Obscure Games You May Not Have Heard Of - Episode 1, Dharma Doujo

So people seemed very down for me just rambling about games I love that they probably have not heard of… Let’s make this a semi-regular thing! So for Episode One of Obscure Games You May Not Have Heard Of, let’s start with one that I’m kinda known for in some circles, Dharma Doujo!

Dharma Doujo is a puzzle game for arcades, and as we’ll see later, for the Super Famicom as well. It’s from that golden age of puzzle games for me, the lovely mid-90s, where every game in the genre was trying to innovate into something new. I promise I’ll try not to make all of this series just puzzle games but I might fail in that endevor.

So in Dharma Doujo you play as either a monk (I call him Eyebrows Krillin) if you’re playing as player 1, or a shrine maiden if you’re player two. Your goal is to clear all of the blocks. Each time you hit a block, it moves to the bottom of the screen, and if you hit all of that block color/type in a row, you clear it. Otherwise it rises back up and pushes everything up. When you hit a block, blocks behind it move forward to the left, and blocks will also fall down to fill empty spaces. Your goal is to line up your blocks for easy access so you can clear them all before the yokai on the left climbs to the top! Also, if your stack gets too high, you immediately lose.

It’s not very complex, but honestly most good puzzle games from this era aren’t. There’s no bonus features, no real weird mechanics. Clear blocks, and if you clear blocks, you hit the Yokai and stun it for a bit. Unless it’s one of those blocks with the characters on them, then you just get points. You get more points for faster and cleaner clears. Simple. But VERY difficult, and as it throws more of each block in, eventually when you’re doing like the 8-per-type levels, it’s a freaking nightmare. But in a good way. And you feel SO powerful when you finally beat it after feeding a hundred quarters in.

Also the game is charming as hell. It’s got nice Japanese-inspired music, and inbetween some levels are these adorable cutscenes. And yes, the game is very VERY Japanese. I had no idea what a daruma doll was before this, but I learned a lot! It’s very educational. But also… not at all, I just had my chat tell me as I played it. The game actually uses a daruma doll to symbolize your halfway point too, at 10 levels. The game has 18 levels though, which is… odd. Anyway, great game.

Also the game has a multiplayer mode. It’s not the best, coulda used like a punch button (which the game’s semi-sequel had, maybe I’ll talk about that game sometime). But it’s loads of fun on Fightcade. After I got my WR in this game on Frame Fatales, I went “btw the game has a multiplayer mode does anyone wanna fight me sometime” and someone in chat went “FUCK no I do not”, and that lives with me rent free.

So a year later, the game gets its Super Famicom port. Of course, only in Japan. Can you imagine this game getting a US release? How could they pretend ALL of these things are jelly donuts?! No, it was JP only still, but adds on a lot! In many ways this is the definitive version, but I prefer the arcade version because I’m more used to it, and also for one reason I’ll get to later.

So, it’s Dharma Doujo but on SNES alright. Not much has changed. Still as charming, has a story and more cutscenes now and they’re as adorable as ever. There’s some new yokai, like some kitsune and kappas you can fight. But the only actual gameplay difference is that, in the arcade game, you have to also move left and right. Here, it’s just up and down, and your character automatically follows the side of the stack. This is good, before it was just a punishment for whiffing and added difficulty that was… fine. I know many people prefer this version for this reason alone. On top of that, the characters are differentiated now. Eyebrows Krillin is normal, but the shrine maiden’s yokai only goes up when she misses, so it’s good for slow planning gameplay. Oh, and the game feels a lot faster. You just smack blocks and clear em a lot quicker.

This game has ONE flaw to me, and that’s that when it starts to get to the later levels, they make the blocks smaller. I have very bad eyesight, and when things get smol, I squint. And when I squint, I get migraines. I don’t play this version often ONLY for this reason, the later levels become a migraine nightmare.

It also has a few additional bonus modes the arcade doesn’t have! It reminds me of Columns on Genesis, where it’s almost just a straight up better version cause it has more features. Why even own the arcade PCB? Oh wait, I own the arcade board for Columns. Oops. Anyway, it has an endless mode and a puzzle mode too. More ways to play is never a bad thing!

And that’s Dharma Doujo! Nothing else to really add. It is quite difficult but seriously, it’s one of those games that takes a bit of practice and you eventually get better and better. It ramps, in a good way, and you will too. It’s one of my absolute favorite games of all time, thank you for reading about it =w=

Hmmmm what game should I ramble about next time~… maybe I’ll wait to talk about my other favorite puzzle games.