Hocus Pocus

A little bit repetitive, but not too difficult or frustrating. Perfect for a 5-minute break inbetween doing serious stuff. The music does get to you though.

It's amazing to be able to play this (among others) game on a laptop! A small piece of childhood that I can bring with me anywhere. It's so cozy to play, and the music is well done. I also love the humour.

I have never played this one back in the day, so there is no nostalgia involved. The game is quite mediocre even for its time. Level design is repetitive, there is no creativity. All levels are build up from the same sized block whereas tilesets may differ. Crystals are scattered across the map and your goal is to collect them all, the last crystal will end the level. In what order you collect them is up to you. Enemies are just there to slow you down and soak damage from your lightning bolts. Gameplay is quite smooth. So why did I finish the game if it's repetitive? Well, because I can turn my brain off with this simple and basic keyboard focused game, there is no precision platforming involved, enemies barely pose a threat and everything about this game has a certain cuteness factor attached to it (characters, enemies, music). If you are looking for a challenging action platformer then you should look elsewhere. If you are looking for a (shoot'em-up) platformer which isn't that taxing to your brain for 0-30 minute sessions and do not mind the repetitive nature then you could pick this up. Make sure you check out Hocus Pocus Doom if you like this game. Rating 5/10

I'm currently playing Hocus Pocus in Linux. Even though the goal of the game is simple, I find it really addictive. Definitely, a must-have.

I grew up playing the shareware version of this game (the first episode) to death, over and over in DOS. Now 25, I see the game available for sale and just have to get it for the sake of nostalgia. I was not disappointed in my playthrough. Apogee was the coolest, let's get that out of the way right away. Monster Base, Commander Keen, everything. Hocus Pocus seems to get overlooked, but is in no way an exception. Simple? Oh yes. Repetitive? Maybe a little, but you don't play this sort of game for extreme depth or complex controls. It's very much a kids/young adult sort of game, in terms of challenge, but I still found myself playing late into a couple of nights to complete the game, and rarely did the levels seem very redundant to me. Fun music, cool visuals, reasonable assortment of challenges for what it is, I can't really think of any reason to knock this game off. I'd recommend it every time!