Blast From the Past: Mustache Boy

Today I had the privilege of playing an old arcade game called Mustache Boy. The game is a simple top-down view arena game where the goal is to walk over every tile without dying. However, it is not quite so simple; there are creatures that spawn on the board and try to kill you. You can either jump over them, or use bombs and/or kill pads that are on the grid as well. You can see all these elements as soon as round one, as seen below.


This game was really fun to play, and addicting as well. Being a competitive person, I felt angered when I couldn't perform as well as I did in the last round. I played this game for about 2 hours total, and eventually had to stop because I grew increasingly frustrated with my results. However, while I was playing, I enjoyed every minute of dodging and destroying creatures.

This game was originally designed for a joystick and single button system, but I played it on an emulator. Compared to arrow keys for directions, a joystick would be a much smoother system of controlling the Mustache Boy through the obstacles. Also, the simulator did not have a working music player, so I missed out on that part of the experience. When this game was released in 1987, its graphics and game play were advanced, but in today's world it felt a little clunky. Playing it on the original machine would remove some of that clunk and add to the experience.

Overall I really enjoyed playing Mustache Boy, and might even return to play it again in the future.