Binary Land

Binary Land, known to Chinese retro gamers as Mr. Penguin or Penguin and Spider, is a top-down action puzzle game developed and published by Hudson Soft, released for Famicom in November 1985. Two penguin lovers Gurin (male) and Malon (female) are separated by a maze. Your goal is to guide both penguins to reach the heart-shaped goal at the top of the screen and reunite them. Its groundbreaking core mechanic is mirrored dual-character control. When pressing up or down, both penguins move in the same direction. Left and right inputs make them move in opposite mirrored directions. Players can fire spray to defeat spiders. Spider webs trap penguins; you have to navigate the other penguin around to break the web and rescue the trapped partner. Fireballs and position-swapping birds also pose threats. Touching enemies or running out of time costs a life. There are 17 main stages. After clearing all stages, the game loops with harder layouts and enemies. Background music uses Erik Satie’s Je te veux, and Ode to Joy plays when the two penguins meet. Widely included on Chinese Subor multicarts, its unique mirrored control makes it a beloved Famicom puzzle gem. A rare special wedding edition made for Hudson staff is highly sought after among game collectors.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player’s bottom toolbar to rebind them. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.

1P

2P

The NES was always two-player — 2P uses the numeric keypad, and NumLock does not matter. No numpad? Rebind 2P to other keys in the 🎮 panel.