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http://www.facebook.com/DanielsGameVault ----------- Here's a fun little game called "Hocus Pocus" on the DOS. It's a sidescroller-platform game where you take control of a wizard named Hocus and go from level to level collecting items and shooting enemies with lightning bolts from your fingertips. The goal in each level is to collect the number of crystal balls indicated at the bottom of the screen - you can't advance to the next level until you do so. Once you collect the last one, you'll be taken to the next stage automatically - you don't have to find any exit like in other games. Standing in your way are various enemies and hazards such as spikes, lava and different monsters. These get harder and harder to kill as the game progresses and some of them even fire back at you. Your life meter is displayed at the bottom, next to the crystal counter. When it drops to 0% you die, but you get infinite lives so you can try a level as many times as you want without getting a "game over". You can restore you health by collecting green potion bottles, but you can't have more than 100%. One good thing is that Hocus won't pick up any more potion once your health is maxed out, so you can go back and collect a bottle later if you take damage. There are also white bottles which let you fire a continuous stream of lightning bolts without having releasing the fire key. Yellow potions make you jump higher for a brief moment. These usually show up next to a treasure room that you wouldn't be able to reach normally, so you have to act fast and jump as soon as you grab the potion, as the effect is limited. Finally there's the grey potion which gives you three fireballs as a weapon. These pass through multiple enemies at once, instead of stopping at each one like the regular lightning bolts do. The biggest challenge the game poses is not the hazards or enemies, but the labyrinth layout: the levels don't have a linear path - they don't go from left to right or top to bottom. There are forks in the road everywhere, so you really have to pay attention and try to memorize where you've already been, otherwise you'll get lost. To make matters worse, you also have to find silver and gold keys to unlock certain walls and also flip switches to cause platforms or walls to appear or disappear. Using the keys is straightforward - just grab the key and bring it to the corresponding color lock and it will activate. The switches can be a lot more annoying, as you'll often find a set of them which only activates when they're all set in the correct combination and there's no clue as to what this is - you just have to flip them all until you get it right. This may not be so hard to figure out when there are only 2 switches, but when there's like 5 of them, it can take quite a long time ! The game is surprisingly addicting for its age and what makes it even better is the save feature - yes, unlike most DOS games it actually has a save feature, which lets you pick up exactly where you left off if you decide to quit the game. This means you don't have to worry about beating it in one sitting or write down passwords. The controls are also customizable, which is pretty unique for a DOS game, since most of them just had fixed key mappings. One thing I'm not too keen on is the way you fall off platforms: when you walk off the edge of a platform, Hocus just drops in a straight line, like a rock - there's no inertia going on. It's like he's being pulled down by a magnet. It makes the controls feel stiff while trying to maneuver left or right while falling - it's hard to explain, but compare it to Jazz Jackrabbit for instance and you'll immediately notice the difference. Bottom line, this is a great game - DAMN GOOD ! No matter how picky I try to be, I just can't find any major flaws. It seems to be a fairly overlooked title in the DOS library however, because not many people seem to remember it, which is a shame because this game should be at the top of the DOS games list, along with Jazz Jackrabbit - funnily enough, they both came out the same year, 1994. Definitely try this one out !
