Terrible. Horrid. Dreadful. Yet...Entertaining.
It was a game like this that Fenrir-Lunaris' Terrible Game Contest v1.WTF called for, and Paul Harrington did not fail to please.
Continuing in the style of WALTHRUS: RETURN OF THE CRYSTALS and its various spin-offs, Harrington gave us a game with awful graphics, boring gameplay, and the most inane-yet-entertaining dialogue he could manage.
He gave us GATO SUCIO: THE QUEST FOR COLOR.
Featuring such great and brilliant things such as:
The Sky Flyers on their five-episode mission to seek out new monsters and new ways to defeat them, and to boldly get cash money no man has ever gotten before!
BIG O parodies!
Repetitive music!
Melodrama!
Sprites from classic NES games!
One of the points at which this game departs from Harrington's previous games will be readily noticed. SUPER WALRUS MAN IS ABSENT FROM THE MAIN PLOT. Of course, if you're observant enough, you might spot a cameo of his, but, otherwise, <i>he's just not there</i>.
See, GATO SUCIO is based on the old Sky Flyers comics, apparently before Super Walrus Man was introduced. Fortunately, for those of you who can't get enough of the blood-thirstiness, Salom Lancovan does not disappoint. The gangsta pimp seal is characterized with a very murderous disdain for his comrades, Bob Surlaw and G<strike>u</strike>lob, and makes good on his threats against their lives.
The story can be a bit boring, and drags on a lot in the middle. About the only thing that may keep you going is the great dialogue, which is highly random and often funny. Between Bob's general stupidity, Salom's murderous disdain, and Glob's lack of real personality, the characters won't fail to amuse you, it will be all you can do to keep yourself interested through the highly boring second episode.
The graphics are, put nicely, evil. They hurt the eyes. <i>They cause pain to my soul</i>.
That being said, I wouldn't have them any other way.
Random battle backdrops are highly novel. They are, in fact, the only reason you'll ever want to fight battles. This is a great disappointment, as Harrington has not yet failed to make <i>some sort</i> of interesting use of battles in his past games, until now. The F4 key is <i>not</i> innovative gameplay.
Also, be on the lookout for sprites ripped from NES games, like Abobo of DOUBLE DRAGON fame, and an EXCITEBIKE racer.
Random musics from Harrington's MIDI collection make up the soundtrack. It's mostly either the theme from Adam West's campy Batman TV show, or a highly loopy and annoying battle theme.
Good placements. Very terrrible.
What with the lacking gameplay and the middle episodes that drag on like a Dachshund that's a bit too long, GATO SUCIO wasn't as good as it could've been. Sure, the dialogue was fine and all, this game isn't recommendable to everyone. If you're already a fan of Surlaw's, you may like this game, but, otherwise, use discretion. There wasn't anything to this game that set it apart from all of the other WALTHRUS spin-offs. Well, nothing good, at least.
Honestly, it's a lot more of the same, but still somewhat entertaining.
We've seen a lot of games like this from Harrington. It's getting a little old. The novelty has run out, perhaps, and we can only take the same thing so many times. Let's have something innovative.
That being said, WHERE'S MY FINISHED VERSION OF <i>SURLAW: ARMAGEDDON</i>?!
<i>(old as this review is, i'm still just as eager)</i>