Jagur: Golden Triangle (1987) Hudson Soft MSX

Jagur: Golden Triangle

Hudson soft, recently departed, is known to modern and "casual" retro gamers chiefly for their Bomberman and Adventure Island games. Hudson soft began releasing games in 1983, for a variety of Japanese home computers, including the FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801 and the MSX. And while many games Hudson released on computer platforms would eventually find their way to a home console, such as Bomberman or Binary Land, not all did.

Such was the case of Jagur: Golden Triangle (also known as Jagur 5), a very early-looking proto action RPG from 1987.

The plot concerns the main character trying to find his comrades after a plain crash, and also beating some dictator along the way.

The first level is the most unique, as one has to go into different shops, trying to find your randomly placed comrades and getting them back, though some refuse to join you unless you have a gun and or some "drugs" for them. You acquire money by going around and shooting respawning enemies and picking up loot, until you have bought everyone guns and other necessary equipment, whereafter you will be allowed to "rent" a jeep and exit the level.

The next, the jungle, is your hub, in which you go back and forth, accessing the five levels at your disposal through obvious gates, provided you got the necessary equipment from the right huts, like a rocket launcher to blast open walls.

Each level has a different objective: In the shaolin temple level you have to blow up pagodas to collect scrolls, in the forest you have to push giant stone heads out of the way, in the field you have to go solo, buying various items for a woman who then turns on you for some reason and you have to kill in a boss battle (along with a flying bird for some....you get the idea) and in the base level you have to get a flamethrower to burn all the flowers in the level and in the canyon level you must make your way through a lengthy canyon segment and then blow up a giant stone face. The final level is a bit of a let down as it's an endurance round where you have no chance to not get hit constantly and lose at least one team member (the amount of surviving team members is apparently reflected in the game's ending).

All the above makes Jagur a really interesting though flawed game, due to the lack of mind numbingly lazy repetition which was still present in very many games of this era, and it also has a definite ending, also not a sure thing back in 1987.