Hocus Pocus
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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Credits (DOS version)
18 People (11 developers, 7 thanks)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 69% (based on 6 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 44 ratings with 8 reviews)
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
Zap your way through fun environments!!
The Good
I simply love the graphics, and the gameplay.
You are Hocus Pocus, in the first episode you have to win 9 cool levels, defeat over 6 different kinds of monsters and collect A LOT of magic crystals, to enter the council of wizards! In episode 2 (after you discover that you have not entered the council of wizards), you have to do pretty much the same thing, this time to be able to enter the council of wizards! In episode three it’s pretty much the same too, but this time you can defeat the evil wizard Trolodon, and marry the princess. The environments are too good to believe, there seems to be one from everywhere on earth!
The Bad
The sounds are so annoying that I have to play with the internal and normal speakers off.
The Bottom Line
Hocus Pocus is a game that is quite easy, fun for beginners, and at the same time will give the experts time off from the tough ones :-)
DOS · by Jim Fun (207) · 2001
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
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
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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 +
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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
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by IJan.
Macintosh, Windows, Linux added by Sciere.
Additional contributors: Xantheous, Frenkel, Maw, Patrick Bregger.
Game added December 3, 1999. Last modified January 25, 2024.