Super Putty (SNES Review)

 

Now what on earth is this??? I like silly putty, don’t get me wrong. You can stretch it and mash it and er, stretch it again, until it inevitably falls apart. Don’t make a computer game based on it! Oh wait, System 3 bloody did didn’t they! There are some good ideas here but it’s too badly put together to work. It’s a one or two player game (please god don’t drag anyone else in to see this!) where you’ve got access to all levels from the start.

 

 

From what I understand about playing this for two hours longer than I should have (playing time – 125 minutes) is that you’re a blob of putty who must thwart some kind of wolf thing who looks like a cross between Bubsy and Oscar.  Now, a lot of games do this (Galaxy Force immediately springs to mind) but they usually have some sort of perceived difficulty level. Super Putty does not.  I tell a lie – you do have a “Gym” level where you can try out all of the special moves our blob of putty can do.

 

As well as usual platform moves (jump and punch), he (it?) can also lay flat and absorb things or expand and blow up things.  Each level presents you with goals that you must accomplish, which is mostly to absorb certain objects and deposit them (by expanding) at the exit. This doesn’t seem a bad idea, until you start the other levels.  Every level is extremely difficult with constant re-spawning unavoidable enemies and platforms that you’d need the mind of Einstein and the dexterity of a cat to negotiate.

 

 

The expand move gets you some of the way as it kills all the enemies on the screen – but you only get so many before the putty “perishes”.  The annoying wolf thing goads you when you kill enemies which is annoying to say the least.  There just appears to be no point to this game whatsoever, other than trying to cash in on a fad.

 

Give Super Putty a wide berth and have a lot more fun with silly putty, play doh, or a rotting plank of wood.