Mendel Palace ・クインティ
Developed by: Game Freak and KID
Published by: Hudson Soft (NA), Namco (JP)
Release dates: June 17th, 1989 (JP) | October 12th, 1990 (NA)
Before Pokémon creators Game Freak made mountains of money by slapping Pikachu’s face onto bottles of eau du toilette and X-ray machines (seriously), they were a tiny independent studio trying to make a name for themselves in the 1980’s video game industry.
Mendel Palace was their big debut, and it’s a highly impressive feat considering the circumstances it was made under. At that time, Game Freak was a tiny team of self-taught programmers, juggling their regular 9-to-5 gigs, and actually physically building their own Famicom development software in their spare time. Thanks to this unconventional approach to game dev decades before the advent of self-publishing on Steam, Mendel Palace is considered the first ever “indie game” to be released for the Famicom in Japanese retro game circles. You gotta respect the hustle.
Quinty, as Mendel Palace is known in its native Japan, was a hit. Hell, just about anything you could cram into a Famicom went on to sell fifty billion units while the bubble economy was still in full swing. In one of my favourite NES related stories, Satoshi Tajiri (Game Freak founder/Pokémon creator) felt that Quinty could do well in North America, too. So the madman hopped on a plane to the US of A, rented a car, and drove all over the West Coast to try and entice publishers into bringing their humble game stateside. Allegedly, nobody was interested in handling such an adorable title – Quinty‘s cute, colourful graphics are distinctly Japanese in style. But Hudson Soft took the strange little game on board, and published it as Mendel Palace in North America. I will forgive the visual crimes the boxart is committing, because the in-game graphics went totally unedited. Thank God for that. If you laid eyes upon the picture above, I offer my sincerest apologies.
So, what’s Mendel Palace all about? As prototypical Game Freak “boy wearing hat” protagonist Bon-Bon, you must defeat eight Gym Leaders Dolls to make your way to the Indigo Plateau Mendel Palace to become the very best like no one ever was rescue your friend, Candy. The character designs all scream Ken Sugimori, with more than a few of the eight Dolls bearing a striking resemblance to some characters the world would grow to love in Pokémon years later. And the music, oh man. Listening to the first few seconds of this Mendel Palace tune, and the rival appearance song from Pokémon Red/Blue back to back is self explanatory. It’s classic Masuda! I adore this era of Game Freak. As someone who was deeply obsessed with the first gen of Pokémon during 90’s Pokémania, few things punch me as hard in the nostalgia solar plexus than their games from the 90’s. Their unique identity as designers could be felt even in the earliest stages of their creative output.
That’s a sufficient amount of misty-eyed nostalgia about Pokémon for one post. Let’s talk about Bon-Bon’s big adventure.
Mendel Palace is an arcade style action/puzzle game with personality aplenty. Every level takes place on a play field consisting of 35 tiles. Bon-Bon can “slide” the tile he’s facing with a push of the A button. If an enemy is standing on that tile, it will shove them back one tile. With the right timing, the player can push enemies into walls with the tiles to defeat them. In addition to taking out baddies, sliding tiles can reveal items and bumpers to up your score, or to fling you/enemies in all sorts of crazy directions, respectively. You move on by beating all of the enemies on the screen.
Sounds simple enough, but by the time the last stages roll around, this sweet little puzzler becomes a blend of frenetic action and intense strategy. It moves at a breakneck pace, and really kept me on my toes for the latter half. While more than a few of the later levels can be one hell of a challenge, the game boasts endless continues, so even the most boneheaded of players (me!) can power through by sheer force of will.
All told, Mendel took around 2-3 hours to clear. There are no passwords or saves, so you’ve gotta buckle up and finish all 100 levels in one shot. Those hours were good fun, but fatigue started to settle in by the end. One hundred levels of anything is pushing it, let alone a puzzle game. Mendel would have gotten an even higher score from me if not for that. There actually an additional 100 levels accessible via cheat code, if you can imagine that. Just thinking about it is making me kinda sleepy.
Mendel Palace is a great arcade style puzzler with adorable graphics, boppy music, and addicting gameplay. The only way I could see someone not enjoying it is if they’re simply not a fan of this genre. If it piques your interest, giving it a spin will be worth your while. The cartridge is cheap, and the game is readily available on most modern platforms via Namco Museum Archives Volume 2. That collection comes with other NES games too, but none of them feature a little dude in a purple cap so I know where my loyalties lie. With that being said, I can’t see myself ever sitting down to beat it again. Three hours of pure puzzle action is quite the commitment, and the only real blight on what is otherwise an awesome little game.
I don’t know how to end this post, so I’m gonna show you the official Pikachu “natural spray.”
Apparently, this fragrance is “casual with the aromatic flair of citrus,” and has notes of orange blossom, vanilla and musk. I can’t help but wonder if this was someone’s personal interpretation of what Pikachu himself might smell like. Orange blossoms? I was thinking more like, grass. Or the unmistakable aroma of burning, what with the thunderbolts frying everything in sight and all. Tell me what you think Pikachu smells like in the comments section below. Or maybe don’t. Either way, Mendel Palace is a pretty good game. Bye!
Final Score:
NESJunk 