Play as Moebius or Pucky and rescue hundreds of strange creatures that inhabit unusual places. Move through teleporters and from one side of the screen to the other in a chaotic game experience that will make your neurons burn as you progress through the 15 levels. – [Author’s description]
(via RGCD)
This game is so very good, and probably would have been a (cult?) classic if released in the 80s. It’s worth reading the instructions, if only to make sure not to miss how vertical navigation works. My first couple plays I didn’t realize that you can also hit the up arrow to jump upward one level. The idiosyncrasy here is that vertical jumps, whether up or down, are only possible when standing on top of a pad. These aren’t permeable floors you’re jumping down but rather teleport pads that let you move in either direction only when standing on top of one. What this means for gameplay — and is one of the things that makes the game distinct — is that vertical movement is not immediately reversible. When you jump up or down, you’ll almost always land on a spot without a pad right below you, and so you can’t jump back without first moving left or right.
I was surprised that it ended so quickly. (I finished it on my fourth or so attempt, and I don’t think I’m particularly good at these sorts of games.) Had this been an arcade game in the 80s, it simply wouldn’t be asking for enough quarters to be profitable, at least not from the single-player mode. Maybe the two-player competitive mode would have been the main event?
Without spoiling the ending: the last level is a fun little joke and not a bug, right?
Hi there Nobody – There are 15 levels in total, the last one being a boss fight. To beat it on your 4th go you must be pretty good! I hope that’s what you saw and not a bug! D:
I think it helped that I trained a couple times without realizing I could jump upwards. Once that handicap was removed what felt like a really tricky game was suddenly so much easier!
15 levels sounds about right for what I saw, but [POTENTIAL SPOILER IF THIS ISN’T A BUG?] the boss fight ended just about immediately after it began, possibly even without any time for player input at all. (I’m not even sure the player character appeared on screen.) It announced the boss fight and then almost immediately the boss was squashed and the congratulations and end-credits sequences started. I had assumed it was just a little joke, the impotence of such a suddenly huge enemy character etc., but maybe that wasn’t intended behavior?
Nope – that is definitely a bug. Not seen that one before! You are supposed to squish the boss with multiple hits from the weights.
Will drop loco a mail! D:
Bug is fixed now – please download it again 🙂
I’ve noticed that sometimes pressing ‘up’ just doesn’t work and I’m not sure why.
Well, time to do some co-op.
Hm, I haven’t seen that happen. Are you sure you aren’t trying to jump up when there’s a special pad above you? (You can only jump up when standing on a pad, which is confusing at first because standard game grammar would indicate they were permeable floors that ought to let you pass up or down through. In fact they are teleport pads that work in both directions, but only when standing on top of one.)
Correct! 😀
Glad someone got it 🙂
Yeah, I’m doing it right it’s just sometimes it doesn’t work and sometimes it does. At first I thought I couldn’t do it if there was a collectible above me but then that worked just fine.
I don’t really know what to say. 😕
I assume you’ve tried redefining the keys? Maybe the game doesn’t like your keyboard cursor keys for some odd reason?
Yeah right, I do have some problems with this keyboard. Didn’t even occur to me (it’s pretty rare). Man I need a new one. 😳
Should I believe the readme text file that comes with the game? Is the original game by Dave Hughes? Excellent offering either way!
Yes the original ZX Spectrum game is by Dave Hughes and he helped with the remake 🙂