Let me spin you a meandering yarn about an unsuspecting little block-breaker that would hit store shelves around the world five different times over a six year period. OR: How I started this as a simple ‘Fun Fact’ block for the icon page but it got so big I had to make it a post instead.
D Cruise originally published Prism Land Story in Japan in March of 1998 to seemingly little fanfare. Two years later, publisher Hector got involved and the game reappeared on store shelves as Action Puzzle: Prism Land bearing a small footnote on the back of the box that this was a remake of Prism Land Story. While it looks mostly identical, the re-release dials down the ball speed and removes the world map and stage select screens. The original’s unlockable final stages are freely available and you now play through all 101 of them in order instead of picking and choosing. Somehow this is the only release that saw these streamlined changes. Oh! And of course there are unique memory card icons which is how I ended up here to begin with.
Bargain bin Euro publisher, Midas Interactive, would take a crack at bringing the game to Europe in 2000 as well. Their version was based on the original Prism Land Story and changed little outside of the slower ball speed and localized text. Finally, XS Games would license the title for its 2003 North American debut (and European re-release), in the process perpetrating one of the most bait-and-switch cover art crimes of the generation.
The colorful cover of the original game would be replaced by a hand painted illustration suspiciously similar in composition and color palette to the theatrical poster for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The game was even renamed to Sorcerer’s Maze for maximum brand confusion. Shockingly though, outside of the title screen and intro text not a single thing about the game bears any resemblance to the cover. Even the description and screenshots on the box go out of their way to mask what is basically ‘Breakout in fantasy anime style’.
I can’t really blame them for trying to capitalize on early 2000’s Harry Potter mania with a quick port of a simple game for last-gen hardware. But the disparity between the title screen and the very first second of gameplay must have felt like being doused in ice water. Granted, it was a “budget priced” release but I still feel bad for any Potterheads opening this up on Christmas morning thinking they were about to relive the movies.
For one final injustice, the European and North American versions omit almost all of the in-game text and don’t use the memory card or have a password system. You’ll have to play through all 101 stages in one sitting without using a continue if you want to see the “true ending” which now amounts to a couple of still frames with no context whatsoever.
It’s great to see both icons side by side. Someone knew what they were doing by featuring each of the playable characters across the two different Japanese releases
Yes, I’m still writing here
Of course, now that I’ve done all this digging I have somehow become a fan of this, umm, series? Can one game be considered a series if it’s been ported and re-released this many times? Whatever flavor you find it in, it’s a fun and colorful block-breaker with some satisfying and hilarious power-ups. The bosses also offer some neat spins on the typical bat-and-ball gameplay and you can tackle the whole thing with a friend in co-op play. The XS Games treatment is a disappointment but it does add another layer of lovable oddity to this easily cast aside series game.
