№ 39: Pnickies (1994, Compile/Capcom) — Arcade Apocalypse Ochimonogatari
Channel: bedsores
Date: 2023-11-26

pnickies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! streamed 10/18/23

we're going to run into more and more titles that are underdeveloped. though i'm not a scholar of the industry, i'd blame the breakneck pace of game production and the niche status of puzzle games. it leads to an interesting challenge for us as reviewers: do we judge a released game like this by the standards of a demo, or a standards of a polished product? i'm going to lean towards being judgemental, like "you shouldn't have shipped a product with obvious flaws"; however, know i do so with love and acknowledgement for the precarious position these developers were in. in that spirit: this game isn't great, but it's historically fascinating and a brilliant opportunity to get to what makes puzzle games fun. 

historically speaking, we have a narrative: compile mostly developed this game and licensed it to capcom. or perhaps capcom developed the gameplay sketch and licensed it to capcom, who filled out development. either way, pnickies suggests a direct line from the puzzle GOATs to Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo. if we consider the lack of CPU opponents as signs of underdevelopment (like, c'mon, compile would've known better), we could even claim it's a demo *for* SPF2T. it plays more like SPF2T than baku baku animal; triggers can clear each other, and like color groups blend together to reduce visual noise (although the colorblind accessibility leaves much to be desired). though it's surprised me that SPF2T devs didn't have puzzle experience, the strong product they made can be attributed both to their skill and perhaps to this blueprint they were provided. 

as to the fun: fightcade is a miracle! the garbage back-and-forth is simple and satisfying. chaining gets results. not much to say beyond what we've already seen. the joy of meeting a friend at a cab lives on. it's not the perfectly tuned experience we've become used to. but the presentation is nice, the music's good, there's plenty of visual interest and craft. anytime i get to say "i lost, yay!!" that's a game i want to play. sucks about the no cpu tho. 7.0

sorry for the delay on releasing this edits! i was on vacation, and then got tonsilitis on said vacation, and got home and was depressed because i got tonsilitis on my vacation instead of doing cool stuff. as an aside, Torlus developed a homebrew GBA version called Pnakays (2003?), which you can play for free here: https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Pnakys_GBA. it's even got a tate mode! if you try it out let me know how it goes.

art of me by Minasheep! (minasheep on cohost, itch, twitch, and patreon.) next up is № 40: Poto Poto (1994, Sega). i hope you'll join us!