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Penguin Wars

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Penguin Wars
DevelopersUPL
Home Data (Famicom, iOS)
Pax Softnica (Famicom)[1]
ASCII (Game Boy, home computers)
Matrix Software (Mobile)
Publishers
G-Mode (Mobile)
Enterbrain (iOS)
ProgrammerTsutomu Fujisawa
PlatformsArcade
MSX
Famicom
PC-8801
FM-7
Sharp X1
Sharp MZ-2500
Game Boy
ReleaseArcade
  • JP/NA: June 14, 1985
MSX
  • JP: November 1, 1985
Famicom
  • JP: December 25, 1985
NEC PC-8801
  • JP: February, 1986
Fujitsu FM-7
  • JP: February, 1986
Sharp X1
  • JP: February, 1986
Sharp MZ-2500
  • JP: May, 1986
Game Boy
  • JP: March 30, 1990
  • NA: July, 1990
  • EU: 1990
GenreAction
ModesSingle-player, multiplayer

Penguin-Kun Wars[a] is an action video game developed and published by UPL for arcades. It was ported to numerous platforms by ASCII under the title Penguin Wars. A port developed by ASCII the Game Boy, Penguin-Kun Wars Vs., was the only version to be released outside Japan; it was released in North America as Penguin Wars by Nexoft and in Europe as King of the Zoo by Nintendo. The main background music in most versions of the game is an electronic rendition of "Motto Sekkin Shimasho" (もっと接近しましょ, loosely, "Let's Get Closer") a song originally performed by 1980s J-Pop singer Hidemi Ishikawa (石川秀美, Ishikawa Hidemi) (in turn a translation of "The Glamorous Life" performed by Sheila E.).

Gameplay

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Gameplay screenshot of the Game Boy version
Victory screenshot of the Game Boy version

The player participates in a sport called "Dojiball" (ドジボール, dojibōru), a pun on the Japanese pronunciation of "Dodgeball". In the arcade and Famicom editions of the game, the five animals featured are the penguin, bear, panda, koala and beaver, with the penguin being controlled by the player. In the Game Boy version, the player can choose as any one of the five animals, which, in addition to the penguin, are a cow, rabbit, bat, and rat. In all versions of the game, the player plays against all the other animals. In each game, the participating animals find each other on opposite sides of a square table with five balls on each side. The object of the game is to roll those balls over the table. As soon as all ten balls are on one player's side, that player loses the game. Each game also has a time limit of 60 seconds; if that is reached, the player with the fewest balls on their side wins.

If a player is hit by one of the balls, they are knocked unconscious for a certain amount of time. Thus, it could also be said that part of the object of the game is to hit the opponent, as otherwise it would not be possible to get all ten balls to the other side (the opponent can just roll them back before all of them have arrived).

The different animals have different strengths and weaknesses which are a trade-off with each other. For example, the rat is the one that can move left and right the fastest, but in return he can roll the balls only very slowly. The cow, on the other hand, is a very slow walker, but in return she regains consciousness more quickly.

After thirty seconds of playing, a jellybean-like obstacle appears in the middle of the table which moves left and right. Later levels have different kinds of these obstacles cause varying effects on the trajectory of the balls; some deflect them so they start rolling diagonally, whereas others simply have the ball bounce straight back.

Reception

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In Japan, Game Machine listed Penguin Wars on their August 1, 1985 issue as being the fourteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.[2]

Legacy

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Hamster Corporation holds the rights to the game following their acquisition of UPL's intellectual property.[3] They released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2020.[4]

A remake of the game developed by City Connection, simply named Penguin Wars, was released for the Nintendo Switch was released in Japan on September 21, 2017,[5] and on June 27, 2019 in North America and Europe. The PlayStation 4 version was released in January 2019.[6]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Japanese: ぺんぎんくんWARS, Hepburn: Pengin-kun WARS

References

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  1. ^ "『ぺんぎんくんWARS』移植から、ディスクシステム『バレーボール』『新・鬼ヶ島』……住む家すら失ったところから這い上がりゲームを作った、その歩み、その想い【ゲームの思い出談話室・第4夜】". www.famitsu.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  2. ^ "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 265. Amusement Press, Inc. August 1, 1985. p. 25.
  3. ^ "NEWS RELEASE May 2016."
  4. ^ Calvert, Darren (January 9, 2020). "Nintendo Download: 9th January (North America)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
  5. ^ "「ぺんぎんくんWARS」のリメイクタイトル「ぺんぎんくんギラギラWARS」が9月21日に発売" (in Japanese). 4Gamer.net. September 15, 2017. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
  6. ^ "Penguin Wars coming west for Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in early 2018". Gematsu. November 8, 2017. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
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