Pipe Dream (NES) Playthrough
120A playthrough of Bullet Proof Software's 1990 puzzle game for the NES, Pipe Dream.
I begin by playing through Game A, going up through stage 16-4. The game just repeats the same stages at a higher speed after that. At 1:52:03 I move on to Game B.
Pipe Dream ("Pipe Mania" in Europe) started life in 1988 as a popular Commodore 64 game created by Lucasfilm's games studio, and over the next several years it appeared on several platforms, including the NES, Game Boy, SNES, and even arcade hardware.
Pipe Dream's gameplay, like any good puzzler, is easy to get into, and it's only with time and practice that the complexities of the underlying mechanics start to become apparent.
The idea is to build a unbroken network of pipes through which "flooz" can flow. (What is flooz, exactly? Was water considered too lame for marketing purposes?) The play field is laid out as a 10x8 grid, and you lay down pieces of pipe on this grid to direct the flow for however long is needed to meet the stage's goal. There are seven different pieces that you are given at random, and bonuses are awarded whenever you manage to create loops or incorporate gimmick pieces like the pumps and reservoirs that show up in later stages.
Everything is done under a strict time-limit and the flooz will flow whether you're ready or not, so you have to be able to think on your toes and act quickly if you want to maximize your score.
The NES port, handled by Distinctive Software and published by Bullet Proof Software, was released in the fall of 1990 to generally positive reviews. The game plays just as well as its computer counterparts, the playfield is less cluttered and easier to read compared to the C64 original, and the new music suits it well. It's a good conversion of a good game, and I really enjoyed playing it.
It does strike me as bit funny that Mario starred in all sorts of random puzzle games that had nothing to do with the character, but never in a reskinned take on Pipe Dream. I mean, the guy's a plumber. Could you ask for a better match?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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