Devil World is a maze video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in Japan on October 5, 1984 and in Europe on July 15, 1987. The game was also released on the Wii's Virtual Console in Japan on January 22, 2008 and in Europe and Australia on October 31, 2008. The game has similar gameplay to that of Pac-Man. It is the only game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto that has not been released in North America, despite the fact that the game is simple and in English. This was due to Nintendo of America's strict policies on the use of religious icons in games, which were at their strictest level at the time of the game's original release, but there would eventually be a North American release for the first time in October 2023 as part of the Nintendo Switch Online lineup.
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Tamagon is a green dragon infiltrating the Devil World, to advance through stages Tamagon must collect all of the dots in each stage while avoiding walking monsters, however he’s not defenceless - collecting crosses give Tamagon the power to blow fire at foes.
The catch is, the screen moves! On top of the screen is The Devil who is instructing demons to use pulley’s to literally move the screen to the left, right, down and up. This creates an additional layer of complexity, you’re simultaneously juggling the navigation of foes, collection dots and power-ups as well as avoiding being squished against a moving border.
However, this also means you can be left needlessly waiting for the screen to move the direction necessary to collect the final dots. There are also a few Bonus screens that involve collecting Bibles and placing them into a Cross.
It’s easy to see why this was passed on for localisation from Nintendo of America with the religious imagery and themes.
I also think it would have been difficult competing with an already established household name. It’s easy to sell buyers on Tennis, Soccer, Baseball and Donkey Kong. Hard to say, here’s our own PAC-Man.
PAC-Man is a much more immediate maze game that is easy to play but difficult to master, has a simple risk/reward system but has enemy AI and a maze to memorise.
Devil’s World while good, may have a few too many levels of complication in its design.
Devil world is a pretty innovative little take on Pac-Man. The challenge is not so much keeping track of enemies, but instead paying attention to the way the maze is moving and finding a viable route.
I could see myself revisiting this as a short time waster; much like many other arcade games.
And you actually need to pick up a cross to get the dots, but unlike Pac-Man, you can actually defend yourself by shooting fireballs at enemies to temporarily stop them.
It's funny how this game has a lot of Christian references, but they're put in a game where you control the cutest fucking dragon ever, fighting against a blue demon with red underwear.
Overall, it's a nice arcade-like title, to pick up and play whenever you feel like controlling a Christian chibi dragon fighting against demons.
On first glance it seems like a cheap knockoff of Pac-Man, but the Devil's screen-moving mechanic, though simple, really transforms the stage and makes the play really engaging. That being said, it's a very simple game, with only one stage and a couple enemy types. Good, challenging fun, but runs it's course pretty quick.