Push Push Penguin (1Mb)
This is a Pengo ‘clone’ for the PC. I’m not sure why this isn’t more popular on the Caiman site, as it’s an excellent game and certainly deserves to be much better known. As well as in part replicating Pengo, there are also elements similar to Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, including power-ups and added combos. Pengo started out originally as an arcade video game by Sega in 1982. Push Push Penguin is an improvement in many ways.
Push Push Penguin is a great game for beginners or hardened arcade veterans alike. You push ice-blocks into enemies to kill them and you can vibrate the outer ice walls by pushing ice-blocks at the outer walls, to freeze any Snow Trolls against the walls temporarily so you can walk over them and kill them while they are in a stunned state. You can crush any ice-blocks that you can’t move. You have to face blocks or ice-blocks to move or crush them. As well as ice-blocks, there are immovable rocks, and movable blocks that will also crush Snow Trolls, though you can’t crush these rocks or blocks. Snow Trolls hatch from eggs within ice-blocks and are sufficiently elusive to make playing the game great fun. You get extra points if you can kill more than one Snow Troll in one side/up/down swipe. Because you can destroy ice-blocks, and in so doing modify the maze, it gives an added extra dimension to gameplay.
You can play to simply rid the screen of Snow Trolls, or you can try to destroy all of the ice blocks while you are destroying your enemies. To really up the challenge level and mega boost your score, you can try to line up the diamonds in rows of three. Lining them up on the outer wall gets extra points, but lining them up in the middle of the playing field, (which is much, much harder to do), really sends your score soaring right up into the stratosphere. Also, you get more bonus points the faster you finish a level. You start off with 5 lives. From level 40 on, the levels are random and it just keeps getting harder and harder to complete! There are 50 levels to complete the game plus bonus and hidden levels.
Although nominally a remake of Pengo, just about every aspect of the game has been improved, with bonus levels, set mazes at first instead of random ones, items to collect as well as bonus items (none of which stay on screen for very long!) and Star Sprites to rescue. An extra life is awarded for each 50,000 points. Extra Snow Trolls hatch from eggs though you can crush these before the Snow Trolls hatch if you do so quickly enough. Most of the monsters move around at random rather than hunting you down and sometimes you can go past next to a monster without it reacting to your presence. Although there isn’t a time limit for completing a level, you will get extra time points if you complete a level quickly. You have completed a level when all of the Snow-Trolls have been crushed/killed.
You will meet several different kinds of monsters, including boss monsters, during the game and each type of monster acts differently and has their own special ability - some can crush ice blocks, some push them at you and some have a special ‘liking’ for Push Push Penguin following him with alacrity! Some monsters can’t be crushed with the ice block but they can become frozen inside an ice-block if you push it at them. If this happens you have 5 seconds to crush the block with the monster inside or they will be set free!
In later levels there are different types of traps hindering you in your path to save your friends; like Booby Traps, Slippery ice, etc. You can disarm some traps by pushing ice-blocks into them, but others cannot be disabled and you will just have to avoid them! Look out for special power-ups, and you may even find the hidden Bonus Forest or the key to the power of the legendary fire penguin!
You can play with one or two players, using the ‘Arrow’ keys and ‘Right Ctrl’ key for actions for player 1, and the ‘W,A,S,D’ keys and ‘Left Ctrl’ key for player 2. Alternatively, gamepads can be used for each player. Use the ‘Esc’ key repeatedly to quit, and ‘Alt’ + ‘Enter’ to switch between full-screen and windowed mode. The game plays in XP or lower, and in Vista and Win 7.
It reminds me of games for the Spectrum in some ways. It would make a great conversion to an IPhone app, if the developers Twilight Games were so minded to do!
The graphics are quite retro and very cute. Playing this game reminds me very much of the old-school type arcade games, but in this case, this is no bad thing! Music and sound effects are bright and jolly and can be turned on or off. There’s a high score table and an online high score ability should you get a high enough score!
It’s a fun and very enjoyable game which is easy to start playing, making it very accessible for all ages, but it becomes challenging in its own right later on in the game. Very well-recommended if you don’t mind the retro feel! Great game!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ZYJypIXH8
Download HERE
