I first played this way back when some long-haul flights started making SNES games available.
First impression before even playing: "Who's this KKK palette swap with the silly name? I'm not sure I'm gonna like this game"
First impression on actually playing it: "This is awesome!!!"
The gameplay premise is creative and fun - the titular character attacks by shooting his limbs at opponents a la Arm Fall Off Boy. Certain obstacles cause you to lose limbs, leading to some interesting quasi-puzzle elements where you need to decide if you want to press onwards while missing arms (less offensive power) or legs (you can't walk and can only hop), or backtrack to retrieve your missing limbs. The music is great, and my favorite gameplay element as a kid was the powerups that temporarily grant Plok more powerful forms, each with their own soundtrack. Despite some old-school cheap jank that comes with the territory, the first part of the game is a great time.
Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there. Where the opening act featured nice bite-sized stages that didn't overstay their welcome, the middle third of the game becomes a "defeat all enemies" collectathon with large confusing levels, causing the pacing to sag. The final third is even worse - it throws away the tight level design and interesting mechanics and throws a different vehicle gimmick at the player on every stage (motorcycle/helicopter/tank/etc.) with the only thing they have in common being that they all control like ass. The stages get longer, more repetitive, and less inspired the further on you get and the ending feels very much like a chore.
Despite the low score, I really did enjoy parts of it. It's 1/3 of a good game and when I was younger I used to hope for a sequel that simply expanded the opening act's style over an entire game - that would have been amazing!
First impression before even playing: "Who's this KKK palette swap with the silly name? I'm not sure I'm gonna like this game"
First impression on actually playing it: "This is awesome!!!"
The gameplay premise is creative and fun - the titular character attacks by shooting his limbs at opponents a la Arm Fall Off Boy. Certain obstacles cause you to lose limbs, leading to some interesting quasi-puzzle elements where you need to decide if you want to press onwards while missing arms (less offensive power) or legs (you can't walk and can only hop), or backtrack to retrieve your missing limbs. The music is great, and my favorite gameplay element as a kid was the powerups that temporarily grant Plok more powerful forms, each with their own soundtrack. Despite some old-school cheap jank that comes with the territory, the first part of the game is a great time.
Unfortunately, it all goes downhill from there. Where the opening act featured nice bite-sized stages that didn't overstay their welcome, the middle third of the game becomes a "defeat all enemies" collectathon with large confusing levels, causing the pacing to sag. The final third is even worse - it throws away the tight level design and interesting mechanics and throws a different vehicle gimmick at the player on every stage (motorcycle/helicopter/tank/etc.) with the only thing they have in common being that they all control like ass. The stages get longer, more repetitive, and less inspired the further on you get and the ending feels very much like a chore.
Despite the low score, I really did enjoy parts of it. It's 1/3 of a good game and when I was younger I used to hope for a sequel that simply expanded the opening act's style over an entire game - that would have been amazing!