1{2 "document_id": "lb_hotpotqa_8fddd32ef1d88a5f8fde49152fc015eb80b3d60d1108d073",3 "family": "public_hotpotqa",4 "split": "test",5 "text": "Passage 1:\nPop'n TwinBee\nPop'n Twinbee (ポップンツインビー) is a top-view shoot-'em-up game originally released in 1993 by Konami for the Super Famicom in Japan. The game was also released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the PAL region. It is the sixth game in the TwinBee series and a direct follow-up to the arcade game Detana!! TwinBee (Bells & Whistles). The European version was published by Konami's Palcom Software division and was the first of three TwinBee games localized for the European market, followed by a Game Boy version of Pop'n TwinBee (which was actually an earlier game titled TwinBee Da!! in Japan) and the side-scrolling platform game Pop'n TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventures. It was released in North America 27 years after its Super Famicom launch through a February 2020 update to the Nintendo Switch Online Super NES library.\n\nPlot\nThe game's opening sequence shows TwinBee and WinBee patrolling the skies of Donburi Island when they suddenly receive a distress signal from a young girl named Madoka. Madoka reveals that she is the granddaughter of Dr. Mardock, who was once a benevolent scientist until a bump in the head turned him insane. Dr. Mardock now seeks to conquer the world with an army of Acorn Men and only TwinBee and WinBee can stop him.\n\nGameplay\nThe gameplay is similar to Detana!! TwinBee, the second coin-op game in the series, but with a few notable additions and changes. Like in previous TwinBee, up to two players can play simultaneously, Player 1 controls TwinBee (the blue aircraft), while Player 2 controls WinBee (the pink aircraft). When the player begins the game, they'll be asked to enter their name and choose between three types of companion ships (whether their companions will follow their ship, engulf them, or surround them). The player's objective is to maneuver their spacecraft through a series of seven stages and defeat every enemy who gets in the way, facing a boss at the end of each stage. Unlike previous games, instead of extra lives, the player has a life meter that determines how much damage the player's ship can take before losing. When the player loses, they will be given a chance to restart at the stage where they left off, but only limited chances are given to continue.\nLike in previous TwinBee games, the player shoots at airborne enemies with their gun and drops bombs to the land. The player can also attack airborne enemies with their ship's punches as well at close range. The player can shoot tiny-sized replicas of their ship that will fly and attack all on-screen enemies. The player can only perform this attack based on the number of stocks they have. During a 2-player game, one player can give the other player a bit of their life energy to replenish it or even use the other player's ship as a projectile against the enemy. As usual, the main power-up items are bells that can change colors by shooting them in the air, giving the player a different upgrade when one is retrieved depending on the bell's color.\nOn the game's option settings, the player can adjust the game's difficulty, controls, and sound, as well as switch between \"normal\" and \"couple\" mode. During couple mode, the enemy attacks will aim primarily at Player 1 if two players are playing together. This feature is intended to allow less experienced players enjoy the game if they're playing with a more experience partner.\n\nSoundtrack\nThe upbeat and light hearted soundtrack, composed by Kazuhiko Uehara among others, takes influence from Japanese Idol songs.\n\nReception\nThe game was reviewed by Weekly Famitsu, and was given a score of 30 out of 40.\nPassage 2:\nSuper Ghouls 'n Ghosts\nSuper Ghouls 'n Ghosts, known in Japan as Super Demon World Village, is a platform video game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. As the third game in the Ghosts 'n Goblins series and the first not to be released for the arcade, it again depicts knight Arthur saving Princess Guinevere and the kingdom from Emperor Sardius, who has cast a spell that has revived the Ghoul Realm.\nThe game has been included in multiple compilations of Capcom classics. A remake was released for the Game Boy Advance which features an additional game mode with new stages.\n\nGameplay\nSuper Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a side-scrolling platform game with reduced emphasis on run and gun and more on platforming. As in the predecessor Ghosts 'n Goblins, the player takes the role of the knight Arthur, who must save Princess Guinevere and rid the kingdom of the Ghoul Realm which is revived under a spell of Emperor Sardius (known as Samael in the Japanese version), who has kidnapped Guinevere in the Phantom Zone. The game has four difficulty settings (easy, normal, difficult, and professional), and the player can set up to nine lives. However, there are also only six continues.In each of the eight levels (named Quests), four of them consisting of two sections, Arthur, has a time limit to fight ghouls before defeating a Foul Guardian that protects the gate to the next stage. The first five Quests (The Dead Place, The Rotting Sea, Vermilion Horror, The Ghoul's Stomach, and The Deep Chill) take place in a variety of locations, such as graveyards, abandoned ships on sea, flame-filled caverns, and locales consisting of ice and snow. The final three Quests (The Castle of the Emperor, Hallway of Ghouls, and The Throne Room) are areas of Sardius's castle. Parts of the environment, such as earth ground lifting caused by earthquakes, blizzards, heavy sea waves, and avalanches, are also threats to Arthur. Ice Wall, the second section of the fifth level, depicts Arthur scaling a rotating palace as in Nebulus (1987).Arthur starts in the Steel Armor with a lance. If he gets hit by an enemy or projectile, he loses his armor and is reduced to his underpants; getting hit again results in the loss of a life. An ability not present in previous series entries is the double jump, which allows Arthur to leap, then jump again when in mid-air. Although there is no control of momentum during a single jump, Arthur can change direction through a double jump. Other weapons can be picked up along the way, such as a faster-speed knife, hatchets, cross bows, daggers, and torches with short arcs that explode on contact. However, only one can be held at a time. Like in Ghouls n' Ghosts, hidden treasure chests can be found for weapons, armor upgrades, and bonus points. Chests have unwanted deadly traps, and an magician, the Conjurer, transforms Arthur into one of four weaker forms temporarily: a baby, a girl, a seal or a wasp. Chests only appear when moving through specific areas of the screen.Bronze and Gold armor is collectable. A bronze armor equips Arthur with a Weapon of Enchantment, a more powerful version of the weapon he's holding, such as flamed lances, lightning bolt daggers, and even more fiery torches. A gold armor, a new feature for the series, provides him the enchanted weapon plus a Moon Shield, which protects him from one hit and only works while standing still, and magic that can power up his weapon even more.Sticking with tradition, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts must be defeated twice; after beating the last Foul Guardian before Sardius in the first playthrough, Guinevere informs Arthur that he cannot kill Sardius without a mysterious weapon named the Goddess's Bracelet, for which Sardius captured the Princess because she once wore it. The Goddess's Bracelet must be found in the second playthrough and used to beat Sardius.\n\nDevelopment\nSuper Ghouls 'n Ghosts is the third entry of Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins series, following Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985) and Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988), it is also the series' first entry to not be released to the arcade. Leading the 50-member staff, in his first time managing a team, was Tatsuya Minami, who by then already took on positions as artist and producer for console ports of Rush & Crash (1986), Final Fight (1989), and Street Fighter 2 (1991). Capcom's boss assigned Minami to Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts following a two-week break that began after completing Final Fight. By then, the project was stagnant with only the first level completed. The following two years were very turbulent, and the master ROM was remade several times near the end of the deadline. The favorable reviews following a very difficult process inspired Minami to run future projects for Capcom.\n\nRegional differences\nThe crosses in the game were modified from the original Chō Makaimura, where they resemble church crosses; in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, they appear as ankhs. The final boss was also renamed from Samael to Sardius.\nThe European version removed certain enemies and obstacles in the game to reduce the difficulty and potential slowdown.\n\nRelease\nA port of the Super NES version of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is featured alongside the arcade versions of Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls 'n Ghosts in the video game compilation Capcom Generation: Chronicles of Arthur for PlayStation, which was also released for the Sega Saturn in Japan as Capcom Generation 2. This version is also included in Capcom Classics Collection for PlayStation 2 and Xbox and in Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded for PlayStation Portable.\nThe Game Boy Advance version, titled Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts in North America and Europe and Chō Makaimura R in Japan, features an \"Arrange Mode\" that enables the player to choose from redesigned levels and bosses based on Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, depending on success in keeping the bronze armor, or a higher difficulty tier of the standard levels set upon keeping the golden armor. Unlike the Normal Mode, in Arrange Mode, the Goddess's Bracelet is already accessible during the first playthrough.\nThe SNES version was released for the Virtual Console on the Wii on March 5, 2007, the Wii U on May 16, 2013, and New Nintendo 3DS on June 23, 2016. The GBA version was also released for the Wii U on October 22, 2015.\nNintendo re-released Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts in the United States and Europe in September 2017 for the Super NES Classic Edition.Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was also available as one of the classic games included as part of the Nintendo Switch Online service.\n\nReception\nCritics from Electronic Gaming Monthly and the German Video Games magazine called it the best entry in the Ghosts 'n Goblin series.As with prior Ghosts 'n Goblins games, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts's very high difficulty was discussed, with Nintendo Life's Damien McFerran declaring it \"16-bit gaming at its most unforgiving\". Most reviewers opined the challenge was never unfair. A minor criticism was directed at the lack of shooting flexibility, specifically that the player couldn't shoot up or down.Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead was in the minority on finding the challenge proper. He opined it \"relies far too heavily on cheap tricks and blatantly unfair game mechanics to turn an otherwise pleasant platformer into an exercise in cruel frustration\", his rationales including inability to change directions during a jump, and superior enemy advantages in terms of movement and ability for foes to shoot through certain objects Arthur could not. Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report and Nadia Oxford of USgamer wrote the player had to be perfect starting at level one. According to Oxford, \"every pixel of every level\" had to be memorized, such as enemy patterns, power-up locations, platform movement, and the best power-up weapons to kill each enemy. Oxford, as well as reviewers from Nintendo World Report and Super Play, stated the difficulty level was so high some players, even those of average skill, wouldn't enjoy it. Super Play claimed it was hard to beat even a single section without the power-up armors, made worse by how easy it is to lose it. The magazine and Nadia also condemned the absence of a save feature, such as a password or the console's save battery, meaning the game had to be beat in one sitting.Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was praised for its replay value. Wrote ACE magazine's David Upchurch, the game was \"tough but rarely frustrating, and will keep you coming back again and again until it's been cracked\". Upchurch called the control \"superb\", writing the SNES joypad was so well-designed it made jumping and shooting possible. Super Pro felt it had more depth and replay-a-bility than other arcade ports due to its \"exciting\" graphics and sound and the \"variety and imagination\" in its level design. Wrote McFerran, \"the fantastic level design, inventive enemies and gripping gameplay lock you in for hours, despite the fact that for a large portion of that time you'll feel like you're banging your head against a wall\".The graphics, sound and level design was lauded, especially by retrospective reviews that called the game the best example of the 16-bit console's capabilities. In Video Games, Julian Eggebrecht found the graphics the best he'd seen on a home console. James Mielke of GameSpot considered the game's color palette ahead of its time. Claimed Super Gamer, \"there's a multitude of power-ups, hideously imaginative monsters and fantastic settings, including a beautifully drawn sunken ship.\" Mean Machines writer Rich, calling the graphics \"exceptional\", stated the game superseded another one of Capcom's arcade ports to the SNES, U.N. Squadron, in term of backdrops. He and Upchurch highlighted the ice level, particularly its parallax scrolling, layers of snow, and tower section. Nintendo Life staff, in addition to noting the \"outstanding sprite work\" and \"lots of neat little touches in the background\", also focused on Mode 7 effects such as the zooming of enemy sprites and rotating platforms.Martin Gaksch of Video Games described the game as a mixture of \"modern action entertainment and a hodgepodge of innovative ideas\". The diversity in gameplay was noted by Upchurch: \"One minute Arthur's avoiding showers of skulls from giant stone monoliths, the next he's clambering on top of a stone pillar to avoid being washed away by a giant tidal wave, then he's dodging careening trolleys of flame - and this is all on the first level alone!\" On the other hand, Tim Boone, although amazed by the look and sound, found the game just another side-scrolling platformer, which he was already tired of due to the amount of similar titles that existed since the original Ghost 'n Goblins.A frequent criticism was the slowdown, occurring when several sprites appeared on the screen. Upchurch and McFerran argued it helped in defeating harder enemies. On the other hand, Super Play opined it negatively affected the experience in general, and Craig Harris of IGN found it harder to control Arthur when the game slowed down.As of June 30, 2017, 1.09 million units of the SNES version were sold since its release in October 1991, making it Capcom's 75th best-selling game of all time. In later years, it was ranked the 76th best all-time Nintendo game by Official Nintendo Magazine, the 231st best by Nintendo Power, and the 22nd best console video game of all time by Electronic Gaming Monthly. The Game Boy Advance version was nominated for GameSpot's 2002 \"Best Port of a 16-Bit Classic\" award. GamesRadar ranked the game at number 25 in their \"the Best SNES games of all time\". In 2018, Complex listed the game 22nd in its \"The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time\" and opining that Super Ghouls'n Ghosts is \"Probably the most difficult game in the SNES library.\" In 1995, Total! placed the game 26th on its Top 100 SNES Games. They praised the game's graphics as \"Top notch\" and gave praise for the game's classic arcade gameplay concluding: \"It's constantly challenging but also has a wonderfully friendly learning curve.\" IGN listed the game 51st in their Top 100 SNES Games.\n\nNotes\nPassage 3:\nPlok\nPlok! is a side-scrolling platform game developed by British studio Software Creations and its concepts and characters created and owned by Ste and John Pickford. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in late 1993 by Tradewest in North America, Nintendo in Europe, and Activision in Japan. Players portray the hood-headed titular protagonist, the king of the island Akrillic who is protecting it from fleas spawned by the Flea Queen, who is under the island's ground, as well as other bosses trying to overthrow Plok's power. His versatility lies in his four separable limbs, which can be used to shoot at targets and enemies, and several power-ups scattered throughout its colorful stages as \"presents.\"\nPlok!'s history began in the late 1980s as a self-funded coin-op project by the two Pickford brothers named Fleapit; they worked on it while at Zippo Games and programmed it for Rare's 'Razz Board' hardware. It was cancelled in 1990 following the closure of Zippo Games, but was revived as a SNES game developed at Software Creations after the Pickfords were promoted to higher positions, with Ste becoming an art director and John a producer. Software Creations self-funded the game with the Pickfords owning intellectual property rights.\nPlok! was positively received by critics, who praised its innovative ideas, variety, presentation, versatile playable character, and level design; however, some expressed skepticism of it being the same cutesy colorful platform title as many others, and the Pickfords attributed its underwhelming sales to market saturation of mascot platformers.\n\nGameplay\nPlok! has two difficulty modes: \"Normal\" which features the entire game, and \"Child's Play\" which omits the harder stages and decreases the speed and hit points of enemies. \"Plokontinues\" are earned if four P-L-O-K tokens are collected, and a token is garnered if a level is finished without dying; if a Game Over occurs, the player will restart with a score of 0, three lives, and at the place the Plokontinue was received. Saving is limited to two \"Permanent Continue Positions\" after the completion of the Bobbins Brothers and Rockyfella boss fights which the player can return to even after the game is reset, and there is no password feature.\nPlok can launch any of his four limbs (two arms and two legs) at will to damage enemies as projectiles from his arms and feet. While a limb instantly returns to Plok's body if it hits an enemy, it takes longer if it does not collide with anything. Limbs can also fire through certain barriers like rock pillars. The only limitation is that he cannot shoot limbs while somersaulting. In later levels, some puzzles involve having to \"sacrifice\" one of Plok's limbs to activate scenery-changing targets. Once a limb hits a switch, it is placed on a hanger that is usually next to the target. Some targets also require certain limbs. Once Plok is limbless, he moves by bouncing and becomes harder to control.Plok's secondary attack takes the form of \"Speed Blade,\" a buzzsaw-like jump that not only gives him increased speed as items but also dispatches enemies at the highest damage possible. Plok can pick up shells, which award extra lives and serve as ammunition for a special amulet received partway through the game. The amulet converts shells into power for Plok's secondary attack. There are also \"Magic Fruits\" that can heal Plok's health; the more he punches a fruit, the bigger it gets and more health he receives. Less frequent are bigger \"Golden Fruits\" that increase Plok's energy to its fullest. In some levels, some fruits can either send Plok to a timed bonus stage where he must reach a goal or a strange room where he must collect all the shells to progress. Completing these will have Plok warp to the next level with some of them being able to skip boss fights.\n\"Presents\" temporarily upgrades Plok into a character from his favourite movies, such as \"Plocky\" which equips him with boxing gloves, \"Vigilante Plok\" which makes him a flamethrower-equipped character a la the \"Ploxterminator,\" the Deerstalker-wearing \"Squire Plok\" equipped with a blunderbuss, a gun-slinging \"Cowboy Plok\" based on westerns, and \"Rocket Plok\" where is equipped with multiple rocket launchers. Presents in the Fleapit yield high-tech, futuristic vehicles with weapons, such as a unicycle with a water cannon, an \"off-road truck\" with a rocket launcher, a jetpack with lasers, a motorbike with grenades, a tank, a bomb-dropping helicopter, a flying saucer with plasma cannons, and a pair of spring pogo shoes.The player encounters several different enemies, such as the aforementioned fleas. For fleas, for the player to complete the level, Plok must destroy every single one of them in every level (with the exceptions of Cotton Island, Legacy Island, and Fleapit), where the last one drops a flag which levitates to its flag pole and allows the player to progress.\n\nPlot\nAs king, Plok dwells on Akrillic, a large island in the fictional archipelago of Polyesta. Plok wakes up one morning and notices his big square flag on the pole on his house's rooftop has been stolen, and goes out searching for it. He spots the flag on Cotton Island from far away and sails to it to find the flag. Plok mistakes some imposter flags for his own, becoming irritated in the process. Plok encounters the two giant creatures who are responsible for placing the fake flags, the Bobbins Brothers, whom Plok's grandpappy had warned him about, and fights them.Although successfully defeating the Bobbins Brothers and getting his big square flag back, Plok sails back to Akrillic to find the island has been infested and overtaken by \"fleas\", two-legged blue insects that hatch from eggs and hop around; Plok learns that the theft of his large flag was simply a decoy to lure him away from Akrillic. Plok travels through Akrillic, defeating every single flea on the surface to reclaim his island. \nPartway through the game, Plok places the big square flag back where it belongs outside his home, and then takes a break as he sits on a foot of the statue of his grandfather, Grandpappy Plok, wishing he had found an amulet to help him deal with the fleas. He takes a nap and has an odd dream of his grandfather's search for an amulet 50 years ago. In the dream, the player plays as Grandpappy Plok as he sails from Akrillic to Legacy Island, and shares the same experience as what his grandson is doing now, traveling through bizarre obstacles, discovering artifacts (including Rockyfella), and dealing with the same Bobbin Brothers as well as their third brother Irving. Having defeated them, Grandpappy finally dug up an amulet and sailed back to Akrillic victoriously. Back to the present day, Plok wakes up and discovers that the amulet is located at the bottom of the statue. Plok's mission on getting his island back continues, now with the ability to \"charge\" a buzzsaw jump ability by sacrificing the shells he has collected.Plok then heads into various locations around the island while facing other creatures trying to overthrow Akrillic: Penkinos, a group of inflatable, floating magicians of mysterious origin living in the North of the island; Womack, a spider living in the island's center with its long legs being weak points; and Rockyfella, the spirit of the island's soil residing under in the mountains of the island's southeast who is vengeful against Plok for the flagpoles he dug in the ground. After clearing out all the enemies on the island, Plok journeys into the source of the fleas, the Fleapit, where he uses various weapon vehicles. He faces off with the leader of the fleas who hatched them, the Flea Queen, using a high-tech \"secret Super-Vehicle\" armed with bug spray to defeat her. After the showdown, he returns home to sleep on his green chair.\n\nDevelopment\n1988: Rare hires Zippo Games\nIn the summer of 1988, Ste and John Pickford, workers at Zippo Games which was owned by John and their friend Steve Hughes, were struggling to complete games for 16-bit Atari ST and Amiga computers, many getting canceled. They learned Rare was looking for developers of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) titles, which the console had yet to gain steam in the United Kingdom; despite finding the 8-bit system \"horribly overpriced and terribly underpowered\", the Pickfords took the offer due to financial necessity and their love of the works of Rare founders Tim and Chris Stamper's previous company Ultimate Play the Game. Zippo Games was the only company to have been consulted by Rare for NES work. Despite initial skepticism against the NES, the Pickfords' experience working on Ironsword, as well as playing Mario and Zelda games on the console as required by the Stamper brothers, gained them an appreciation for the console and changed their development focus from being on technical finesse to the player's experience, which is what they had for Plok!.\n\n1988–1989: Fleapit\nJohn, while Ste was drawing the shop screen for Ironsword, came up with an idea of a character with a hangman's hood; Ste doodled it in a small margin of the layout. The detachable limbs were also conceived in the sketch, as below the character was an arrow pointing to a pile of his parts. John then thought of a game where the player had to capture all jumping fleas in a land, which the two decided to have the hangman be the playable character. Plok's name was then spontaneously coined when John was placing letters from a cassette tape cover on his computer mouse; his full name was \"Plok the Exploding Man\" to describe his separable design. After more motivation from John, Ste moved to clear sheets of paper to do more sketches, where the character's colors, poses, size (32x40) and \"extreme expressions\" involving an opening mouth were conceived.After the formation of these ideas, Chris Stamper went to Zippo Games to introduce a coin-op hardware he designed named the Razz Board. In addition to being impressed by the hardware's innovative graphics system, the Pickfords also saw an opportunity to make a \"real arcade game\" like the ones in their youth; they previously worked on an Amiga-based coin-op system for World Darts, but never a \"real\" arcade title. As a result, the Pickfords made a deal with Rare to use the hardware to produce their dream game as well as to own the game property and receive a big chunk of revenue from board sales; however, the deal also made all of the funding up to the brothers. The project was named Fleapit.Ste vaguely recalled Fleapit in a 2014 interview, comparing its gameplay to Excitebots: Trick Racing (2009) in that the player had to catch one of several flying footballs to score a touchdown in the middle of a level; he reported the product being only a little more \"primitive\" than Plok!, featuring stages only scrolling horizontal and vertically, more \"set pieces or one-off levels,\" backgrounds made of food like sausages and doughnuts, and a space level.As development went on, Rare was profiting mostly from selling NES titles, making them less focused on Razz Board games such as Fleapit. In 1989, Rare, the first company outside of Japan to have a Game Boy, instructed Zippo Games to develop a game for the handheld console; however, this meant stopping the development of Fleapit. Rare and Zippo Games' relationship worsened; Zippo never completed a Game Boy product as instructed and was bought out by Rare in 1990 to be renamed Rare Manchester, which was shut down. Fleapit was cancelled half-completed in 1990 as a result of Zippo Games closing and funds running out; Ste admitted in 2014 a desire to produce a coin-op caused improper business decisions, such as rejecting more financially-rewarding console work.Late in Fleapit's development, the brothers obtained comedian Chris Sievey to voice Plok, contacting him in 1990 via the number on the name of one of his songs, \"969 1909.\" He encountered Sievey in his Frank Sidebottom costume at The Ritz venue, and offered to work for free; however, a short time later, Fleapit was cancelled, and Sievey never voiced the character.\n\n1990–1993: From Zippo to Software Creations\nAfter leaving Zippo, John phoned Richard Hay, the head of Software Creations, the first company outside of Japan to have a development kit for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Hay hired the Pickfords right away to use it to design and program Equinox (1993), a sequel to the NES title Solstice (1990). The Pickfords were eventually promoted to higher positions, with Ste becoming an art director and John a producer.On the side, the Pickfords continued working on Fleapit, coming up with new characters and locations as well as doing more pitch illustrations. Near the completion of Equinox, the Pickfords showcased Fleapit to Hay, pitching it under a new name: Plok! While the brothers and Hay considered many consoles, such as the NES, Super NES, and Game Boy, only a Super NES title came into fruition. Development once again involved self-funding, albeit on the part of Software Creations instead of just the Pickfords.Plok!'s team consisted of the two brothers as producers, art directors, and designers; John Buckley as programmer; Lyndon Brooke as graphic artist; another set of brothers, Tim and Geoff Follin, developing the music and sound; Kevin Edwards and Stephen Ruddy as compressors; Dan Whitworth creating additional graphics; and an 18-year-old Chun Wah Kong joining in spring 1993 as a tester. Software Creations, for some of their games, hired animators recently laid-off from a Manchester studio, and Whitworth was no exception; he animated the title screen (where Plok plays a harmonica to the theme song) while Ste was on a two-week holiday, and Whitworth's work was enthusiastically-received by the staff.Plok! was the Pickford brothers' first experience as project managers, as well as the first time they collaborated with other developers to turn their ideas into a finished product. Buckley later admitted to Plok! being his most \"proud\" work. and Kong admittined that his experience as the game's tester prepared him for being lead designer on Team Soho's PlayStation 2 title The Getaway (2002): \"QA is great grounding for designers. It makes you think critically about how players approach your level; how to reward curiosity if the player wanders off the beaten track; how different approaches could break the game.\"Although Pickfords allowed Buckley and Brooke to offer many contributions, development was not without conflict, the biggest argument occurring late in development regarding difficulty; while Buckley and Brooks felt it was proper, the Pickfords found it overbearing. To settle the dispute, the first eight stages which were originally for Cotton Island were moved later as the Grandpappy Plok dream stages, with eight new easier Cotton Island stages created. According to Buckley, dream levels were conceived to vary the pacing, particularly with the Amulet. Kong also reported one of the publishers wanted the first level's difficulty decreased, so the staff decreased the bouncing sprouts' hit points from two to one; however, in the tutorial segment of the final game, the sprouts take two hits as Plok fires an extra arm. While Software Creations did have collectible continues (named \"Plokontinues\") for Plok!, it did not produce a save battery due to being too costly, and passwords were scrapped out of fear gaming magazines would spread them around.Kong recalled most of the game was completed close to the end of Equinox's testing.\n\nGraphics and art\nMany of Plok!'s visuals were formulated during its Fleapit stage, where it was being programmed for the Razz Board. The hardware had an unusual system that executed higher-depth graphics and performed better with fewer data. Unlike other hardwares that used bitmap grids that encode colors and transparency through binary numbers, the Razz Board hardware stored pixels as bytes, with the first six bits determining color, the seventh bit setting its vertical position relative to its predecessor, and the eighth its horizontal. For instance, using a bitmap system to create a 32-pixel line requires a grid of 1,024 pixels (32x32) with 992 of them transparent, while making the same line took only 32 bytes in Razz Board. This meant sprites weren't restrained to perfectly square sizes, which Ste took advantage of when creating the text font although setting an arbitrary limit of 22x29. For the SNES game, Brooke designed two new fonts for 16x16 and 8x8 bitmap grids: one based on Ste's font for Fleapit, in turn based on his lettering in concept drawings, and another for the silent movie-esque screens in the Legacy Island levels. Software Creations' leader and Plok! executive producer Mike Webb reported compressing 50% on the game's 16-megabit graphics data (equivalent to Street Fighter II) to eight megabits.Fleapit was the Pickfords' first game where Ste created concept art, to be more professional and adapt to an increase in presentation to buyers in the industry; according to Ste, this changed the process of green-lighting a game just by starting programming: \"Everyone in the industry was self taught, and there were no standards or expectations of how a new game should progress. I remember it being a struggle to justify spending work time drawing pretty pictures which wouldn't actually contribute to the game.\" Ste added shades to the concept art using Letratone as an easy method to a businesslike aesthetic. Ste drew the illustrations in black and white, due to being focused more on shape than on color and photocopying technology only allowing monochrome prints. The color scheme was formulated originally for an 8-bit arcade title; to achieve a \"natural\" look, colors were scrunched into extreme areas of the RGB color wheel. When the project turned into a 16-bit SNES game, the color scheme (although generally the same) was more detailed with a wider palette, and Ste used magic markers to color concept art; it was used not only for the game but also for other titles and products of a potential franchise and as illustrations for the instruction manual.John's first plan for taking the most advantage of the Razz Board was with how Plok was animated; since he had separable limbs, all of his six parts were independently-moving static sprites. \nThe separated limbs of Plok made him easy to animate and took less graphical data, as static parts could be coded to move and rotate instead of creating multiple frames. Ste also had Plok's boots and gloves be gigantic in order for his detachable-limb design to work to its full potential. The fleas, although animated traditionally with frames, were only two legs to make animating extreme poses simpler and for the sprite to not be too busy. Ste reported \"5 or 6\" frames for all of the fleas' movements. For the SNES console, Brooke altered the design of Plok and the fleas only slightly, but Plok's animation method was transformed; the SNES has the traditional bitmap method of executing pixels, thus he was animated frame-by-frame by Brooke.\n\nConcepts and design\nFleapit characters not in Plok! include Armstrong, a \"mini-version\" of Rockyfella; and Suki, a manga-style character who ran an item shop. The Bobbins Brothers and Womack were transferred from Fleapit (although Womack went through a massive redesign by Brooke that Ste appreciated) while the Penkinos were originally-conceived for Plok!.The \"floating\" limb movements were coded in John's first prototype of Fleapit, with the idea of removing limbs incorporated later on as the Pickfords experimented. The idea of costume and vehicle power-up had also been around since Fleapit, although the set of power-ups changed with only the helicopter carrying over; Fleapit-only power-ups included \"Robo Plok,\" a robot form that improved maneuverability and was inspired by Ro-Jaws from the 2000 AD comics; \"Ninja Plok\" which armed him with an endless amount of throwing stars; and \"Super Plok,\" a superhero with flying abilities. Plok also had the \"smart bomb,\" an ability where he enraged himself to the point of exploding and wiping out all enemies on the screen (as well as his own limbs).By the start of the development of the SNES game, Buckley didn't have Fleapit's code; thus, he started programming out of what he saw in the VHS footage, including Plok attacking fleas with his limbs and skid-ing down slanted platforms. Brooke conceived triggering parts of the scenery with limbs, reasoning they \"looked a bit rough\" when constantly looping; however, carrying it out was difficult due to affecting the collision detection and causing Plok's movements to be jolty. He came up with the limb-holding coat hangers two weeks later. The vehicles were left for the final stages, as incorporating them into earlier levels would've taken too much work to \"balance\" them with those stages' other aspects.\n\nAudio\nWhen it came to NES and SNES titles, Software Creations was notable for pushing the limits of a hardware's sound, including with Plok! Work on Plok!'s soundtrack, composed by Tim and Geoff Follin, began halfway into development. It was categorized by Nintendo World Report as typical of other kid-friendly platform games, although \"a bit manic, deceptively bombastic, and diverse in tone\". Ste reported Geoff doing around 75% of the work and being far more open for discussion with the team, and Tim being more \"elusive\".Plok! continues the Follin brothers' incorporation of old rock music influences; \"Beach,\" for instance, was inspired by the works of Stevie Wonder, and its guitar solo being influenced by Queen guitarist Brian May. Tim Follin composed the title song out of a guitar-played two-chord progression of \"Tequila\" by rock and roll group The Champs, as two guitar chord samples could fit within memory. \"Lead\" instruments such as an electric guitar and harmonicas were made out of simple waveforms, with the guitar's wave identical to a square. A breathing sample in the boss theme was also used in Equinox and Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge (1992).The soundtrack has been released to physical formats twice, on July 27, 2019, to cassette by CANVAS Ltd. and as a limited-edition 500-copy double vinyl on Record Store Day (18 April) 2020 by Respawn Records; Respawned's release had notes and artwork by the Pickfords and both 180gram vinyls colored red and yellow. Rare composer David Wise has expressed admiration for Plok!, claiming his work on Donkey Kong Country to be inspired by the Follin brothers' soundtrack.\n\nRelease\nPublishing\nSoftware Creations was so confident in Plok! the developer tried to persuade Nintendo to publish it; reception from the corporation's Japan and American branches was positive. Shigeru Miyamoto expressed a strong interest in working on the game; when Plok! was only half-finished, he wrote a letter to Hay claiming it was the third-best platform game below Sonic and Mario and that he would make it the second-greatest in the genre above Sonic but below Mario. Tony Harman, product acquisitions and development manager at Nintendo of America, also attended the studio to play Plok! four weeks within its development, and told Kay Miyamoto was amazed by the game's audio to the point of analyzing it. For unknown reasons, however, Nintendo only published Plok! in Europe, while Tradewest published it in North America and Activision in Japan. Although reasons for Nintendo's rejection haven't been disclosed, Ste inductively reasoned Miyamoto found it too similar to a Super Mario World sequel in development, particularly with its mini-race levels.\n\nPromotion\nThe Pickfords, despite owning the IP and developing Plok!, were never consulted on promotion. Tradewest set Plok!'s primary demographic at gamers six-to-fourteen years old. Although published by Tradewest in the United States, Plok! still received promotion from Nintendo of America; a complete guide and review was published in the October 1993 issue of its magazine Nintendo Power, and a two-page section in a Nintendo Player's Guide book for Mario Paint (1993) included templates of body part stamps to animate Plok and the flea enemies, and a background painting based on one of the Cotton Island levels. In the United Kingdom, Nintendo released a VHS tape, Super Mario All-Stars Video (1993); hosted by Craig Charles, the video features a segment of testers at Nintendo UK promoting upcoming games, including Plok! Club Nintendo, Germany's official Nintendo magazine, ran a comic strip where Plok races with Mario at an Olympic match in space.Some print advertising was criticized in later years by Ste for not showing enough of the game itself. Tradewest's US print advertisement depicted the top half taken up by Double Dragon and Battletoads, the bottom half a picture of the Plok character; the only info revealed was that Plok! was published by the two other franchises. Nintendo's UK print ad depicted a faux desktop screenshot with an image of an angry old lady in the house as the wallpaper; the only Plok! visual depicted was its box art, placed in the bottom right and very small-sized.However, other print advertisements were much more true to the game, such as Tradewest's series of comic book panel ads named The Adventures of Plok with Plok's origins at the storyline.Plok! was first announced in June 1993; upon its announcement, an N-Force journalist called it one of the most \"surreal\" games in the September 1993 line-up. Tradewest presented Plok! at the summer 1993 Consumer Electronics Show; a GameFan writer called Tradewest \"one of the [show's] most impressive third party line-up,\" highlighting Plok! as a \"a colorful new action title with a lead character that hurls his arms and legs at attackers.\"\n\nReception\nContemporaneous reviews\nUpon release, some critics declared Plok! the best Nintendo release of 1993 as well as another classic by the company, the best platform game of the year, and one of the all-time best in the genre. However, Plok! was compared to many other games of its kind, and even the most favorable reviewers expressed skepticism about playing another average colorful cutesy platform game. Some critics ultimately thought it was and criticized its lack of depth. A frequent comparison was with Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), particularly in its \"sugary\" tone and Plok's speed ball attack; GameStar's FI derogatorily labeled the titular character as \"a puny version\" of the Sega franchise's blue hedgehog, criticizing his weird design and calling it names such as \"hot pink reddy coloured duck penguin thing\" and \"freaky pork chop.\"However, other reviewers opined Plok as distinguished in the genre, noting innovative aspects such as the costume and weapon power-ups and limb mechanics. Reviews also enjoyed its humor, such as with Plok's limbless movements, his power-ups, and nonsensical story; Humphreys felt it would help the game be enjoyed by even the biggest detractors of kid-friendly platformers. The hero was applauded for being charming, more lovable than other mascots of its kind, and versatile, particularly with his limbs and his costume and weapon power-ups. Trenton Webb found the limb mechanic \"quite fun to mess around with uselessly,\" and an Electronic Gaming Monthly critic called it \"catchy\" with \"plenty of situations to test it.\" Superjuegos writer The Elf called his vehicle power-ups \"fantastic and fun,\" and Hyper magazine Jason Humphreys claimed the cowboy power-up his favourite.Some critics were addicted to Plok!'s gameplay and eulogized its playability, perfect control, and variety. Super Play's Jonathan Davies felt it kept adding new concepts as the game went on, and praised some of them, such as patterns of item placements directing the player to off-camera platforms and bouncing off water instead of drowning to death. Plok!'s difficulty was also highlighted, mostly attributed to lack of a password system, save feature, and requirement for continues to be earned. Other contributors to the challenge included long stage lengths and sudden obstacles such as rolling logs. One Total! journalist reported being confused what action to do next in some stages, and another from HobbyConsolas disclosed getting lost in levels and unable to look for targets and fleas required to complete levels. While some reviewers approved how hard Plok was, others disliked not being able to save or use passwords, reasoning it was annoying to replay earlier stages over and over again.The cartoony graphics were praised as colorful, surreal, adorable, and featuring \"vivid backgrounds\"; one reviewer called them some of the best on the Super Nintendo, while another compared it to Equinox. FI appreciated the detail, such as Plok's breathing animation when standing still and the many \"little coloured flowers everywhere, looking like real flower power stuff.\" The music was highlighted (by one critic as the game's best aspect) and noted for pushing the hardware limitations, and sound effects were praised.\n\nCommercial performance and plans for a franchise\nJohn Pickford and Kay had faith in Plok! being commercially successful. The Pickford brothers garnered IP ownership for the Plok character, common in other media economies but rare in the video games industry; and planned a franchise out of it, such as sequels, ports, and merchandise. A Mega Drive version was planned using a Software Creations worker's software for automatically converting SNES titles into Mega Drive games; 80% of the code was automatically converted, according to Ste, with the other 20% requiring hands-on work. Ultimately, however, despite Webb announcing the port's completion in an April 1994 interview, it was never released for unknown reasons.Ste, using magic markers, created artwork for future sequels and merchandise, such as style guides of the characters and illustrations of scenes. The Pickfords planned sequels to involve Plok searching for the fleas' home, introduce a setting named Tower Island, and make Plok's comfy chair (which he sleeps on in the end credits of Plok!) a more crucial part of the gameplay. The Pickfords also drew concepts for toys used for pitches of the SNES game, such as a doll where limbs were joined and detached with velcro. During marketing, a Plok model was created in 3D Studio 4 for a promotional photo of Software Creations.However, 1992, late in Plok!'s development, saw the beginning of a saturation of colorful platform games starring cute mascots, like Bubsy and Zool. Ste, in 2004, publicly stated developers and producers with more finances knew about previews of the Fleapit coin-op, which may have influenced them to produce games like it; there are no other reports verifying this. Although selling decently over a long period, none of the revenue went to the Pickfords, and Ste suggested the saturation hindered its commercial performance significantly; this plus Software Creations constantly changing publishers between projects rendered a Plok! franchise impossible for several years.\n\nLegacy\nIn 2009, North American company Super Fighter Team released Zaku, a horizontal shooter for the Atari Lynx which features a special guest appearance by Plok.The Pickfords later launched a Plok webcomic. From there, the webcomic takes place 20 years after the game as it features new characters and some returning ones like Rockyfella. The comic sometimes used pop-culture references from other games and other media, in-jokes reference and commentaries on the game's development and its future.\nIn later years, Plok was ranked the 26th all-time best SNES title (which also named it the best platformer produced in the United Kingdom) in 1996, the 19th best platform game by Gamereactor in 2014, and was listed in Edge editor Tony Mott's 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die in its 2013 edition. Video game elements introduced in Plok! were noted by retrospective journalists to be in more popular platformers released in later years. Games starring characters with floating body parts used as weapons, such as Dynamite Headdy (1994) and Rayman (1995), were released shortly afterwards and garnered much wider exposure. When listing Plok! on a list of \"The Most Unappreciated Platformers Of The '90s\" for Kotaku, Ben Bertoli wrote it was \"influential for portraying a world, named Akrill[ic], based on craft supplies and cloth, a concept that Nintendo itself has come to rely on for many games. The game also provided players with power-ups and vehicles, such as flamethrowers and jetpacks, the likes of which had not been seen in a single game.\" Sepia-toned flashback stages also made up a chunk of Mickey Mania (1994).\n\nNotes\nPassage 4:\nSonic Mania\nSonic Mania is a 2017 platform game published by Sega for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. Produced in commemoration of the Sonic the Hedgehog series' 25th anniversary and serving as a prelude to Sonic Forces, Sonic Mania pays homage to the original Sega Genesis Sonic games, featuring speedy side-scrolling gameplay. It takes place over 13 levels, including several redesigned from past games. The story follows Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as they venture to defeat their nemesis Doctor Eggman and his robotic henchmen, the Hard-Boiled Heavies.\nThe development team was composed of members known for their work in the Sonic fangame and ROM hacking community. Development began after lead developer, director and programmer Christian \"Taxman\" Whitehead, who was previously contracted by Sega to develop enhanced mobile ports of Genesis Sonic games, presented a playable prototype to Sonic Team producer Takashi Iizuka. Art, level design, audio, and additional programming were provided by independent studios PagodaWest Games and Headcannon. The team used Whitehead's Retro Engine and aimed for a graphical quality between Genesis and Sega Saturn games.\nSonic Mania was released in August 2017 and became the highest-rated Sonic game in fifteen years. Many reviewers saw it as a return to form for the Sonic series following a number of poorly received games released after the 1990s. Its presentation, level design, music, and faithfulness to the early Sonic games were praised, but its lack of originality was criticized. Several described it as one of the best Sonic games and one of the best games of 2017. Within a year, it had sold over one million copies worldwide. Sonic Mania Plus, an enhanced version with additional content, was released in July 2018.\n\nGameplay\nSonic Mania is a side-scrolling platformer similar to the early Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Sega Genesis. Players select one of 3 playable characters, each with their own unique abilities: Sonic can perform a \"drop dash\" which sends him rolling in a dash after a jump, Tails can fly and swim, and Knuckles can glide and climb walls. As with Sonic 2 (1992), players can play as Sonic and Tails simultaneously, or a second player can control Tails independently. Unlockable options include Sonic's abilities from Sonic CD (1993) and Sonic 3 & Knuckles (1994) in place of the drop dash and \"& Knuckles\" mode, which allows simultaneous control of any character and Knuckles, including himself.Sonic Mania takes place over 13 levels, called zones; the game features eight \"remixed\" zones, such as Green Hill Zone from the first Sonic game (1991), alongside five original ones. Remixed stages consist of both new elements and recycled gimmicks and ideas from other past Sonic games. Each zone is divided into 2 acts, in which the player must guide their character past various enemies and obstacles to reach the end. At the end of each act, the player takes part in a boss battle against Doctor Eggman, also known as Dr. Robotnik, or one of his robots, including the Hard-Boiled Heavies, elite henchmen based on the EggRobo enemies from Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The player collects golden rings, which serve as a form of health; players survive hits as long as they have at least one ring, but, if hit, their rings scatter and disappear after a short time. Television monitors containing rings, elemental shields, or power-ups such as invincibility and faster running speed are scattered throughout each level. Like Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the story is told via short in-game cutscenes between levels.Giant rings hidden in each act, a feature of the original games, lead to pseudo-3D special stages similar to those in Sonic CD, where players can attempt to collect a Chaos Emerald. In special stages, players dodge obstacles and collect colored spheres to increase their speed, allowing them to pursue a UFO carrying a Chaos Emerald; collecting all seven Chaos Emeralds allows players to use their character's super transformation and unlocks the game's true ending. Players' ring counters slowly decrease during special stages and must be continually replenished; if the player runs out of rings before they catch the UFO, the special stage ends. The \"Blue Sphere\" special stages from Sonic the Hedgehog 3 also return, repurposed as bonus stages that are accessed by entering a portal that appears when the player passes a checkpoint while carrying 25 or more rings. Completing bonus stages earns the player a silver or gold medal depending on their performance; collecting medals unlocks features such as a debug mode and sound test.In a time attack mode, players must complete levels as quickly as possible, with the best times included on an online leaderboard; players can instantly reload a level to try again at any time. A split-screen competitive multiplayer mode allows two players to race to the end of a level, similar to those of Sonic 2. Players can also unlock \"Mean Bean\", a 2-player minigame based on Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.\n\nPlot\nAfter the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic and Tails detect a powerful energy reading on Angel Island and board their biplane, the Tornado, to investigate. However, Dr. Eggman sends an elite group of EggRobos to reach the signal before Sonic and Tails. The EggRobos excavate the source of the signal, a magical gemstone called the Phantom Ruby, just as Sonic and Tails arrive. The EggRobos gain new powers from the ruby, becoming the Hard-Boiled Heavies, and send Sonic, Tails, and the island's guardian, Knuckles, through zones the trio have previously visited where they pursue Eggman to prevent him from using the ruby's power for evil, clashing with him and the Heavies along the way.\nSonic and his allies discover that Eggman has used the Phantom Ruby's power to retake control of Little Planet from Sonic CD. They board Eggman's robotic fortress, defeat him and the Heavies, and escape just as it explodes. If all seven Chaos Emeralds are collected while playing as Sonic, the Phantom Ruby transports him and Eggman to another dimension. There, the Heavies' leader, Heavy King, betrays Eggman and takes the ruby, imbuing himself with power; Eggman attacks the Heavy to try to reclaim it. Sonic uses the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and fights Eggman and the Heavy King separately to keep the ruby out of their possession. After the battle, the Phantom Ruby reacts with the Emeralds, negating Sonic's super state and creating a wormhole that engulfs itself and Sonic as Little Planet vanishes.\n\nDevelopment\nDevelopment of Sonic Mania began in 2015, led by Australian programmer Christian \"Taxman\" Whitehead. Whitehead was a prominent member of the Sonic fangame community, and had previously been contracted by Sega to develop remastered ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD for mobile phones. After developing the game for a few months, Whitehead presented a prototype, which he called Sonic Discovery, to series producer Takashi Iizuka. Iizuka was receptive, and suggested that it should include old levels from the early Sonic games it was inspired by, \"remixed\" in a way that felt new. He also gave it the working title of Sonic Mania, which stuck after no one suggested a better one. The title referenced the development team's \"maniacal\" fandom for the series; Iizuka described the project as being made \"by the mania, for the mania\", and as a \"passion product\" driven by the fans' love for the early Sonic games.Sonic Mania was produced in commemoration of the series' 25th anniversary. It was developed using Whitehead's Retro Engine, a game engine tailored for creating two-dimensional games, which he also used for the enhanced ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic CD. The team also included programmer Simon \"Stealth\" Thomley of the independent studio Headcannon, who assisted Whitehead with those projects and on various Sonic fangames and ROM hacks, as well as level designer Jared Kasl and art director Tom Fry of PagodaWest Games, who had previously independently collaborated on an unofficial high-definition remaster of Sonic 2. Tantalus Media helped develop the Nintendo Switch port. Iizuka and the rest of Sonic Team provided guidance and made sure the team didn't \"go off the rails into something that doesn't feel like Sonic\". Iizuka described the visuals as a cross between the graphical capabilities of the Genesis and Sega Saturn, comprising mostly pixel art with some polygonal graphics.The developers modeled the gameplay on Sonic 3, with boss fights at the end of each zone. For returning stages, the designers made the first act feel familiar, and introduced new elements in the second act. The team cited Sonic CD and Sonic 3 as major influences on the level design for their \"big, wide open\" and \"streamlined\" designs, respectively. According to Thomley, the team typically decided what elements to include in the returning stages prior to designing them, but sometimes came up with new ideas or changed them based on how the development progressed. The first original level designed was the Hollywood-themed Studiopolis Zone. The desert-themed Mirage Saloon Zone was inspired by an unfinished level from Sonic 2 and the Monument Valley region of the United States. The special stages were inspired by more recent games such as Sonic Rush (2005) and Sonic Colors (2010). The team felt proud of their recreation of classic Sonic gameplay.The game features animated opening and ending sequences led by Tyson Hesse, one of the artists of the Sonic comics by Archie Comics. It also features an optional CRT graphical filter, and supports the enhanced features of both the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, outputting at a native 4K resolution. The soundtrack was composed by Tee Lopes of PagodaWest Games, consisting of rearranged pieces from previous Sonic games alongside new material. Lopes was chosen due to his popularity on YouTube for producing arrangements of various Sonic tracks, and for his work on the Sonic 2 HD project. Lopes initially wanted his score to resemble the Sonic CD soundtrack, trying to imagine what a sequel to it might have sounded like. As development progressed, he took inspiration from other older Sonic and Sega games, such as The Revenge of Shinobi (1989) and the Sega Rally games, and from 1990s popular music, such as the work of Michael Jackson. The reveal trailer theme, \"Checkpoint\", was composed by the electronic music groups Hyper Potions and Nitro Fun and the opening theme, \"Friends\", was composed by Hyper Potions.\n\nRelease\nSonic Mania was announced alongside Sonic Forces at the 25th anniversary Sonic event at the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) convention in July 2016. The game was also featured at South by Southwest (SXSW), the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), and SDCC in 2017; at SDCC 2017, attendees received a promotional instruction manual for the game. The game was announced for the second quarter of 2017, but Sega announced at SXSW that it had been delayed to allow for more development.Sonic Mania was released digitally for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on August 15, 2017. Four days before release, Sega delayed the Windows version for another two weeks for further optimization, releasing it on August 29 as a download on Steam. As compensation, those who had pre-ordered the game received a copy of the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Steam.In addition to the standard release, a Sega Genesis-themed collector's edition was also released, containing a 12-inch (30 cm) Sonic statue atop a model Genesis, a game cartridge cast with a golden ring, and a metallic collector's card with a download code for the game. To promote the collector's edition, Sega released a retro-styled infomercial featuring former series art director Kazuyuki Hoshino and social media manager Aaron Webber, based on an American television commercial for Sonic The Hedgehog 2. The music label Data Discs published a vinyl LP featuring the game's original music in late 2017. An expanded soundtrack was released on digital music distribution platforms on January 17, 2018. A five-part animated short mini-series, Sonic Mania Adventures, was released on the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel between March and July 2018, promoting the release of Sonic Mania Plus. The series depicts Sonic's return to his world following the events of Sonic Forces, teaming up with his friends to prevent Eggman and Metal Sonic from collecting the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald. A holiday-themed bonus episode was released in December 2018. The shorts were written and directed by Hesse, with animation production by Neko Productions, and music written by Lopes. All six shorts were later included as part of the Sonic Origins compilation in 2022.\n\nSonic Mania Plus\nAn expanded version of the game, Sonic Mania Plus, was released in North America and Europe at retail and as downloadable content for the original version on July 17, 2018, and in Japan on July 19, 2018. A version for Amazon Luna was released on October 20, 2020. It adds playable characters Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel from the 1993 arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, each with unique abilities: Mighty can slam the ground and is immune to spikes when in ball form, while Ray can glide without losing altitude. Plus also adds an \"Encore Mode\" with remixed levels and a reworked lives mechanic, a pinball bonus stage, and a four-player competition mode. Additionally, an update released alongside Sonic Mania Plus adds more cutscenes and a reworked Metal Sonic battle based on his appearance in Knuckles' Chaotix (1995). The physical version was released with a 32-page art book and a reversible cover in the style of Genesis or Mega Drive boxart covers, depending on the region. A soundtrack CD was included with the Japanese physical release.In an interview with Famitsu, Iizuka explained that Sonic Mania was not intended to have a physical release; Sega staff requested one, but a retail version would have presented a challenge for the production schedule. After the game launched, fans also expressed interest in a physical version. As a retail release would cost more than the downloadable version, the team added value with new content. Mighty and Ray were included because they were rarely featured in games; to accommodate them, level designs had to be altered. Additionally, the multiplayer mode was updated because of the increased number of selectable characters.\n\nReception\nSonic Mania was announced following years of mixed reviews for the Sonic franchise. According to the International Business Times, the series had been \"tarnished by years of sub-par games with only the occasional gem\". The Business Times predicted that Sega's approach of releasing Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania in the same year, catering to new and old fans, could repair the series' reputation and lead to a \"Sonic renaissance\". Several critics expressed excitement for a return to the style of the early Sonic games, and wrote that Sega's previous efforts to develop games in the \"classic\" style, such as Sonic the Hedgehog 4 in 2010, had been disappointing.According to the review aggregator site Metacritic, Sonic Mania received \"generally favorable\" reviews. It became the best-reviewed Sonic game in fifteen years, and several critics described it as one of the best 2D platform games. At launch, Sonic Mania was the bestselling Switch game, outselling Minecraft and Overcooked: Special Edition. It greatly increased Sega's third-quarter profits, and helped Sega almost double sales of packaged games compared to the same period in 2016. By April 2018, it had sold over one million copies worldwide across all platforms.The presentation attracted acclaim. USGamer described it as the \"pinnacle\" of the series' pixel graphics. GameSpot called the animations and detail superior to the original games, writing that they added an extra layer of personality. Cubed3 described the levels as stylish and vibrant. Critics also praised the attention to detail in recreating the early games. Game Informer wrote that its gameplay was \"nearly indistinguishable\" from its Genesis predecessors, but with \"extra polish\". Easy Allies wrote that Mania emulated the original games \"exceptionally\", and that \"running, jumping, and spin dashing all work exactly as well as you would hope\". Nintendo World Report wrote that it avoided the physics problems from Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and recaptured the spirit of the 16-bit games.The level design and music also received praise. Hardcore Gamer wrote that the remixed versions of older stages felt fresh while staying true to the originals. Game Informer wrote that the new stages matched the quality and captured the spirit of early Sonic games. The A.V. Club praised the detail and content in each level; Metro praised the fan service, and likened it to a school project \"gone wild, something enthusiastic kids have made while the teacher was away and which far surpasses anything they were actually supposed to be doing\". Like IGN, Venture Beat appreciated the replay value, with branching paths that made multiple playthroughs \"fresh\". EGM wrote that the soundtrack was \"completely fantastic\" and felt nostalgic and new at the same time. Nintendo Life called the soundtrack \"one of the best of recent times\".The game received some criticism. Polygon commented that frustrations with controls and enemy placement in the original Sonic games were present in Sonic Mania. VideoGamer.com wrote that the game relied too much on nostalgia, with minimal innovation and too few original stages, but was a good proof of concept that the development team could expand upon. Nintendo World Report complained about the boss fights, which they felt were poorly executed and too easy. The Windows version was subject to review bombing due to its implementation of the digital rights management (DRM) software Denuvo, which some thought to be the real reason behind the two-week delay. The game could not be played offline on launch day; Sega stated this was a bug unrelated to Denuvo, and released a patch the following day.Multiple reviewers saw it as a return to form for the Sonic series after a number of poorly reviewed games after the 1990s. EGMNow commended Sonic Mania as one of the \"purest and most enjoyable\" Sonic games, expressing excitement for the future of the series. IGN wrote that it was the \"classic\" throwback that fans had clamored for since the 1990s, but also recommended it for people new to the franchise. Nintendo World Report called it a \"must-buy\" for fans of the older Sonic games. Waypoint compared it favorably to Donkey Kong Country Returns, describing it as a game that knew \"what was fun\" about its predecessors. Nintendo Life felt that Mania represented \"a true return to form\" and was a contender for the best game in the series.Sonic Mania Plus received stronger reviews, with the Nintendo Switch version receiving \"universal acclaim\", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. Multiple reviewers called it the definitive version thanks to its extra game mode and characters. DualShockers' Tomas Franzese praised the \"Encore\" mode for feeling fresh, as well as the movement options introduced with Mighty and Ray. Michael Leri of Game Revolution, however, found the new partner system more frustrating than the traditional lives system found in classic Sonic games. IGN Spain did not recommend the update for those that own the original game, but commended the physical release and the added value for new players and hardcore fans.\n\nLegacy\nSonic Mania was nominated for the \"Best Family Game\" at The Game Awards 2017 and the \"Best Kids Game\" at the 2018 New York Game Awards. The theme song \"Friends\" was reused for the prologue of the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film.\n\nNotes\nPassage 5:\nCaptain Comic\nThe Adventures of Captain Comic is a platform game written by Michael Denio for MS-DOS compatible operating systems and released as shareware in 1988. It was one of the first side-scrolling games for IBM PC compatibles reminiscent of games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and it presaged a trend of shareware platform games in the early 1990s. A version for the NES was later published by Color Dreams as an unlicensed title.\nA sequel, Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality, was released in 1990.\n\nPlot\nCaptain Comic is on a mission to the planet Tambi, where the quest begins. Comic must find three artifacts: the Mystical Gems of Lascorbanos, the Thousand Coins of Tenure, and the Crown of the Ages. To find them, he must travel through many varied environments. The game is completed when Comic is in possession of all three treasures.\n\nGameplay\nThe game is divided into eight major areas, and each contains three smaller zones. Transitioning between zones plays a short tune, all enemies are removed from the screen, and Comic's position is saved.\nComic has twelve \"shield\" points which act as health. Each time an enemy hits him, two points are removed. When at zero, Comic dies on the next hit. Occasionally, shields can be found which instantly replenish the health to full, or if it is already full, give an extra life. Comic starts with four lives, and an extra life is given for each 50,000 points earned if Comic isn't already at the maximum of five extras.\nIf Comic is killed by either falling off the bottom of the screen, or hit with no shield points remaining, a life is lost and he is returned to the point where he last entered this zone.\nEnemies have different behaviors, from simply bouncing off walls and following preset paths to seeking Comic as he passes by. After picking up a Blastola Cola, Comic can shoot at and destroy enemies for points.\n\nDevelopment\nMichael Denio previously wrote an interactive demo of a platform game called The Adventures of Captain Pixel of the Galactic Security Patrol in 34010 AD for a TMS34010 coprocessor board. The credits screen has a 1987 copyright notice for the graphics. The TMS34010 is a CPU with graphics-oriented instructions which was later used in arcade video games such as Narc and Mortal Kombat. \nDenio wrote in the introduction to the Captain Comic manual:\n\nThe Adventures of Captain Comic started out as an experiment to test the viability of two theories, the first as to whether a real arcade type game can be done on a standard IBM PC with an EGA card, and secondly, given the first can be done, if it is possible to make any money doing it. Well, I've come to a conclusion on the second point, but I'll let you judge the first point for yourself.\n\nMusic\nThe original theme song for Captain Comic was a rendition of the United States Marine Corps Hymn. The song was replaced in the final revision of the game, released in 1991, by George Frideric Handel's Harpsichord Suite in D Minor, HWV 428, Air. The NES version of the soundtrack is composed entirely of classical music.\n\nReception\nLegacy\nA sequel from the same author was published in 1990 as Captain Comic II: Fractured Reality.\nIn 2012, PC World called Captain Comic the twelfth greatest shareware game of all time, writing that \"it inspired many other shareware authors, including the folks who would later create Commander Keen.\"The original game was cloned for the SAM Coupé. It was also cloned as The Adventures of Pioneer Kseniauk in 1990 by a team of Ukrainian programmers.\nPassage 6:\nChristian Whitehead\nChristian Whitehead, also known by his alias The Taxman, is an Australian video game programmer and designer. He is most recognized for his work creating updated ports of early games in Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog series, as well as being the lead developer of an original game in the series, Sonic Mania. He has also developed multiple remakes of classic Sonic games and most recently, the remasters in Sonic Origins.\n\nCareer\nIn 2006, Whitehead worked as a freelance 3D animator with the company Kine Graffiti. Since 2009, he has focused on game development, developing various fangames based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series. In 2009, Whitehead produced a \"proof-of-concept\" video of Sonic CD running on an iPhone using his own custom engine, the \"Retro Engine\". In an interview with Steven O'Donnell of Good Game: Spawn Point, Whitehead proclaims that he spent \"about a year or so\" convincing Sega to let him work on the Sonic CD port. In 2009, a video regarding Sonic CD from Whitehead was taken down, leading Eurogamer to report that Whitehead possibly faced a cease and desist letter from Sega, which Whitehead claimed was false. The port was released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPhone and Android in 2011. His remake was so successful that he, along with developer Simon \"Stealth\" Thomley of the studio Headcannon, would later be commissioned to remaster Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for mobile devices.Although he, along with Headcannon, released a proof-of-concept video for a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 remaster in 2014, Sega did not greenlight the port. In 2015, it was announced that Whitehead would be involved in his first non-Sonic game, Freedom Planet 2. In 2017, Whitehead, in collaboration with Headcannon and PagodaWest Games, developed and released their own original title in the Sonic series, titled Sonic Mania. In 2018, Sonic Mania became Sonic Mania Plus, with the release of the Encore DLC. Sonic Mania Plus was developed by Whitehead, Headcannon, PagodaWest Games, and the now included HyperKinetic. Whitehead also contributed to the development of Sonic Origins, providing a new version of the engine used in the remasters. Whitehead is currently working on Freedom Planet 2, built with the Unity engine, for PC, Mac, and Linux.In late 2018, Whitehead and other development members behind Sonic Mania founded their own studio Evening Star Studio, where he serves as creative director and lead engine architect.\n\nWorks",6 "char_len": 74399,7 "document_hash": "c04a6a9495f4e03daebdf74a7cdfea76b03836bca3bf70931d2cd11a571e6e5c",8 "questions": [9 {10 "question_id": "q00",11 "qtype": "hotpotqa",12 "question": "What side-scrolling platform game had Christian Whitehead as project lead?"13 }14 ]15}