Dao Shuai

Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
Title of the Color Dreams release.
Publisher	Sachen, Joy Van
Developer	Joy Van
Cart ID(s)	TC-007
Console	Famicom
Date	1989
Alternate names/hacks	Master Chu & Drunkard Hu, Dao Shuai

Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu (盜帥) is an action game developed by Joy Van.

General

The story tells of Master Chu Liu-Hsiang and Master Hu's efforts to stop Shiva's reign of terror to their land.  Past attempts to stop Shiva and their demons has lead to Hu becoming a drunkard in despair, but is still a capable fighter and ally to Master Chu.

The game is a horizontal platformer of sorts; the goal isn't to reach one end of the level to the other, but rather to uncover and collect eight yin-yangs (called Symbols of Harmony in the manual) in order to automatically proceed to the boss of the stage.  The symbols and other power-ups (such as health pickups and spread shots) are either in plain sight or hidden inside various spots of the stage such as torches, vases, even random spots on walls and must be uncovered with your projectile attack.  Along with said attack the player also has a fan (or a knife if they're Hu) which can deflect head-on projectiles, however the hitbox for said ability and what projectiles you can deflect are very picky and unreliable.

The game is ten levels long, and the bosses play out mostly the same save for the final fight with Shiva.

Trivia

• The ending shows Master Chu flying across a sky with an unknown deity looking on, with "THE END" text shown.  In the Chinese release the game's logo is shown instead.
• The non-Chinese releases have a small bug; the railing platforms the tall pots sit on (such as the ones found in stage one) aren't solid so the player can fall through those spots if they try to walk across.  The Chinese release doesn't have this and the player can walk by said pots safely.
• The final boss only requires one of the enemies (the minion or the statue) to be defeated to move on in phase two of the fight, and only one of the two heads to be defeated to release a key in the third phase.
• The boss AI is simple and easy to exploit; for instance if you're up against the left wall of the arena and the boss corners you they'll constantly jump towards the wall then walk back, making it easy to get them caught in a looping pattern.

Gallery

Screenshots

English Sachen release's title screen.

Chinese release's title screen.

Cartridges & Designs

Cartridge front of the Chinese Famicom release.

Top label of the Famicom release.

Front of the Famicom PCB.

Back of the Famicom PCB.

Front of the NES Sachen release's box.

Back of the NES Sachen release's box.