Don Doko Don

Don Doko Don is a platform arcade game. The player(s) control two lumberjacks, Bob and Jim, on their quest to save the princess and king of Marry Land. They go through a series of single-screen stages, with the objective of killing all the enemies on the stage. Bob and Jim defeat enemies by using a mallet to stun them.

They can then pick stunned enemies up and throw them at other enemies to destroy them, which gives bonus points, depending on how many enemies are in the path of the thrown enemy. Destroyed enemies leave behind fruit which can be collected for points. Once all enemies are destroyed play proceeds to the next level which is generally more difficult. Throughout the game, various power-ups can be collected, which represent potions, hammers, or books, help the players' character speed up, receive more power, or kill in different ways.

Don Doko Don enjoyed some success in Japanese arcades. Game Machine listed it as the twelfth most-successful table arcade unit of the month in their August 15, 1989 issue. The later home ports received a rather mixed reception by Famitsu. However, Robert Swan of Computer + Video Games gave the PC Engine port a highly positive review, stating that while "there's nothing new or original about it", it was "playable to the max".

Retrospective views on the game have been mostly positive. Retro Gamer has given the game three positive retrospectives, two for the arcade version, and one for the PC Engine version, due to its inclusion on their "PC Engine GT: Ten Perfect Games" list, all of which praised the game for its basic, yet captivating gameplay, a trait they attributed to most other platform games made by Taito. GamesTM were similarly positive for their two retrospectives (due to the game's inclusion on both Taito Memories Joukan and Taito Legends 2) on the game, although gave it criticism for not being as complex as Bubble Bobble, and other games like it. Hardcore Gaming 101 gave similar criticism, but argued that while "doesn't do much to be original compared to the million other Bubble Bobble-like games at the time", they concluded that it's still worth playing due to the fact that it is "another example of a good platformer game from Taito". Hardcore Gamer, however, was more critical of the game when criticizing the fact that Bubble Bobble was a locked game in Taito Memories Jokan, claiming that while one could "make do" with it and The Fairyland Story, ultimately stated that it was "decaf when you want espresso".