Hocus Pocus Reviews

[h1]☺ One of the Best Classics !![/h1] 15 years have passed since I've played this game. [b]Someone really should make a Hocus Pocus Sequel to show his Journey after becoming a Council Member and marrying Popopa.[/b] [h3] Request to the Game Developers out there... [/h3] [i] Please someone make a proper Sequel with a Nice story.. ♥♥ [/i]

[h1][i]“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”[/i] ~Sir Terry Pratchett[/h1] Nowadays, side-scrolling games are taken as granted on PCs. Just click on one of them tags here, in [b]Steam[/b], and you'll get more games of such kind than you can play in your entire life. Guess what? It wasn't always like that. At least not for all types of computers. While some of the systems (like those [b]Atari[/b] and [b]Commodore[/b] computers) had hardware optimized for such tasks (thanks to which we've got games like [b]Aztec Challenge[/b], [b]Wonder Boy[/b], [b]The Great Giana Sisters[/b] and so on), some other systems (like the ones by [b]NEC[/b] and [b]IBM PC[/b]s) did not. What was the problem? Well, it was pretty simple. With no hardware support, scrolling was done in software. And it was needed to redraw the entire screen for every single frame. Each and every time. Naturally, those old systems just weren't powerful enough for that. Thanks to which the task was impossible without some smart workarounds. [b]Hudson Soft[/b] faced that problem while porting [b]Nintendo[/b]'s [b]Super Mario Bros.[/b] to [b]PC-88[/b] and [b]Sharp X1[/b]. It was a disaster. It [i]looked[/i] like everybody's favorite [b]Famicom[/b] title, but... It didn't have scrolling. Every time [b]Mario[/b] made it to the side of the screen? The game paused and started rendering another one, similar to what we had in, say, [b]PC-88[/b] version of [b]Super Pitfall[/b] or [b]Montezuma's Revenge[/b]. And naturally, the process took time, which broke all the pace. [b]PC-88[/b] and other Japanese systems had their own saviors, but for [b]IBM PC[/b]s it was all about Saint [b]John[/b]. I'm talking, of course, about [b]John Carmack[/b], a mad genius from [b]id Software[/b]. Lack of hardware support was a problem. And [b]John[/b] was a brilliant problem solver (it was him who came up with the idea to sacrifice music and use both [b]Atari Jaguar[/b] coprocessors, [b]Tom[/b] and [b]Jerry[/b], for boosting [b]DOOM[/b]'s performance on [b]Jag[/b]). Quickly, he came up with so-called “adaptive tile refresh”. An elegant solution to avoid redrawing the whole screen and therefore save power. I'm not a technical expert, of course, which means I may have made some mistakes here, but you've got the idea. Before [b]Carmack[/b]'s [b]Super Mario 3[/b] prototype this kind of entertainment wasn't even a thing on [b]IBM PC[/b]s. That's exactly the reason why [b]Commander Keen[/b] series (which [b]id Software[/b] launched after [b]Nintendo[/b] refused their offer to make [b]SMB3[/b] port official) became sacred to [b]DOS[/b] audience. It was their [b]Super Mario[/b]. Why am I telling you all that? Well, because what we have here is a [b]DOS[/b] exclusive. After [b]Commander Keen[/b] revolution, those started to pop up one after another and guess what? They were good. We've got [b]Duke Nukum[/b] (I mean, [b]Nukem[/b]), we've got [b]Jill of the Jungle[/b]... You lived back then – you know what I'm talking about. [b]Hocus Pocus[/b]? It's one of those games. And you know what? Technically, it's nothing special. It's one of those games that want you to find certain amount of objects on level in order to progress, it's our typical [b]Apogee[/b]'s shareware thing (there was a free version and a registered one that included all episodes, exactly the same with what we had in [b]Commander Keen[/b]) and in a way, it's a remake of [b]Moonlite Software[/b]'s previous platformer – [b]Clyde's Adventure[/b]. What kind of name is [b]Clyde's Adventure[/b]? Well, the same one with [b]Super Mario Bros.[/b] Those were the crazy time, OK? And it's not like [b]Hocus Pocus[/b] is any different. In this game you're... *sigh* [b]Hocus Pocus[/b]. No, seriously. Your name is [b]Hocus[/b] and you came from a noble line.. of [b]Pocuses[/b]. Deal with it. Gameplay-wise, it's the same exact thing with [b]Clyde's Adventure[/b]. Except now you're collecting magic crystals and, like I already said, there's a certain amount of them on levels. Collect enough – level's finished. There are four episodes (again, it's our typical shareware thing), nine levels each. Naturally, the final level comes with a boss. That's pretty much it. That's the entire thing. Doesn't sound like a big thing and you know what? In a way it is not. History-wise, there's nothing really special about [b]Hocus Pocus[/b]. You had gaming console back in the days? I can't say you've missed much. And nowadays, when we have [b]RetroArch[/b] in [b]Steam[/b] and lots of new games (some of which are retro-like)... Let's just say that this here is not your top priority. I mean, when you compare this game with some top players in genre, it becomes obvious that it's not really [i]that[/i] good. One of the key features here is that switch puzzle and while on paper there's nothing wrong with it (even the bigger games like [b]Duke Nukem 3D[/b] utilized it now and then), this game wants you to do it again and again with no end. Becomes annoying pretty soon. The bosses are a joke too. Like, half of the time you can beat them just by standing at the right place and shooting (it's one of those games, in which you can shoot by default). Don't get me wrong, nothing of that feels [i]terrible[/i], but... You know how it is. It's not good enough to become one of them “must play” titles. [i]But[/i]. There's that thing called presentation. And presentation here? Is something else (which is exactly why this game feels, like, a million times better than [b]Clyde's Adventure[/b]). Remember cracktros? Those short custom sequences that used to be added by hackers to stolen software? Usually, those weren't just notes. Those had graphics, the music... And there was that certain vibe in all that, similar to what we had in retrowave genre of music. Nowadays, piracy is pretty much dead. Killed by convenience. Sure, people are still looking for free copies of expensive software and overpriced AAA titles, but all in all, nobody really [i]cares[/i] about warez. Yet, as crazy as it is, people still care about cracktros. Just because those are, like, an art form on their own. And [b]Hocus Pocus[/b]? It does have that. Not cracktro, of course (what we have here is just our usual registered version with all four episodes, running through [b]DOSBox SVN Daum[/b]), but the feeling. And the funniest thing is – it's hard to describe it by words. You think 80s – you instantly get a sum of some certain colors and sounds in your head. Same exact thing here. [b]Hocus Pocus[/b]? It's 100% 90s. That signature sound of [b]Sound Blaster[/b] cards, that certain kind of [b]VGA[/b] graphics, those episode selection and “to be continued” screens... That's exactly the reason why this game aged well. [b]Hocus Pocus[/b] was never unique, [b]Hocus Pocus[/b] was never groundbreaking. But back in the days it was finally a way for [b]DOS[/b] audience to taste the genre's juice ([b]Mega Man X[/b] port, for example, didn't appear on [b]DOS[/b] systems until 1995), while nowadays? Nowadays it's exactly the opposite – it's a way for us to taste 90s. That's the selling point here. By paying for this game you won't get one of them historical points, you won't get anything that some other games didn't do better, but when you'll start playing it? Be sure that you'll get that certain feeling of 90s. Guaranteed. Do you need that in your life? It's up to you. There's nothing special about this particular release. No cloud saves, no enhancements (“partial [b]Xbox 360[/b] controller support” on store's page is just due to [b]DOSBox[/b] emulation that supporting gamepads, no other job was done), no extra content (aside from digital manual that is), nothing. Just a bare bones [b]Hocus Pocus[/b]. They did care enough to avoid using default [b]DOSBox[/b] version, but that's pretty much it. Personally? I loved my playthrough. For [b]$2.99[/b], I'd say it's a steal. But like I said, if all that you want is a good game – you can do better nowadays.