1985 · UPL · Sports

Penguin Wars

The animal-populated ping-pong-type game returns almost 30 years after the last installment.

Released: 10 June 1985
Platforms: Arcade Game Boy MSX NES Nintendo Switch PlayStation 4
Genres: Sports
Developers: UPL
Publishers: ASCII Corporation
Modes: Single-player
Themes: Comedy
Country: Japan

About

Penguin-Kun Wars is an action video game developed and published by UPL for arcades. It was ported to numerous platforms by ASCII under the title Penguin Wars. A port developed by ASCII the Game Boy, Penguin-Kun Wars Vs., was the only version to be released outside Japan; it was released in North America as Penguin Wars by Nexoft and in Europe as King of the Zoo by Nintendo. The main background music in most versions of the game is an electronic rendition of "Motto Sekkin Shimasho" (もっと接近しましょ, loosely, "Let's Get Closer") a song originally performed by 1980s J-Pop singer Hidemi Ishikawa (石川秀美, Ishikawa Hidemi) (in turn a translation of "The Glamorous Life" performed by Sheila E.).

Keywords

sheep
panda

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player participates in a sport called "Dojiball" (ドジボール, dojibōru), a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of "Dodgeball". In the arcade and Famicom editions of the game, the five animals featured are the penguin, bear, panda, koala and beaver, with the penguin being controlled by the player. In the Game Boy version, the player can choose as any one of the five animals, which, in addition to the penguin, are a cow, rabbit, bat, and rat. In all versions of the game, the player plays against all the other animals.

In each game, the participating animals find each other on opposite sides of a square table with five balls on each side. The object of the game is to roll those balls over the table. As soon as all ten balls are on one player's side, that player loses the game. Each game also has a time limit of 60 seconds; if that is reached, the player with the fewest balls on their side wins.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Penguin Wars on their August 1, 1985 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

Legacy

Hamster Corporation holds the rights to the game following their acquisition of UPL's intellectual property. They released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2020.

A remake of the game developed by City Connection, simply named Penguin Wars, was released for the Nintendo Switch was released in Japan on September 21, 2017, and on June 27, 2019 in North America and Europe. The PlayStation 4 version was released in January 2019.