Pushover

Overview

Pushover is a puzzle platformer that was sponsored by the British potato-based snack called Quavers. The gist of the story is that the Quavers mascot, a character named Colin Curly, has lost his packets of Quavers down an ant hill. The SNES version saw Colin Curly being changed to Captain Rat and the Quavers replaced by bundles of cash. The game was originally designed before the Quavers brand was tacked on, and received some good reviews.

Gameplay

The player controls an ant called G.I. Ant, who has to return Colin's favorite snack by pushing over a number of dominoes. The object is to knock over a key domino that will open up a door to the next level. This is done by picking up and move dominoes around the screen, arranging them, and utilizing their special abilities (see below). The player is only able to push one domino, so the sequence must be planned out in advance.

There are many ways in which levels can be made unwinnable; for one thing, there is a time limit for each of the 100 levels and if this runs out the player is able to continue with the level but is unable to move onto the next. All the dominoes must also be knocked over to complete the level, and G.I. Ant must be able to get to the exit door. G.I. Ant himself can also die, either by falling from a great height, falling through the gaps at the bottom of the screen or the death from above i.e. a domino falling on top of him.

There are 9 different themes that the levels are based on: a castle, a dungeon, an Aztec temple, the inside of a PC, a space station, a factory/industrial theme, a Meccano based world, a Japanese house, and a Greek building. After every 10 levels, there is a cutscene of G.I. Ant handing a very grateful Colin his bag of Quavers.

Domino Types

Standard - Basic type of domino.

Stopper - Dominoes that don't topple over and rebounds any other types of dominoes that fall against them.

Delay - Standard domino that wobbles for a short time before falling over. In that time they act like a Stopper.

Ascender - Dominoes that can fly upwards.

Bridger - This domino can bridge gaps of one space, and another domino can be placed on top.

Exploder - This type is opposite of the Bridger dominoes and will explode, creating a gap in the ledge. The resulting explosion may damage ladders.

Vanisher - These dominoes vanish once they land.

Splitter - The Splitter domino divides into two separate dominoes when it is hit.

Tumbler - The tumbler domino can fall over edges. Once it falls, it pops back up and continues to flip along.

Trigger - The final domino that must fall to finish the level.