in his possession along with whatever weapon he was last carrying, allowing another player to pick it up. Extra lives can be added to the player's stock by inserting more credit into the respective coin slot. In addition to the default weapons, the player can also pick up a flamethrower or a laser gun, allowing the character to attack enemies from a safer distance. Other power-ups include a crystal ball that enhances melee weapons, a necklace that increases the player's walking speed, a shield that reduces the amount of damage taken by enemy attacks, and a magic orb that destroys all on-screen enemies. Version differences Outside North America, Dark Adventure was released as a 2-player conversion kit under the title of Majū no Ōkoku in Japan and as Devil World in Europe and Australia. Because of this, the third player character, Zorlock, was cut from these versions, leaving only Condor and Labryna. The gameplay mechanics and balance were redjusted completely. Each player character now starts the game with a firearm as their default weapons instead of a melee weapon (Labryna uses a bowgun, while Condor wields a pistol) and the game now uses a power-up selection meter similar to Gradius. By picking up blue power orbs, the cursor on the selection meter moves up by one level. When the cursor is on an item that the player wishes to use, they can obtain it by pressing the power-up button, which replaces the dynamite throwing button from Dark Adventure. Instead, when the player is armed with dynamites, they will throw it with the standard fire button while shooting their main weapon at the same time. The map button displays the whole area rather than just the portions already explored by the player. The player's health is also drained at a much slower rate. The stages now have a much more linear structure, with almost all of them only having a single key and exit, preventing backtracking to previously cleared areas. The only exception is the thirteenth stage, Metropolis, which has numerous fake exits, including one that leads to the previous boss encounter, and a real exit. Every fourth stage now consists of a boss battle against a recurring two-headed draconic monster. Counting the dragon battles, Devil World/Majū no Ōkoku has a total of 19 stages, in contrast to the 40 stages in Dark Adventure. Credits cannot be used to add more