The Adventures Of Shuggy Review

Game: The Adventures Of Shuggy

Developer: Smudged Cat Games

Publisher: Valcon Games

Available on: Xbox LIVE Arcade Only

The Adventures of Shuggy is one of those games that sneak up on you. You’ve got no idea they’re in development and you totally miss the fact that they get released, but somehow you manage to wade through the dunes of Xbox LIVE, pushing away the games that have been released time and time again on just about every platform known to man, struggling past the art games that not a lot of people will care about and then you see something you shouldn’t be able to see out here in the deserts of Xbox LIVE.

An oasis.

Is The Adventures of Shuggy one of those oases? Or is it just another game that most people will shrug off while they go and play something with a more weightier name behind it? Will they be missing out? We should probably find out…

I must have drank too much, I'm seeing double ... no, wait ... triple ... wait ...

STORY: The story starts as Shuggy, the game’s main protagonist and a cartoon vampire, finds out that he’s just inherited his grandfather’s spooky old castle in Scotland. Naturally, when he arrives at the locale it’s raining heavily, and there’s the odd crackle of thunder in the dim sky overhead. Upon opening the door Shuggy realises that this isn’t exactly what he had in mind, there’s steam everywhere and just about everything seems to not be working at all. Time to get to work then.

The story unravels as you play through each of the castle’s rooms in one of the four main areas. There’s not much of a story in the gameplay itself, and most people will end up relying on what they’re being told in the comic sections that occur when you unlock a new area, but these comics are very well done with artwork that sticks will the main look of the game in order to no pull the player out of the experience. While the comics are good, it’s a shame that there’s not much more of the story involved. The little bits that the player do get to see are humourous and, along with the very likeable characters, would lend themselves nicely to a more in-depth story.

GRAPHICS: Visually, The Adventures of Shuggy is quite appealing. The cartoon style of the characters will make most players think that they’re about to sit down and play a very casual, kid-friendly game, but the moment they start to play, however, they’ll realise that it’s not a casual game in the slightest. This slight misdirection certainly caught me off-guard, and once I’d decided on the type of game I was actually about to sit down and play, this added to my overall enjoyment of the game. It’s the two contrasting elements that will surprise people at first, just as South Park initially made everyone think: “it’s a cartoon, it’s probably not that bad”, The Adventures of Shuggy will make you think “Awww, they’re so cute! This game can’t be that difficu… oh, I failed”.

The quality of the graphics isn’t limited to the game itself, and once the player gets enough keys to enter a new area of the game they’ll be treated to a small comic book style cutscene. These are presented in the same art style as the main game, and agive the player a closer look at Shuggy and his surroundings, something that you don’t get to see very often in the main game. These cutscenes are all a joy to watch, so it would be nice to see more of them.

SOUND: The sound is really well done for a game this size. It’s very reminiscent of the old-school games of the late 80’s and early 90’s, so people who remember the early days of Sonic the Hedgehog will find the sound that Shuggy makes when he jumps eerily familiar. Having said that, it never really feels like it’s been ripped off, and is more like an homage to something that most of us probably grew up listening to.

"How purple could you be? None more purple..."

The rest of the sound in the game is also well done, despite how little there is. None of the characters talk and the environments don’t really give of any audio either expect the odd sound that’s looped in order to give a specific room a little bit of character. The sound that’s played when gems are picked up are also very similar to the sounds of the 16-bit era of gaming and also go a long way towards making the entire game feel more retro. That would be a good thing for most people.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay of The Adventures of Shuggy revolves around a series of rooms that each contain a certain puzzle that needs solving. Once the puzzle is solved Shuggy gets another key to add to his collection and, once he’s collected enough, another door opens. This continues until all of the doors have been unlocked and all of the rooms completed, at which point the game will be over and the mystery of just what’s going on in the castle will be solved. On paper that’s very simple, but in actual fact the levels, whilst initially looking very easy, don’t take long to show the player how truly difficult they often can be.

There are a few different types of puzzle that players will come across as they make their way through all of the rooms on their path towards the end of the game. For example, there are levels that spin around (either with user interaction or not), levels that have multiple characters in them (all controlled by the player), and even some levels with elements of time travelling, in a similar fashion to Braid. These different types of puzzles also represent different iterations of the same theme, and this leads to a lot of puzzles that are very different from each other. That’s where the charm of The Adventures of Shuggy clies: you can almost guarantee that you can turn the game on for 10 minutes at a time, and rest assured that you won’t come across a puzzle style that you’ve played before. You’ll often think you know what to do, but then as soon as you start moving, you’ll realise that something totally different is being expected of you.

"I ain't 'fraid o' no gho .... AAARGH!! TIME LIMIT!!"

Even when you’ve unlocked all the doors however, the game’s not over, not by a long shot. If you’ve managed to unlock all of the modest achievements that the game has to offer, most players will probably settle down and beat some of their scores now that they “know what to do”, which seems to be the behaviour of any hardcore gamer: just ask the people that stuck with Super Meat Boy. The Adventures of Shuggy plays a lot like Super Meat Boy in fact, the difficulty curve fluctuates unpredictably between being nigh-on impossible to just frustratingly difficult, although there are a few easy levels thrown, seemingly to lull players into a false sense of security.

LONGEVITY: The Adventures of Shuggy is a pretty long game in its own right (especially as far as Xbox LIVE Arcade games that are developed by such a low number of people go), but the levels themselves often beg to be replayed over and over again. The timing element of each level alone will make most people want to come back for more, either to beat their friends’ times or their own, but there’s also the curiosity of what’s going to be behind the next door that will also help to keep people interested for the long term.

The main game won’t actually keep people interested for long periods of time: The Adventures of Shuggy is very much a game that people will find themselves playing for 10 – 15 minutes at a time, but that’s not a bad thing at all. There’s plenty here to keep people interested, and coming back for more. I can vouch for that myself.

VERDICT: If you’re a fan of old platformers then you’re probably going to love The Adventures of Shuggy. The satisfying noise that emanates from the TV screen as soon as you press the jump button is enough for me to recommend this game to retro gamers. For those of you people that needs a little bit more than that, and are probably at least a little bit dead inside, you’ll find the sheer variety of puzzles to be mind-boggling. Sure enough, most of them are merely iterations of the same 5 or so elements but each of them are different enough that you’ll find yourself coming back time and time again just to see what awaits you behind the next door.

Our Scoring Policy