The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree
Developer Jeff Smith
Available: Atariage.com
One of the hot new releases at atariage.com, Gizzle Wap is a side-scrolling adventure game that looked like it was going to fly under the radar overshadowed by higher profile titles like Scramble and Assembloids, which were getting a lot of buzz at the time of release. However, the story and the nature of the game play were intriguing and I decided to let the masses fawn over the big names and check out this quieter title instead.
What’s All This Then?
Once upon a time there was a man. This man had a daughter, and together at bedtime the two of them would craft the adventures of a strange creature called a “Gizzle Wap.” The Gizzle Wap would roam the land solving problems and encountering odd creatures of mishmash design. Then one day, the man decided to take those adventures and craft them into a video game, uniting his love of games and the time spent with his daughter into one extremely sweet and touching tribute to something special that they shared. That game, The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree, tells the story of an evil red tree that sprouted up one day in the forest and began poisoning the Zazzle flies that frolicked there. When the Gizzle Wap found out about this, the solution was clear: remove the tree. To do this he would have to enlist the help of the Pegsi, super strong flying horses that could pull the tree up and take it away. To win the Pegsi’s favor, the Gizzle Wap would have to bribe them with cloud fruit that grew in the forest. And so the adventure began…
How’s It Play?
The Gizzle Wap's adventure consists of several stages. First, you must travel the forest collecting cloud fruit. This is easy because there is always one per screen. Once you collect the fruit, you will have to fend off the monsters of the forest to leave the screen. Collect enough fruit and 3 Pegsi will appear to uproot the Red Tree. With the tree gone, you are then tasked with finding the hidden lair of the Invicta, the evil monsters responsible for the tree’s existence. The Invicta lair is hidden in the forest and can be found by touching something in the forest that is out of place. Once discovered you descend into the lair and face the Invicta one-on-one. There are seven Invicta, each more difficult than the last. Defeat all seven Invicta to challenge the Invicta Prime, the worst of the lot. Defeat him and you’ll have saved the Zazzle Flies and the forest!
As it sounds, each level features unique game play. Collecting cloud fruit is pretty standard platforming fare with things to collect and enemies to battle. Once you’ve got a load of fruit, head for the tree and see how many Pegsi you can attract. Later levels require more fruit to bring the Pegsi in to help. Cloud Fruit also restores your health so having a full load is never a bad thing. Once the tree is removed, it’s a race to find the Invicta lair. With the tree gone, the poison is now spreading faster and threatens to kill you if you do not find the lair in time. Search the forest screen-by-screen looking for anything out of place, could be a tree branch or a hole in a rock, just make sure you find it fast (or have plenty of extra fruit to keep you going). This is a fun, scavenger hunt like level that you don’t often see in games and ends up being my favorite part of the whole thing. Finally, the boss fight against the Invicta is pretty straight-forward. In later levels the Invicta brings along friends to drain your health while you try to take it out making the battles much harder. When the Invicta is defeated, the tree returns and you go again.
The level design is the game’s strongest feature. We really need more games like this on the 2600. It reminds me of games like Krull, where there is plenty of action and lots to do. While the basic tasks are the same, the appearance of new enemies (and friends) and steadily ramping difficulty mean that the game doesn’t get stale easily. The promise of a big boss showdown at the end also creates a strong incentive to see the game all they way through.
Sadly it’s not all good news. The sub-title of this game should be The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree: Zazzle Flies Make Terrible Weapons. While the Gizzle Wap handles just fine, and sometimes totally cracked out like when you get the Humming Duck, the Zazzle Fly is just flat out unreliable. And seeing that the little glow bug is your ONLY source of offense this leaves you with a frustratingly hard to use weapon in a game about fighting monsters. The instructions say that you can use the zazzle fly three different ways: in front of you as a shield, under you as a pogo weapon, and you can send it flying into the tree tops to do battle in the sky. That’s great in theory, but miserable in execution. Using the fly as a shield is pretty easy (just press and hold the button), but it’s movement (and the movement of the monsters) is so erratic that it’s hit percentage is fifty at best. Sometimes the monster flies right under or past the fly and hits you anyway. Sometimes not. Using the fly as a pogo weapon isn’t terribly difficult either (press the button and hold down on the joystick), but since the ants it is used to combat jump at the same exact time you do, getting your target directly under you takes practice, a lot of practice. You can also use the pogo attack on other monsters, even the Invicta, but you’ll need to master squashing ants first. As a small side note, eating the cloud fruit to restore health is accomplished by pressing down on the joystick, and I’ve eaten a lot of fruit accidentally while trying to pogo attack. Finally, sending the zazzle fly into the trees is like sending your four year old into the kitchen to get a napkin. Oh sure, they’ll probably come back, but the success of the mission is entirely up for grabs. When you send the zazzle fly up, it flies in an erratic pattern best illustrated by this Family Circus cartoon:
Yep. So good luck hitting anything you are aiming at. You can use the difficulty switches to send the fly diagonally rather than straight up, but I have not been able to determine any real difference in the two. Many, many, many times the fly just goes right past/through the enemy to no effect. I have the best luck when aiming in front of the enemy and tying a four-leaf clover to a coin and tossing it in the wishing well outside my window. Even then my hit rate is maybe 25%.
Very frustrating. And I think this is why the “find the lair” portion of the game is my favorite, no combat. The combat is so clunky I’ve gone into Invicta lairs many times with full health and lots of extra fruit and still come out the loser. I’ve also died on a single forest screen because I could not get that damned fly to hit the Thesbe wasp for anything. When 2/3 of a game depends on good combat controls, they really need to be tighter than this.
The good news, however, is that you can get better at using the zazzle fly and fighting the monsters in the game with a lot of practice. I probably spent 3-4 hours playing this game for this review and in that time I got good enough to defeat the 4th Invicta pretty regularly, but it took a lot of dedication to make that happen. I fear that the less dedicated player isn’t going to put in the kind of time I did.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: In getting screenshots for this review, I noticed that the game does play slightly better in emulation than it does on actual hardware.)
There are a few other minor bugs like sometimes the cloud fruit is out of reach (not a big deal), and sometimes the Invicta will fail to appear in the boss screen for several seconds, or it will leave the screen during battle and reappear seconds later. These are pretty small potatoes, but they make the game look a little unpolished.
Whistles and Bells
The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree comes with a nicely designed, full color manual that features concept art and the heartwarming story that inspired the game. Because I was an early adopter, I also got the box and a super swanky poker chip, but those are limited so they may be gone by the time you read this.
Final Assessment
The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree is a smartly designed adventure game with a variety of game play elements that is only held back by its frustratingly inaccurate combat controls. If the zazzle fly was easier to control this game would be nearly perfect, but the game relies heavily on its combat elements and those are weaker than they should be and create a larger learning curve than I think the game needs. If you are willing to spend some time getting past, and forgiving, the frustrating combat controls, then there is a really nice little game here to enjoy. And I will unashamedly admit that this game gets major bonus points from me solely on the back of its inspiration. I would LOVE to see more adventures of the Gizzle Wap, just with better controls.
Tips and Tricks
Practice! As I said above, the combat is very frustrating, so take some time to master, or at least get familiar with, each kind of attack. The pogo attack is best for the ants and against the Invicta when it flies under you. The shield mode is best against the Culex, which tends to fly diagonally and will often run into it on its own. This is also a good strategy against the Invicta when it swoops at you. The “up in the trees” mode is almost useless, but does seem to be most effective against the Thesbe wasp. It will also sometimes hit the Invicta when it just paces about the treetops.
Stock Up! Don’t collect only enough fruit to call the Pegsi, load up! Collect as much as you can before you summon the third Pegsi to pull the tree so you have plenty to eat if the search for the Invicta lair or the battle therein goes poorly.
Pay Attention! This is a game that rewards paying attention. When it comes time to find the Invicta lair, you will need to be able to identify minute differences in the forest backgrounds. This could be a tree branch in the wrong place, a gap in a rock, anything, so stay sharp and take the time to know the forest while you are collecting cloud fruit.
Keep Moving! During the Invicta battles, standing in one spot is asking for trouble. The Invicta is always moving, and as you will learn, in predictable ways and you should follow suit. This will open you up to more attack opportunities. I spend a lot of time jumping and sending the fly into the trees with a lick and a promise. When the Invicta dives, get your shield ready or get ready to jump over him and pogo.
So there you have it, my first big purchase from the 2017 game release! The Gizzle Wap and the Strange Red Tree sounded like a fascinating world full of adventure and I was excited to see just how well it delivered on that promise. I think Gizzle Wap is worth having, but I caution you to stick with it when it gets frustrating. Hopefully you’ve picked up a few of the 2017 games as well. I’d love to hear what you think about your purchases.
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