Are you ready to give an old "ghost buster" geezer the fright of his life? In this game you do precisely that. You're not only past it, long gone even, but you are ambitious - out on a haunting quest to deliver a scare like no other.
Welcome. This is 'Nostalgic Game Design Focus' a series where I get to think back and comment upon games that I had played when I was much younger - mostly from a game-design perspective.
Title: Blinky's Scary School
Publishers: Zeppelin Games Limited
Developer: Zeppelin Games Limited
Programmer: Ian Copeland
Graphics: B. Boston
Released: 1990
I am not sure if we got to unbox 'Blinky's Scary School' before or after we moved to Malta permanently (much to my chagrin at the time... and many years thereafter... (that's more or less out of my system now)). I do remember that it was the last one we picked up before leaving through.
I remember a fair bit more about that forsaken, cold, foggy morning - with that dirty fog-like smell that didn't quite breathe right. A light snowfall had covered most soil patches but even this didn't look right - it all felt spoiled.
Unsuccessful were the attempts to pull up the 'for sale' sign all those months earlier - and the time had come to say goodbye to the calming grey skies in an England that had not yet fallen too far from its column of identity.
'Sigh'... I digress.
Well - after the months of waiting for 'any' computer to get unpacked, having gone via surface shipping, any game was a treat to play - and this was no exception.
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Story and Objectives
The premise of 'Blinky's Scary School' is that you get to play the star pupil of a haunting academy - seeking to get called a real ghost. Its time for the ultimate test and that involves infiltrating the castle of ghost buster "Red Laird McTavish" to give him a fright that he'll never forget.
In order to do this you will need to guide 'Blinky' through the castle, collecting magical ingredients and trying to avoid perilous traps and hostile creatures along the way. As the moon somehow changes phases throughout the night, portending the approach of the morning light, time for your task is running out.
Game Design
In terms of controls - on the surface they were quite simple for this game.
The character can move or jump left and right, and collect items.
That is mostly it.
But there were a couple of things that made this game memorable in its small way.
The game is very much both a platformer while also including puzzle elements.
The puzzle elements typically involved surmounting that which would otherwise be insurmountable - such a great heights or deep depths - and they were generally overcome by collecting and mixing ingredients into bubbling cauldrons to form "spells" that present the desired effect. While a levitation potion has an instant effect, other effects aren't certain until tested.
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Level Design
In this game, level design has its ups and its downs.
It was certainly an inspired choice to make it such that one could fast-travel through the castle using the toilet - for as long as one had toilet paper. It was a good one-time laugh also.
It is also nice to see that the game's various screens are so creatively done (a player moves from one screen to the next in the flip-screen fashion that was common for games during that period). No two screens are quite the same and, truth be told, the graphics were pretty decent for the time!
That being said, there were definitely limitations.
For one thing it was impossible to beat this game without losing health, if not lives. The placement and behaviors of enemies would result in the player often hearing that unsettling saw-like sound of energy drain being incurred. Fortunately 'Blinky' has an energy bar - and this needs to be depleted in order to lose a life (although certain things like falling ceilings, spikes and even water can result in instant death.
This meant that the designers of the game expected you to take some damage.
Even so, due to the flip-screen nature of the game, and the enemy-resetting nature such that they always started in the same place when the screen is entered, often enough one would find that one would sustain damage the moment one entered screen - until that enemy moved.
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The flip-screen nature of the game also meant that it was perfectly possible to make unavoidable mistakes and end up falling to a bed of spikes off-screen without any means other than trial-and-error by which to tell that things are about to go horribly wrong. :cP
Also - since toilet rolls are a limited commodity - it was also possible to get stuck in the game - without a means to progress. Game Over.
Even so - the game is potentially pretty short and it is ironically its shortness that makes all the above forgivable.
Besides, the game has its charm, the user interface is pretty nice and not 'too' obtrusive, and... it was fun. :cP
Like the feature on 'Midnight Resistance', this feature will include both intro and a full play-through of the game.
I didn't really appreciate how short this game was until I watched this.
And to think that it took me so long to come to grips with it back in the day! :cP
The nostalgic echo of spooky times - in a bite-sized package. While this game was certainly far from perfect, I do feel that it was worth the look at - noting the limitations and the work-rounds. This is why I revisit games such as this one. I get to learn from the experience and share my observations with you all. :c)
Do you have any comments or feedback? I look forward to hearing any comments that you have in the discussion down below!
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Sincerely,
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