Mutant Penguin (DOS)

It's already 2nd birthday of my nonsense writing blog , huh? Then i have to celebrate it with special article about a game that i very fond of. Last year was Psygnosis's Team Buddies (2000) on PS 1, this time is Sunrise Games's Mutant Penguins (1995/1996) on DOS.

Or known as Attack of The Mutant Penguins. That's the Atari-Jaguar version. There's no usual menu options here. You just press the appropriate button to choose option that you want. There's no exposition about the story behind the game. The closest to it is: that alien spaceship falls to toxic pool everytime the game start. I reckon i don't need training levels (tutorial) but i need to know the button configuration, just in case.

Hmm, yes! That's simple enough. I know that i'm very familiar with the game but that doesn't mean i will change the difficulty setting to 'hard'. I don't want to brag about my skill here too much. I focus to show you what's the game is all about, you see. There's quite problem. Even though the Sound Effects and Music is 'on', the game is mute and i have no idea why. I believe i don't encounter such problem with other DOS game.  

Starting any game mode, you will choose character to play. We got: 1) Bernard, spherical guy with pan 2) Rodney, pear fruit humanoid. There's bit different in gameplay between these two but i will talk about it later. For now i choose Bernard because of...nostalgia.

Here's the game. It's in bird-eye view, which kind of like Team Buddies. Maybe, i'm soft to games with top view perspective. Heh! Anyway, the game doesn't immediately started. As i keep 'peek mode' on, i'm allowed to see entire stage before the game begin but only once. This will allow me to identify everything in current stage and make forward strategic plan. The thing besides me will make penguin (which is our enemy) become the aforementioned mutant penguin, which means no good. There's chest in rightside of this screenshot and to open it you need to drop gremlin on it. The gremlin is that fluffy blue sod with red shoes. Gremlins act as in-game currency that you can use to open chests or assembly machines that will surely aid you on your quest to destroy every evil penguin in stage. The more gremlins you put on chest or machine, the faster the work. Once they're done with the work they will roam around again so you can catch them again. It's cashback gremlinback feature! Sounds good and simple but here's the jarring part: the gremlins are hard to catch. They move slower than you but in erratic manner. Moreover, the hit detection for catching them is loose like you try grabbing small dry sands with your one hand that's covered oil. Even if you manage to be in zero-distance with the creeps, the game doesn't acknowledge you to have them quite often. So you have to stick to them for unpredicted period until the game approves your catch.

Here comes the penguins, teleporting out of thin air! As this stage is in wild west theme, they wear either headband with single feather or cowboy hat. The first time i played this (back when i was 10 y.o or so), i thought the Amerindian penguin will fight cowboy penguin therefore i shouldn't lay may hand on them yet. Turns out, no. They get along just fine. The penguins who don't wear anything, are the one who fight other penguin. It's instructed in tutorial level that the un-accessorized penguins are the good one and they will have brawl with the evil ones, should they bumped.    

To obtain your weapon, you have to collect 'PAN' or 'BAT' letters from chests. Even if you get the weapon, you can't kill the penguins immediately. First, you have to charge up your weapon by collecting power orbs. You can get them by non-lethally striking any penguins making them spinning on spot in process. Each penguin will "produce" 5 power orbs that will vanish after few seconds. Collecting 5 power orbs, will grant you level 1 power-up. That will make your pan glowing and can insta-kill penguin within 5 strikes or so. Everytime you swing your uncharged weapon, your power meter (on right-top screen) will reset. So, you have to refrain yourself from unnecessary swinging while you collect the power orbs. The penguins will be invulnerable for a while after they get hit. So, don't expect filling power meter from squeezing 1 penguin.

The evil/alien penguin's destination is this demonic big head. If one of the enemies get eaten deliberately by that thing, the right scale will be filled by one. If the right scale is heavier than left ones, the game is over. There's switch that you can flick by pressing 'drop' button for some reason. It definitely doesn't require any gremlin. In this case, the switch will change the direction pointer on its top. You can change penguin's course by doing that.

Everytime you beat a stage, you will go to one of these minigames that's selected randomly. They are...

Penguin Control 

You don't control the penguins. You blast penguins who are on iceberg by utilizing these 3 catapults. Their range are varied. The left catapult's range is the farthest. The right catapult's range is the closest. The middle catapult's range is the medium, obviously. Usually, the closest penguins come very fast. So, i'm ready at the right catapult. Balls for catapult's ammo come from pipe on corners. The penguins sail across the screen at 3 distances in random chance. If you feel sorry for the penguin, you shouldn't. Just look at them! Blowing a raspberry or shaking their fists. What a bunch of damned miscreants! Anyway, the minigame should be named Penguin's population control. It's more accurate.

Penguin Attack

It's just Space Invader clone. The penguins roams left and right in not so orderly formation. You have 3 lives to finish this minigame but i don't think you need them.

Penguin Range

This one is also simple. You control crosshair of those gatling guns and shoot as many passing penguins as you can. I think this is the best minigame. Heavy_battlecry06.wav

Finishing any of the minigame, you will be rewarded by some number of penguins that i have no idea what for. And also picture of female penguin in dotted skirt and oversized tie on her head.

Then there's picture of your character and his score. With lots of sparkles and confetti. As there's no top score leaderboard or sort like that, i assume the score is just waste. I'm baffled with useless score like this ones. And i don't like it.       

Next level takes place in jungle. If i pull that lever, the bars will be down then the good penguins will seek the alien ones thus buying me time to get my weapon.

See those 2 circle marks? That's teleport that only you can use, the penguins can't. You can say that they're exclusive teleport.

On the other hand, the penguins must travel via rope that you can see on bottom. Not all chests contain letter for your weapon when opened. Sometime they contain special items like this: glue stick. It can be used to either get the gremlins easier or stopping the penguins temporarily. And there's sleeping King K. Rool's cousin dinosaurs. He is...hoo boy! It's going to be great. If you hit him your weapon...

...he will extend his neck and preys any penguin who's obediently and foolishly walk in front of him. He won't stay awake forever but you can wake him again by doing another rude waking. He's more practical to "deploy" unlike killing machines that require gremlin and time to build up. I will talk about the machine later.    

It's quite frequent that next stage will introduce you with new mechanism like those 2 balloons that i have no idea what they will do. You see that two brown bar between a gap? Those are rollbridge that's (again) exclusive for you to pass.   

That flying sphere machine is also something that i don't know what its purpose. While that green machine is bridge for the penguin only. But unlike the rollbridge that connect instantly, that bridge needs time to build. The penguins must rotate that wheel first before the bridge is ready to use. It takes time but you should keep an eye on it.

The vase on the screenshot is the machine that i have mentioned. When it has been assembled it will turn into pole with spinning blades. It will mince every penguins that close to it. Sniper_meleedare01.wav

 

Filling the power bar to maximum by collecting 10 power orbs or more without unnecessary swing, will grant you level 2 power-up. In Bernard's case, he can throws his pan in boomerang style. But he will throw it straight from his right hand, not from his center. So you have to aim carefully. After some number of throwing, Bernard will swings his pan like usual but it's still charged before some swing. My strategy to fill  the power bar: smack 2-3 penguins successively without picking the energy orbs too early and do it quite wide area. There's some chance that the power orbs are scattered in place where you can't reach.   

There's Samurai Bonus pickup. If Bernard obtains it, he will becomes Samurai Bernard. He will spinning around like Tasmanian Devil and ravaging any penguins nearby. Sadly, it will only lasts few seconds. But with this way, you can kill penguins directly without your weapon. Also, for some reason the penguins that you kill with this power-up,  will spurt out power orbs. On my left you can see the cartoon brawl fog. That's the process of fighting between 2 penguins, the result is random. Sometime good penguin dies and sometime evil ones dies. But the most frequent (i think) is both of them are dead.      

The other killing machine is this Spinning Hanger. The penguin who walks close to it, immediately grab on one of its arm and it will spins furiously making the penguin flies really high then fall to his/her death. Engineer_specialcomplete09.wav

In this stage there's hang glider that penguins use to travel. While snowball thrower will shoot to kill any penguin that comes in its line of fire. But you have to turn it on first with corresponding switch.    

So that flying machine will wrap a penguin in bubble allowing them to fly to that demon head. Luckily, snowball kills the unflying bird before he reaches his destiny. Sniper_nicshot03.wav

This stage doesn't have gap or any significant terrain. The penguins will walk through this series of pointer. You can alter this "maze" by switching direction of the pointer. Keep in mind that you can only alter pointer with same color on its base, as the switch's! 

So the red balloon carrying bomb that will drop if i throw it with my pan. But isn't simpler or easier to just throw my pan at the penguins instead? The explosion radius of the bomb is not so wide. So it's not so worthy.

This stage called Treasure Island Panic. So the alien penguin is dressed like a pirate. That's quite relatable. This stage introduces you with penguin-launcher tube. The penguin will enters it and then he flies across to the island on bottom. While i can just use that rollbridge at instant. These penguins are moron!  

There's also giant spring for penguins to get across. They're so keen on platforming, aren't they?    

That Billy Buttons is so smug. What's with the huge advertisement board and that damn smile.   

This stage also introduce you with gameplay element that i'm not sure what it is: these boxes with question mark sign. If my memory serves right, the evil penguins will sometime pop up from those boxes. Maybe.

And what's that with circle plate thing swirling pattern? Again, i have no clue. Sorry.

So there's that bastard's flour mill on right side. I wish i can burn it down. That will teach him not to be so smug. I find out that the clown balloon will give a penguin a ride. What's with everything here is related to clown? Clown and anything relates to it, are always bad, huh?

Wait the minute! The good penguin will get inside of the demon head and will make the good scale heavier. That's good. I think i know what's the reward of the minigame means: you will get bonus good penguin on scale so the screw-up tolerance will be bigger thus you can win more easily. I forgot to tell you about that 2 number indicators on top-left of the screen. The left number indicates how many gremlins that you currently have. While the right ones indicates how many alien penguins left that you need to deal with.  

This time, the penguins are dressed like Elvis Presley. You can make them rock 'n roll in a spot by activating that jukebox and you need coin from respawning chest on quite far left. Look at them dancing so fabulous!

On the other hand, i have constructed this cruel machine. It will grabs a penguin then slams him into a big spike! Engineer_specialcompleted01.wav

A good penguin get into the machine and begin to shoot small sparky orbs. Again, i have no clue what is it doing. On the other hand, i know that the unfinished bridge on the right is bridge for the alien penguins and they will construct it piece by piece. Kind of remind me of  builder Lemming.

Oh, look another new thing and it looks menacing! It will absorb penguin in bubble then pop the bubble by clapping its mace arms. And then it devours the penguin. Awesome!

It's another stage with clown penguins. This time there's mechanism that consist of giant pie on spring and big target sign. If you open the target sign, the penguin will stand on it, pie launches upward then fall to the target, exploding along with the penguin. It's fun to watch but sadly this mechanism need noticeable cooldown before it's ready again.

This drilling machine also need quite some time before it can be utilized. But it can skewers penguins on a queue. The thing is: it's operated by using lever on left that also change penguin's route. One route leads straight into driller's range, while the other goes to the sideway. So you have to time the switch flicking.

On next stage,  i make terrible mistake! I thought the penguins will go to that spinning blades but no. They go to lane where it doesn't reach on rightside because i change their route before. This miscalculation can be avoided if there's lane markers.

It was too late. the evil scale is heavier in a mere moment then the scales spinning around and the demon head goes berserk. Game Over. I can choose to start from 1 stage before this one which is The stage with pie launcher and clown penguins. But no, i will end the playthrough here.

Oh, right! Rodney's gameplay. He's not faster than Bernard. The different is in his warfare. If he pick Samurai Bonus pickup, he gain torch breath ability for 10 seconds where he can blow small flame from his mouth. Can you believe that penguin survives his Yoga Flame? Yes, he does. I have to admit that hit detection for attacking penguins, is also shabby. Quite often, they are either out of your reach or pass you as if you're nothing instead of getting hit. The only most accurate hit, is when you wake the dinosaurs which is reasonable. He's quite big fella, afterall.    

Rodney wields mini club instead of pan. The penguin that got hit by it will be pinned down instead of spinning. His level 1 power-up is his weapon become genuine caveman club and there's earthquake blast effect on it. While his level 2 power-up will grants him torch breath ability for 5 seconds. That's half duration of Samurai Bonus pickup's effect. By the way, this is training stage. There's no end destination for the alien penguins so you can play this without worry...unless 10th training stage where it's 100% simulation of normal mode. The training stages are in this Rome or Renaissance theme where the alien penguins wear long wig or maybe yellow hood.

Pandemonium mode is just endless mode where you're in one of stage from 4, kill never-ending wave of alien penguin. As there's no in-game timer or time record, this mode feels dull. What else i can say? Actually quite a lot. Once the building have been constructed, it will spawn a pickup either bonus pickup or special item. Bonus pickups immediately take effect once you get them. They are: 1) Bonus Gremlin, so you get 1 gremlin instantly once you pick it 2) Instant level 1 power-up 3) Instant level 2 power-up 4) Samurai Bonus, that i have mentioned.  Special items are 1-time use only items that can be activated by pressing (default 'X' button). They are: 1) Glue Stick 2) Coin, for jukebox 3) Instant Build, that allow you to construct a machine at the fastest speed 4)Dynamite, to blow up penguins. If you get some special item, it will be displayed on the left of power level. By searching the directory, i find out that the normal mode has 30 stages. There's no password or savefile. The only saving feature in normal mode is the level select even that you have to finish some stages to expand the selection. If you quit the game, the level select will be reset to level 1. I remember the level selection ends at 20th or 25th and later stages gives me arduous feature like no peeking at all or no melee weapon. As if the game refuses to be completed. There's also quite scary game over screen even if you deliberately give up by pressing 'Esc' button.

 

Sunrise Games's Mutant Penguins (1995/1996) is what i like to call Action Defense game, where you control immortal avatar to destroy all of  harmless and mindless mobs by any means necessary. Or you can say it's like Hero Defense (like in some Warcraft 3's custom maps or Dungeon Defenders) but the enemies don't fight you back. The game isn't difficult but also not friendly. Many features feel unforgiving like limited level selection, no radar/map, or no instruction on some of mysterious stage's elements. Also, there's no decent mob's lane. It's often that i have to guess where the alien penguin's starting point in peeking mode. Or i have to guess where the penguins will go next when they enter a hole/cave or fly with bubble/hang glider. The hit detection is quite bad in most cases. But despite all of that, i still love this game. Its core gameplay is creative and fun. It's very satisfying to kill penguin with various wicked machines. The game's tone is cartoon violence. When they're dead, penguins are blown into pieces: eyeball, arm, and (for some reason) green blood. The power-up items and special items are interesting and useful. The different between Bernard and Rodney is fairly shallow. I think, Rodney gameplay  is more carefree and brutish as he can blow some flame within a time period instead of number of strike like Bernard. Therefore playing as Bernard requires sharp accuracy and precision but rewarding as he throw his pan within quite distance. Some stage feature new game element that make the normal mode game keep interesting. The minigames are pretty good and functional. The game doesn't support two players. If it does, it becomes easier to play (though the weapon-collecting part must be overhauled first).

Unlike Team Buddies, Mutant Penguins (1995/1996) needs to be more polished to appeals people. As it is, i recommend you to play the tutorial stages where you can have fun the most in relaxing pace. If you're brave (or bored) enough, you can try the normal mode. The 1st level is really a hurdle but once you past it, the difficulty setting feels softer. Also, this game is definitely not for penguin lovers! If you are, you will get lots of heart attacks playing this game. I don't want you to be in unnecessary excruciating moment on this (rather-)dumb violent game. Refrain doing so, please!

I'm not tired to say my utmost gratitude to you, dear readers. I very appreciate your alacrity to read my articles, that mostly contain senseless opinion. If my writing offend you in bad way, i'm sorry about that. See you, next time!