Spin like a master!
Spinmaster (known as Miracle Adventure in Japan) is a side-scrolling action game made by Data East for the Neo Geo arcade.
An ancient treasure map was divided into five pieces and scattered across the globe, where upon being combined will lead to an uncharted island filled with unlimited wealth. Two treasure hunters, Johnny (P1) and his sidekick Tom (P2), known among their fellow hunters as "Spinmasters" due to their skills in kicking ass using their trusty yo-yos, managed to come across one of the five map pieces. But then a rival treasure-seeker by the name of Dr. Dogedo (DePlayne in the localized release), having the other four pieces in his possession and seeking the fifth, kidnaps Johnny's girlfriend Mary, and it's up to the spinmasters to retrieve her while chasing after Dr. Dogedo's minions, defeating them and obtaining the other pieces of the map along the way.
As mentioned above, the playable protagonists, Johnny and Tom, are experts in yo-yo combat, which they can use to take on legions and legions of mooks. Different projectile weapons in a whole variety of designs, from shurikens to boxing gloves, can be collected as well for additional range, as with power upgrades, the ability for a charged shot (even with the default yo-yo) and a useful sliding move both players can use to take out enemies.
The main characters also appeared in the Sega Genesis game Dashin' Desperadoes in different roles.note
The game received a 2010 re-release on the Virtual Console.
Spinmaster contains examples of:
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Johnny and Tom are both expert treasure hunters, infiltrating assorted ruins and tombs and taking out enemies along the way with yo-yos.
- Antlion Monster: One shows up in a desert stage, creating a quicksand pit that drags Johnny and Tom in if they're caught within vincinity.
- Combat Pragmatist: Initially, Dr. Dogedo fights Johnny and Tom on-foot by throwing multiple bombs and doing a jump kick, he wises up later after getting struck twice and starts to fight with the plane's nose — he starts to rely on summoning monsters during subsequent fights after the first stage.
- Damsel in Distress: Mary, who gets abducted by Dr. Dogedo and his minions prior to the game, and the subsequent worldwide rescue mission from Johnny and Tom kicks off the plot.
- Elemental Punch: Attacking with a weapon rapidly and repeatedly will cause Johnny and Tom to throw a punch enhanced in blue flames. This attack is rare and, given how opponents tend to get clobbered with ranged attacks, seeing the duo punch-out opponents is very unlikely.
- Flying on a Cloud: Prior to facing the boss in China, Dr. Dogedo will drop into the stage while riding a cloud to taunt Johnny and Tom. And then leaves as quickly as he pops up as the stage's boss shows up.
- Giant Mook: There are larger, stronger, and visibly more muscular versions of the game's recurring hooded, lowest-level, mooks who's a head taller than his brethren and can take far more punishment before they go down, as well as counter the player's Goomba Stomp attack.
- Goomba Stomp: Another method for defeating enemies (besides with yo-yo's and special weapons) is to jump and stomp on their heads.
- The Great Serpent: Egypt ends with a Wolfpack Boss battle in the form of four gigantic serpents sticking out of baskets (too small for them to fit, somehow) that attacks Johnny and Tom in tandem.
- Hollywood Natives: South America feature spear-throwing natives wearing Incan masks as an enemy type. They're somehow working for Dr. Dogedo, showing up alongside the game's recurring mooks.
- Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Treasure chests are everywhere on the ground. They often even fall from the sky or are carried by flying creatures. Some of the chests are even flying on their own.
- Killer Yoyo: Both Johnny and Tom use yo-yos as their default weapons, which they swings around expertly. Their yo-yos are actually more dangerous than firearms and projectiles used by the mooks.
- Living Statue: Greece have statues of ancient warriors who come to life to attack Johnny and Tom, and the Final Boss of the level is a headless giant statue that came to life by attaching a head of different types.
- Losing Your Head: The game's Final Boss is a giant, headless statue fought in an ancient Greek ruins, until Dr. Dogedo arrives in a series of robotic heads, animating it to fight. After each defeat, Dr. Dogedo switches to a new head, rinse and repeat five times.
- Mayincatec: South America, naturally, is set in one such environment, with Incan carvings and totem poles adorning the area.
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Dogedo is technically a treasure hunter himself, but his get-up and his skills with machinery makes him closer to this.
- Minecart Madness: There's a minecart chase with Johnny and Tom each inside a cart, with various mooks on other carts behind and in front of them, though instead of a mine shaft the level is (oddly) inside an Egyptian pyramid.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on which map you have chosen after defeating Dr. Dogedo for the final time.
- Johnny and Tom finally found the ultimate treasure at the end, excitedly opens it and they celebrate as they found their newfound treasure.
- Johnny and Tom proceeds to eagerly open the treasure... only for the chest to be revealed as an explosive booby trap.... in a Non-Fatal Explosions kind of way. Cue a shot of Johnny and Tom having an Ash Face.
- Johnny and Tom rushes at the treasure and is very excited to open it... only to find out that the chest is cursed and the end credits is a shot of the duo being chased by an angry specter accompanied by some ghosts.
- Mummy: Egypt is set inside a pyramid, and rather frequently Johnny and Tom will battle mummies coming out of their sarcophaguses.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Mary's in-game appearance is drawn in a shoujo-style that contrasts with the cartoony designs of other characters.
- Our Dragons Are Different:
- The Chinese long variety shows up as the stage boss in (where else?) China, where it emerged from a river and will constantly enter and exit the waters to ambush Johnny and Tom.
- One the of five heads of the Final Boss fight is a dragon's head, attached to a headless statue which then animates itself. Considering the statue is in a set of Greek ruins while the dragon head appears Oriental, the resulting combination is as weird as it sounds.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The underground stage inexplicably has a giant blue ghost as it's boss, one which is large enough to take up a whole chunk of the screen but can be damaged by projectile attacks used by Johnny and Tom. Said ghost can also split itself into multiple smaller ghosts periodically to overwhelm the players through numbers, where after killing all but one of those smaller ghosts the last one will revert giant-sized. Repeat until it's defeated.
- Outside Ride: The second half of the first stage takes place atop a jet plane taking off.
- Piranha Problem: The South America level is set in the Amazon rainforest, and predictably multiple piranhas will pop out of the waters to attack from below.
- Poke the Poodle: Dr. Dogedo is a mad-scientist with his henchmen at his beck-and-call who wants to seek the sacred treasure for his nefarious plan — however, said plan is not particularly heinous (and is, infact, progressive and sensible) — he wants to buy out all of the candies and toys so that children from the entire world will be forced into continuous study and healthy balanced meals.
- Reused Character Design: Johnny and Tom are redesigned sprites from the player characters of the earlier DataEast game, Dashin' Desperadoes.
- Red Boxing Gloves: There's a power-up that replaces Johnny and Tom's projectile attacks with red boxing gloves that can pinball enemies into each other. There's also a Smart Bomb that manifests as two gigantic hands in boxing gloves pounding on every enemy in the area.
- Scary Scorpions: The Egyptian desert have plenty of scorpion enemies. Who can fire small globs of purple poison from their tails as a (rather slow) ranged attack.
- Sequential Boss: The Final Boss needs to be defeated five times. Initially a headless Greek statue, the first four phases are randomized per playthrough: an animated vase head that summons enemies, a dragon's head that breathes fire, a Cyclops head that shakes down boulders, and a Medusa head that uses Eye Beams. After all four are beaten, Dr. Dogedo arrives in a hovering ship which he attaches to the statue for the last phase.
- Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change: In the Japanese version, the airport level is set on the United States and is simply called America Airport, but the localized version have it set on Spain and the sign was changed into Madrid Airport. Except... the real life Madrid Airport
◊ is very different from the one shown in the game, being far smaller than the real deal. - Throw Down the Bomblet: During his first battle, Dr. Dogedo will attack Johnny and Tom by throwing massive quantities of bombs, of the Cartoon Bomb variety, from atop the players.
- Unwilling Suspension: After defeating four of Dr. Dogedo's prior forms in the Final Boss fight, Dr. Dogedo then drops Mary into the screen, hanging by a rope, where she remains suspended in mid-air while Johnny and Tom fight the villain.
- We Will Meet Again: The final threat of Dr. Dogedo after his defeat in the last stage, is an exasperated "I'll get you for this!" as his hover-pod crashes out of the screen. The game doesn't have a follow-up though, what happens to Dogedo afterwards is unknown.
- Written Sound Effect: The game have it's share of written effects each time Johnny and Tom scores a hit. Their default yo-yos notably emits a "KRAK! KRAK!" after hitting enemies.
