Puggsy

Gameplay

The gameplay is mostly a cross between a normal platform game, with the usual style of platformer enemies and a variety of means to kill them, and a puzzle game of sorts where Puggsy is often required to find objects, and either carry them to a specific location or somehow use them in order to complete levels. There are also a variety of objects that have power-up effects, such as allowing Puggsy to be hit once or twice without dying, speeding him up or making him temporarily invincible, and objects that while not necessary, can be temporarily helpful, such as a variety of guns (most of which have limited ammunition which can often not be refilled).

Objects react on a clever physics based system, which was an innovative feature at the time. The system allows objects to be thrown, or to topple if stacked without care. Each object also has a different weight. Another effect of this is that Puggsy can carry stacks of objects along a flat surface, but a slope will often cause all items except the bottom one (held by Puggsy) to topple and scatter. Also, any objects carried out of the level exits give different score values, or in the case of the heart object, an extra life. Other objects are extremely varied, including shells, weights, matches, keys, balloons, cups, barrels, clue-giving chests, knives, and candles.

The game features 57 levels in a variety of settings (16 of those levels being secret) and 6 boss characters (9 boss characters in the Mega-CD version), although not all levels and bosses have to be finished to complete the game, and 5 training levels, accessed from the "Junior" option on the title screen. Also, while you can just play through the game normally and reach the normal ending, a few secret "endings" (cinematic sequences that can only be terminated by resetting the console, or that reset the game themselves) are available by achieving certain goals, such as leaving one secret level with blocks that spelt out the word "HEROS", playing all 51 normal levels (6 of the secret levels are only accessible via a special password, and are not counted towards the normal level total), or playing through the 6 previously mentioned special secret levels. The password to obtain these levels had to be obtained by evaluating three math expressions that appeared during the credits, where they are called "a silly maths equation". In the "HEROS" ending, the player is congratulated for finding the ending, and then asked, "...but are you good at maths?".

Development

The Puggsy character originally appeared in an Amiga demo named Puggs in Space, which was created and designed by Dionysus, a demogroup formed Lee Carus, Alan McCarthy and Tim Wright. The management of Psygnosis was impressed by the demo, and asked Dionysus to develop a game based around Puggsy. However, Wright said that the contract with Psygnosis to produce a game was "short-lived", stating the company "didn't really 'get' where we were going with the game". The demogroup was pulled out of the game's development, which was then shifted to Traveller's Tales. Jon Burton, the studio's founder, stated: "It was a bit beyond the guys who created the demo. So in the end, Psygnosis asked us if we could create a game using the character." Puggsy was designed and programmed by Burton, while Andy Ingram handled the graphic design and artwork for the game. While the character design for Puggsy was retained from the demo, the developers changed his colour from red to orange, to prevent the consoles from colour bleeding.

A platform game Super Mario World was used as an inspiration for object physics in Puggsy. Burton decided to create a Super Mario World-type game, but with puzzles being based on physical objects with different properties, such as buoyancy, weight, and friction. As Puggsy was deemed "too complicated" for the beginners, the training levels were added in response to the publisher's input. Consisting of five levels in the game, Burton suggested that the training levels would give players an impression that Puggsy was "a basic platformer". The music was composed by Matt Furniss, an employee of Krisalis Software. Wright created cover versions of Furniss' tunes for the Amiga version, and added a Puggsy demo theme into a "tail-end" of one of the pieces. Wright found Furniss' music "really well written and fun to convert to the Amiga, so there were no bad bones." A promised sequel, titled as Puggsy II, was teased at the game's ending, but it never materialised. Additionally, the Super NES version was almost completed, but it was cancelled.

As the Mega Drive cartridge copiers were defaulted to simulate a battery-backed SRAM for storing save data, Puggsy uses an SRAM as a means of an anti-piracy feature. Since the game employs a password system, genuine cartridges does not contain an internal SRAM. The game performs an SRAM check after its fifth level, and if an SRAM is found, it displays a warning message telling the player to stop playing a "silly" version of Puggsy.

Reception

MegaTech gave the game 90% and a Hyper Game Award, saying that it was "excellently designed and thought-out", but listed the control system as the major weak point. Reviewing the Mega-CD version, GamePro praised the controls, the graphics, the sound effects, the strong challenge, and the attention to detail, concluding that "Though veteran gamers will quickly tire of Puggsy, younger players will enjoy his island antics."