Alternative Best Game of 2011: Peter Parrish

28 Dec 2011 at 11:00:00 by Peter Parrish

• Read our original The Adventures of Shuggy review

It was almost Bastion, of course. I've already heaped praise on that title in my Game of the Year countdown piece and the original review, but that, partly, is what clinched it for The Adventures of Shuggy (or just Shuggy, for short).

Like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Portal 2 (two other close calls for my favourite of the year), Bastion has already received positive attention from all quarters. I see this 'personal' Game of the Year article as an opportunity to highlight something that probably won't be staggering away from award ceremonies laden with trophies, despite being an exceptional game.

The tale of Shuggy is suitably tragic. It's a wonderful Xbox Live Arcade platformer that was (apparently) played by almost no-one. Through no fault of developer Smudged Cat Games, the title was the victim of protracted development, an unfortunate release window and a marketing campaign that to be called 'low-key' would first have had to actually exist.

After a Top 20 finish in Microsoft's 2007 'Dream Build Play' contest, Shuggy was picked up by publisher Sierra. Unfortunately, Sierra fell victim to Activision-Blizzard's asset-stripping policy when the company merged with Vivendi Games later that year. Shuggy's publishing contract was terminated, leaving it in limbo until a new deal was signed with Valcon Games towards the end of 2009.

By the time Shuggy was released in June 2011 it had been stuck in development for four and a half years. Even more damaging, other games had been released in the meantime which made use of some of Shuggy's more integral features. The title's main strength is in the variety of its bite-sized level design, in which a level-specific power tends to be mapped to the Xbox controller's right-trigger. This could be the ability to spin the map 90 degrees, the power to switch between multiple controllable Shuggies or to launch a magic rope. On some screens though, Shuggy makes clever use of time-travel; periodically sending the player's character back through time but leaving the prior paths of all other time 'ghosts' intact (it makes sense when you play it).

Post-Braid, this latter piece of design will have seemed a lot less impressive than it should. Indeed, most reviews made unfavourable comparisons to that game, or to P.B. Winterbottom. A reasonable point to make, given that those titles had been released first (which, ultimately, is what matters in these cases), but an understandable source of frustration to Shuggy's creator.

It also didn't help that the game was released alongside the latest installment of Magic: The Gathering on Xbox Live. Duels of the Planeswalkers dominated the dashboard advertising during the slow weeks ahead of Live's 'Summer of Arcade' schedule in July, and Shuggy never got a look in. I received both games to review and had absolutely no clue what The Adventures of Shuggy was.

Now, just in case you need the reminder, I'm a games writer who has to check through videogame press releases almost every day. It's not impossible for more obscure things to pass me by, but if I haven't heard anything about a new Xbox Live Arcade title during a fairly slow month, the chances of it filtering into the public subconscious are about the same as Modern Warfare 4 being a Japanese RPG. The failure of the game's marketing was so comprehensive that it was even difficult for me to find screenshots with which to illustrate my review.

So boo-hoo, a series of unhelpful circumstances meant that Shuggy didn't get much attention. Why should you care, I hear you ask? Well, firstly that's rather mean. But second, if you want to be all selfish about it, because it means you missed out on the best retro-styled platformer of the year. It doesn't have a very dynamic name and the graphics aren't what you'd characterise as amazing (the bright, bold colour palette is welcome, it's just some of the enemies which seem a little bland), but Shuggy crammed a plethora of tight puzzles and smart ideas into a single, spooky mansion.

Keeping up that degree of invention across more than 100 different levels is a remarkable achievement, and it says a lot that I was constantly being surprised and re-challenged all the way to the end of the game. Even though Shuggy chucks all manner of features and concepts at you, the pacing of how these ideas are introduced (and the option to avoid certain tougher screens) means the player is never overwhelmed. No matter how far into the game you are, the control scheme remains simple and lets you apply whatever you skill you've been given (say ... the ability to drop and activate a teleportation device, or to grow larger thanks to Alice in Wonderland style cakes) with ease.

Somehow, Smudged Cat Games even found the creative reserves to include a full series of (offline) co-op levels, in which the same level of invention was applied to a selection of maps that forced players to work as a twosome, rather than alone. These were every bit as taxing on both mind and reflexes as the single player game.

So when you're reading through all the 'Best of 2011' lists, packed with the hyped games from major publishers and a smattering of feted indie titles, spare a thought for some of the exceptional releases that simply passed people by. In fact, go one step better and pick up Shuggy for $10 USD to keep you (or the family) occupied during that dead-zone between Christmas and New Year. It's a clever, charming 2D platformer with heart and ideas in abundance that deserves a much, much greater audience.

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