The New Zealand Story

The New Zealand Story is a colorful platform game originally released by Taito in arcades in 1988. You control Tiki, a small kiwi bird whose friends—including his girlfriend Phee Phee—have been kidnapped by a large blue leopard seal. Your goal across dozens of levels is to rescue them all. The gameplay is non-linear and highly exploratory, with levels scrolling in four directions. Tiki can run, jump, swim, and fly using balloons, blimps, or UFOs scattered throughout the stages. His standard weapon is a bow and arrow, but pickups can upgrade to bombs, lasers, or bouncing fireballs. The game is filled with hidden warp zones and secret areas. Each of the four main zones ends with a boss fight.

PC Engine

Released exclusively in Japan on February 23, 1990, developed by Aisystem Tokyo and published by Taito . This version was later re-released on the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on October 14, 2008 . The PC Engine port is generally accurate but has several notable omissions: the second part of the fourth stage (Wellington and Strait Cook) and the entire fifth stage (Hammer Springs and Mount Cook) are removed, with the final boss moved to the end of stage four . Warp zones, hidden EXTEND letters, some power-ups (including the fireball wand and invincibility potion), and vehicles like UFOs are missing . Critics note that the color palette appears ugly and garish with strange choices, the music is higher-pitched, and piercing sound effects drown it out . The intro sequence is reduced to text-only rather than full animation.