Plok has gotten himself a higher profile in recent years, thanks to an official webcomic, critical acclaim of its soundtrack and attention from popular Lets Players. You may be fooled into thinking Plok is the Psychonauts of the SNES, on par with the games that were clearly inspired by it (Rayman and Yoshi's Island). It's not. Despite having a lot of good things going for it, Plok fails on a few fundamentals.
The platforming is functional, but does not have the visceral, "juicy" joy of Sonic or Mario. You cannot run, jump on enemies' heads or chain up combos, only limply throw your own limbs at enemies. This mechanic sounds original, but the developers couldn't think of many ways to use it - only a handful of late stages make a puzzle out of Plok's ability to lose limbs, and the final 8 stages dispose of this gimmick altogether. The camera is zoomed in very close, which makes for nicely detailed sprites but makes platforming very difficult. Some stages task you with eliminating fleas, a tedious process because the fleas are hard to kill and there's only one kind of them.
Plok himself is an mean and unlikeable character with a boring design. The only reason he's not as infamous as Bubsy is his obscurity and lack of dialogue.
It's easy to see why people are quick to praise Plok, though, because it does have some good points. The art direction is strikingly colorful and psychedelic, the music is among the best of the SNES, the bonus stages are a white-knuckle adrenaline rush due to the time limit, and the boss fights are inventive and fun diversions. But the lack of saving isn't the only flaw with the game, and anyone who says otherwise is simply too excited to discover a "hidden gem".
Above average but no cult classic
Plok has gotten himself a higher profile in recent years, thanks to an official webcomic, critical acclaim of its soundtrack and attention from popular Lets Players. You may be fooled into thinking Plok is the Psychonauts of the SNES, on par with the games that were clearly inspired by it (Rayman and Yoshi's Island). It's not. Despite having a lot of good things going for it, Plok fails on a few fundamentals.
The platforming is functional, but does not have the visceral, "juicy" joy of Sonic or Mario. You cannot run, jump on enemies' heads or chain up combos, only limply throw your own limbs at enemies. This mechanic sounds original, but the developers couldn't think of many ways to use it - only a handful of late stages make a puzzle out of Plok's ability to lose limbs, and the final 8 stages dispose of this gimmick altogether. The camera is zoomed in very close, which makes for nicely detailed sprites but makes platforming very difficult. Some stages task you with eliminating fleas, a tedious process because the fleas are hard to kill and there's only one kind of them.
Plok himself is an mean and unlikeable character with a boring design. The only reason he's not as infamous as Bubsy is his obscurity and lack of dialogue.
It's easy to see why people are quick to praise Plok, though, because it does have some good points. The art direction is strikingly colorful and psychedelic, the music is among the best of the SNES, the bonus stages are a white-knuckle adrenaline rush due to the time limit, and the boss fights are inventive and fun diversions. But the lack of saving isn't the only flaw with the game, and anyone who says otherwise is simply too excited to discover a "hidden gem".