Penguin Adventure (1986)

(for the original MSX version)

Look: 8/10 Great "world map" which made me want to push through even when I wasn't really enjoying the gameplay that much. Tho I loved the original, this felt clunky for 86 and the depth mechanic frustrating. Still, the Look kept making me happy. I love the snowy levels. And the warps have a wild look

It just kept impressing me, the Look and the Sound, even as I kept wondering whether to call it quits.

And the world map

Sound: 8/10 Great part of the game. The world map jingle, the victory song, the main jam, the jingle change when you have invincibility, the variety of level jingles, and so on. Good sound effects too. The end of level sound effects. I could just keep going on and on. Even the sound the hearts make when you press the jump key and they change colors, that was totally the classic Speccy click! Loved that!

Play: 6/10 Many of the complaints I have about the controls are technically resolved with power-ups/shop stuff, buttttt it still just consistently felt clunky and the depth mechanics poor. And in the end, it was precisely the gameplay side of things that burned me out with the game. Cool additions of the shops (I like the Santa Clause one I accidentally stumbled upon ha), but super lame way to get the "Good Ending" and somehow played worse than the original. In particular, the enemy mechanics irritated me for some reason ha (except, in a surprise turn of events, in the underwater levels).

Feel: 7/10 The bonus stage gravity was goofily executed, but a cute concept and cool space vibes. I feel like this game is ripe for speedruns with the Super Mario style Warps available soon after each other.

I wasn't really having a good time. Sure the Look was good with a nice variety of levels, sure the Feel was nice with the shops and power-ups and my love for the first game, and sure the Sound was a great jam with good sound effects too. But the gameplay was really frustrating. I was asking myself, what had I really liked about the original? Well, then I turned it up to full speed and just started freaking out lol. I do see why I quit after Stage 4 in the original, but luckily some of that love came back when I started doing higher speeds and just winging it instead of trying to catch all the shops or secret items or fish (all of which are cool additions, but I just wanted to get through all 24 stages... instead of already quitting at Stage 12 (turns out it was Stage 9 lol) like I was about to... and that was with Warps! Because I wasn't having a good time, I was using all the Warps I could ha. But hopefully this gets me in a better groove now). Plus, I kinda liked the boss, I didn't love it because it should always shoot the direction it's facing imo, but I did like getting in a groove (you jump on the pillar thingies as the best way to kill the bosses)of dodging and jumping.

Attachment: 7/10 Oh god not an underwater level! Haha. Surprisingly, the underwater level wasn't inherently worse. And the ink effect was interesting. I really wasn't sure how I was feeling about the game, but it kept growing on me. Especially when I started focusing on going fast and just dodging ha, not trying to find the secrets or worry about the Good Ending (silly way you get the good ending too... super silly tbh. kinda epic tho that the norm would be 9/10 people would see a really brutal bad ending tbh lol), and embracing the great Sound and Look

But even with that carrying me through, the tedious nature of the gameplay and frustrating level designs kept creeping back in. I was halfway through the game, at Stage 12, and reallllly debating. I'll pick it back up tomorrow and see if wanna keep pushing (I at least partly blame doing a Tombs of Amascut raid tonight, the loot was trash and it's always so stressful, dunno why I do that to myself haha. definitely wears me out)

Yeahhh, on second play session, it still wasn't getting much better. I think they really wanted to add more layers to the original's formula, considering it was 3 years later. But as noted in the first one's reviews, I specifically liked its simplicity. Some cool additions with this, but it sullies the simple fun that made the first one so great. This is a great game, with a lot of great minds involved and great Sound and Look and idea, but it just stops being fun too early in the game. One of those games you want to enjoy more, so you can explore the secrets and warps and shops and power-ups and all the niceties they added, but the gameplay and repeated frustrating mechanics (even all the bosses seem to be essentially the same so that got old quick) dragged it down.

Completion: Stage 10? or 11? Score 28,060 Playtime: 45 mins