Adventures of Shuggy

 
Developer: Smudged Cat Games
Steam Release: June 2012
Hours Played: 7.3
Similar To: And Yet It Moves / Escape Goat / In Between / Munin / VVVVVV
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips




GAMEPLAY
To compete with the best platform puzzlers out there your game has to have the freshness and vibrancy to keep the player coming back for more. With a well-executed, quirky little twist attached to each new level, The Adventures of Shuggy certainly has that and in fact grabs you by the balls from the beginning and doesn’t to let go. Most rooms have a playing area of one screen and you start by first finding where your eponymous hero starts from. He's the one with a huge bat's head and stubby little human arms and legs. Moving left and right and leaping about the place, while avoiding enemies and nasty obstacles, you collect little green gemstones by moving over them. Once you have collected all of them the level ends, the timer stops and it's onto the next one. 


BALANCE & PACE
The game does not just boil down to leaping around and collecting gems though as each level comes with a twist...As you progress, new mechanics are introduced. Initially, this may consist of simple changes like moving platforms or rotating the whole screen. Then, you get rooms with bizarre creatures appearing that float upwards when you touch them. Later, you get to move in 30 second slots where your previous self moves as a ghost and becomes an enemy to avoid. Then you get to control three shuggies that have to cooperate by activating buttons that switch off lasers... and so it goes on. It is this constant change in dynamics and the inventive ways in which these are combined, altered and added to that makes Shuggy one of the most refreshing and interesting platform puzzlers created in recent years.


PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Graphics are rock solid and rooms have a cartoon-like feel with each area having its own distinctive colour scheme. The dungeon has purple as the predominant colour while the boiler room has red. The soundtrack is zippy and brings a sense of fun to the proceedings recalling, as it does, 60s comic-horror shows like The Munsters or The Addams Family. You've even got that mock-horror laugh to show the game doesn't take itself too seriously. Your main starting menu features many paths that don't lead to anywhere particularly exciting. View Comics takes you to the background story; Help & Options gives basic instructions with minimal settings to tweak while Leaderboards are for the hardcore who want something more than completing levels. Teleporting Troubles is for those who want to flavour the extra content. 
 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
The game boasts over 100 rooms which are divided up into 5 areas. The areas get unlocked as you play although the third area seemed to take an age to eventually unlock. On hitting Play Game you're then taken to the level-select screen of one of the five areas that you were at previously. From here you can leap about and enter one of 20 or so entrances that gradually open up and become available as you complete previous rooms. While outside a window, a pop-up appears in the form of a brown sign which shows the name and best time, with a couple of symbols indicating which mechanic is relevant to that room. You can, of course, replay rooms to beat your best time. You may also view the online leaderboards for each room and see where your best effort stands in the overall scheme of things.


CONCLUSION
In addition to the user-friendly progression system; the huge variety of interesting levels with the ever-changing mechanics and the sheer absorbing gameplay on offer, The Adventures Of Shuggy runs efficiently and is super-smooth. Due to its solidity and stability (and the fact that jumping into and re-doing levels is so quick) geeks and nerds can spend a lot of time perfecting their speed-runs. But casual players will also immensely enjoy figuring out the puzzle elements within. For me, Adventures of Shuggy is a diamond in the rough of budget-priced platform-puzzlers and will always be considered an underrated classic. Hats off go to the developers of this one. Well-done, well-done indeed.