Previous Next

Eek! Eek! Skweek! Skweek! It's attack of the cuddlies again, as Skweek and his just as cute chum Skrouch have to battle it out with the evil aliens who insist on painting their home planet blue.

The plot goes something like this: space aliens have invaded the home planet and painted lots of it blue. Quite why the aliens have done such a thing is a bit of a mystery. (It's a bit like the Magic Roundabout movie Dougal and the Blue Cat, where Buxton the power-crazed feline has similar true blue ideas.) [Yes, er thanks for that - Ed]

Anyway, our heroes aren't going to stand for this nonsense! They're determined to paint every patch of soiled ground back to its natural pink. The task is not without its problems, though. The world that the fluff-balls live in is a kind of paving-stone land in outer space. You can walk over the multi-coloured paving stones (this very act is what causes them to revert back to their original colour), but there are raised walls in the way, and even sheer drops into nothingness! (And there aren't even safety barriers to prevent the two falling to their doom!)

You may think that's quite enough to contend with, but no! These aliens haven't actually deserted the planet or anything. They're still there in droves - so you'd better watch your step, hadn't you?!

So far it sounds pretty similar to the original Skweek, but plenty of refinements have been made. The levels are wider for a start, so there's a greater playing area. There's a very large variety of pick-ups, with effects ranging from the slightly annoying - such as reversed controls - to the jolly good (e.g. extra lives and automatic completion of the level you're on). The two characters play simultaneously, too (not competitively as you have a common aim), though you can chase after the same goodies. And if you can't find the particular thing you're after, you can buy it from the shop. (You get spending money by killing the monsters.)

So do the improvements actually improve the game? Well actually, er... no.

The large variety of pick-ups is almost too large. There are so many of the damned things that it's difficult to remember what the icons represent. Still, practice makes perfect...

And the more that's on screen at one time, the slower the whole game moves. If there's a lot going on the whole thing slows down to a really crushingly dull pace. That's not to say it's complete tripe, though - there are still plenty of challenging puzzles to muddle your brains. And some of the new features that have been added are cool too.

So although there's more to this follow-up, it simply doesn't hang together in quite the same way that the original did.

The problem with sequels is that they always have a predecessor to try to upstage. And when, as in Superskweek's case, they fail to live up to those expectations, the disappointment felt about the less than brilliant game is even more pronounced.

Superskweek is, not surprisingly, Skweek with knobs on. The trouble is, the extra on-screen action frequently slows the whole thing down to a plod. You get more game, but less playability.

Reach level 10 on normal game.

Graphics 80%
Cute but garish graphics marred by slow movements.

Sonics 73%
Jolly tunes on the title screen but average FX in the game.

Grab Factor 82%
Cutsie game that has a lot of promise in the outset.

Staying Power 68%
...But sadly fails to deliver all that you might expect.

Overall 72%
A sequel that fails to live up to its brilliant predecessor.