The Adventures of Shuggy may sound familiar to a few of you gamers who own an Xbox 360, and that’s because it’s been available from the XBLA Marketplace for about a year now. But the game wasn’t all that successful in the eyes of developer Smudged Cat Games, so they decided they wanted a piece of the PC market as well. Therefore you can now buy the awesome 2D platformer through Steam or by DRM-free direct download. The game itself is stocked with enough puzzles to drive you crazy, with each of the 100 single player levels and 36 Co-Op levels having its own unique spin on it; whether it is travelling through time, rotating the layout of the level or trying to control multiple versions of yourself.
The story of the game is that you, Shuggy the vampire, inherit an old Scottish mansion that is haunted and full of evil spirits and it’s your job to rid the mansion of these evil spirits by completing all the levels. To do this just collect all the jewels on each level which rewards you with keys to open up new areas, of which there are five; the dungeon, the boiler room, the gallery, the graveyard and the clock tower. However with each level being unique, you may find the task harder than it first appears.
Well, where to start with the review? How about we get the graphics and sound out the way. The game is extremely cartoony and with that comes the feel it is meant to be aimed more toward smaller children. Even though it has that childish cartoon feel to it, you can tell some serious work has been put into the game as there is a lot of high detail gone into areas such as the characters, backgrounds and the cut scenes which punctuate the progress of the games story in a comic book style. The sound in the game matches the childish cartoon style, the music is not really spooky for a game which is all about vampires, ghosts and ghouls, but that’s not to say it is poor, in fact it is very catchy. The sound effects too seem to fit nicely into the games theme with the noises Shuggy makes coming across as something you’d expect to hear from a hamster, which is except for the occasions when you die and shatter into a million pieces.
As for the rest of the review let’s continue onto the games controls; everything you need to know is given to you in a pop-up box style tutorial that tells you which buttons to press when you need to know and gives you hints on what to do on each level. Not to worry though as they aren’t too complicated to get around, as you only really need to learn how to move up, down, left, right, jump and rotate the screen for most missions. But with each level being completely different, these simple controls can become confusing at times as gravity shifts and has you walking up walls sideways.
The gameplay as mentioned is enough to drive you crazy with the amount of different puzzles, but it is a good kind of crazy because you’ll never go through the same thing twice, and with over 100 levels you’ll have plenty to do to pass the time. Though the longevity of the game isn’t great and it may not keep you attached for lengthy time; you may give it a second playthrough to see if you can beat your best time on each level from your first play, but that’s about it really.
Overall, this is a fun little game that is suitable for all to play, but I’d have to say it is definitely more for small children. The detail in the game is great, even with its cartoony style, and the music is catchy and really fits in with the whole theme of the Adventure of Shuggy. I also really like the fact that each level is completely different so you never have to do the same thing twice, and in-level features such as time travelling, flying or swinging from ropes really make it different from other puzzle games. The only real bad point is that there is no real longevity to the game and once it’s been played through once, many people will probably forget about it which is a shame because it’s a good title by Smudged Cat Games.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
