Developer: Ukiyotei
Publisher: Jaleco
Release Date: February 14, 1998
I will always be fascinated by the early days of PlayStation. It came into a world still dominated by Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis trying to succeed where every other disc-based system had failed. Sony had a great strategy of just releasing every kind of game. It was an unprecedented quality and quantity approach that had never really been seen before. No matter what kind of gamer you were there would be something for you on PlayStation. This means that in addition to games like Twisted Metal and Battle Arena Toshinden we also got 16-bit holdovers like Cool Spot and more than one Tiny Toon Adventures game. That's where a game like Punky Skunk fits in. It was the mid 90s so people were still playing character-based side scrollers. Punky Skunk feels like it should've been on an earlier console, but that was nothing unusual for a game released so early during PlayStation's run. It was so early that it was release #409. Wait, that's not an early game at all. That's right in the middle. It came out a couple weeks after Final Fantasy Tactics and just before SaGa Frontier. What's a game like Punky Skunk doing coming out even after Sonic the Hedgehog had started to fade? I need to look this up.
Okay so Punky Skunk was originally meant to be a Super Nintendo game, but the developers started a bit too late and had to move it over to PlayStation. It was released in 1996 in Japan but not until early 1998 in North America. I have no idea why it took so long, but that definitely wasn't in Punky Skunk's favor. Maybe the publisher Jaleco saw the success of Crash Bandicoot and thought that there was still some life in mascot games and so they decided to take a chance on an already made side-scroller. Whatever the reason, Punky Skunk is definitely an oddity in a year that saw PlayStation release some of the greatest games of all time. 1998 was the year of Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Solid. Going forward Sony would certainly encourage more games like those instead of talking skunk games. I suppose it's good to have kid friendly games that aren't based on existing properties, so that's a point in Punky Skunk's favor. But is it actually a quality kids' game?
Well, that's hard to say. Punky Skunk is a game of modest pleasures that is mostly fun if you like throwbacks. Of course this is a skunk with an attitude. Of course he attacks by shooting stinky clouds at the enemies. The graphics do not look very good for 1998, but oddly enough they would fit in perfectly in 2024. They just have a wonderful 16-bit look to them. It feels like I'm playing a long-lost PC Engine game. It even has a world map which you know I love. The major gimmick is that Punky can find powerups that give him different abilities. There is a pogo stick that allows him to jump high and a parachute that allows him to glide for example. He can only have one ability at a time, but he can switch between normal attack mode and special item mode. This is important since many of the transformations don't come with an attack. The levels are largely centered around the abilities, but it can still be annoying switching back and forth to avoid damage.
There are a few other annoyances that keep Punky Skunk from being a true winner. The biggest problem is the somewhat bland level design. There aren't that many levels that stick out in my mind after playing them. They mostly boil down to finding the special item and using it to find the end. Many of the early levels are very short. And it's not the type of game that encourages exploration. Most of the items are just for gaining extra lives. It's not the type that encourages going for 100%. There are some mini games that can eventually lead to more hit points, but the game is easy enough that they are purely optional. I wouldn't say it's too easy though. I got some game overs as I played and had to grind for lives a few times. I just with the levels had been designed with a bit more care.
This is one of those situations where the more I thought about the game I was reviewing the more I liked it. I hadn't initially expected to give Punky Skunk a very good review, but its modest charms have won me over somewhat. I think it's been helped by the passage of time. It didn't fit in during PlayStation's heyday, but 25 years later and the charms stand out more than the drawbacks. I can't deny that I had some fun while I was playing it even if I did tend to play it in chunks. I played about a third of it at a time over the course of a few months. That's not the most responsible way to review a game, but it does show that I couldn't quite take myself away from it. I would move on to bigger and better things, but Punky Skunk would always find its way back into my brain.
I am a bit of a failure as a list maintainer. I switched laptops recently, and for whatever reason my list didn't want to come along. If there's anyone out there who knows a good way for me to present it on my blog, please let me know. I haven't made a spreadsheet since my college technology class 20+ years ago, so I don't know what I'm doing. The list does still exist though, and Punky Skunk made it into the green section at #69. I have rated 169 games so far which means there are at least 100 games worse than Punky Skunk. Not bad for a skunk with attitude.
PlayStation Quality Percentage 2/3
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