Developed/Published by: System 3 / Maximum Games
Released: 22nd April 2014
Completed: 20th May, 2015
Completion: Finished Marathon mode.
Trophies / Achievements: 42%

Yes, here’s why I played Super Putty. You see, I started playing this on a whim, and it’s such a total wreck I was like “wait, why is this a legendary lost Amiga game?” so had to go back and play Putty.

Putty, as described, isn’t good, but it is beautiful, and in an alternate universe where someone with a consistent design philosophy made it, it’s great. Putty Squad, in its “on Amiga/SNES” format, is a big departure from the original Putty—gone are the tight levels, instead these big sprawling things. It’s much more a “traditional” Amiga platformer if there is such a thing, largely forgetting Putty’s “puttyness.” It’s still nice looking—if less striking—but loses a lot from the levels no longer being tight vertical scrollers, and is generally, a bit generic.

Putty Squad’s re-release, however, has some of weirdest decisions ever. First off, we lose all of the  pixel art, which is tragic, and it’s all replaced with what I can charitably describe as “mid-90s CGI.” In fact, it’s so much of that time—think of games like Constructor, which it turns out as I google it was developed by System 3—that I’m suspicious that if the art hasn’t been lying about since then (look at this cover of Amiga Power, or the SNES release cover) or that literally the same person did it now, using the same tools after not having touched a computer since 1997.

It’s sort of funny? A kind of “retro” no one is really asking for, but released as a 2014 improvement to a 1994 game that wouldn’t really cut it in 1997.

So, it’s ugly, in a funny way, and you do see way more of the level thanks to the resolution, but above all someone at System 3 decided that the platforming action was archaic and no one was going to enjoy it, so they gave Putty the ability to, at any and all times, pump himself up and float. This means that you can, literally, avoid all of the platforming and huge swathes of the levels. It’s so daft, actually, that I spent some time trying to work out if it was a bug, but it’s not.

Not to say Putty Squad isn’t still hard—just like Putty (and, it seems, more so than the original intended release of Putty Squad) every level is a mess of enemies you just have to try and survive. So it’s not really a platform game, more sort of a weird muddle where you fly about as a floating putty, landing occasionally to rescue the red putties, take unavoidable damage and then hope you can survive enough to the end of the level.

After playing Super Putty and this, I can still imagine this perfect vertically-scrolling Putty game that’s a bit puzzley but also a challenging, fun platformer, with amazing pixel art. It would be really good on Playstation Vita. This isn’t.

Will I ever play it again? No, but I enjoyed this as a piece of history and slice of weird Western-developed kusoge, so I’m going to keep my physical copy.

Final Thought: If you’re gagging to play a modern update of a western platformer, you can’t go wrong with Rayman Origins. It’s more beautiful than the original pixel art and is just generally a fun wee romp. So there.