Journey of the Prairie King is a top-down shooter, resembling 清版射击游戏 games such as Smash TV. WASD moves the character and ↑←↓→ shoots. The player can move and shoot diagonally by combining two keys (e.g. W and A together move up and left diagonally).
You start off with four lives (shown as "x3" in the upper left), and your character is instantly killed if he is touched by an enemy or projectile. Losing your last life (when the counter changes from "x0" to "x-1") results in a Game Over. In each level, a timer bar counts down at the top of the screen while waves of enemies appear from the edges of the screen and move towards you. Enemies stop spawning when the timer bar has counted down all the way, and the level is completed when all enemies are defeated, allowing you to move to the next area.
Enemies will sometimes drop powerups, coins and extra lives upon being killed. You can hold one powerup at a time, stored in a slot in the top-left, and you can activate this powerup at any time by pressing Space. If you pick up another powerup while holding onto one, the new powerup is consumed immediately. Powerups last only for a short time.
Each stage ends in a boss fight, where the boss has a large amount of health and shoots bullets at you.
A Vendor appears after you complete certain levels and will present you with three upgrades that you can purchase with coins dropped by enemies (see above). You can only purchase one item per visit, and the items in each slot are always presented in the same order, requiring you to purchase the first item in that slot before the next one is shown in a later level, etc. (For example, you must first purchase both boots upgrades before you can purchase an extra life from the first slot.)
The Vendor appears at the end of every second level: 1-2, 1-4, 2-1, 2-3, 3-1 and 3-3.
Vendor Slot
Image
Name
Purchase Price
Description
1
Boots
data-sort-value="8">8
Upgrades movement speed.
data-sort-value="20">20
Extra Life
data-sort-value="10">10
Get an Extra Life. Can be purchased again at the next vendor.
2
Gun
data-sort-value="10">10
Increases shooting speed.
data-sort-value="20">20
data-sort-value="30">30
Super-Gun
data-sort-value="99">99
You will get the Shotgun spread permanently without the fire-rate debuff. Will also be shown as a 4th icon on the left, on top of the other 3.
Sheriff Badge
data-sort-value="10">10
Get a Sheriff Badge. Can be purchased again at the next vendor.
3
Ammo
data-sort-value="15">15
Increases bullet damage to 2 / 3 / 4. Bullets gain penetration, such that if a bullet destroys an enemy with damage left over, it will keep going until its damage is depleted, allowing you to kill at least two weak enemies with one bullet.
data-sort-value="30">30
data-sort-value="45">45
Sheriff Badge
data-sort-value="10">10
Get a Sheriff Badge. Can be purchased again at the next vendor.
Enemies
Image
Name
HP
Description
Appears in
Orc
1
The weakest enemy. Walks slowly towards the player, often spawning in large numbers.
Stage 1 (areas 1-4)
Spikeball
2 while active, 6 while deployed
Enters the area, walks to a random location, and deploys into an armored spikeball. While they can kill the player, whether deployed or undeployed, it can be beneficial to leave some around for crowd control, as they block enemy movement. If time has run out and the only remaining enemies are spikeballs, they will die in one hit.
Stage 1 (areas 2-4)
Ogre
3
Moves slowly, but soaks up damage. Destroys spikeballs on contact.
Stage 1 (areas 3-4), Stage 2 (areas 1-3)
Mushroom
2
Moves quickly, running as fast as a player without speed upgrades.
Stage 2 (areas 1-3)
Pixie
1
The first flying enemy. Can spawn anywhere on the perimeter and fly towards the player. Can also fly over obstacles.
Stage 2 (areas 1-3)
Mummy
6
Moves slowly and soaks up a lot of damage. Spawns in large hordes.
Stage 3 (areas 1-3)
Imp
3
A flying enemy that can spawn anywhere on the perimeter, seeking the player. Can fly over obstacles and is not distracted by the Gopher or deterred by the Tombstone powerup.
Stage 3 (areas 1-3)
Friendlies
Image
Name
HP
Description
Appears in
Gopher
∞
Distracts enemies, drawing them towards it and killing them on impact. Does not harm the player and cannot be killed by the player. Disappears after it has fully crossed the screen.
If you are nice enough to them, they might carry you on a parade float upon your victory against a boss.
Random
Bosses
Image
Name
HP
Description
Appears in
Cowboy
Both fights with the cowboy take place in open fields with little cover. The player and cowboy are separated by a ravine/river, which can only be crossed with a lucky smoke bomb. Although the cowboy can take quite a few bullets, you can still only take one before dying, requiring proficient evasion. The cowboy will run out of cover and shoot a volley of bullets upwards (sometimes matching your movements) before retreating back to cover. He often pauses behind cover, and sometimes outside of cover, allowing you to get some easy shots in. Upon dying, the boss drops an extra life, a bridge appears crossing the river, and a pickup appears allowing you to travel to the next stage.
Stage 1 (area 5), Stage 2 (area 4)
Fector
Fector is the final boss and is significantly more difficult than the Cowboy. You can move anywhere on the screen in this stage, but Fector also moves around freely and can fire directly at you, as well as firing in eight directions (as with the Wheel powerup). As his health decreases, he starts summoning enemies to attack you and shield himself. Beating Fector finishes the Journey of the Prairie King game.
Stage 3 (area 4)
Levels
Screenshots of each level
Stage
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
Boss
Stage 1 - Prairie
Stage 2 - Forest
-
Stage 3 - Graveyard
-
Hard Mode
As of version 1.1, once you have beaten Journey of the Prairie King, you have the option to start over in a harder mode. You keep all of your upgrades and coins from before, but lives reset to the default "x3". Enemies spawn in greater numbers, some of them move faster, and they each have at least one extra hit point. Additionally, Imps now attack you in every level except boss stages, and extra lives drop far less often.
Trivia
Once the player finds enough lost books, a book will be available in the northern end of the library that reads,
"Journey of the Prairie King -- The Smash Hit Video Game! Did you know? Anyone who beats ' Journey of the Prairie King' is automatically entered into a drawing for a special prize! Did you know? The developer has stated that the protagonist is based on a real-life character... A true cowboy hero from a prairie-island in the Gem Sea!"
There is a bug in the game that prevents player progression under certain circumstances: If the nuke power-up is used during the first boss fight, the enemy will vanish from the screen but the stage will not end. Also occurs with the Tombstone power up and the last boss. This situation can be escaped from by hitting esc, which will close the game and return you to The Saloon.
Having both the wheel and shotgun powerup at the same time will result in you shooting a wheel of shotgun rounds (24 directions), which usually shreds everything in sight very quickly.
Zoom level also influences the portion of screen the arcade game takes up. Be sure to check this setting before playing.
The title of the game is most likely a reference to the River King games (a series of fishing RPGs made by Natsume, who also made the Harvest Moon series), specifically the Game Boy title released in the US as Legend of the River King.