We are still waiting on a suitable Amiga AGA emulator with robust recording features before tackling such games.Push-Over
Pushover, developed by Red Rat Software and published by Ocean Software in 1992.
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Screenshot |
Player's Review
"THIS GAME IS NO... PUSHOVER
G. I. Ant is a soldier ant. He's extremely clever, and highly trained in tactical manoeuvres. What's more he's extraordinarily strong and super smart! His latest mission is to gain access to the crazy world of Captain Rat's Treasure Caves. Very straightforward...NOT!
You see, this particular cave is a tunnel entrance to Domino Domain - a mini-world comprised of nine different continents. G.I. must negotiate many screens of mind-teasing problems. Each level has a door to the next. To open the door, the "Trigger" domino-block must be felled by causing a chain reaction with all of the other domino-blocks in that level. Pretty easy...NOT!"
The game was also released on Amiga, Atari ST and DOS PC around the same time as the SNES release. The SNES game however is trimmed down in more ways than one compared to all the other versions. The cartridge would have cost twice the asking price of the computer releases and you only really got half the effort put in. There is no intro sequence and no tie in with Quavers branding. Colin Curly is not in this game and has been replaced with Captain Rat in all the level interlude sequences which are all the same with no variations. The presentation is also trimmed down with a singular title/password screen with no animated sequence of the ants moving the dominoes.
Because of the limited resolution of the SNES, some levels have slight changes and require different solutions to the other versions of the game. They tend to have the same number of dominoes but there is not enough screen resolution to have them on the same line. A bug also wont allow you to stand behind a domino that is to the right of a ladder which breaks the normal solution for some levels. Originaly a PAL developed game with multiple language support. The US release is English only but to make the game extra difficult (apart from previously mentioned level differences) the game seems to have some timing issues so the levels all have the same amount of time to complete as the PAL game but the time ticks away at a faster rate on NTSC. The game logic is faster too but doesnt seem to make up for it. It strangely seems to normalise in the later levels.
I know the Amiga game quite well, included with the Wild, Weird and Wicked A600 pack along with Putty (also on SNES) and spent a good amount of time playing thus quite familiar with it. Gameplay involves setting up the dominoes in such a way that they all fall with one push with the final triple stripped domino being the last to fall (laying flat) opening the exit to the next level. There are numerous domino types with varying function including Exploding, Ascending, Splitting and Bridging. The early levels of the game serve as training levels to get you used to what each domino type does before throwing them all at you at once. Difficulty varies from super easy to frustrating getting progressively more difficult as you progress. Some levels can be deceptively difficult or intimidating in that you get a screen full of dominoes of all types but you often find they are already set up right and maybe just needs one or two domino changes. Other times they can be all lines up and you just ned to push the right one. Then there are the fiendish levels where you need to set the dominoes going and race them to the exit before your path is exploded or bridged. Once we get to around level sixty five, the Meccano levels, the difficulty really ramps as you now require manipulating more dominoes whilst the sequence has begun.
Completing each level rewards a code so that you done have to start from scratch each time you play. Interestingly the SNES level codes match at least the Amiga version, maybe all versions. You are also rewarded with tokens for each completed level which can be spent on levels you are having trouble with by putting you back to the pint before you pushed the domino. There are nine areas to progress through each with eten or eleven levels. Between each one you are awarded with a level interlude screen showing you have found one of Captain Rat's money stashes. In the other game versions, these animations show you finding on of Colin packs of Quavers in a comical animation that differs each time. Overall whilst do like the game, the SNES comes off with the worst version of it for all the above stated reasons and I cant imagine it was a game SNES owners were going to be that interested in. I find it strange there is no Mega-Drive release although Putty also didn't see a Sega version.
The final level is fiendish as it takes away the domino identifications. Interestingly I tried the pc/Amiga version cheat code 11775, the code was accepted and plays the final level but it didn't enable the domino gfx.
Areas:-
00:00:00 Industrial (1-11)
00:06:34 Aztec (12-22)
00:14:38 Space (23-33)
00:24:13 Computer (34-44)
00:34:07 Ancient (45-55)
00:43:36 Medieval (56-66)
00:53:19 Mecanno (67-77)
01:06:24 Dungeon (78-88)
01:21:34 Oriental (89-99)
01:40:52 Ancient Bonus level (100)
--------------------------
01:42:58 Bonus Level Replay (101 Bugged?)
G. I. Ant is a soldier ant. He's extremely clever, and highly trained in tactical manoeuvres. What's more he's extraordinarily strong and super smart! His latest mission is to gain access to the crazy world of Captain Rat's Treasure Caves. Very straightforward...NOT!
You see, this particular cave is a tunnel entrance to Domino Domain - a mini-world comprised of nine different continents. G.I. must negotiate many screens of mind-teasing problems. Each level has a door to the next. To open the door, the "Trigger" domino-block must be felled by causing a chain reaction with all of the other domino-blocks in that level. Pretty easy...NOT!"
The game was also released on Amiga, Atari ST and DOS PC around the same time as the SNES release. The SNES game however is trimmed down in more ways than one compared to all the other versions. The cartridge would have cost twice the asking price of the computer releases and you only really got half the effort put in. There is no intro sequence and no tie in with Quavers branding. Colin Curly is not in this game and has been replaced with Captain Rat in all the level interlude sequences which are all the same with no variations. The presentation is also trimmed down with a singular title/password screen with no animated sequence of the ants moving the dominoes.
Because of the limited resolution of the SNES, some levels have slight changes and require different solutions to the other versions of the game. They tend to have the same number of dominoes but there is not enough screen resolution to have them on the same line. A bug also wont allow you to stand behind a domino that is to the right of a ladder which breaks the normal solution for some levels. Originaly a PAL developed game with multiple language support. The US release is English only but to make the game extra difficult (apart from previously mentioned level differences) the game seems to have some timing issues so the levels all have the same amount of time to complete as the PAL game but the time ticks away at a faster rate on NTSC. The game logic is faster too but doesnt seem to make up for it. It strangely seems to normalise in the later levels.
I know the Amiga game quite well, included with the Wild, Weird and Wicked A600 pack along with Putty (also on SNES) and spent a good amount of time playing thus quite familiar with it. Gameplay involves setting up the dominoes in such a way that they all fall with one push with the final triple stripped domino being the last to fall (laying flat) opening the exit to the next level. There are numerous domino types with varying function including Exploding, Ascending, Splitting and Bridging. The early levels of the game serve as training levels to get you used to what each domino type does before throwing them all at you at once. Difficulty varies from super easy to frustrating getting progressively more difficult as you progress. Some levels can be deceptively difficult or intimidating in that you get a screen full of dominoes of all types but you often find they are already set up right and maybe just needs one or two domino changes. Other times they can be all lines up and you just ned to push the right one. Then there are the fiendish levels where you need to set the dominoes going and race them to the exit before your path is exploded or bridged. Once we get to around level sixty five, the Meccano levels, the difficulty really ramps as you now require manipulating more dominoes whilst the sequence has begun.
Completing each level rewards a code so that you done have to start from scratch each time you play. Interestingly the SNES level codes match at least the Amiga version, maybe all versions. You are also rewarded with tokens for each completed level which can be spent on levels you are having trouble with by putting you back to the pint before you pushed the domino. There are nine areas to progress through each with eten or eleven levels. Between each one you are awarded with a level interlude screen showing you have found one of Captain Rat's money stashes. In the other game versions, these animations show you finding on of Colin packs of Quavers in a comical animation that differs each time. Overall whilst do like the game, the SNES comes off with the worst version of it for all the above stated reasons and I cant imagine it was a game SNES owners were going to be that interested in. I find it strange there is no Mega-Drive release although Putty also didn't see a Sega version.
The final level is fiendish as it takes away the domino identifications. Interestingly I tried the pc/Amiga version cheat code 11775, the code was accepted and plays the final level but it didn't enable the domino gfx.
Areas:-
00:00:00 Industrial (1-11)
00:06:34 Aztec (12-22)
00:14:38 Space (23-33)
00:24:13 Computer (34-44)
00:34:07 Ancient (45-55)
00:43:36 Medieval (56-66)
00:53:19 Mecanno (67-77)
01:06:24 Dungeon (78-88)
01:21:34 Oriental (89-99)
01:40:52 Ancient Bonus level (100)
--------------------------
01:42:58 Bonus Level Replay (101 Bugged?)
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