only way across is a bridge made of floating platforms that will go under the lava within seconds when you're standing on it. If you fail to move or jump to another platform in time, you get melted instantly.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: There are gargoyles serving as Airborne Mooks in stages where you attempt crossing a lava river in a volcano. They're stronger than the bat enemies in previous encounters.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Devil King's foot soldiers consist mostly of Minotaurs, which you fight entire hordes as you proceed. They come in different colors, from green to grey and orange, with the green varieties as the weak and easily-killed goomba.
- Respawn on the Spot: Whenever you die and chose to continue, you respawn precisely where you're killed.
- Shout-Out:
- The Japanese game posters of Majū no Ōkoku is based on the movie posters for Return of the Jedi.
- Dr. Condor is based on Indiana Jones.
- Stripped to the Bone: Whenever you lose a life (either from hunger or getting hit by enemy attacks), you then turn into a skeleton onscreen. Except if you fall into lava, of course.
- Taken for Granite: The Devil King turns into a statue upon defeat and immediately breaks into bits.
- Throne Room Throwdown: Since the main antagonist is, well, the Devil "King", the game's final arena you confront him in is his throne room where he'll summon demon minions to fight you first, seated on his throne at the other side of the arena the whole time. If you win and make your way across, the King then gets up and attacks.
- Trapped in Another World: The backstory of the game have the heroes, Dr. Condor, Labryna and Zorlock transported to the Devil King's world after Dr. Condor decides to open a mysterious casket.
- Weapon Specialization: Dr. Condor swings a sword, Zorlock uses a spear, and Labryna cracks a whip.
- "What Now?" Ending: After defeating the Devil King, the game then ends with Dr. Condor, Labryna and Zorlock escaping the Devil King's world, with the next scene having them stranded on top of the Statue of Liberty. And then the credits roll (though it's assumed they were rescued via helicopter at some point later).
- Win to Exit: The only way to escape the Devil King's domain is to defeat him in his chambers, right at the end of the stage.
- Zerg Rush: The Devil King's minions prefers relying on their numbers to overwhelm the players, but it rarely works since they're not too durable.
