Master Chu And The Drunkard Hu

Overview

Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu is an unlicensed NES game from Color Dreams. It was originally released in America in 1989. As an unlicensed game, it was published on light-blue or black cartridges (similar to the Tengen version of Tetris for NES.)

Story

The game takes place in ancient China, near Chu's villiage, which has been cursed by the Hindu god Shiva. Hu, unable to stop Shiva's curse on his own, has succumbed to drinking. Despite this, the two protagonists band together to drive the god from their homeland.

Gameplay

The game is a ten-level side-scrolling action platformer. Up to two players can play simultaneously. Each of the titular characters has a projectile attack and a defensive melee attack. Both Chu and Hu can throw a short-range energy ball to harm enemies; they can also swing a fan or a knife (respectively) to deflect enemy projectiles (an essential strategy for defeating bosses.) Though the stages are linear, the player must first find eight hidden yin-yang symbols. After finding all eight, they enter a boss area. The final three levels omit the platforming sections and send the player directly to a boss room. Although most of the bosses appear different, they all employ basically the same pattern in battle.