"One of the most unique games I have ever played."

Introduction

Ah, I remember when I got this. I had just finished my exams at school, and I wanted to treat myself after weeks of abstaining from so much as TOUCHING my Genesis. So, I walked into our local secondhand games shop - which sadly closed a long time ago - and headed over to the Genesis games section. The shop owner seemed to think I was up to no good for some reason, but I picked up this game, having read a lot of good things about it, and bought it. About half an hour I thought to myself: "Wow, that shopkeeper did seem rather ticked off at me", but then I forgot about it and got on with enjoying the game.

Puggsy is a character who to my knowledge has only had one of his own games (plus a cameo appearance in Wiz n' Liz), and the fact that this game was made by Psygnosis, the creators of the extraordinary Lemmings, who possess a sense of humour that has in my opinion only ever been matched by Rare (Banjo Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day). This game is a platform game, but it's also a puzzle game. If you play far enough, you'll also find that it is mildly pornographic at one point, but more on that later.

Gameplay - 9/10

This game is very fun; Puggsy travels across a large island, through the numerous worlds, shown on the helpful map, and has to get through the levels, often by completing various tasks. Sometimes the levels are straightforward; all you need to do is run through the level, shooting shellfish, for example, while on others you will need to complete a task. For example, you may have to find the beak for a parrot statue, or fit a number of shapes into slots to make a barrier vanish, or mix together a witch's potion to give Puggsy super powers. On some levels you actually find yourself pursued by enemies.

This game is not as straightforward as it seems, because a lot of the levels feature secret exits, which normally take you to bonus levels where you can hunt for or earn extra lives - such as various parodies of Wiz N' Liz and Space Invaders. Sometimes, however, these will actually open up new routes to take through the game. Many of these secret exits are tucked away so cunningly that you might take a very long time to actually find them.

The game also has bosses, all of which form puzzles in some way; the only disappointment here is the badger boss, who literally stands still and lets you play around with a bunch of levers so you can drop a bag of flour on his head. A couple of bosses require a lot of searching to actually find them, and to make things harder, you actually need to have defeated all five to access the last few levels.

Overall, gameplay is very enjoyable, and the difficulty level is just right to keep you playing without deciding it is just too easy. A few of the later levels seem a little too straightforward for my liking, but when you get near the end, things really do pick up. Watch out for an item that Puggsy cannot actually touch with his bare hands.

The other great thing about this game is how realistic it all seems (okay, apart from the fact that raccoons don't go around stealing spaceships from mysterious alien beings), since the items you will have to carry around the individual levels all have different weights depending on what they are - balloons will float upwards when you inflate them, rubber ducks will float on the surface of water and cannonballs will slow you down considerably. The game also has a handy feature that allows you to exit from levels, which helps because there are times when you can become impossibly stuck.

Finally, this game features one of the hardest secret levels I have ever come across, if you have the patience to actually find it - it will drive you crazy unless you use a certain cheat.

Story - 7/10

Okay, not the best feature of the game, but still worth noting. Puggsy has landed on a planet and gone off to find help, and while Puggsy confronts a pirate parrot, a band of raccoons decides to steal his spaceship. It isn't explained why they do this - maybe they want to study it, maybe they're really DESPERATE for tourists and want to keep Puggsy there so maybe they can exploit him for his money. Throughout the game there are some cutscenes showing what you have to do; the raccoons evidently enlist a number of friends to help them, including a firebreathing dragon, a badger whose only weapon is a bag of flour and a mysterious cloaked figure who chases you and creates traps.

Graphics - 10/10

The graphics in this game are very good. Puggsy is animated very well; also there are a lot of different enemies, and enough different raccoon designs - such as albino ones in a few stages - that you don't feel that the same sprites are being used over and over. There are some very neat level designs, such as scantily clad women in one of the super-secret levels of the game, which appear in the background evidently because the graphics people thought it was a neat idea. There are a number of in-jokes, such as the gravestones of Wiz 'N Liz (another of Psygnosis' games), a level full of fluffy bunnies (another Wiz 'N Liz reference), and a tiny man driving in a car, which I suspect may be a caricature of one of the programmers. The animations in the cutscenes are incredibly good for a game as old as this one.

Sound - 9/10

Not always great, but there are some fantastic tunes. For example, during the levels set in the old manor house, the music has a slight Scottish lilt to it and gives a suggestion of an old haunted house, and the music that appears in many of the bonus levels is incredibly uplifting. The music during the badger fight is so catchy it almost makes you forget that the guy is practically letting you beat him up.

Lastability - 10/10

This game has secrets galore, and finding them all will take you a long time indeed. Not only are there many secrets in the main levels, but many of the secret levels are hidden in places you would never think of looking - including one that you need to pay attention to the closing credits (and be a genius) to find out without help from anyone else. I only found out about one of the secrets because someone read my FAQ and began obsessively trying to catch me on AIM so they could chat with me about Puggsy, and tell me about the secrets I hadn't found. There's even a secret that causes five extra lives to appear from nowhere; good luck in finding that one.

Final Verdict

Buy it if you can find anywhere that stocks it (try used copies from Amazon, maybe). This is probably the most underrated Genesis game of all time.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/08/06