King’s Valley is a platform/maze game from Konami, released for the MSX computer and MS-DOS in 1985. The game plays is like Lode Runner except it takes place in pyramids instead of Egyptian ruins. As an intrepid adventurer, the player's goal is to collect various gems, while evading angry mummies and other monsters long enough to find the exit to the next level. A port to MS-DOS was made by a Korean company named APROMAN, however it only supports monochrome and CGA graphic cards. Another unofficial port has been released by the Spanish RetroWorks [1] in 2009 for the ZX Spectrum on the site 'World Of Spectrum'[2]. The MSX version of this game can still be run with emulators like BlueMSX [3]. Emulators for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum are available at WOS. King's Valley had been rewritten (not ported or emulated) in 2008 using Java, Online version is playable over internet using the web-browser and Mobile version is downloadable for handhelds, mobiles and communicators with Java installed for personal use [4].
Reviews View More
Enjoyable puzzle platformer with some light resource management.
tucked away in my brain I've had a mental note "check out konami msx games" after hearing about various ones from podcasts over the years and seeing their influence on games like la-mulana. however, I rarely play 80s games anymore, and it wasn't until my gf showed me this game that I decided to dive in. this is a game she played a lot as a kid after her dad showed her it... how he found it I have no clue. he apparently had access to a lot of msx games growing up in the phillippines.
the game itself draws from the same concepts as lode runner did a few years prior: pick up items (gems), avoid guards, dig holes, and get to the exit. king's valley fleshes these concepts out by putting them in an actual platformer. there's now the option to jump over guards, but the guards have this increased mobility as well and can use it to their advantage. there is also a knife item that can be thrown to kill guards as opposed to trapping them in holes lode runner style -- they respawn after a period in both games however. each guard color has its own abilities and distinct personalities; for example, the light red variants move quickly on stairs but struggle to chase you if they can't beeline directly to you, whereas blue guards are much better at plotting a path to your location. depending on the type, there are ways to lead them around and catch them in traps, easily kill them, or lure them away from your destination, and in some cases they'll even get bored of the hunt and leave you be. as there's no time limit you have ample opportunity to use some legitimate stealth tactics here, which makes route-building much more flexible from gem to gem with the variety of options you can apply to each scenario.
digging still makes an appearance here though, and it's now locked behind consumable pickaxe items that must be retrieved. these items along with the knives override your action key, which prevents use of the jump entirely. many of the game's gems lie behind blocks that must be broken through, which requires careful routes planned without gaps from the pickaxe to the digging point. however, digging can't be done directly down or to the side... except in certain situations. while most of the game doesn't require sideways digging, there are a few points that do, and knowing the right way to do it is obtuse. it involves having a ceiling above you and the sideways part you're digging into having a block right above it? or something along those lines. it's also hard to tell which block you're about to dig into sometimes, which can require a reset if the pickaxe offering is particularly slim. it never becomes more than an annoyance, but it's noticable in levels with more complicated structures that require digging.
other than that little bit of jank, I'm surprised how approachable this game is for a mid-80s pc game. other than giving myself a save state at the beginning of each level I never felt pressed by the difficulty or confused by a mechanic. even in the late game there's nothing that truly feels "unfair" in part because of the short runtime: there's only 16 levels. outside of the occasional twist, such as one-way doors that switch directions after use, the game builds every level out of variations on the same building blocks. it's the dynamic guard behavior and the variety of strategies for each level that really makes this one shine as a tight old-school puzzle platformer to conquer in a couple of sessions.
as for ways to play it: I used openmsx, but there's a variety of legal ports. I found out after finishing the game that there's a 60-level floppy version that was released as part of a pack a few years after the original release, though I think the only way to play this one is via emulation. there's also ports as part of konami msx collections to saturn and psx, as well as a mid 00s japanese phone port. worth seeking out and blasting through via any of these methods if you're looking for an older title that plays well. it toys with stealth elements that greatly expand the design palette of the game while still maintaining the simplicity of its arcade-style forebears.
the game itself draws from the same concepts as lode runner did a few years prior: pick up items (gems), avoid guards, dig holes, and get to the exit. king's valley fleshes these concepts out by putting them in an actual platformer. there's now the option to jump over guards, but the guards have this increased mobility as well and can use it to their advantage. there is also a knife item that can be thrown to kill guards as opposed to trapping them in holes lode runner style -- they respawn after a period in both games however. each guard color has its own abilities and distinct personalities; for example, the light red variants move quickly on stairs but struggle to chase you if they can't beeline directly to you, whereas blue guards are much better at plotting a path to your location. depending on the type, there are ways to lead them around and catch them in traps, easily kill them, or lure them away from your destination, and in some cases they'll even get bored of the hunt and leave you be. as there's no time limit you have ample opportunity to use some legitimate stealth tactics here, which makes route-building much more flexible from gem to gem with the variety of options you can apply to each scenario.
digging still makes an appearance here though, and it's now locked behind consumable pickaxe items that must be retrieved. these items along with the knives override your action key, which prevents use of the jump entirely. many of the game's gems lie behind blocks that must be broken through, which requires careful routes planned without gaps from the pickaxe to the digging point. however, digging can't be done directly down or to the side... except in certain situations. while most of the game doesn't require sideways digging, there are a few points that do, and knowing the right way to do it is obtuse. it involves having a ceiling above you and the sideways part you're digging into having a block right above it? or something along those lines. it's also hard to tell which block you're about to dig into sometimes, which can require a reset if the pickaxe offering is particularly slim. it never becomes more than an annoyance, but it's noticable in levels with more complicated structures that require digging.
other than that little bit of jank, I'm surprised how approachable this game is for a mid-80s pc game. other than giving myself a save state at the beginning of each level I never felt pressed by the difficulty or confused by a mechanic. even in the late game there's nothing that truly feels "unfair" in part because of the short runtime: there's only 16 levels. outside of the occasional twist, such as one-way doors that switch directions after use, the game builds every level out of variations on the same building blocks. it's the dynamic guard behavior and the variety of strategies for each level that really makes this one shine as a tight old-school puzzle platformer to conquer in a couple of sessions.
as for ways to play it: I used openmsx, but there's a variety of legal ports. I found out after finishing the game that there's a 60-level floppy version that was released as part of a pack a few years after the original release, though I think the only way to play this one is via emulation. there's also ports as part of konami msx collections to saturn and psx, as well as a mid 00s japanese phone port. worth seeking out and blasting through via any of these methods if you're looking for an older title that plays well. it toys with stealth elements that greatly expand the design palette of the game while still maintaining the simplicity of its arcade-style forebears.
This review contains spoilers
very scary ahhhh