Puggsy
| Developer: Dome | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Psygnosis | Sound: |
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| Year: 1994 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Platformer | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
4/10 | |
The character Puggsy, a cute alien who lands on Earth, first appeared in a demo, Puggs In Space by Dionysus (1990). Don’t confuse him with that poor Bubsy (it’s not his turn).
It’s a generic platformer through and through, except for one thing: the inclusion of an innovative feature called Total Object Interaction, letting you manipulate objects according to the laws of physics. For example, you can use them as projectiles to deal with enemies, as stepping stones to reach inaccessible platforms, or interact with the environment to climb walls or use a zipline.
However, five minutes of play is enough to realise the execution is a miss. The projectile in question passes through the enemy half the time, and stacked objects have this annoying habit of spontaneously shooting into the sky if you approach them from the wrong angle. Plus, the variety of actions you can perform requires using the space bar to activate certain objects, alongside the joystick, even though the two-button controller is supported. Try shooting a seagull with the gun while jumping, just to see. By the way, Lagaf’ managed to handle a variety of objects using just one button…
This game annoyed me so much I feel like shortening it:
- No background, unlike the console version
- Slowdowns when there are more than 3 objects on screen
- Secondary disk drive not supported
- Password system requiring us to enter 27 digits, but why!
If you’re determined to play it, go for the Sega Genesis version, which is far superior graphically and probably free from the space bar issue…
The level “Wabbits World” is a clear reference to Wiz ‘n’ Liz, which also included one or two winks towards Puggsy.
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