Review #699: Swagman

 Freddy Krueger's got some competition.

 Remember the EIDOS/CORE partnership? How they brought us classic PS1 games like Tomb Raider and Ninja, as well as not-so classics like Akuji and Fighting Force? Well, they also created this cutesy little horror 2-D isometrical adventure game called Swagman. It's an unlikely game from a developer with a penchant for more serious, realistic-looking(at the time!) games but, against all odds, wound up being a pretty interesting experiment, and one nobody talks about nowadays.

 In Swagman you play as twins Zack and Hannah, once you rescue her after the first boss, as they team up to defeat the Swagman, a Freddy Krueger wannabe that traps everyone in their own nightmares. Zack and Hannah were awake when Swagman captured all the dream fairies, so now they join together to stop Swagman... at least before they fall asleep and become victims to the monster. A simple story for simpler times, it's a fun premise and I loved Swagman and his silly underlings. Taking a page from the Dream Warriors, Zack and Hannah delve into Swagman's territory through mirror, and when they enter this nightmare world they both get their bodies twisted into nightmarish forms that let them do things such as breath fire and fire lasers from their eyes! Health is represented by Zs, since the twins must resist falling asleep, and you can recover it by, quite literally, catching Zs from sleeping fellows, such as their own parents or their cat.

 While it doesn't look like one, this is a puzzle game in the same vein as The Lost Vikings. You must alternate between Zack and Hannah in order to solve puzzles. Each character has their own inventory, but it's a bit of a sham, since it doesn't matter how far the twins are, you can easily swap items pressing the select button. Most of the game you'll be killing monsters by attacking them with your flashlight, throwing bombs or using some of the character-specific items, while searching for keys in order to open locked doors. The puzzles are relatively well made, they are not too easy, but not too hard either. The third level, the Cemetery, was a bit too obscure since there was no way to figure out that some graves would open up if you stood above them, but barring that specific puzzle it's not bad at all. Platforming with an isometrical view has never been perfect, but  platforms are big enough so that it's not much of an issue.

 That said, progressing through the level is not enough to beat the game, you must also collect bugs, in order to see the right way once you reach the Limbo interim between stages. It's not too bad, I never reached Limbo without having bugs to spare. That said, these moments are a bit boring because you must wait as your bugs assemble one by one. And you'll have more than 50 bugs per Limbo interim, which means it can be a little long while. And the kicker? Most Limbo interim take you straight to the boss, and if you die, and you will, you'll have to sit through this part again. Most of the levels have a decent challenge, but the bosses? Jesus christ, the bosses are incredibly hard, to the point of annoyance. And dying means having to go through the bug wait period again.

 The aforementioned Nightmare sections are pretty brief, and they are not very frequent, but they are a refreshing pause from solving puzzles, since now both Zack and Hannah gain all kinds of offensive options and you can pretty much cruise through. There are a few instances in the game in which you are expected to take a certain character through a place either character can get to, but the game doesn't warn you beforehand. That said, at least with the mirror sections, the loading screen features whichever character you should be using, so you can simply take the right twin.

 I wouldn't go as far as to call Swagman a hidden gem, because it's not. But it's a fun, short puzzle-adventure game that oozes 16-bit charm thanks to its rudimentary, but endearing, graphics and art-direction. Bosses are too hard, a few puzzles can get a bit annoying and having to wait for every single bug to assemble with the rest during the limbo stages is vexing... but most of the other puzzles are fun to solve, and exploring all the different stages never loses its luster thanks to its creative design.
 6.5 out of 10