Lollypop Bewertungen

This is a game from my early childhood and I was surprised to see it published here in 2023. Nostalgia made me play through it again. Lollypop is a typical early to mid 90s platformer, originally developed for DOS but there was also an Amiga version. You play through a total of 8 large levels, each of them completely unique regarding graphics and enemies. Each level also plays differently: The second level, "Underground", slowly guides you through a series of tunnels and makes you nagivate vertically a lot via elevators. The third level "Rainy Forest" on the other hand mostly scrolls horizontally and is a rather hectic experience, with bees attacking you from both left and right. And the fifth level, "The Mansion", is a complex maze with convoluted corridors and backtracking. At the end of each level, a boss is waiting. Again, those are fully unique, each with their own moveset. The boss fights are mostly unimpressive though - each boss only has one or two mechanics, and once you have figured them out, they become trivial. However, the rest of the game is rather challenging. While Lolly can jump quite high, her movement speed is slow enough that even small gaps are occasionally difficult to leap over and you can easily miss moving platforms. Your weapons are lollypops which you throw at enemies. There are also upgrades which can be found in chests hidden throughout each level, allowing you to throw multiple lollypops at once. These upgrades are very powerful, letting you shower the whole screen with lollypops once you collect enough of them. If you die though, you lose these upgrades again. This makes failing a frustrating experience because you now have to re-do the section you failed on, only this time it's even harder. There are also other gimmicks to collect, like shoes that allow you to jump extremely high or film rolls you can use to take a limited number of photos, destroying each enemy on the screen at once. Overall, gameplay is fun, enemies are diverse and the beautiful graphics are rewarding. The game also has some of the typical problems of early platformers though, in particular unfair sections that are trial-and-error. Some platforms just drop from under your feet without warning and some enemies are hidden so well that they are practially invisible. Level 7, "Frosty Land", is definitely the worst offender in that regard: The stage is full of icicles almost impossible to see if you don't know they are there. They are also difficult to distinguish from other icicles that are just decorative background, and some of the hitboxes are so bad that even after dying multiple times, you're still wondering what exactly even killed you. And while you are trying to figure it all out, birds infinitely spawn from random locations and throw snowballs at you. If you can tolerate such nuisances and are in the mood for a truly retro jump-and-run experience, then you can give this game a chance. It took me roughly 6 hours to complete and even if it's quite old, for me it was worth the money.