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Tag: system 3

  • Putty Squad (System 3, 2013)

    Putty Squad (System 3, 2013)

    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.

  • Super Putty (System 3, 1993)

    Super Putty (System 3, 1993)

    Developed/Published by: System 3 / U.S. Gold
    Released: 1993
    Completed: 19th May, 2015
    Completion: Finished it, but with the unlimited live cheat because christ.
    Trophies / Achievements: n/a

    This opening might be a little “inside baseball” (a reference which is, ironically, “inside baseball” because I have no idea what inside baseball is or was) but recently there was discussion on Twitter about something or other—actually i think it was on Super Mario Sunshine, which I involved myself in because of words I had over it in my write-up of Super Mario 3D Land—and Tim Rogers (Videoball) humorously dismissed Bennett Foddy (QWOP)’s opinion by saying something along the lines of “yeah, but you like Amiga platformers.”

    Now, I like Amiga platformers, and there’s a reason for this, similar to why I enjoy a lot of games that can be characterised fairly or not as “kusoge”; they often do something absolutely unexpected from what is expected of their genre or accepted conventions. A lot of Amiga (actually, I’ll round this out to “home computer”) platformers come from a strange world where Mario might have been mentioned in passing, but his design wasn’t dominant. Neither was a visual style defined by Japanese artists. As a result, you end up with lots and lots of weird, often wildly unplayable worlds and ideas; everything from sedate problem solving with Dizzy to insane, drugged-out messes like Top Banana.

    I think they’re fascinating! It’s like looking at the evolution of a distant tribe, and then once contact has been made, seeing what happens—seeing Sonic-inspired games like Oscar or (famously) Zool come into being.

    Anyway, here’s Super Putty, and if you’re wondering why I’m playing Super Putty rather than Putty (my original intention) it’s because, and here’s another quirk of home computer games, there was only one fire button on old home computer joysticks. As a result, developers had to get quite… innovative to get characters to do the range of things you’d expect. In the case of Putty, which hinges on Putty’s ability to stretch and morph and absorb, what they did was add an insane lag on your first input. It genuinely takes about a second for Putty to respond. I couldn’t hack it, almost gave up entirely and realized that this wouldn’t cut it on the SNES, where a mildly-improved version was released. Hurrah!

    I think Super Putty is gorgeous. I love this kind of western pixel art—of the era of the Bitmap Brothers, etc.—and if you look at one of the level maps, it’s just stunning. Abstract but evocative, clean and clear.

    It’s a shame, then, that Super Putty is a design mess for no good reason at all. You’ve got a pliable hero with plenty of options for puzzles, and a plot that revolves around collecting robots and taking them to the exit, all in really nice, vertically-scrolling levels. But in classic Amiga-platformer stylee, instead of all that it’s a mad survive-em-up, with millions of baddies spawning on screen, loads of points where you can’t avoid being hit, things that hurt you even though it’s not obvious, and so on.

    Rather than doing anything clever, the game devolves into abusing Putty’s “smart bomb” explosion to try and avoid mobbed areas, gritting your teeth through the enemies you can’t seem to kill for no clear reason, and brute forcing your way through. I certainly can’t imagine trying to do this without infinite lives.

    I must say though, that had I got this in the Amiga 600 bundle I pined for, I’d have played the shit out of it, lag or not, and would remember it fondly. It does look great, Putty is charming indeed, and if it was more of a Dizzy than a Top Banana it’d be perfect. Ah well.

    Will I ever play it again? No but if you can guess why I played it in the first place…

    Final Thought: Apparently the Amiga 600 was manufactured in the town I grew up in, which means that if my dad had known that I’d probably have ended up with a dodgy one from a guy down the pub rather than the flash 386DX I got instead. The PC was the right choice.