Malaika: Prehistoric Quest

One day, a young cave princess called Malaika comes back from a visit to her relatives, only to find that all inhabitants of her village are gone. The villagers have been turned into energy crystals by aliens from the future, who plan to use Malaika's fellows as fuel for their machines. Malaika sets out to rescue her friends and put a stop to the aliens' plans.

You control Malaika in a basic platform game, playing like a cross between Super Mario Bros and the original Wonder Boy, but without any offensive weapons. The mainstay of the enemies are coloured blobs, most of which disappear when you jump on them. The purple blobs are more dangerous, since they can electrocute Malaika if she jumps on them at the wrong time. Other enemies are flying blobs and Super Mario-style cannons.

When you jump on an enemy, you bounce just a little bit higher than a normal jump. Using this effectively means that Malaika can reach high-up places which would otherwise remain inaccessible.

Powerups are available in the shape of stars which will render Malaika invincible for a short time, just like in Mario, and extra lives. Malaika does not die on first contact with an enemy, since you have a graded system of three hearts which are expended when you touch an enemy. Hearts can also be found at some points to restore your health. Spread throughout the levels are the small crystals that used to be friendly cavepeople. Clearing a level with 100 or more crystals will give you bonus points. There are six worlds to clear, each made up of four levels. Each world has an end-of-level boss to beat.

This game was made for the 2006 edition of the MSXdev coding contest.