"Where you can be the bad guy, but you can only steal, not kill"

Bagman is a light-hearted game where you, as a red-and-white-striped convict, evade two gun-toting wardens(they never shoot, but at least they never drop the guns to go faster) through a maze of mines as you look to reach the surface and dump bags of money in a wheelbarrow. They get faster as you score more points, and carrying money slows you down, so you'll need to avail yourself of the elevators(express down, two or four stops on the way up) and the mine carts and pick-axes to get the last few safely. There's also a bonus timer, reset after you place each bag, but if it runs out you die. Bagman's a stiff challenge, leaving you to think that it's probably better to be the guy in charge of the mine or the prison, who can probably make that much money with a little negligible graft, laundering or racketeering.

Yet it didn't seem that way according to my youthful optimism. The cabinet boasted a cool set of comics explaining that not only were the wardens human, but you had the weapons! And when I started playing, you got points for just walking around and surviving! (You probably deserve it, on reflection.) The high score list even allowed for thirteen letters, although much later I found how hard it would be to put them all in in the time the machine gave you. The three screens the game encompassed were more a sign of a vast work of art than of a massive challenge, and I got killed too conventionally at first to find how the game tended to scramble enemy locations(bad when you run just ahead of that cart that you were ahead of, good when it kicks the warden to the screen on the other side) when you skipped screens. In such an esoteric game I'm almost not surprised to see as many esoteric bugs as I did; they seem to balance out, though, and as a seasoned player, I now have strategies to use them to my advantage.

In the regular run of play, though, it'll be clear some bags, especially the double-bonus blue one that cuts your speed in half, require special skill and occasional luck. In fact I, a veteran, rarely solve the first level with one life lost. There'll be one bag tucked in a dead end, or another trapped between two elevators; you'll need to shake the guards from taking the elevators, and they are usually pretty smart. They generally don't run right at you unless they can see you, but they tend to patrol certain areas back and forth and only randomly switch around. Occasionally you can trick them into falling off a ledge(stuns them for a few seconds but kills you) so you can clean up while they're away, but lose your concentration for a second and you'll find yourself falling down an elevator shaft or getting hit by the mine cart that only occasionally helps you.

Guards also sometimes come together due to each having the same AI, but the game seems to force them to move randomly when they can't see you. They may even trap you; often you're stuck with the choice to jump or let them knock you out. This wasn't all bad for me once as I scrambled back and forth to break 100000 for the first time in one case, but when you take an elevator down to get one money bag efficiently and notice the guard you thought was pottering randomly is coming your way or possibly even waiting for you, prepare to groan. The more I play the game the more I see that, in fact, there are ways to account for any possible moves the guards make. There are probably some I am missing.

Fortunately the controls are fluid; moving diagonally can help you turn quickly, important when wardens are as fast as you and just behind. You can hold down the 'action' button to be sure you perform an action(grab a handrail above a cart, money bag, or pickaxe,) which is nice, as pushing the button at the right time can be a trial. Then there are hidden features such as standing halfway in an elevator as it goes down to avoid guards on the ledges who stab at you.

Yet what is most impressive long-term is how many items which seem to have an immediate practical use may in fact have even better ones. For instance, the pick which stuns guards if you hit them is better used as defense. Use it in the right place, and the guards will run away and fall off a ledge where they can't bother you. Stun them, and they run back after you quickly. You can even recharge the pick(it disappears after a few steps) by dropping it and picking it up, or when you are taking an elevator down and have a pick you may face away from the guard--instead of being stunned he runs away. Carts seem great for invulnerability, but learning how to exit them quickly and when is an art. The elevators can also be manipulated with screen-switching, causing wardens to appear stunned, and the wheelbarrow presents the best physical comedy; position it over a ladder just as the warden surfaces, and he falls all the way down. It's better than money bags, which can be dropped on warden's heads, but you have to go fetch them.

Through this all, the only really annoying dilemma is what to do if you die and you're almost done. Usually this entails going right two screens, by which time your bonus will be a bit low. Although it's nice to subsidize weak play, i.e. giving a break for losing a man quickly, good play shouldn't be penalized. You're kicked right back to the start, and once again the bonus ticks down immediately.

The sand the tunnels are dug out of is wavily two-tone(medium and light brown) and in general the game is never terribly bright, but you in your pinstripes and the wardens in their overalls shuffle amusingly about. Folks also have an interesting nonchalant expression as they fall(who said more pixels were better?--and, by the way, can we arrest those wardens for not following the Law of Gravity to a T? No acceleration on the fall...) and the stars above their head provides some relief from the seriousness of strategizing. You edge the guards on personality but only because you look lazy as you ride back and forth in the cart. 'Yeah...when I'm finished picking up this money, I'm gonna buy me a jacuzzi...'

But while there's some fun to be had conking pesky white-haired wardens who seem to have youth potions in their hip flasks on the nut as they climb up ladders, Bagman's noises are the most memorable part. The game religiously cranks out a folk tune when you enter the leftmost or rightmost scene of the sort everyone's heard but few can name. I still whistle to them, and maybe one day I'll find out what their names are. Little springy noises follow the latest warden pratfalls, and you have quite a bit to say on your own progress. 'Gr-rief!' as you grab a ceiling handhold so you can drop in a cart, anticipating a 'hey-huppa' when you drop successfully in. 'Obba-webba' or something like that as you deposit a money bag in the wheelbarrow. 'Aie yi yi' accompanies the numerous ways you find to die.

Bagman turns out to have been another of those near-impossible games I got on my mind and took longer than I'd expected to perfect my skill and put to the side. I still enjoy trying out a better strategy occasionally, and every time I move the wheelbarrow across an elevator shaft, it is like moving a pawn in chess; you can take it back, but probably you'll run out of time. The amount of planning required in the game is extraordinary, and learning to shake the guards, who seem totally random yet deadly at first, requires critical thought. But amidst that you have some sloppy controls that cost you a life and a ruthless penal system outside the two wardens. Some other problems with screen switching and the occasional over-the-top randomization keep this game from being spectacular. But if you can ride the cute first impression past some potentially demoralizing challenges, Bagman will provide a keen test of action and strategy. Overall it deserves a rousing 'hey-huppa.'

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/00, Updated 09/12/02