MagicRosey
This review contains spoilers
This might be one of the best “it’s alright” games I played, I can see why Miyamoto found himself interested in this game it’s quite unique, Plok is one odd MC but he works even if he may come across out of place in a Nintendo game he’s sometimes kind of an ass lol ( and he really hates fleas. )
You can tell the game was meant to be an Arcade game due to it having some level designs definitely meant to just make players lose instantly. it isn’t difficult, just can have a bit of bs in it. I wonder if it being originally planned for arcades was a reason for the game just not having a password or save feature. ( thankfully enemies stay gone if you have to respawn )
The main mechanic of the game is Plok’s disattached body ( sort of similar to Rayman, wonder if perhaps Plok was an inspiration for him ) it’s actually pretty great honestly, the game does a really good job using it through the games and the levels feel made to get the best experience out of it’s fun mechanic
The game starts out pretty simple, just Plok trying to get back his flags ( I guess he just really likes his flags, you can skip most of the island by just shooting a tree three times ) the level design is alright the platforming seems to work for the most part sometimes it’s a bit difficult to go vertically or make some jumps but it doesn’t ruin the game much. I do find the logs pretty annoying since they are sometimes hard to react to at first, the power ups you can get in some areas are actually pretty fun for most of the game, I enjoyed most of them except ones that I’ll get to later, the game’s intro island is pretty alright I don’t have much to say about it that I already haven’t pointed out, then we get to the boss fight and oh my god it’s probably the best time to bring up this game’s best quality, the music is SO good it has some really nice SNES tracks that I love ( the beach, akrillic, THE FLEA PIT which is probably the best track in the game ) and some I’ll probably continue to listen to ( most power-ups also have some really good tracks accompanying them like the boxing gloves and cowboy ) boss fight is pretty simple, shoot the go under the enemies and you are done.
The real game begins there once the fleas are actually introduced into the game, all the entire intro island was just setting up that while Plok was away from his island the fleas took over his and took away his flags, and Plok really hates fleas. ( as I’m writing this I realize he’s the king of the island but it’s just funny to think about that after that inconvenience he decides to exterminate every flea and some random people/bosses he doesn’t like ) You play for a bit until Plok decides to take a nap and we go back a few years to Plok’s grandpa that is in search of a magic amulet, and this part of the game is pretty charming as there’s a lot of changes on how the game looks through it, you no longer have to deal with fleas and you go back to the style of gameplay from the intro island which is just reach the end. Just a really charming section with more of an older font and title cards that would fit silent movies from back then, after a while you fight the same boss from before except instead of two giant enemies it’s three, you beat them up, find the amulet and dream flashback section ends.
Plok wakes up and finds the amulet, ( which I didn’t know how to use for my entire playthrough, just press the triggers and you’ll get really mad and oneshot enemies in Plok’s razor form that is sometimes used in the game to destroy enemies in a straight line, you seem to have more control through the amulet’s power though ) after a while you’ll reach the next boss, The Penkinos which are pretty annoying since it’s a lot of having to time your attacks to hit them by using targets across the map, and it’s probably a good time to explain what the targets do
Plok can sometimes punch different targets to make the map change, make swings go faster, explode things and sometimes his limbs ( he gets them back later on the stage ) it’s a neat mechanic that is used well in some stages, probably not so much in this boss fight just due to it being sort of annoying but not that bad either.
Beat them and soon you’ll enter one of the most iconic stages in the game, the Creepy Forest.
It’s iconic because it’s awful, it stretches out for way too long and you have to sit around and wait for doors to go the right direction as you dodge multiple enemies that are shooting you and making MORE enemies at the same time that you might end up playing a bullet hell by the end of the level. You eventually reach Womack Spider which is probably a contender for one of the worst bosses in the game since you can just stand on the right side and get to his final phase pretty quickly and by then it’s not even that difficult to dodge his bullets either.
The next few stages are actually pretty interesting, Creepy Crag consists of a lot of vertical movement which may get annoying and it’s also full of bees which are probably one of the most annoying enemies in the game, it’s a fun concept and the level does it pretty well, keep exploding targets with your limbs and continue to climb the stage losing and gaining more limbs until you reach the end, Gohome Cavern is a lot more enjoyable and it uses the game’s main mechanic so perfectly I love this area it forces you to lose Plok’s legs which basically forces the entire level to be made to fit Flock’s legless hopping and you have to reach the end basically hopping around, sliding and gaining momentum and then at the very end you gain your limbs back and have to go back to the start of the stage to take out all the fleas. ( there’s some shielded enemies you have to hit twice from both sides which can be pretty annoying since aiming the limbs can be pretty annoying in this case )
Crushing Rocks is annoying, moving on..
You fight Rockyfella, he’s probably the hardest boss you’ll encounter that isn’t gimmicky and awful, pretty enjoyable fight though and would’ve been better for the final boss fight, after beating him we reach the worst part of the game, the Flea Pit.
I’m so miserable playing through it, it comes basically out of nowhere unless you did every bonus level and even then it’s just like 8 stages back to back full of vehicle gimmicks and hundreds of new enemy types that just aren’t fun, there’s barely any of the enjoyable platforming stages that were in the1st and 2nd parts of the game, like come on we could’ve just finished the game right after the Rockyfella fight with some nice platforming stages then the Flea Queen but noo..we had to get random vehicle stages that just aren’t what makes Plok a fun unique platformer.
After a bunch of gimmicks we get to the Flea Queen, and she has more gimmicks for some reason they decided to force Plok into a Pogo Stick for this final boss fight which uses the generic boss theme ( the bonus level track honestly should’ve been the final boss theme instead of them recycling the generic boss theme ) and just isn’t that enjoyable due everything you mastered and learned to the game as a platformer being thrown out of the window for a pogo stick.. You beat the queen and then boom, end of the game you get a screen of Plok taking a nap after wiping out an entire race and a bunch of people he didn’t like, then once the credits end you get your total ( basically worthless ) score next to a funny 3D render of Plok and you stay on that screen until you reset and start from the beginning, that’s Plok.
The game’s charming, I'd feel bad if I just gave it 3 stars, it has some passion, strong presentation, some really good ideas and enjoyable gameplay. Plok can deliver some funny moments and unique writing compared to most of what was in the market back in 1993, but it’s also full of design bs, a pointless third part in the flea pit and a disappointing final boss fight, but it’s a game worth playing sit down for 2-3 hours and see your own thoughts I want to see more of Plok, it may not be the perfect game but it has a lot of parts that if worked on and reattempted could make for one sick sequel also Plok has a nice design he’s so funny looking and i love his face going from : to >:
Thank you England, please make Plok 2.
You can tell the game was meant to be an Arcade game due to it having some level designs definitely meant to just make players lose instantly. it isn’t difficult, just can have a bit of bs in it. I wonder if it being originally planned for arcades was a reason for the game just not having a password or save feature. ( thankfully enemies stay gone if you have to respawn )
The main mechanic of the game is Plok’s disattached body ( sort of similar to Rayman, wonder if perhaps Plok was an inspiration for him ) it’s actually pretty great honestly, the game does a really good job using it through the games and the levels feel made to get the best experience out of it’s fun mechanic
The game starts out pretty simple, just Plok trying to get back his flags ( I guess he just really likes his flags, you can skip most of the island by just shooting a tree three times ) the level design is alright the platforming seems to work for the most part sometimes it’s a bit difficult to go vertically or make some jumps but it doesn’t ruin the game much. I do find the logs pretty annoying since they are sometimes hard to react to at first, the power ups you can get in some areas are actually pretty fun for most of the game, I enjoyed most of them except ones that I’ll get to later, the game’s intro island is pretty alright I don’t have much to say about it that I already haven’t pointed out, then we get to the boss fight and oh my god it’s probably the best time to bring up this game’s best quality, the music is SO good it has some really nice SNES tracks that I love ( the beach, akrillic, THE FLEA PIT which is probably the best track in the game ) and some I’ll probably continue to listen to ( most power-ups also have some really good tracks accompanying them like the boxing gloves and cowboy ) boss fight is pretty simple, shoot the go under the enemies and you are done.
The real game begins there once the fleas are actually introduced into the game, all the entire intro island was just setting up that while Plok was away from his island the fleas took over his and took away his flags, and Plok really hates fleas. ( as I’m writing this I realize he’s the king of the island but it’s just funny to think about that after that inconvenience he decides to exterminate every flea and some random people/bosses he doesn’t like ) You play for a bit until Plok decides to take a nap and we go back a few years to Plok’s grandpa that is in search of a magic amulet, and this part of the game is pretty charming as there’s a lot of changes on how the game looks through it, you no longer have to deal with fleas and you go back to the style of gameplay from the intro island which is just reach the end. Just a really charming section with more of an older font and title cards that would fit silent movies from back then, after a while you fight the same boss from before except instead of two giant enemies it’s three, you beat them up, find the amulet and dream flashback section ends.
Plok wakes up and finds the amulet, ( which I didn’t know how to use for my entire playthrough, just press the triggers and you’ll get really mad and oneshot enemies in Plok’s razor form that is sometimes used in the game to destroy enemies in a straight line, you seem to have more control through the amulet’s power though ) after a while you’ll reach the next boss, The Penkinos which are pretty annoying since it’s a lot of having to time your attacks to hit them by using targets across the map, and it’s probably a good time to explain what the targets do
Plok can sometimes punch different targets to make the map change, make swings go faster, explode things and sometimes his limbs ( he gets them back later on the stage ) it’s a neat mechanic that is used well in some stages, probably not so much in this boss fight just due to it being sort of annoying but not that bad either.
Beat them and soon you’ll enter one of the most iconic stages in the game, the Creepy Forest.
It’s iconic because it’s awful, it stretches out for way too long and you have to sit around and wait for doors to go the right direction as you dodge multiple enemies that are shooting you and making MORE enemies at the same time that you might end up playing a bullet hell by the end of the level. You eventually reach Womack Spider which is probably a contender for one of the worst bosses in the game since you can just stand on the right side and get to his final phase pretty quickly and by then it’s not even that difficult to dodge his bullets either.
The next few stages are actually pretty interesting, Creepy Crag consists of a lot of vertical movement which may get annoying and it’s also full of bees which are probably one of the most annoying enemies in the game, it’s a fun concept and the level does it pretty well, keep exploding targets with your limbs and continue to climb the stage losing and gaining more limbs until you reach the end, Gohome Cavern is a lot more enjoyable and it uses the game’s main mechanic so perfectly I love this area it forces you to lose Plok’s legs which basically forces the entire level to be made to fit Flock’s legless hopping and you have to reach the end basically hopping around, sliding and gaining momentum and then at the very end you gain your limbs back and have to go back to the start of the stage to take out all the fleas. ( there’s some shielded enemies you have to hit twice from both sides which can be pretty annoying since aiming the limbs can be pretty annoying in this case )
Crushing Rocks is annoying, moving on..
You fight Rockyfella, he’s probably the hardest boss you’ll encounter that isn’t gimmicky and awful, pretty enjoyable fight though and would’ve been better for the final boss fight, after beating him we reach the worst part of the game, the Flea Pit.
I’m so miserable playing through it, it comes basically out of nowhere unless you did every bonus level and even then it’s just like 8 stages back to back full of vehicle gimmicks and hundreds of new enemy types that just aren’t fun, there’s barely any of the enjoyable platforming stages that were in the1st and 2nd parts of the game, like come on we could’ve just finished the game right after the Rockyfella fight with some nice platforming stages then the Flea Queen but noo..we had to get random vehicle stages that just aren’t what makes Plok a fun unique platformer.
After a bunch of gimmicks we get to the Flea Queen, and she has more gimmicks for some reason they decided to force Plok into a Pogo Stick for this final boss fight which uses the generic boss theme ( the bonus level track honestly should’ve been the final boss theme instead of them recycling the generic boss theme ) and just isn’t that enjoyable due everything you mastered and learned to the game as a platformer being thrown out of the window for a pogo stick.. You beat the queen and then boom, end of the game you get a screen of Plok taking a nap after wiping out an entire race and a bunch of people he didn’t like, then once the credits end you get your total ( basically worthless ) score next to a funny 3D render of Plok and you stay on that screen until you reset and start from the beginning, that’s Plok.
The game’s charming, I'd feel bad if I just gave it 3 stars, it has some passion, strong presentation, some really good ideas and enjoyable gameplay. Plok can deliver some funny moments and unique writing compared to most of what was in the market back in 1993, but it’s also full of design bs, a pointless third part in the flea pit and a disappointing final boss fight, but it’s a game worth playing sit down for 2-3 hours and see your own thoughts I want to see more of Plok, it may not be the perfect game but it has a lot of parts that if worked on and reattempted could make for one sick sequel also Plok has a nice design he’s so funny looking and i love his face going from : to >:
Thank you England, please make Plok 2.