Name: The Trolls in Crazyland
Item: The Trolls in Crazyland
Author: Retro Replay

The Trolls in Crazyland

The Trolls in Crazyland gets moving quickly: a girl is taken from an amusement park, and you head out after her through a straightforward side-scrolling rescue game. Its strongest hook is the damage-and-power tradeoff. Taking hits changes the boy’s shirt color while making his attack stronger, so a mistake can unexpectedly turn into a short-lived advantage.

This is a modest, old-school platformer rather than a deep reinvention of one. Kicking a ball at enemies gives the action its own small twist, and the bird pickup that hunts foes can make a dangerous stretch feel far less lonely. If you enjoy compact NES platform games with a strange licensed makeover, it is worth a look; if you need elaborate levels or a richer adventure, it runs out of surprises quickly.

Platform: NES

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first few minutes establish a clean, familiar rhythm: move through side-scrolling stages, deal with enemies in your path, and push onward to rescue the kidnapped girl. The ball kick is a more interesting attack than a plain touch-based defeat or a generic jump attack, because it gives you a projectile to work with as enemies close in. It is a simple idea, but it helps the game feel a little less interchangeable than its rescue premise.

The most memorable wrinkle is what happens when you are hurt. Damage changes the hero’s shirt color and increases the power of his weapon. That creates a pleasing bit of tension: getting tagged is still bad news, but it can also leave you better equipped to clear the next threat. It is the kind of rough-edged NES-era risk-reward rule that can make you adapt rather than immediately treating every hit as pure failure.

Enemy drops add another useful lift. Find the bird and it chases down foes for you, turning the pressure of a crowded section into something more manageable. This is not a platformer built around a huge bag of tricks; it sticks to running, attacking, collecting what enemies leave behind, and surviving the route ahead. That narrow focus will suit you if you want direct action, though it may feel thin once the basic attack and power-up interactions have clicked.

Graphics

The game uses the clear side-view look you expect from an NES platformer, with the action centered on the hero and the enemies ahead of him. Its most notable visual detail is regional: the European release redraws the main character as a licensed Russ Berrie troll, while the original Japanese version uses a boy who attacks with a ball. That change gives this version an immediately stranger face than the underlying game might suggest.

Story

There is no mystery about why you are moving forward. An evil being kidnaps a girl at an amusement park, and her friend goes after her. It is a lean excuse for a rescue quest, and the game wisely does not need a lot more setup before putting you in control.

The amusement-park opening and fantasy framing give the premise a mildly offbeat flavor, especially alongside the troll license. Still, this is not a story-first game. The kidnapping is a starting pistol, not a thread that carries emotional weight through the action.

That simplicity has a certain honesty. You know your goal, you know who needs saving, and the game leaves the rest to the platforming. Anyone hoping for character development or a more involved plot should not expect it; anyone happy with a brisk arcade-style rescue setup will have no trouble following along.

Overall Experience

The Trolls in Crazyland is a curious little platformer whose best ideas are tucked into its combat. Kicking a ball, becoming more powerful after taking damage, and recruiting a bird that pursues enemies give it enough personality to rise above a completely routine run-and-jump game. None of those ideas are developed into a particularly broad system, but they do make moment-to-moment play more interesting.

Its limitations are equally plain. The rescue story is bare, and the action stays close to familiar NES platforming territory. The licensed troll redraw is memorable, yet it does not change the fact that the game lives or dies on whether you enjoy its uncomplicated enemy encounters and short-form power-up decisions.

At a 6 out of 10, this is an easy recommendation for a patient fan of odd NES curiosities and straightforward 2D platform action. Go in for the unusual regional character design and the small combat twists, not for a sweeping adventure. You may find a likeable, slightly peculiar game underneath the license, but it is unlikely to become anyone’s essential platformer.