Hocus Pocus

Moby ID: 515
DOS Specs
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Description official description

Hocus Pocus is a young magician apprentice who has two goals in life: to join the Council of Wizards in the land of Lattice, and to marry his sweetheart Popopa. Unfortunately, both objectives cannot be accomplished without embarking on a long and dangerous journey to gather magical crystals on behalf of the wizard chief Terexin. The quest for career and love begins!

Hocus Pocus is an action platform game. Controlling the young magician, players run, jump, and climb through levels populated by various types of monsters. Hocus will encounter many magic potions on his way; some will restore health, others will grant special powers; such as as a super-jump that will allow access new areas, or laser shot which offers a better attack.

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Videos

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Credits (DOS version)

18 People (11 developers, 7 thanks)

Programming
Level Design
Graphics
  • Cygnus Multimedia Productions
Story
Music
Manual Design
Sound System
Cover Art
  • Depew Illustration
Financing & Resources
  • Apogee Software
Special Thanks to

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 69% (based on 6 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 44 ratings with 8 reviews)

Same gameplay as Clyde's Adventure

The Good
Once upon a time, there was an apprentice wizard called Hocus Pocus, who studied long and hard to become a powerful magician. When Hocus went up and spoke to the Council of Wizards, Terexin, the leader of the Council did not believe him and set aside four tasks that he must complete in order to become a member. Not only that, but if he becomes a member, he also gets to marry his beloved Popopa.

These tasks involve Hocus collecting magic crystals in order to reach the bosses that threaten the Land of Lattice, including the Mad Monks of MellenWah, the Tree Demons, the Gray Dragons of Higgendom, and finally, the evil wizard, Trolodon. During his journey, a small version of Terexin will appear and give him some words of wisdom on how to survive a level. On his way, Hocus can grab some weapons like extra firepower and laser shots to defeat enemies that Trolodon placed in the nine areas. Some enemies take a long time to be destroyed, so it is important for Hocus to find a potion that gives him rapid shots, which will be handy if he ends up defeating a boss, who takes quite a number of shots to defeat. If Hocus takes damage from an enemy, then he is able to grab a potion that will boost up his health.

He can collect treasures such as rubies, diamonds, goblets, and crowns. He can also collect another potion that will cause him to jump higher so that he can get to places that he can't reach, although the effect lasts only a few seconds. He can also get to other hard-to-reach places by using elevators. If Hocus finds a switch, he can flip it to make platforms appear in front of him so he doesn't land in hazards like spikes or fire. Some parts of the level are blocked off by walls and Hocus must collect a gold or silver key and insert it into a keyhole to make the walls disappear. Some blocks can be destroyed by shooting at them, and more often than not, Hocus will find a potion that will teleport him to another area that contain lots of treasures.

Hocus Pocus was developed by Apogee, in conjunction with Moonlite Software, who also gave us the stinker Clyde's Revenge (this game still runs way too fast on my computer), where the aim was similar to Hocus, in that you have to collect crystals and find the exit out of the level. Only with Hocus, once you collect all of the crystals, you are warped out of the level and into the next level.

There are also four episodes full of enemies: "Time Tripping", "Shattered World", "Warped and Weary", and "Destination Home" and there are nine levels in each one. In each level, the scenery is worth looking at. I enjoyed looking out the windows in each level just to gawk at the spectacular scenery that Hocus has to offer. It looks like each piece was hand-painted and then transferred onto the computer. The scenery changes every two levels, but in the seventh, eighth, and ninth levels, it stays the same. This probably means that each level is based on a specific theme, like the egyptian and ice levels in episode two.

Someone complained about Hocus having the same enemies throughout the game. Actually, each episode introduces new enemies like birds, dragons, penguins, and mummies. And each enemy only appears depending on the type of scenery. For example, the mummies will only appear in the egyptian levels, just as penguins will appear in the ice levels.

In terms of sound, Hocus Pocus features some nice music, and the sound effects sound quite "magical". The game supports popular sound cards, including Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, General MIDI, Sound Canvas, and Gravis Ultrasound. General MIDI really brings the music to life.

The Bad
Some dialogue in the game is rather stupid. For example, at the end of episode one, you are told that after defeating the Mad Monks, Hocus sits down with the wizards celebrating victory with food and drink.

The Bottom Line
I think everyone will agree that Hocus Pocus is much better than Clyde's Adventure, in terms of graphics and sound. In fact, Hocus can be a subsitute for Clyde's Revenge. ***

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2003

Solid game without anything spectacular

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.

DOS · by Sir Gofermajster (485) · 2009

Another year, another WEAK platformer...

The Good
Not much at all. It's pretty long but at the same time that "length" works against it by making the game feel like it's dragging. If I can think of anything else, I'll get back to you on that.

The Bad
Of course, Apogge had to approve and release yet ANOTHER weak-sauce game. But this one actually has a reason as to why it's so crappy: Moonlite Software, who's (in)famous for the extremely lame Clyde's Adventure and Clyde's Revenge.

The gameplay is simply far too ridiculous. There's enemies here but they do nothing at all to you; they simply just walk around and hurt when you touch them. Gathering the crystals can often be an excuse for suicide, because some of them are stuck in unseen corners and are nigh impossible to find.

The graphics? Well, to be honest, I really didn't think the graphics are anything special at all. They have that typical European-style shading and coloring that attempts to make them look a little rendered but instead just makes everything look too shiny and unnatural. A bit of advice on this part: not EVERYTHING has to look rendered, people!

As for sounds and music, both departments are weak. The music is flat, dull, unmoving, and is hardly what I call "game" music...more like "LAME" music if you ask me. The sounds are also nothing really to shout about; they're too quiet and often times just really stupid sounding.

As for a final mention: this game is just way, way too easy in some places and hair-yanking insane in others.

The Bottom Line
Unbalanced difficulty + uninspired gameplay + crap visuals and sounds = a big old 10 on the "lame-ass game" scale. Ehh, I'm in a good mood today...I'll make that an 8 instead.

DOS · by Satoshi Kunsai (2020) · 2002

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Both related sites links are dead J D (3) Jul 3, 2021

Trivia

References

Right through the game there are references to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The Tree-People who attack you in the second level are obviously parodies of the Ents, and the wizard to whom Hocus is an apprentice, Terexin, is a Gandalf spoof.

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Related Sites +

  • Hocus Pocus
    The official homepage - obsolete site, last archived in 2003.
  • Hocus Pocus Web
    Hocus Pocus fansite in Portuguese and English - obsolete site, last archived in 2009

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 515
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by IJan.

Linux, Macintosh, Windows added by Sciere.

Additional contributors: Xantheous, Frenkel, Maw, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 3, 1999. Last modified January 25, 2024.