Flicky (1984)

Look: 8/10 Cutesy, fits the theme, and a lot of fun level designs and looks.

I love this space-themed background

Sound: 8/10 Technically a bit annoying but I was bobbing my head and swinging my head side to side. Hyper, cutesy, and classic sounding.

Play: 9/10 Being an arcade game, it of course shines compared to most the platformers I've played for '84, since most were microcomputer games. The collision masks were a bit goofy at times, tho usually in my favor like when you're landing a jump sometimes you don't get hurt even tho your sprite clearly ran into the enemy cat sprite. A bit clunky with controls, especially disappointing you cant re-fly mid-jump and other tweaks mid-jump (also sometimes you shoot the way you were facing, not the way you pressed right before--as a YouTuber worded it, the controls are a bit laggy) BUT a lot of those super tight, clench your hand on the controller, grunt and holler moments--which makes for a very fun platformer. I haven't experienced many platformers so far in the 80s with a glide feature like this. Definitely worth a stream playthrough. Especially since I can actually succeed at it (then again, I thought that about Pine Applin, then when I streamed it, it seemed so much harder than I remembered.). It was the right balance for difficulty in '84, especially with 48 unique levels before it repeats at a higher difficulty! Well-done. Plus, you can actually control jumps more than I initially realized, tho still not enough, in that there is some "acceleration" aspect with how long you press the button, quite advanced for its time in that sense. It felt so good when you'd hit multiple cats with one projectile. And I like that the time aspect doesn't kill you, instead it rewards you: you get a Time Bonus (and when I got 25 secs on Level ("RD.") 12, giving 10K bonus points, it felt so good!... and after that, I got that maximum time bonus often!... so it really wasn't that special in the end... but getting that bonus on RD. 28 definitely felt legitimately pride-inducing!) The ricochet effect your character has from the walls gets quite annoying and nauseating, especially once most the difficulty spikes in the 40+ RDs are focused on taking advantage of that nauseating bouncing back and forth + the need to jump as high as possible for platforms.

Pro-tip: You can ricochet the projectiles (to some extent).

Another pro-tip: Something I didn't realize until about RD. 20: you can jump during the bonus rounds loll derp.

Feel: 9/10 Wow 48 unique screens before it re-cycles, as I used to call it. Arcade games had come far by '84! This was hard to put down. As always, nice that you can fight back, but I wasn't in love with the jump-as-same-button-as-throw-weapon mechanic. Nevertheless, the level design, sound, and relatively forgiving gameplay got me hooked. Kind of Abe's Odyssey-esque in that you are collecting chicks (mudokons) to save and you bring them back to the sliding door (the portal) to escape.

Edit: I just now realized the Robby Roto similarity (not just Abe's Odyssey). Apparently I really like arcade action games where you save things then run to a spot or the entrance.

Attachment: 9/10 Welp, endgame definitely gets harder, but I like that you can just try to survive and barely get all chicks orrrrr be a sweaty gamer and try to get all chicks in one go or always beat 30 secs for time bonus etc. Much like Abe's Odyssey, again. It has a variety of ways you can play it and things you can focus on. By RD 45, I was just trying to survive and get on to the next RD ha. To think it re-cycles at a harder difficulty! But I set a goal to get through all the unique levels, and I had to push through the difficulty! Bouncing back and forth got both annoying and nauseating, and the addition of the fireball thing (presumably based on taking too long on a level?) really didn't seem necessary until they re-cycled the level designs imo (for a mediocre gamer like myself, at least heh... plus those hardcore gamers already have the opportunity to challenge themselves thanks to the mechanics of the game, like they could say they have to get all the chicks in one go not being able to put them in the door as you collect or when needed, etc.). But throughout the game, all the close calls, me yelling from how closely I barely survived, and all the moments I thought I was trapped but jumped so I could avoid a cat and barely made it out. Oooo, cute addition to the final unique level design

1984 has had so many excellent games! I am overwhelmed with how long 85 and on will take, considering I keep wanting to playtest games but wind up doing a deep thorough playthrough! Ah! But they are so worth it, for gems like this. So much grunting from close calls and barely-made-its throughout this game lol, play it if you like Sega, Sonic, and/or platformers in general! The fact I will definitely be already replaying it tomorrow for my retro night stream, with a more lax approach to it allowing myself just to survive from the beginning, means this definitely deserves its 9!

Completion: All 48 unique screens, Score 397, 540 Playtime: ~3.5 hours over 3 sessions

Before I started up Flicky for the first time, I actually thought I was going to be sitting down for an actual, proper platformer game in the same vein as Sonic or Earthworm Jim. Imagine my surprise when what I got was this crazy little arcade game about saving chicks (the feathered kind) while dodging cats and lizards... Or launching potted plants at them Tom & Jerry style!

And that right there is basically the entire game. Stages loop horizontally and you are tasked with collecting little yellow birds and returning them safely to the Exit elevator. All the while cats and eventually lizards will appear and try to take you out. Finish a stage, move on to a harder one.

Gameplay:

I appreciate how the ensured I knew how to play it before we even started. "Help Flicky guide Chirps to the door! Press button to jump and shoot. Rack up a super score!" Got it. Chirps good, Tiger bad. The handling in Flicky is loose but in a good way. As a bird who can't quite fly it would be expected that you'd slide, glide and float through levels, and maintaining that momentum all the way to the end was satisfying. As levels increase in difficulty, their layouts become more and more complex. Eventually you're navigating simple mazes while collecting Chirps, and the challenge comes from find, and executing, the most efficient route through any one stage.

Presentation, Music and Sound:

While bright and colorful, the graphics, and especially the interface, in Flicky are lackluster at best. Sprites are small and simple and the UI elements sit on black backgrounds like an 80's arcade game. While the game in fact is a port of an 80's arcade game, it could really have been cleaned up for a release on the Genesis nearly ten years later. Sounds are the standard arcade styled bleeps, bloops and dings you'd expect, and the provides only a single music track that plays over and over and over again. Even so, the music is fitting and I don't know that you'd ever be playing this one long enough for it to start to get tedious.

Fun & Relevance:

I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun playing with Flicky, but no more fun than I'd have with a game like Galaga or Pac-Man. Flicky is a fine arcade distraction but is ultimately unremarkable.

Review:

Playthrough: