Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour of Doraemon is all about getting your bearings. You control Doraemon from a top-down view, exploring a broad area dotted with open manholes and Dokodemo Doors. Some routes take you somewhere useful, others lead into side-scrolling sections, and the immediate goal is to locate Nobita. It has that distinctly mid-’80s kind of momentum: you make a little discovery, take a wrong turn, retain the useful bit of knowledge, and push farther next time.

That exploratory opening asks for patience. Finding the proper route matters more than simply reacting quickly, so it can frustrate you if you want clean signposting and a direct line to the next objective. Yet the layout is also where the stage gets its character. Moving through doors and alternate spaces makes the search feel like a real puzzle rather than a flat walk from left to right.

Hudson refuses to settle into one format. Stage two becomes a side-scrolling shooting run through three areas as Doraemon heads for Suneo and Gian, while the final stage turns into an underwater maze built around gathering items and getting assistance from Doraemon’s friends to reach Shizuka. The shifts are abrupt, but that is the hook: each rescue asks you to adjust instead of repeating the same level structure three times.

Items give the adventure a welcome sense of growth. Increasing Doraemon’s maximum health, restoring it with Dorapan, and improving his offensive ability make exploration feel worthwhile rather than incidental. The game is strongest when you are carrying that accumulated power into a new kind of challenge. Its old-fashioned opacity will test your goodwill, but the variety gives the journey more staying power than its simple rescue setup suggests.

Graphics

The game uses 2D views that change with the stage: an overhead map for the opening search, side-scrolling areas for the shooting portion, and an underwater maze for the finale. Doraemon himself remains the clear focal point across these shifts, and the changing camera perspective helps you immediately understand that the game has changed gears.

Story

This is a clean, character-driven rescue story: Doraemon’s friends have been kidnapped, and each stage is tied to saving someone. Nobita anchors the opening search, Suneo and Gian wait at the end of the shooting stage, and Shizuka gives the underwater finale a final objective.

That structure is simple, but it fits the game well. You are never asked to untangle a dense plot while also learning a new style of action; each named rescue gives the next section a clear purpose. Doraemon’s other friends also matter mechanically in the final maze, tying the cast into the last leg rather than treating them as names on a checklist.

If you know the long-running Doraemon series, the blue robot cat and his familiar circle supply an immediate bit of warmth to what is otherwise a hard-edged early action game. If you do not, the stakes still read perfectly well: find the route, survive the next format change, and bring everybody home.

Overall Experience

Doraemon is worth a look because it is far stranger and more varied than the usual assumption behind a 1986 cartoon tie-in. Its first stage invites careful exploration, its second rewards a shooter mindset, and its last asks you to navigate and collect with purpose. Hudson built a compact adventure out of contrasts rather than stretching one idea too thin.

The trade-off is that it expects you to tolerate uncertainty. Progress depends on discovering the correct path, and the game does not sound interested in cushioning that process. If trial, error, and route-finding drain the fun out of a retro game for you, the opening alone may prove a barrier.

But if you enjoy the moment an old game finally starts to make sense, this one has a satisfying payoff. Learn the world, build Doraemon up with the items you find, and accept each new stage on its own terms. It is an uneven but memorable action game whose willingness to change shape is still its best trick.

Retro Replay Score

7.2/10