Mutant Penguins

"A red ball with a frying pan that saves the world..what more could you want?!?!"

Now chances are you're saying to yourself ''Mutant Penguins? What in God's (or who knows, maybe even Jehovah's) name is that?!'' Well, Mutant Penguins is an extremely bizarre action/puzzler where your object is to help save the world from evil aliens.

Story: Well the story goes something like this: Mutant Penguins from outer space decided they wanted to take over the earth, but they wanted to blend in. In order to do so they decided to tune into what Earthlings call television, or TV. However, all the way out in outer space they got pretty crappy reception and could only get the nature channel, and they happened to tune in on a program on penguins. Therefore the aliens travelled to Earth disguised as penguins....however when they got there they realized they made a mistake but were far too lazy too change forms..so instead they are aliens, dressed as penguins, dressed as humans. You will see penguins dressed as private eyes, clowns, Elvis impersonators, and even The Village People. However, the real penguins don't appreciate having their image tarnished by a bunch of stupid aliens, and decide to join in on the fight . Yes, I'm serious. Sure it's a little far fetched but it's still hilarious...
Score-10/10

Game Play: In Mutant Penguins you play as either a pear or a red ball. The pear goes by the name of Rodney and the ball is known as Bernard. You see the game from an above view, similar to that of The Legend of Zelda. The point of the game is to keep the evil penguins from reaching the Doom Scale and using it to destroy the Earth. When a bad penguin reaches the Doom Scale it hops in, and good penguins that are in the level can jump on the Doom Scale as well. Your job is to kill the bad penguins before they can reach the Doom Scale. The first thing you'll want to do is collect the letter P, A and N if you are Bernard so that you can use your frying pan or the letters B, A and T if you are Rodney so you can use your baseball bat. In order to open treasure chest containing these letters and often many other things you have to capture a gremlin, then drop them to work on opening the box. The more gremlins you have working on a project the more quickly it will be done. After you collect your letters and can use your weapon you can go and hit your enemies. Each time you hit a penguin (good or bad) it will shoot out 5 orbs. Collect all of them and your weapon will be charged up so that you can kill your enemies. For example, Bernard's pan gets electrified for 5 swings when you pick up 5 orbs. Hit multiple enemies and you can pick up 10 orbs making your weapon even more powerful. Another way to vanquish enemies is to use machines. Drop gremlins into machine, which are usually placed in the path of the Doom Scale, and they will make it work. Machines will last for about a minute, and will give you an item. The various items can come in handy. Glue sticks can be used to cut penguins off and dynamite can kill penguins if you don't have your weapon yet. There are also 3 modes: training mode for beginners, pandemonium mode where you simply try to last as long as possible and penguins just come with no end, and of course normal or ''story'' mode.
Score-9/10

Controls: Although the controls are customizable the defaults will work just fine. The direction pad move you around, space to swing your weapon, X to pick up or drop gremlins, and Z to use an item. They can get confusing at times but you shouldn't have too much difficulty. You also have the option of using a game pad or a joystick as well. However I find the keyboard will work best if you just take the time to get to learn to use it.
Score-7/10

Graphics: Mutant Penguins has very impressive 3-D graphics, which are very advanced considering the fact that this game was developed in 1996 and released in early '97. The odd thing about this game is you have to play it in a smaller window, which is somewhat annoying at first but halfway through the first level you probably won't even notice anymore. Because of the small size of the window everything is incredibly detailed. You can see every spiked hair on the little blue gremlins and all the muscles on the powered up penguins.
Score-8/10

Sound Effects: The sound effects in this game are very impressive. Everything from the sound when you smack a penguin with your baseball bat to the odd yell that sounds strangely Chewbacca-like when you teleport or lose a level. Although there should have been more sound effects (you don't even hear one when a penguin falls victim to one of your traps) those that there are a pretty well done, whether it be the dynamite blast or the odd boing when you put a gremlin to work. And just wait until you hear the sound you get at the game over screen
Score-7/10

Music: Mutant Penguins has a very upbeat and fun soundtrack. A different song plays each level, and no two are quite a like. Also the music at the title screen has a great eerie sound to it.
Score-8/10

::::The Rundown::::
Plusses
+Good graphics
+Original story
+Multiple modes
+Seemingly never ends

Minuses
-Have to play in a small screen
-Controls can be awkward
-Minor plot holes in the story
-Some sound effects are missing

Overall: If you want a fun action/puzzle game then pick up Mutant Penguins. My copy cost me about $10, and that was over a year ago.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/01, Updated 07/23/01