Pengo

I’ve said it a few times, but it bears repeating: games from the ’80s were weird. Pengo is no exception. Pengo the penguin inexplicably walks around mazes formed from blocks of ice. Enemies will pop out of some of these blocks and can crush the ice blocks in an effort to walk into Pengo, killing him (or her? I don’t really know). Pengo isn’t going to just stand there and take their abuse! He (or she?) can shove the ice blocks in a straight line and they’ll sail along until they hit another block or the side wall. If there are any enemies in the way then they get squished. Squish them all and you win the level, win the level and you get to go on to the next, win enough levels and you get a cute cutscene.

Pengo is elegant in its simplicity. Well, maybe not so much ‘elegant’, but it is ’simple’. A simple game that’s fun enough I don’t feel cheated spending a quarter on it now and again.

Pengo at the KLOV.

One Response to “Pengo”

  1. [...] two tell a story, and the third just doesn’t fit in at all. Don’t Pull is a lot like Pengo. There are several blocks that you can push (but not pull) and enemies that scurry around the [...]

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