Plyuk

Break SpaceBreak Space Ace

Al

Jamie

Mpk

PLYUK Retrosouls PWYW / $2 Jamie's Review There are some technical demos that blow my mind. Bad Apple on the Spectrum, Batman Forever on the CPC and the animated 3D head demo for the QL from 1986 all spring to mind as impressive visual displays of what the respective hardware was capable of producing. Such demos often work by exploiting every last drop of hardware power available. They are not games, but rather animations. I've often watched them and thought – wow, if only this could be game, that would be amazing! The brings me to Plyuk, a new game by Retrosouls. The game is visually jaw dropping. It is a technical tour de force and has much of the wow factor of a technical demo, but the really impressive part is that this is more than a demo. Plyuk is a fully fledged, highly polished game. Its graphics will have you scratching your head and saying how could this be possible on the humble spectrum? As much as we adore the Speccy, we all know its graphical limitations: Colour clash, the 2 colours per attribute compromise, and no hardware scrolling means most games are limited to either 'flip screen' or monochrome graphics. Through use of a clever engine that divides the screen in to a grid of 4x4 pixel squares, which also makes use of 'multicolour' effects, Plyuk seems to deliver the impossible. Fluid scrolling and fast paced puzzle platforming action. An incredible feat that must be played to be fully appreciated. But surely all this comes with compromises? Surely Plyuk can't have its cake and eat it, can it? Well no, it doesn't, not quite. The game itself starts off a little too slow for my liking. I would rather dive into some serious challenge from the beginning. But the first 10 of the 25 levels are very straightforward and too simple. After level 10 the games gets a little more demanding, and the last half of the game is where I found the sweet spot for difficulty and creativity. Plyuk gives you infinite lives and you can press R to restart a level if you get stuck (which you will). The game encourages trial and error. Run around and die a number of times while you work out the correct route before making your final attempt. There were two levels that pushed this concept into frustration for me. It is very easy to move too far in one direction and get stuck. Some of the later levels require a precision that the games engine does not support. This, my only real gripe, is obviously an issue developers are aware of: Retrosouls have released an updated version of Plyuk with a keyboard debounce routine, although I haven't tried it. Even with my debounce issue, I was able to complete all 25 levels and the experience is very satisfying. The game contains a number of exquisite cutscenes that describe the games story line, and there is even a credits screen with butter smooth scrolling at the end. Everything has been exquisitely thought through and executed to the highest standard. This is more than an impressive technical demo, it's a great game to boot.

A spooky chain of events

It's always in the last place you Plyuk