Once again we have a game that's been hanging around in my backlog for a long time. In this case, it was a game that was on my radar when it launched, but actually came to me as part of a HumbleBundle back when I was subscribed. It would sit unused in the backlog for years until the dice decided it's time had come. So like the old arcade in the game itself, it's time to dust off the cabinet and click power...
Story: Pony Island does not start with much story. When you click to start a new game, you will presented with a screen of a primitive arcade booting up before the title screen of Pony Island is in front of you... but something is immediately off and it isn't just that an arcade game gives you direct options to see the game credits or set options on the title screen rather then a "credits counter" somewhere to show how many quarters you put into it. And for that matter, "Start Game" doesn't work, only "Options & Help".
Clicking this will offer you a menu of options you cant turn on and off... some may do something, some may not, but in here is an option to fix the start menu, and clicking it will cause option to go "BACK" to fall out of place and need to be fixed. It's just one bug after another for our determined gamer to fix before he can be allowed to play this game.
But maybe you shouldn't have fixed it... there is a lot more to this game then meets the eye, and by booting it up, you have put your soul at risk... and no, I'm not giving anything away as I say that.. the game itself will put the stakes in front of you quite clearly.
From this point it will be up to you to figure out what is going on, what this game really is, and deal with it appropriately. The story isn't exceptionally deep or full of twists, but it is twisted and the writing will entertain the hell out of you as you play.
Enjoy this touch of madness.
8/10
Graphics: Pony Island parades around as a retro game, and everything in it will bath in that illusion outside of the outline of the arcade screen bezzle and your own hand when you get a ticket from the machine. The first part of the game uses very monochrome graphics and a very blocky look. It doesn't even use a good monitor as you can see the slightly off-target RGB shadows the cathode ray display would use to show color. Not that it doesn't show color at all. Even the early game has highlighted parts of the screen which will be shown in a single color (like green or red)... but it's designed to look primitive... even for when the arcade was supposed to be released.
Eventually you will find yourself in a version of the game that uses more traditional colors you might have expected out of an arcade game from the late 80s/early 90s (the arcade claims to have been copywrite 1992) and despite the menace the game has created by this point, it looks fun, colorful, and inviting!
Overall, what the graphics lack in tech, they make up for in style, adding to the messed up vibe of the game.
8/10
Sound: There is very little in the sound department for this game, but that should be expected based on the vibe of tech it's pretending to be at. There are few chiptunes you will hear while playing, however, and let me be up front... these sound absolutely FANTASTIC! From the map's slow plodding to the action level's energy filled tune you might actually want to hear away from the game, I can not praise what is here enough. It is a shame it's not as common as it could be however, as the game also likes to rely on "quiet" to set the ambiance. I have to put this in quotes, however, as it sounds more like a low wind tunnel nearby, likely emphasizing the sounds of the arcade's fans when the game itself isn't making noise. It works great to point out something important is going on, and sounds fairly realistic for an old arcade machine not particularly well cared for, but it's just NOTHING compared to the actual soundtrack on offer.
Sound effects are a lot less beautiful, however. In tune with the style, it's basically blips, bloops, and fuzzy explosions you might hear in early video games: fits the theme you are playing, but is nothing to write home about.
7/10
Gameplay: On face value, Pony Island appears to be a simple game once you fix it up and get playing: You will play a pony in a runner-game. You can not control how fast it runs, but only when it jumps and when you spit laser beams. This "arcade" part of the game is played entirely with the mouse, using the left button to jump and right right to fire. Your cursor will control where you aim.
But this is only a part of the game of which there are several. At time you will be clicking around a map to go to various spots along the trail offered to you, or breaking into the code itself, hacking the game by moving behavior tiles between code-lines to manipulate it, or even on the desktop the arcade is running on, should you break out of the game itself. But there are times the game will demand your keyboard too, as text prompts will need to be answered to solve a puzzle or two. And these puzzles are blended into the game itself brilliantly, helping weave the tale about as naturally as one could possibly hope.
The overall result is a game that is deceptively simple to play, yet devious in all the right ways to entertain you before you are done playing a few hours later. It keeps the whole thing weird and yet in one cohesive matching mass of weird held together by this backbone most games should rely on. REALLY well done.
8/10
Bugs: I believe I can only report a single bug while playing this game. I do not know why but at a very specific point in the game, it just started running stupidly slow. I was able to fix it by minimizing and restoring the game and there were no reported bugs in Windows, but... it was weird (and if you saw the screen when this happened since this was mid-stream, you would know why I laughed my ass off when it happened and didn't believe it was a bug right away).
Digital Rights Management: Outside of Steam, this game is DRM free. And if you pick it up on HumbleBundle, you not only get the steam copy, you get a standalone installer without any DRM at all!
Score: Pony Island is a classic game of weird subversion. Everything is meant to be strange and menacing, yet for all the variety the game will throw your way, it holds together brilliantly. There are few games that can represent more then the sum of their parts like this one. If you like mind-bending, this is definitely a game you should play. Just... don't insert your soul to continue.
9/10
System Requirements:
- any CPU that can run XP can run this game
- 2 GB RAM
- Any video card that supports DirectX 9.0c
- 400 MB hard drive space
- Windows XP
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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