"Dare I say it? Yes... better than Pac-Man!"

The Game Itself ~ Amazing Penguin is one of those odd little games that you’ll either love or hate. It’s a quirky, slightly bizarre game featuring a penguin with a beret and large boots as the main character. I would tell you his name, but it is never stated in the game and I lost the instruction manual and box eons ago and thus have no source to use. It’s not an “Action” game in the sense of what an Action game is today. As my tag-line may suggest to you, this game is more comparable to Pac-Man than anything else.

The game is divided up into levels, each level composing of some sort of grid. The grids are composed of many rectangles and squares of various sizes. For the sake of easing my explanation, I will call these “panels”. They’re usually just in large clusters but sometimes they are split up in groups with a few lines connecting them. You walk on the lines that border these panels and connect them, and that is all you can walk on. These lines are also occupied by any number of enemies; ranging in appearance from goofy to ridiculous. They include but are not limited to: squid-like blobs, pencils, ice skates, and pens. Some of these enemies will pursue you once you get within a certain proximity of them, while others will always mindlessly patrol the same length of line. Some move faster than you, and others move slower. If they touch you at all, you die. If you manage to kill one, it’ll respawn from the point it started at within around seven seconds.

The objective of each level is to clear out each grid of these little orbs within a certain allotted amount of time. Once you dismantle all the orbs bordering a single panel, the panel will change from being blank to being filled by a pattern, or part of a picture. At the same time, any enemies touching a border of that panel will be KOed. So once every panel has been changed, you clear the stage and move onto the next one. Nothing more complicated than that.

The orbs are either solid black or white with a dash in the middle of them. Black orbs can be squashed by pressing the right button to make them disappear. If you hit the other button, you will kick it instead. Any enemy it hits will be destroyed, until the orb careens into a wall and shatters. You can only squash the white orbs, but whenever you do it will reverse the current direction your enemies are moving in.

So in essence, all there is to this game is basically evading enemies, getting rid of those orbs, and moving onto the next level. Nothing complicated or mind boggling, but sometimes simple games like this one can be very absorbing and entertaining. I’ll attempt to explain within the other sections of this review.

Story ~ You know, I think there is some base, nonsensical story to go with this game, but it never comes up in the game itself as far as I can remember, but was mentioned in the manual. This doesn’t really hurt Amazing Penguin at all, however, since the need for a plot line is pretty much close to nil. Still, you think that if they bothered to make up a story in the manual then they would at least incorporate some of the story elements in the game. No big loss all the same.

Gameplay ~ All I really need is one word to describe this game: addictive. Perhaps this only appeals to a select crowd, but for some odd reason I found myself really getting into this world of fast paced decision making, split-second escapes, and obliteration of demented possessed pencils. Maybe it is just me. The only gripe I have with the gameplay is making turns at areas where lines intersect. You have to be at exactly the right point in order to turn off the line you are on and onto another one. If you are even a hair off, you’ll be trapped running in place. It is a bit frustrating at times, but I’ve come to appreciate it as it makes the game that much harder; forcing you to time your movements perfectly.

The controls work exactly how they are supposed to, but you’d come to expect that when all you can do is move in a maximum of four directions and then either kick or squash. The beginning of the game is only mildly interesting, but as you progress past the tenth stage you’ll find yourself having to pump in much more effort to clear the stages. By around stage twenty five you’ll be kept on your toes at all times, and one error in your actions could easily result in defeat. You’ll even have to be careful of how you destroy enemies as if they respawn at an inopportune time, you could easily be trapped between two advancing enemies with no place to run. Simply put, if you like games that must absorb all your attention and force you to think fast then you’ll love this game. The gameplay gives you exactly that in later stages, and is easily the best part of the game.

Graphics/Sound ~ The graphics are really nothing special. The sprites for the enemies and main character are smooth and cartoony. Considering the game’s vintage, it is pretty nice looking for a Game Boy game. The sound effects are nothing beyond the ordinary blips and blops of those days. The music is a bit of a mixed bag. It has a sort of cheery, sanguine sound to it and is pleasant enough… until the later stages. Once the difficulty level gets chaotic and the tension rises to focus, the music may seem very out of place; as though it is simply there to taunt you. It may have the potential to even make you throw your Game Boy at something in frustration at having died for the umpteen millionth time as it did for a few of my siblings. Sound is not really essential for this game, however, so if it really bothers you the volume control can always remedy the situation.

Replayability ~ I’ve had this game for over seven years and I’ll play it on occasion. This game has tons of replay value, if anything. There are plenty of stages to keep up the variety, the enemies never act exactly the same each time (although the variation isn’t incredibly high, but it is there), and of course you can always try to beat stages with greater speed to accumulate points. Every few stages or so, you’ll receive passwords so you can return to a later stage without having to start from scratch if you decide to turn it off and leave it alone for a while. You also have unlimited continues, so you can retry a stage over and over again until you beat it, or turn it off in disgust. It is easy to pick up and learn how to play, but it is very hard to beat the later stages and present you with plenty of challenge.

Final Recommendation ~ This game is old enough that you probably won’t be paying more than ten dollars to acquire it, assuming that you can find it. I feel the need to stress that if you do stumble across this little gem in a bargain bin somewhere, you’d be doing yourself a great injustice to pass up the chance to buy it. People who can appreciate games like Tetris and Pac-Man are bound to get a kick out of this game especially. It is very hard to find a better way to blast through several hours of simple but addictive gaming on a long car trip.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/15/04