What words would you use to describe the following piece of art, which graced the cover of
Engacho!, a PlayStation (and WonderSwan) game released in 1999?
"Disgusting" is a given, but how about "eye-catching"? After all, it isn't every day you see a piece of cover art that features a blushing butt (with wings, no less), gooey green boogers and (seemingly) stinky armpit hair.
Both words came to mind when I first saw the cover art a few days ago (thanks to a comment over at
tinycartridge.com), as did "interesting" and "intriguing." Oh, and the ever-important "huh."
Forget the "huh," though; it's the "interesting" and "intriguing" that matter in this post, as they prompted me to find out what I could--which, sadly, isn't much--about this NAC Geographic Products Inc.-published title.
Turns out the game, while definitely a bit on the (comically) disgusting side, is a turn-based puzzler--which is right up my alley, especially these days.
Here's how it works: Players, controlling a young boy named Sunzuki, are dropped into each stage and then tasked with making their way to its exit (the blue square in the screenshot below) without taking too many steps and without colliding with any of the four baddies displayed in the cover art above.
Here's what happens when you collide with the flying, blushing butt.
That's no easy task, as each of the aforementioned baddies has its own movement patterns. One, for instance, mirrors your movements, while another moves in the opposite direction. As such, planning ahead is vitally important if you hope to avoid being covered with or smothered by armpit hair, boogers, poop or spit.
I'm sure that sounds about as appetizing and enticing as a date with
Jabba the Hut, but it's actually pretty fun (if a bit too difficult for my rapidly atrophying brain).
