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Superfrog  7

This has to be one of my all time favourite games. I know it’s a simple cutesy platformer based across six worlds and numerous levels within each world, but there’s something about it that’s just so … enjoyable.

It’s got super-smooth scrolling, catchy music and cute enemies you’re almost sorry to shoot. Also included was an amusing intro and end game sequence that made you laugh your socks off the first couple of times you saw them.

Your main weapon throughout the game was the destucto-spud - a green blob which you threw to hit an enemy and then caught again as it returned to you, yo-yo style - and the game was set across 6 different worlds each with their own look, features and inhabitants.

Magic Woods

The easiest of all the worlds and contained such enemies as wasps, hedgehogs, tortoises, snails and also had trees with faces and the odd magic mushroom with money hidden inside it. There were loads of areas for you to run thanks to some well placed speed pickups. You could jump on top of the tortoises and snails to kill them and reveal some fruit and could knock the wasps out of the sky using your destructo-spud.

Spooky Castle

Inhabited by bats, ghosts, knights and some weird green slinky type creatures. There was the odd spider or two aswell and some annoying stepping stones that disappeared after a second or type when you landed on them. There were also slopes that were greased and generally lead to a pit full of spikes at the bottom. Plenty of hidden areas gave rise to loads of treasure and there were also loads of springs to help you reach the higher ledges.

Fun Park

Far from fun: contained within were pools of jumping fish, guns and the tortoises made a reappearance but were wearing spikes on their shells so you couldn’t jump on them as in world 1. As the name suggests, this world is based within a fun park or circus with plenty of balloons and streamers … and the entrance to each level was a giant clown’s face. A particularly cool feature of this level were the yellow tubes: you jumped into one end and were sucked into it; you were then shot along the tube and deposited at the other end. Sometimes the journey was short and sometimes it was from one side of the level to the other.

Ancient Level

Based within ancient pyramids and filled with bats, spikes, boulders that rolled down slopes and fast moving mummies. There were some nice looking backdrops (obelisks, tall vases and a particularly large shield) and the overall look was very … sandy. There seemed to be more secret areas and hidden treasures in this world than the others and finding a secret area usually led to finding secret areas within secret areas. This world had the best music of the whole game.

Iceworld

Pretty difficult because the floors were all covered in ice. There were penguins and walking snowmen who threw snowballs, freezing water and pipes that fired snowballs at you. Sets of spikes were placed at the bottom of long slopes so you could never just slide down them: you had to keep jumping just incase … In one part of this world there was a blue creature running back and forth that you had to avoid who looked a lot like Sonic the Hedgehog but could also have been Jack Frost.

Project F

A hidden level which was also a tribute to another brilliant Team 17 game, Project X. Superfrog donned a spacesuit and you had to shoot enemies in a sideways scrolling shoot ‘em up. The music for this level was a remix of the original music from Project X itself and the whole level was a nice surprise! There were shuttles, lightbulbs and weird bunches of fruit for you to shoot with some amusing shapes formed in the cosmos in the background.

Space Station

The last - and hardest - world which was full of loads of aliens, most of which could shoot you (how un-sportsman-like)! There were hardly any secret areas (I can only remember one) and the levels were full of obstacles, spikes and hazards aplenty. There were aliens who hovered above you, firing periodically; gun turrets on the walls and ceilings that tracked your movement; the good ol’ swinging balls covered in spikes and of course the stepping stones that retracted into the wall seconds after you’d landed onto them. There were no surplus coins around so you had to collect everyone to make sure the exit was open when you got there. There was plenty of fruit to collect but precious few Lucozade bottles.

At the end of this world you had to face the witch herself: you simply had to hit her with your destructo-spud several times and she died. You were then reunited with your lost loved one …

Check out Pooka’s site, dedicated to all that is Superfrog.

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