Rod Land

Rod Land is a 1990 platform video game developed and published by Jaleco for arcades. Originally only released in Japan in April 1990, it was ported to various home consoles and personal computers, which were released internationally. A spin-off, Soldam, was released in 1992. The player(s) control one or two fairies called Tam and Rit armed with a magic wand (rod). Following the concept of Taito's Bubble Bobble, the rod doesn't kill the monsters directly, but only leaves them immobilized, crying. To kill them, the rod can grasp them in a magic force-field and the player can smash them repeatedly against the ground, from side to side, until they disappear and leave a power-up behind. Each level is only one small screen composed of monsters, platforms, ladders and, later, tunnels. Unlike other games of the genre, the players can never jump, but have to use ladders. They can conjure one custom ladder above or below them in order to go to the appropriate platform. There can be only one such 'custom' ladder; therefore if the fairy summons it again, it will disappear from its previous position in order to appear again next to the fairy.