Publisher: Smudged Cat Games
Developer: Smudged Cat Games
System requirements: Windows XP, 2.0 GHz dual-core CPU, 512 MB RAM, 128 MB graphics card with Shader Model 3.0 support, DirectX 10, 82 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Platformer
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

After spending dozens of hours raiding tombs, searching for hidden civilizations and saving the galaxy, every so often it’s good to go old-school and put in some time on an old-fashioned platformer. Thing is, sometimes the simpler a game is, the worse it is on your blood pressure. This can easily be said for The Adventures of Shuggy, which can be totally controlled using the fingers of one hand, yet can be frustrating enough to cause the utterance of rather colorful oaths.

You play as Shuggy, a very cute cartoon vampire who inherits a spooky castle filled with all manner of nasties. The castle contains 116 rooms that have to be cleared of all of their malevolent squatters before you can move in. You do this by various means, all of which involve the collecting of shiny gems.

Shuggy is a throwback to the days when you didn’t need to learn dozens of keyboard/mouse combinations to control your games. All you need are the WASD keys for movement, plus a jump button and one to trigger any special ability that might be in play. Specific keys can be reconfigured through the options menu (pro tip: when mapping the ability key, use one located far enough away from the movement cluster that you have to use your free hand. Unless, of course, you enjoy playing Finger Twister.). The 100+ rooms are spread out amongst five areas. Enter any room with an open door by standing in front of it and pressing the ability key. Once inside, you have to pick up all of the gems in the maze without touching an enemy, which results in instant death. Clearing a room unlocks others in your current hub area, and each hub has a room that houses a boss that has to be defeated.

Sounds simple and painless enough. But there’s a big catch: certain rooms require you to do more than run and jump to grab the goodies. You might have to rotate the room to gain access to parts of the maze. In some rooms a copy of your character generates after a set length of time and follows the same path you trod; you have to plan your route so that the copy helps you past obstructions. And in other areas you have to switch control from one Shuggy to another to complete a maze. These special rooms are liberally sprinkled all through the castle, and the layout of every room is different from the one before, which helps to generate that “just one more level” mentality that keeps you interested throughout your journey. Graphics are cartoonish and colorful, level design is very creative, and some of the background music tracks are fiendishly infectious, to the point where you might have trouble getting them out of your head after you finish playing.

Shuggy does have one or two curiosities. The controls can be tricky, especially when using the rope and winch to drop from a high platform and swing to an objective; it took me quite a bit of practice (and uncounted restarts) to finally grasp the concept. There are places where platforms are set so close together that you have to be very precise about where you are before you try to jump to them; not good when a wasp, a mosquito or a floating mine is headed your way. Sometimes enemies blend into the background, so you always have to be aware of your surroundings. The boss rooms unlock before you’ve cleared all of the others in a hub area, which means that you can defeat the boss before you’ve finished completing the hub (the game’s credits roll after you beat the last boss, but achievement whores will be pleased to hear that you can return to the game and clean up the rooms you haven’t yet visited). And the 36-room, two-player co-op mode is limited to local, same-keyboard play; doesn’t get much more old-school than that.

The Adventures of Shuggy could’ve been a tedious, 5 to 10-hour slog through endless platforms, but nothing could be further from the truth. The gameplay is addictive, with well designed levels that are very rarely recycled from area to area. It’s easy on the eyes and ears, but occasionally hard on the blood pressure; you’ll see what I mean when a dive-bombing mosquito tags you just before you reach that last gem — for the tenth time. Indie developer Smudged Cat has taken their 2011 XBLA game and spruced it up for the PC, with surprisingly engaging results. It could be the most enjoyable $10 you spend this summer.

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