Pandemonium!

Overview

Pandemonium is a platform game, originally for the Saturn, PlayStation and PC, and more recently has been ported to the N-Gage and iPhone.

Storyline

Pandemonium is set in the world of Lyr, stars Fargus a joker and Nikki, a gymnast. Both are unhappy with their careers so they attend a lecture on wizardry, being held by Vu, in an attempt to learn magic to break free from their unfulfilling careers. The lecture does not teach them anything, but afterward, they come across Vu's spellbook. Despite the cover containing a warning, saying that only fully trained wizards should read from it, they ignore this and start reading spells. They accidentally cast a spell causing a large green monster to completely destroy their hometown. They quickly decide on a plan to return the town to its original state and decide to go in search of the Wishing Machine, a machine that will grant any three wishes.

Upon arrival at the Wishing Machine the machine grants them their three wishes. Fargus proclaims that they should wish for a million wishes, but the Wishing Machine tells them that it won't work. Fargus then wishes for a chicken, and a chicken appears. After Nikki asks why he did that, he says he wanted to see if it would work. Nikki then wishes for their hometown to be restored to its former state. The Wishing Machine grants the wish and Nikki goes outside to find that the town had in fact been restored. Fagrus then comes outside and Nikki says they still have one wish left, where Fargus clumsily replies "I wish everyone was like us" . They then look out over the town and sees that everyone is identical to Fargus.

Gameplay

While the game boasts technically proficient 3D graphics the gameplay happens on in a 2D plane. It is pretty standard 2D platforming in which the player must traverse environments and enemies to get to the end of the level. At the beginning of a level the player must decide whether to play as Fargus or Nikki. Fargus has a spinning kick move, while Nikki can do a double jump.

There is treasure scattered throughout the level which the player can collect to gain bonuses. If the player collects 300 pieces of treasure they gain an extra life. If between 85% and 95% of treasure in a level is collected then a bonus platforming game is unlocked, and if 95% of treasure in a level is collected a bonus pinball mini-game is unlocked.

There are three power-ups that Nikki and Fargus can obtain in level. The red power-up allows them to shoot fireballs which can kill enemies with varying amounts of hits. The blue power-up allows them to freeze enemies who can then be shattered by being hit once more. The third is the green power-up which allows them to shrink enemies. They can then be killed by being stepped on.

There are portals in some of the levels as well, which turn the characters into different animals giving them special abilities. The frog can jump very high, the rhino can build up speed to charge at enemies and kill them the turtle can become invincible by hiding in its shell and the dragon can fly and shoot fireballs. Once the player has passed through a portal, passing through another one will change them back to normal.

Magical Hoppers

A drastically changed version of this game was released in japan under the name Magical Hoppers and featured new anime style cut scenes, soundtrack, and completely changed characters - Clam and Grumpy.