HappyLand Adventures 4Mb
This is an update from Week 9, HERE, with screenshots, more info and some links to hundreds of extra levels to play!
HappyLand Adventures is the sort of game that’s great for children (though very much not exclusively so!) though teens would probably run a mile, just from the title, and in so doing miss out on a very pleasurable gaming experience! It’s a fun platform game combined with original puzzle elements, in fact a game full of surprises. Explore the big levels, including hidden stages and collect various fruits for bonuses. Save the HappyLanders in order to rid the world of evilness.
You’ve almost certainly heard of this excellent game’s creator (Johan Peitz) ; if not by name, - he created the amazing classic Icy Tower! HERE ; then by the game’s website Free Lunch Design.
There are two versions in the game menu , the original and the Xmas edition, the latter having naturally, a Christmas theme and graphics. The story for the Xmas part is “It was the night before Christmas. Everyone in Happyland was sleeping anticipating the day to come. Everyone, but Santa. The Happylanders who usually helped him had gone astray in the dark night and vanished. How were they to survive? And how was he ever to complete all the chores before Christmas without the help of his little friends? Realising that he would need help he called the same one who had saved Happyland on several occasions before... It's now up to you to help Santa save Christmas. While Santa makes the gifts and presents you have to rescue his helpers, or else, Christmas will be lost forever!" What, no Xmas?! . . . Ever?!
The graphics are very well rendered and have ‘cute’ characters, but don’t let this lull you into a false sense of security! It starts off easy enough, but gets sufficiently challenging later to test even serious gamers!
The included separate map editor also lets you create your own levels and this is something that others have really gone to town with, there being plenty of extra custom levels to download and try out. There’s a separate loader as well, to load custom maps. If you need alleg40.dll to run these, download the Xmas edition only from Caiman HERE which contains this file. The only way I could get the map editor to run (on 2 XP computers) is to edit the maped.ini and change run_in_a_window = 1 instead of 0 and re-save. The tiny window that the map editor opens in can be enlarged with the F12 key. Instructions for the map editor are in the maped text file.
Xmas Edition
Happyland Adventures is a game which will allow you to refine your puzzle solving skills. In this game there are many pitfalls which await you. You have to jump over pits of sharp knives and defeat the rebels who want to kill you or expel you from the land.
“The games included are Happyland Adventures and Happyland Adventures: Xmas Edition. Both games are played the exact same way, but the theme is changed and Xmas Edition includes level passwords that can be unlocked. Each level has a main objective of finding a certain number of Happylanders, who are small creatures of various shapes and colors. You play as a dog, who is tasked with returning all the Happylanders safely home. To get them home you collect them and they will follow you, you then lead them to a safe zone on the level.” You can’t kill enemies, though; you have to jump over them or sidestep them while trying to restore order to Happyland! There’s no world map so you have to find your way around . . . And, nearly forgot to say, you’re racing against the clock!
“After you have returned enough Happylanders the level exit will open and you can proceed to the next level. In each level there are extra Happylanders, if you return all of them to the safe zone the enemies in the level will be turned into gold coins which can be collected to unlock a bonus level. In Xmas Edition only there are five magical blue orbs hidden in each level; locating all five will give you the password for that level. Since there is no option to save your game this is very handy for starting where you left off minus your score.” The original edition though has you restarting from the beginning each time or after you die making it harder to play.
Gamepad play is supported or you can choose your own keyboard controls. You will need a left and right directional key, a key to interact with the characters that give you information, a slide key and a jump key. Default keys are arrow keys ’ L/R ‘, down arrow for slide, ‘X’ key for jump and ‘z’ key for talk. Collecting items in the game can benefit you in several ways. The items such as fruit, packages, ice cream and so on will give you an extra life for every 250 you collect. Hearts act as health one heart will save you from touching an enemy once. There are also anti gravity boots in certain levels that allow you to jump much higher.
This game is a side scrolling action/puzzle game so you go through multiple levels trying to solve riddles and avoiding danger.
There's great music too. The original tune is neither made by Mozart nor Beethoven - it was made by Johann Pachelbel and is called Canon in D!
To play full screen press the ‘w’ key on the main menu. The F12 key takes a screenshot. The menus are navigated either by mouse and mouse click or arrow and enter keys. You’ll have to find out which are needed on each menu.
The game has maintained over time, and improved on, its popularity and is now really quite a popular free game. This says a lot about how solid support is for this game, and for the depth of gameplay it provides! It’s quite similar to Mario games but gets a lot harder!
Download HERE
Extra HappyLand Maps HERE
