Previous Next

Puggsy had been worrying about his spacecraft since passing the crab nebula. The engine had been making ominous sounds for about three microns now. No wonder, the wooden-hulled crate was well past it (Puggsy had considering dumping it at the Little Chef on Alpha Centauri and hot-wiring a Ford Space Escort XRi). But instead, our law-abiding, lobe-lugged friend had soldiered on - and the approaching crash-land on a nameless planet was his just reward.

After a watery landing, Puggsy found his ship surrounded by some very curious raccoon people. Puggsy had hoped the mammalian natives would assist him in returning to space, instead they steal his ship and place many (levels of) obstacles in his way. Oh well, phasers set to kill...

Puggsy is an original character. The game incorporates old platform elements with a new puzzle-based environment.

Reach the craft by finding the exit to each level. Using objects to solve puzzles is a vital part of exit-finding. Unfriendly natives patrol each level.

Part of Puggsy's short intro is a space fly-past by his ship. Although it only lasts a couple of seconds, it's an eye-catchingly smooth piece of animation for the Megadrive, which got the whole team talking.

Points and lives are available if you take an object with you as you leave the level. Some rare artifacts are worth much more than a simple shell or a used gun. Search levels for valuable looking items.

Small hints boxes offer clues to what you should be doing. Open the box and a flickering outline of an object vital to solving the level appears.

Puggsy features a comprehensive system for manipulating objects - there can be up to 20 on a single level. Combining objects with others, or taking them to the right place, yields points and may lead to further discoveries. Objects also react in a physical sense - with gravity, inertia and weight.

When holding an object, Puggsy may not jump as far, depending on its weight; objects can be pushed or stacked with others. This makes it important at what height Puggsy carries the object.

One final trick is using an object to pull Puggsy over a ledge. He can get a grip on a wall or platform and then leap over.

Each area of the island has a boss controller that blocks Puggsy's progress. There are five in total, including a pirate parrot on his rocking galleon and a massive raccoon King wh has the Beadle-esque ability to drop his hands at will.

Polly needs to be slapped with a wet kipper, but killing the King is done by using a complex set of switches and rolling balls.

One short chapter from Puggsy's travails occurs in the Redwood keep. Faced with blank walls and no apparent exits, Puggsy conspires to use a load of balls to escape. Read on...

1. Fan Club
   A group of blowers separates Puggsy from a mysterious blue key. Reaching it means using the beach balls.
2. Key West
   A tube of minty-looking balls is unleashed by the key.
3. Switch Palace
   Puggsy finds a suspicious row of switches. The remote device lets him see what they do.
4. Clever Or Wot?
   The right arrangement of switches, a ball dropped through the gun, and the wall disappears!

Space aliens, bum-bouncing and platforms. Sounds like a recipe for disaster. Well, Puggsy is no such thing. In fact, it's crackin' ace! That's a conclusion you might not come to immediately, since mastering the control method is a struggle early on, and osme of the early levels are bland and untaxing.

From the beginning though, the graphics cannot be faulted - they are truly excellent in detail and design (although Puggsy himself is a tad nondescript). Just bear with the game and it soon provides taxing, logical puzzles that are very satisfying to solve, and show some imaginative game structure for once.

Even better, the difficulty level increases quite sharply, so the password system doesn't spoil the game. This is the first real arcade adventure since Ecco, and knocks spots of previous Psygnosis efforts like Shadow Of The Beast I & II. An island well worth exploring.

Visually, Puggsy is a dream - the backgrounds are magnificent and the sprites are large and well animated. I found Puggsy fairly tricky to control a lot of the time.

It's a damn big game as well, with loads to do - only problem is, although there's masses of objects to interact with, you don't really need to in order to complete the level so they end up being superfluous.

The main thing you need to enjoy this game, apart from a lot of tolerance of the cheesy tunes, is a whole heap of patience because although, as Gus says, the puzzles are fairly logical, the actual execution of some of them drives you round the twist like when you're trying to cross a pit via some bouncing balls, will be stay on? Will he hell!

I can envisage many people just giving up in disgust (as I did) but for arcade adventure freaks, this is definitely one you'll want to see.

Presentation 93%
P. A wonderful intro shot, and very pretty presentational knobs and whistles. Also, a password system which doesn't ruin the game.

Graphics 92%
P. The visuals have that familiar Psygnosis feel - flat but intensely detailed and a bit rustic. These work better than on any other of their games.
N. Sprite animation (except on Puggsy) has a low priority.

Sound 82%
P. Pleasant enough tunes and FX.
N. The music never seems to add any atmosphere or reflect the setting.

Playability 90%
P. The puzzles are always logical, but sometimes devious. Shooting the animals is just as much fun.
N. Requires some patience, as some puzzles involve a lot of to and fro-ing.

Lastability 87%
P. Seventeen different areas, and the game becomes much harder...
N. Curiously, some levels don't need to be fully explored to be completed. The bosses are quite simple to overthrow.

Overall 89%
A sterling arcade adventure that rewards patience and perseverance. One to get into, and Psygnosis' best effort yet.