Hocus Pocus

The Good
Hocus Pocus has lovely graphics - it beats Xargon, Vinyl Goddess from Mars or sometimes even Jazz Jackrabbit! Music is in MIDI format, and it matches levels very well. There are cheerful melodies, spooky tunes and oriental themes. Enemies differ in various levels, so you will encounter giant mushrooms (sound familiar?) and crocodiles in first levels, and later you will face Eskimos in snow levels and bear-like monsters in scary castles.

The Bad
There are only few music tracks, so they repeat frequently. Also, level design is repetitive - for example, Arabian levels use almost the same tileset as Egyptian levels - only pyramides are absent and mosques are added. As I said, enemies are different in various levels, however they are stick to one of three schemes: "fly-and-shoot", "walk-and-shoot" or "just-walk". Also, there aren't any special features like map (Xargon), 3D bonus level (Jazz Jackrabbit) or minigame (Commander Keen) and game can be finished very quickly.

The Bottom Line
Overall, it's a good game, however without any originality. It beats most of Apogee's EGA platform games or earlier Moonlite Software side-scrollers, but it's inferior to Jazz Jackrabbit. Personally, I think it's worth throwing those few bucks when you find this game in a flea market.

The Good
The graphics were very clean and moved smoothly. The controls were simple and have a one mintute learning curve. The gameplay is ok although...

The Bad
...it was really all too easy. The sound effects and music leave something to be desired. I really wanted to like this game, I played through, but found that it was the same old thing over and over again with minor changes in scenery.

The Bottom Line
Hocus Pocus is fun for about a half-hour but quickly loses what charm it might have had.

The Good
Personally I like the music. It's a standard platform game otherwise.

The Bad
The enemies are repetitive. Same moves over and over.

The Bottom Line
Good platform game. Excellent parallax scrolling. Cute character.