Play Palamedes (Japan) Online

Palamedes is a 1990 puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, developed and published by Hot B. It arrived late in the NES lifecycle, a time when many developers were experimenting with more complex or niche genres beyond the standard platformers and action titles that dominated the earlier part of the decade.

You control a cursor to select and roll dice from a grid, aiming to match their values to a target number at the top of the screen. The main objective is to clear each stage by hitting the target enough times before the rising stack of dice reaches the top and ends your game. Its signature mechanics involve strategic dice selection, the pressure of a constantly ascending playfield, and the risk versus reward of holding onto high value dice for future targets. The pacing is deliberately tense, with difficulty that escalates quickly as stages introduce more dice and faster scrolling. It feels like a race against a slow but inevitable avalanche, where every move counts.