Puzzle Games #24

Skweek a.k.a. Slider (1988)
By: Loriceils Genre: Puzzle Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Atari ST First Day Score: 40,710
Also Available For: PC Engine, Game Gear, Amiga, Amstrad CPC

I'm not sure why but I've long been intrigued by gonks. I've had many fine examples adorn my shelves or desks over the years, but I think when I played this game at my good friend Luke's house so many years ago it was the first time I had actually controlled the actions of one of the fuzzballs. The gonk in question fittingly stars in a puzzle game. I'm not sure why it's fitting, it just seems right. This rightness also extends to his name. I'm not sure I could've come up with a better name for a yellow gonk who waddles around tiled stages in a puzzle game if I tried. He's actually an alien, you may not be surprised to hear, from a place called Skweezland which has apparently been overrun by the minions of some flange called Pitark who has, for some reason, turned the lush pink countryside of Skweezland blue.

It seems this countryside takes the form of a series of small tiled areas suspended high above the ground. What a strange place Skweezland must be! Regardless, it's Skweek's job to return it to its original state by... walking over it. So yes, it's essentially a top-down (and flat) version of Q*Bert, and that's no bad thing as far as I'm concerned. I can't remember now if I played this on Luke's treasured Atari ST before or after I first played the hoppy arcade game but I do remember we both had a lot of fun with it. There's a lot of fun to be had, too, as there are a remarkable 99 stages to get through before the weird place of Skweek's birth is returned to its original form. But of course, what at first seems like a quick and easy job soon turns out to be a bit more of a pain than one might've expected.

Fortunately, this isn't down to the amusing yellow gonk of the title, for the controls are simple and responsive, although Skweek walks with a slightly floaty momentum which can take some getting used to. The stages are of varying sizes but always more than one screen, though they are tall rather than wide. Skweek starts at the top, generally, and as mentioned, just needs to walk over the blue tiles to turn them pink. He can pass over them multiple times if he needs to backtrack too, they won't turn back to blue or anything. This is the easy part. What makes things harder are all the other types of blocks. There are impassable wall blocks, tiles that break, some that are slippery, even some that explode, and as you may have noticed, there are also arrow tiles that move you in the direction indicated.

As well as these pesky things, you may be startled to find that there are monsters wandering around the stages, too. Commonly found at first are terrifying Jawas of various colours but later on you'll face such horrors as clouds, flames, spikey things, and annoying blob-with-hat things. Many of them can spit ping pong balls or something at you too. Luckily, Skweek is also equipped with those so at least the odds are even. Well, discounting the fact that there are millions of them versus one Skweek (they regenerate when you kill them too). He does at least get a few lives, but they are lost quite easily in several ways. The enemies are the most obvious way but he can also fall off the edge or through a hole in the stage, he could fall foul of a trap, and then there's my mortal enemy in any kind of game - the time limit.

Happily, if you do lose a life, your progress in a stage is not reset like it is in numerous similar games, though Skweek's position is reset so you'll need to navigate the same hazards to get back to where you were. I guess that idiotic Pitark didn't want to make it too easy for you though. The further in you get, the more often the game tests your reflexes and your ability to plan several waddles ahead. Naturally, there are a number of pick-ups to ease the way. There are several upgrades to beef up Skweek's basic shot, for one thing, including the ability to fire more 'balls', four way shot, and laser shot. Other helpful items include ones to freeze and smash the enemies, temporary invincibility, extra time, extra lives, grippy shoes (for the slippery tiles), several items for bonus points, an exit door (instant stage finish), and a speed-up which isn't really needed as Skweek moves pretty damn quickly already!

Lastly (unless I forgot something), you may also find four different coloured teddy bears during play. If you manage to grab all four, you'll not only get an extra life but you'll also go straight to the next stage. This kind of stuff doesn't usually happen very often though, and there will be a lot of sections or even specific tiles that will cost you many lives - one on the edge of a stage with an arrow or slidey tile leading to it, for example. It can get really annoying at times, in fact. Luckily, it's also pretty addictive, and it doesn't hurt that it looks pretty nice too. Okay, aside from the colours, there's probably nothing here the humble Speccy couldn't do, but it does have those colours, and they are glorious. I remember being dazzled by them at the time on Luke's mighty ST, and they still look really nice today.

The palette is bright and cheerful in general, without being garish, and Skweek himself has a charming demeanour that makes it hard to stay mad when you bugger up a level for the umpteenth time. On the downside, there is no in-game music, but that doesn't really affect things too much. The only thing that does, for me at least, is that damn time limit, as is so often the case. I'm not even sure what score to give this game if I'm honest. It's cute and colourful, it holds fond memories for me, and it can be very enjoyable, but it can also often be bloody annoying - almost screen punchingly annoying, in fact - due to how easily and sometimes frequently lives can be lost. I like to take my time and approach tricky bits carefully, and the time limit here is strict enough that this isn't possible in most cases. If you're anything like me, though, you'll soon be back once you've cooled off, and that must surely be the mark of a good game. Frustrating but charming and fun as well.

RKS Score: 7/10

Gameplay Video: I can't really find a proper play-through video of Skweek (not this version, anyway) but here's a quick gameplay sample from Atari Greenlog (check out their great channel here).