Developer(s) ISCO Inc. Genre(s) Puzzle | Release date(s) 1990 Mode(s) Single player | |
Publisher(s) Data East
(PC Engine)
NEC (TurboGrafx-16) Platform(s) PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 | ||
Summary
The game was published in 1990 for the PC Engine under the title Drop Rock Hora Hora, and subsequently saw a stateside release for the TurboGrafx-16 console as Drop Off.
The game is a Breakout clone, where the player moves a paddle back and forth in order to destroy objects. Each stage has a set of the same object (for example, apples on the first stage). Unlike Breakout and other comparable games, the player in Drop Off does not automatically lose a life if the paddle touches the floor and the player is never required to hit the objects in order to clear the stage. Instead, the player must avoid the series of objects that are scrolling vertically downward to move on to next stage, and the gameplay is virtually identical to Cluster Buster, an earlier title on the DECO Cassette System. The player has the option of switching the direction of their paddle from vertical to horizontal during the game and is free to move the paddle anywhere on the screen.
Drop Off contains 16 stages divided in 5 rounds.
Virtual Console release
It was re-released on the Virtual Console in North America on July 30, 2007 and in Japan on August 28, 2007. The publisher in Japan was G-Mode which currently owns the rights to Data East's video games. In North America, the game was published by Hudson Entertainment, a company of Hudson Soft. Drop Off was released for the first time ever in Europe by Nintendo on August 3rd, 2007 on the Virtual Console.
The game was delisted from the Virtual Console in early March 2012.