Flood (Amiga) - Part 5: FINALE - Octotiggy
6I'm not sure why a game with a skippable intro has a near 4 minute intro track, yet no in-game music at all. Maybe they glossed over this point while putting together the final epic cutscene.
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Flood is a 1990 platform game developed by Bullfrog Productions. It was published for the Amiga and Atari ST by Electronic Arts. The objective is to collect all the litter and find the exit to the level. The game was not a huge commercial success and contained rather experimental styles of gameplay for its time, as well as a quirky sense of humour.
The player controls a character named 'Quiffy', who is the last of his race of small green creatures. He lives underground in a series of sewers and tunnels. His mission is to reach the surface by navigating all the sewers, whilst they are slowly flooding. Quiffy can walk on walls and ceilings.
Quiffy must collect all of the various pieces of litter on the level and then find the exit to complete each level. In general the litter is not particularly hidden, it is just distributed around the level. Quiffy can climb on most walls and ceilings, and swim through water. He has energy which depletes upon touching dangerous objects, but can also die instantly when touching any of the few lethal objects. Although he can swim and has the appearance of an amphibious life-form, he can only breathe above water and will start to drown if he runs out of air.
In each level, you are followed by the ghost of your Aunt Matilda. She copies your movements exactly and starts off about 15 seconds behind you. However, she is very slightly faster than you and will eventually catch up with you. Touching the ghost will hurt Quiffy.
Most of the levels have taps in them, which pour water in to the level. The modelling of the water was quite advanced for a home computer game of its time; the water will flow to the lowest point that it can and when multiple taps are pouring water in one place, it will fill up proportionally fast. A lot of levels feature taps in all areas so the entire level will eventually flood, leaving Quiffy with no available source of air. This aspect is how the game derives its title.
Quiffy starts each level with no weapon, and can pick up any of five available weapons. He can only hold one of these at any time and if he picks up another one, it will swap for the current one.
Boomerang: This spins in a curve back towards the player.
Dynamite: This sits for a second and then explodes with a large force. It is easy to injure yourself with this weapon.
Flamethrower: A horizontal wall of fire shoots out, and extends to unlimited range, and remains until the player lets go of the fire button. This is the most powerful weapon. However at random times a rubber chicken will appear instead of the weapon.
Grenades: A grenade drops and explodes with a smaller force than the dynamite. It is similarly possible to injure yourself with this weapon.
Shuriken: A throwing star shoots out diagonally and bounces off walls for a while. This weapon is extremely good at spreading damage over a wide area.
There are various enemies on each level, some of which have special properties. In general the enemies move around in a specific pattern, and when killed will throw a heart up which will return health to Quiffy.
One enemy resembles a teddy bear, but has a large mouth with a set of teeth in its stomach. It can eat the litter so Quiffy doesn't have to pick it up. They will kill Quiffy with a single touch, though. They are called "Psycho Teddy"
One enemy looks like a walking squid and will create litter wherever it walks. This makes it slightly harder for the player. They are called "Bulbous-headed Vongs"
The enemies had curious names such as 'Plonkin Donkin'.
"Aunt Matilda" is the name of the ghost that follows you around
The game was reviewed in 1990 in Dragon #164 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
Wikipedia contributors. Flood (video game). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. October 3, 2014, 07:53 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flood_(video_game)&oldid=628054350.