Reviewer: Dos-Games-Online
Ishisoft's Pushover is a remake of the original Pushover game for DOS. The idea behind it is still the same: complete 100 levels in different playing areas by putting domino's in the right order so they will all fall in a given time. You still do this with an ant, who has to find some bags of chips.
Actually, I think the windows remake version is better than the DOS version. The menu's are easier, and you don't need to write down all the level codes so you don't have to start with level 1 every time.
Reviewer: orca87
Pushover, hardly a fitting title!
This game made the Amiga my favourite console for many years, along with Lemmings and Icicle Works (C64). It is one of the great puzzle games of the early nineties. The gamer plays the lead of an Ant on a mission for crisps; the story is both plausible and fun, enthralling for youths, and a good nostalgic dose of 'Was that really was this was all about?' from those of us who have since grown up.
With 100 levels, it reminds me somewhat of Bubble Bobble, where it starts off innocent enough, and the levels are fairly simple, and well structured to introduce you to the various parts of the game. Based on the domino effect, toppling yellow bricks in order to open the exit, it sounds easy enough, and for a while, it is: simply pick up one piece at a time to complete the chain, then give one end a nice nudge and watch the magic. However, in the later levels of levitating, disappearing and exploding bricks, as well as rolling and splitting ones, the solution becomes more and more painstaking to come across.
With a very well created learning curve, it will keep most entertained until the levels start getting too hard. At that point, the gamer can spend twenty minutes staring down the level, memorising various patterns and using every ounce of will power to avoid gamefaqs.com (which I may point out, wasn't even a temptation the first times I played this game, which may have been why I never completed it!). With helpful, hints that don't give away everything if you fail, it's a matter of lateral thinking and patience at some points, but it is worthwhile to see the whole thing work out like clockwork. The satisfaction of a precisely organised level all coming together from one nudge is quite possibly more wonderful then setting up a huge domino display on your dining room table and watching that collapse with a single tap.
On backgrounds that rival that of Squaresoft's early work, ranging from toxic wasteland to motherboard, and a character sprite that is a better personified ant then something Pixar could come up with, it is a game that is rather delicious for the eyes. The sounds are equally enthralling, well, for something from 1992...
So if you want to test your mind, and only your mind play chess, but if you like a game that can not only please the kids, encouraging mental stimulation, but hold that little pull like a magnet to JUST FIGURE OUT LEVEL 98!
All older gamers know that nagging thought that wakes you up at one in the morning with the solution all ready, taking you one step closer to the finale, not that I got stuck... or would ever admit it, but this game is wonderfully addictive.
With 9/10 for game play, 8/10 for graphics and the same again for sound, I give this game a total of three thumbs up!
Get out there, have fun and rescue those quavers!
Download Pushover (pushover.zip)
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