Welcome to the information section of the webpage.

Here's we'll have humerous suggestions, information, and things to do with you and your stuffed penguin.

It's been six weeks since I've written anything for Stuffed Penguins.com. I took some time off for the holidays and upon returning had to deal with the death of my wife's grandmother. Things have slowly returned to normal, so it's time to get back to business. My first column of the year is dedicated to penguin video games.

Video games have always been my weakness. I love games in general, but video games hold a special place in my brain for entertainment. Considering that I'm always playing video games (currently Pool of Radiance), I decided to do some research and find some penguin video games.

The first game I came across was Penguin Plunge, a small Java applet reminiscent of Plinko on The Price is Right. The object of the game is to drop penguins from atop icy ledges down snow chutes. The penguins slalom around flags, down into gated areas. When two of them fall side-by-side, the chutes open and the penguins slide off screen. The object is to get ten penguins through the gates and move on to the next level. If a penguin lands on top of another one, it's called a squish. You get a limited number of squishes per level.

Most of the penguin games I found were console games (and puzzle games oddly enough). Thin Ice by Mattel Electronics for play on Intellivision features an ice skating penguin named Duncan. This game reminds me if Qix. The object of the game is to guide Duncan around the ice making other penguins, playful seals and vicious polar bears fall into the water by cutting holes into the ice. Between levels, you get to control a Zamboni to refresh the ice.

Continuing with the console theme, two penguin games made their way exclusively to Gameboy systems. Penguin Wars, a game similar to dodge ball, allows you to control a penguin in a battle against another animal. Each animal has 5 balls and for 60 seconds you throw those balls at each other. The creature with the most balls on his side of the arena at the end of a minute is the loser. According to the few reviews I found, this is a very fun and inventive game. The other Gameboy game I found was called Amazing Penguin. I couldn't find a good description, but it too is a puzzle game. It seemed very similar to Mouse Trap. The object of the game is to move the penguin along set paths to complete various shapes. Once all the shapes have been filled in, you progress to the next level. Of course you have to avoid all of the baddies. It's really hard to explain considering there was so little information about it.

One of the more interesting games I found was Mutant Penguins for PCs. Think Lemmings with a twist. You control one of two colored orbs with legs; one carries a frying pan, the other a baseball bat. The mutant penguins are trying to start their traps of doom, but you (as one of the orbs) must stop the penguins by killing them. You can do this any number of ways including hitting them with your weapon and having them eaten by dinosaurs. This one definitely isn't for the young penguin chicks.

Speaking of weird, how about alien penguins? Penguins from outer space made their way to the Sega Master System and Gameboy in Penguin Land. No, I'm not making this up. As corny as that sounds, the game is really a simple puzzle game. The object of the game is to maneuver an egg through a maze while avoiding enemies and traps that are trying to crack the egg.

Last, but certainly not least, is everyone's favorite penguin arcade game, Pengo. Many of you may remember this as the arcade game where a red penguin fought furry blobs called sno-bees in a maze of ice. The object of the game is to crush the sno-bees between blocks of ice. Pengo can also kick the outer wall of the maze causing all sno-bees next to the wall to freeze. Pengo then has the opportunity to kick them off the screen. I never played the actual arcade machine, but I did spend quite a few hours playing a clone version on my computer in the mid-80s.

That's pretty much the extent of penguin video games. Honestly, I found more video games than I expected. As you can see, most of the games are puzzle games and a large majority of the games were made for Gameboy systems. With the plethora of emulators available, you should be able to play any of these. As for me, I'm going to relive my Pengo days and try out Penguin Wars. I might even try to find Mutant Penguins just for a laughs.

[ February 3rd 2002 12:35 | 0 responses | Add Comments ]