Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus, a great masterpiece from the past, full of Apogee style, dripping of the 90's. As for gameplay, it's you tipical Apogee platformer: masterfully crafted level design, a meaningfull roster of enemies and, of course, its undying humor , that so characterizes all Apogee production. However, it does have little niche inside, little features, almost that surprised me incredibly, such as teleport ( nothing out of the ordinary, buuut it does it extremely well combined with the whole level design) or the ability to climb stairs without need of jumping ( I know, it's stupid... but I dare you find another game with a similar feature). Plus, Soundtrack is surprisingly good and graphics are colorfull as ever. So, for any retrò or platformer fans out there, it's a big yes!

First found it on a sahreware collection CD in the 90s. Played through the first levels, but never had the full game. It was OK, but nothing special. Not so long ago found it here on sale and I bought it because of the nostalgia. Graphics a bit childish, story is way too simple, but somehow the game is still fun. Maybe because it's user/gamer friendly: no frustrating jumps, no indestructible bosses, good controls. I love it, when I have only 5 minutes to play, I lunch it and complete a level and enjoy it. That's all, simple and fun.

Hocus Pocus is a 2D platformer released by Apogee. I loved it when I was a kid, but recently I replayed it... and unfortunately some cracks appeared on my nostalgia glasses. Still a fun game, though. On a technical level, it is really well done. Colorful VGA graphics and cheerful MIDI soundtrack are easily the best part of the game. Both level setting and music changes every two levels (except boss levels), and while halfway through some assets would be recycled from previous episodes, the outcome is always different. You don't finish level by reaching end sign - you have to collect all crystals instead, in any order. I hoped for a more non-linear levels, but some of them are designed in a way that there's only one right path. Also I wish there were more crystals than required - it would make levels worth revisiting. Anyway, level design is competent, with treasures to collect, secret areas to find, puzzles to solve (all of them rely on setting switches up or down in a correct order, unfortunately) and occasional nasty traps. Unfortunately, game get predictable very quickly, because game will show you most of its tricks in a first episode. If there is fire power-up, then for sure horde of enemies would spawn nearby. There are many types of monsters, but all of them are combination of two properties: walking/flying and melee/ranged. Enemy roster pales in comparison with Jill of the Jungle or Duke Nukem 1&2. But the biggest disappointment for me are the boss fights - three out of four are just stationary targets throwing fireballs at you, and fourth just runs towards you. All of them are ridiculously easy, you can defeat them on a first try. Despite my complaining, I had a good time with Hocus Pocus. It's occasionally difficult (I played on Hard), levels are well designed, audiovisual presentation is spot-on... But it just gets repetitive and it lacks something unique among other games at the time. Fans of retro 2D platformers should get a copy.

What fascinates me most about this game is that at it's core, it plays a lot like the retro FPS from the time it was released - just as a platformer. Enemies will spawn from thin air to ambush you like FPS 'monster closets', you have a numerical health that adds up to a 100, and because of these ambushes it becomes important to manage healing powerups, leave them for later and eventually backtrack towards them. Once you get used to and stop trying to play this game e.g. like Mega Man, this games becomes extremely fun and interesting. It's also pretty cheap (especially on sale) so heavily recommended.

The game has the typical style of Apogée and the 90s, so expect to feel overwhelmed with nostalgia. Graphics look awesome with varied levels and beautiful textures. It's the kind of game that made you dream about possessing the whole game but at the same time, you knew the shareware was enough. Especially because at this time, shareware were rather generous and offered a few levels. The gameplay is simple and repetitive. Don't expect to spend your nights on it. Good game if you want to play a few minutes once in a while, or for a young player.