Review of Poxie by Lachie D., 2005

Written by Adigun A. Polack (Semptember, 2005)


Our next FreeBASIC game up for review is a brand-new one 
that has JUST NOW been released by the great Lachie Dazdarian 
and it is called Poxie, a promisingly interesting little 
hybrid of Pac-Man and a platformer. Lachie has been such a 
mastermind behind such QuickBASIC classics as Rocket Fuel 
Mayhem, Ball Blazing Fantasy, and the superbly-played (yet 
unfinished) game that was created for Nek’s own Space Invaders 
compo entitled Evil Baron Lachie, but, will how will his very 
first officially released game in FB fare on my review table? 
Let us find out as we go along, shall we? 


G A M E • S Y N O P S I S :

When the game launches, you are taken immediately to a title 
screen where you can start the game, view the instructions on 
how to play, display the top scores, and some other stuff. 
Not bad here!!

When you start the game, though, you are given a nice little 
stage introduction telling you what the name of the stage is 
called and the simple clear objective that you must successfully 
meet in order to pass on through, which is kinda like the old 
original ‘80s arcade games you used to play (Namco’s Super 
Pac-Man and Universal’s Ladybug would come to mind here, even 
if you can remember them!  ). Then once you press 
either “Enter” or “Space”, the dash is on!!

Do not forget, the character you control is a greenish tall 
little creature, and you have to indeed collect all of the 
items in a stage to get through. Throughout the game, you 
will be challenged with six (6) types of enemies, including 
the medieval armoured knights with swords, as well as some 
Eskimo-like characters with sharp fishing poles (you *sure* 
wouldn’t want to be stung by the front end of the poles 
themselves, believe me!  ) Also, there are certain power-up 
and point items to aid you here, and they are:

500pts ::: Gives you 500 points, of course! 

1000pts ::: Nets you a bonus of 1,000 points when gotten!

Slow (marked with a snail) ::: When picked up, it slows down 
your enemies for a temporary period of time, giving you the 
advantage!

Jump ::: Simply teleports you out of a current stage of play 
and skips you right to the next! A *really* handy item if you 
run into some big trouble!! 

1up ::: Reels in one more extra life to add to your totals. 
VERY important!! .....and remember also that the items will 
disappear after a short time period, so be wary here.

One word here about the platforms on the left and right sides 
of the playing field at ground level: if you are in hot pursuit 
of the enemies trying to wipe you off, use those little 
trampoline-like things to escape danger and potentially on to 
safely! The catch is in the direction you want to go while 
bouncing up, not down. Bear in mind that when the enemies use 
the platform with you while bouncing, you will not be harmed 
during that time. This part I am talking about is such a wonderful 
throwback to the days of Namco’s 1983 arcade game Mappy, and I 
like that very much as it is so splendidly captured here!!! =b ! 

Continuing with the platforms, the only sheer danger to them is 
that when one of them turns red from your continued bouncing, 
DO NOT get use that platform again at that point because one more 
bounce on it can actually throw your character off the playing 
field, costing you a life! However, the only way that thing can 
return back to its original color again is to simply take the 
opposite platform. Lachie has devised an excellent little 
strategy with the platforms themselves and the way they are 
designed for, adding a real depth of extra challenge and even 
dexterity to the game itself! Truly impressive, really, and this 
deserves some extra points right there!! (^_-)//


T H E • B R E A K D O W N :

First off here, the gameplay of Poxie is originally intended 
to be a marriage of Pac-Man and a platform game indeed, and it 
pretty much shows its stuff here because this game does *quite* a 
good job at that, to be honest with you!! The look of the graphics 
are the usual “Kentauri” style that you come to expect from Lachie 
himself, just like in Ball Blazing Fantasy and Rocket Fuel Mayhem 
and some others, and there is nothing wrong with that and the style 
of play as well, because gameplay matters more than just pretty 
graphics alone, I believe!! 

Speaking of which, the keyboard play control is REALLY right on 
target here, with the simple taps of the left and right arrow keys 
that you will be using to move your character left and right, 
respectively. The way the game moves may be very slow at first, 
but do not let that fool you, ‘cause as you keep on playing (even 
going to the later stages!), it will end up growing on you just 
as it did me!

Talking about the graphics a bit further, Lachie has made the water 
and lava into parallax-like flowing rivers as you go rather instead 
of them going just in the same direction and speed, and the way 
your character eats and thereby leaving apple cores and chicken 
bones and other mostly eaten stuff to be thrown out is truly so 
masterfully well done, giving Poxie a more realistic arcade feeling 
in a whole new way in FB!! ^-^=b And some simple custom-programmed 
scaling apparently is used on your character mainly when he dies and 
gets thrown off the screen, let us not forget.

The amount of music here is very limited; however, as for the sound 
effects, from the “gulp” sound your character makes when eating to 
the “EEEK!” and slapping noise you encounter when you lose a life, 
they are *very* good here and are used well. But more importantly — 
and here is the brilliant payoff, folks — the best part in this 
department has gotta be the ambient sounds..... HANDS DOWN. They 
range from the rushing water you get in the river stage, to the 
chirping birds in the forest, to the fire-kindling sounds of the 
lava and more....... it is downright so awesome stuff and some of 
the convincingly best I have ever heard in this interesting little 
game, without question!!! d==b !! (Come to think of it, apparently 
Lachie must have learned so well from the other FB game that used 
ambience effects also, entitled The Quest for Opa-Opa! Great for 
him!!  )

The only problem is that this game has only six stages, making it 
too short. But let us face it, the rest of the areas really holds 
such a brightly burning candle and then a lot where retro gaming 
in FreeBASIC is concerned!!! Remember that! By the way, this game 
Poxie comes in two versions for you to download: the normal version 
and the no-sound version. And you can zoom right on over here to 
lead you to the versions themselves, too!

It surprised some of the minds of the QB45/QB71/FreeBASIC community 
that Lachie has made such an unusual move to release this game 
instead of the finished FB port of Evil Baron Lachie, which is 
shockingly the game that he said that he gave up on over at on 
Kentauri’s site just now. What a shame! HOWEVER, he got some great 
and high-quality tricks up his sleeve with Poxie, as it is without a 
shadow of a doubt the first and very hottest retro-like game that I 
have ever reviewed in FreeBASIC!!!!!


T H E • F I N A L • V E R D I C T :
— 9.2 out of 10 — 

As a short yet so phenomenally sweet ride in the style of such ‘80s 
arcade classics as Pac-Man and Mappy, Poxie is truly both a most 
pleasant surprise and such an intensely fun and challenging little 
game in FB in its own right, definitely!! My deepest congratulations 
to you, Lachie Dazdarian, on creating one of the VERY best 
FreeBASIC-created retro games to kick off the fall of 2005!!! (^_-)//