Porky's (video game)

Porky's is a video game released for the Atari 2600 in 1983. The game is based on the 1981 film of the same name and published by 20th Century Fox. An Atari 8-bit family version was published by Romox on cartridge.^[1]

Gameplay

The player controls the film character Pee Wee as he attempts to blow up Porky's Bar. In order to do this, Pee Wee must collect a series of objects which are hidden inside a shower room.

In order to access the shower room the player must first try to get Pee Wee across a five-lane highway without getting hit, similar to the game mechanic in Frogger. If something makes contact with Pee Wee before he can cross the street, he is dropped into the swamp below Porky's. From here, he must build a ladder by retrieving blocks atop two platforms. In order to get onto the platforms, Pee Wee must use a pole to hoist himself up. Once he gets enough blocks, he can climb into the shower room from below.

The shower room consists of a series of ladders that Pee Wee must climb to retrieve the objects while a girl showers. If Pee Wee crosses into the girl's line of sight at any time, the film character Ms. Balbricker will appear and begin chasing after him. Pee Wee must move the object from atop the shower down through a hole in the floor and climb out of the room through an opening at the top. If Ms. Balbricker "latches onto" him, or if Pee Wee steps into the hole in the floor, he falls back into the swamp and must try again. However, this time he is only allowed to vault onto the leftmost platform as Porky's brother, the local sheriff, is standing on the right platform; he will remain there for each subsequent time Pee Wee falls. Despite this new hazard, Pee Wee does not have to rebuild the ladder.

Once Pee Wee successfully retrieves the object, the process repeats itself until he has found the necessary amount of objects. For each object he retrieves, one lane of the highway is cleared and he cannot be harmed by anything in it. After all the objects have been dropped into the hole, play moves to a scaffold where Pee Wee tries to reach the roof of the bar while Porky waits for him down below. The scaffold must be climbed in a specific manner and resets every time Pee Wee makes a mistake. If he misses a step, Pee Wee falls onto the ground where Porky catches him and tosses him back into the swamp.

To win, Pee Wee must find the correct path up the scaffold and avoid Porky. If he does, he is taken to an area with a plunger. All that must be done here is for Pee Wee to jump on the plunger, which creates and explosion and causes Porky's to sink into the swamp.

Reception

The game was featured in James Rolfe's 2014 The Angry Video Game Nerd Christmas compilation 12 Days of Shitsmas as per fan requests. In the review, the Nerd criticized the game's difficulty and expressed surprise that the shower room scene was recycled from the film, but seemed to like the end result of the story.^[2]

References