Adian no Tsue

A SunSoft Famicom Disk System top-down action-adventure game that also teaches arithmetic.

Adian no Tsue (“Staff of Adian”) is an educational action-adventure game that strongly resembles The Legend of Zelda, or at least its dungeon areas. However, a major difference is that in order to collect the game’s chief currency – bells – the player must solve basic arithmetic puzzles.

Each room of the game contains monsters the first time the player enters. After defeating them, the player can select any of the nearby doors to enter: Some lead to different areas, but others will simply reveal a bell for the player to collect. Before the player can take this bell, the game presents a sum and the player must slash at numbers on the walls to complete the correct answer, then hit an “OK” symbol to submit it: If the answer’s correct, they collect the bell and move on. If the answer is incorrect, the door that contains the bell closes and more monsters flood the room.

The player can visit a store and a hint section at any time by hitting the Select button. The store is where they can sell their bells for useful items.