Tricky Kick
Reviewed by Michael LoCascio
My erudite friend King Broccoli once said, 'some video
games are like monkey decent bananas. You won't know what
they're really like until you peel away the skin and find
out.' Now, while I'm not completely sure what he meant by
that statement (he lost me at the part about the monkey
banana), I'm pretty sure that KB was referring to titles
like Tricky Kick. What appears to be a cute, endearing
little game on the outside turns out to be an insanely
difficult puzzle game once you 'peel away the skin' and
begin playing it.
Tricky Kick starts off harmlessly enough. You're initially
asked to select from six adorable characters, all of whom
are faced with daunting tasks that they must complete. After
you make your choice you will be treated to a delightfully
cute cinema which briefly explains what goals your character
will be attempting to accomplish. The main character of the
game is Oberon, a stout young elf who's out to rescue a
friend of his from an evil sorceress. The rest of the people
from whom you can choose are descendants of Oberon (this
family clearly has a long history of trauma and turmoil).
Udon is a 'bionic man' who must save our planet from a
hostile alien invasion that takes place in the 25th century.
Taro is a timid little boy who, in order to become a member
of the 'cool kids' at school, accepts a dare to explore a
haunted house. Gonzo the noble caveman is on a mission to
slay a woolly mammoth and feed his hungry family, while the
crafty Prince Suzuki is looking to ascend to the throne of
feudal Japan. Cute, green-haired Mayumi might have the
toughest task of all: in order to make it to her pal Biff's
birthday party, she'll have to cross through the rough side
of town, where the mean kids hang out.
Tricky Kick is quite reminiscent of the old Adventures of
Lolo games that appeared for the NES a number of years back.
It's a puzzle game that requires you to tackle one screen
after another, moving objects around and meeting certain
requirements. You view the action from an overhead
perspective, much like in Lolo. The action will never scroll
in any direction; everything you'll need to solve the puzzle
at hand will be at your disposal on the screen that you're
presented with. Each character is asked to complete ten
different screens. While the ten stages for any particular
character must be completed in a particular order, you can
switch from one character's adventure to another at any time
that you wish. If you get sick of hunting woolly mammoths
with Gonzo, you can abandon the tough little caveman and
help Mayumi on her quest to survive the tough streets of her
'hood. Of course, if you start to feel bad about leaving
Gonzo behind, you can rejoin him whenever you want.
While Lolo required gamers to collect special heart icons,
Tricky Kick simply asks that you destroy all of the living
creatures that are present on a screen. Half the time you
won't even be able to tell what these things are, but it
doesn't really matter. They don't even move around or fight
back. You'll know which objects you'll have to destroy
because they'll all be moving in place. Your job is to kick
identical creatures into one another, thus destroying both
of them. When you kick a creature, it will move in a
straight line until it bumps into another object, at which
point it will come to an immediate standstill. Should you
kick one green dragon into another green dragon, they will
both vanish. Eliminate every creature on the screen and
you'll proceed to the next level.
The action in this game can be a lot trickier than it
sounds. You'll have to be careful to avoid kicking objects
into places where you won't be able to retrieve them (should
you kick an object into a corner, there is no way that
you'll ever get it out again). There are plenty of inanimate
objects that will get in your way and frustrate you. You'll
also have to become used to the idea of placing two
creatures directly next to each other. Kicking a creature
that is right next to another one will cause the creature
that is farthest from you to move. You'll have to be
careful, however, as this trick will only work with two
adjacent creatures; you will be unable to budge three
creatures that are placed in a straight line next to one another.
Progress in Tricky Kick can be recorded by copying down a
password, and you'd probably be wise to write down your
passwords as often as you can. This game is insanely
difficult; even the earlier stages will require a great deal
of time and thought. You can't sit there deep in thought for
too long, however, as each level has a time limit. Of
course, you'll likely screw up long before your time runs
out, in which case you can 'give up' and start the level over again.
Poor graphics in puzzle games are usually forgivable, but
Tricky Kick's visuals are downright awful. As mentioned
above, it is often very difficult to tell what kinds of
creatures you're kicking around. There are numerous
instances where inanimate objects will appear to be
creatures that you're supposed to kick, until you look very
closely and realize that they're not moving in the
slightest. There are even times where it's difficult to tell
where you can walk and where you can't. These graphics are
not only poor, but they also detract from the game play.
The music in Tricky Kick varies with each character that you
select. Prince Suzuki's music is fast, upbeat, and generally
fun to listen to. On the other hand, the track that plays in
the haunted house is slow, sloppy and incredibly annoying.
In any event, you'll probably switch from one character to
another at some point in time simply because the music will
begin to drive you crazy. Even the better tunes in this game
become repetitive and irritating after you've been playing
for a while.
Tricky Kick's biggest flaw is its lack of variety from one
level to the next. Whereas Lolo presented you with different
types of enemies to contend with and items to make use of,
Tricky Kick only allows you to kick, kick, and kick some
more. While it would seem as if the inclusion of six
different characters should add some variety to the game
play, you're basically asked to do the exact same thing in
all six adventures. Some characters are more enjoyable to
use than others, mainly because the graphics are more
defined in some levels, and some particular tunes are more
tolerable than others. But despite the cosmetic differences,
every level in Tricky Kick is basically the same as the one
that came before it, and the ones that come after it.
Tricky Kick isn't a very addictive game, unlike most puzzle
titles (such as Lolo). The main reason for this is that
you'll never really get into a groove while you're playing
it. You'll solve one level after countless attempts, and
then spend a ton of time just trying to complete the next
one. I'm sure that such a challenge will be welcomed by
hard-core fans of puzzle games, but most players will likely
be turned off by Tricky Kick's high level of difficulty. As
the wise King Broccoli once said, 'some people will like
it, and some people won't... but in the end, it's still just
a monkey decent banana.'
Overall: 6 out of 10
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