''Battle Lode Runner'' is a

puzzle-platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...

based on the ''

Lode Runner ''Lode Runner'' is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Doug Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its gameplay mechanics are similar to ''Space Panic'' from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a ...

'' series of games, originally released for the

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...

in 1993. It was released in Japan on May 29, 2007 and also released in the North American and European regions for the first time in April the same year for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, ...

Virtual Console A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Un ...

. It is also the first game originally released only in Japan to be available on the Virtual Console for another region.

Gameplay

''Battle Lode Runners gameplay revolves around traveling through 50 different stages in 11 different time periods, collecting gold without being caught by enemies. The character can climb ropes and ladders, walk on top of enemies, collect power-ups, and most importantly, dig a hole on the right or left of himself.

Multiplayer

The player can play with 5 players in 3 categories of play: survival, escape, and tag match. In survival the last remaining player wins. In the escape mode, the first person to collect the secret gold, unlock the ladder and escape wins. In tag match, players form teams and attempt to trap the members of the other team.

References

Virtual Console games TurboGrafx-16 games 1993 video games Puzzle-platformers Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan {{platform-videogame-stub