Game:

Elden Ring (2022)

Duration: 9:51

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Ahhhh... humble beginnings, and pure Ostrich mayhem! "Splash Lake" is a very good (albeit very challenging) Arcade-style action-puzzle game for the PCECD and Turbo Duo that flew under most people's radar, so hopefully this video and description will spark just a tad more interest.

Originally released in Japan in 1991 and later in the U.S. in 1992 by NEC Avenue, the game was developed by Bits Laboratory who had a great working relationship with NEC and were best known for Super Famicom's "Monstania" and PlayStation's "True Love Story" series. With programming done by Masashi Shimizu (who, of all things, would eventually go on to be a vital part of FromSoftware's "Dark Souls" series as well as "Elden Ring"), sound by "T's Music" and Production by Makoto Sakio and Toshio Tabeta (the latter whom has a diverse portfolio and mainly worked with Flight-Plan on the "Black/Matrix" series before forming his own studio, Prototype, and working on many popular visual novels along with Key such as "Clannad", "Little Busters!" and "Grisaia"), this quirky game is like NES/FC's "Kickle Cubicle", Arcade's "Dig Dug II" and Mark III / Sega Master System's "Pit Pot" with a smidge of "Ms. Pac-Man".

As one or two Ostriches (Ozzie and... uh, Ozzie 2), your goal is to go from each single-screen level while defeating all the enemies or the pre-requisite amount listed above. To do this, you can use your powerful beak to fracture the ground and if you have two or more connected sections cracked, the whole corresponding area falls in the lake! Sinking multiple enemies rewards you with huge point multipliers and there is also hidden objects on every level which play a major role in the game's longevity. There are many different enemy types who each have different characteristics and you can also jump two spaces to get over enemies and swiftly escape to other platforms. There are a variety of options to offer a lot of variability to your playing experience and the game also offers two player simultaneous action. Each stage has ten levels with a boss at the end and features 60 initial stages... HOWEVER, if you find the hidden objects on every single level, you will unlock sixty more stages, and if you find all the hidden objects on those, you'll get sixty more for a whopping 180 levels.

The game also embraces its Arcade inspirations with a funny high score note (Who Killed Ostrich) and goofy intermissions between stages akin to the aforementioned Ms. Pacman (Ostrich Theater). The game has decent graphics in the realm of titles of this type for the time and a pleasing soundtrack that's a little better than the output from the average HuCard, though the game didn't really necessitate the CD medium (to its credit, it's not a Super CD-ROM2 and does have low load times). The only thing is the game is VERY difficult with little time to get eased into the game or its mechanics. While you can take a few hits before going down (by default), losing requires starting the level over again, and the time limit is pretty strict on some levels. The game is a little easier and a little more interesting with a friend, but it is not for the faint of heart. The game does save your progress though and you can restart from any stage you've cleared, so make sure to take advantage of this to get some practice in.

With Masashi Shimizu on programming, I can almost see why he was eventually brought on as a programmer for Demon Souls and Elden Ring... while this game is forgiving to some extent, I can see that the guy has a knack for bringing out our inner masochist, lol. Jokes aside though, there isn't much not to like about Splash Lake. Definitely add it to your collection if you're into these types of games. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.

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