Hardcore Gaming 101: Pengo

In Pengo, one of Sega's first big arcade hits, you play as the titular little red penguin forever trapped in a maze of ice. Your goal is to hold off the blob-like monsters known as the Sno-bees for as long as you can, advancing through the levels, before you are inevitably overwhelmed by them.

Each level is made up of a maze of blocks, a few eggs that the Sno-bees will hatch from soon after the level starts, and more eggs hidden under the ice that will hatch sometime during the level. You control Pengo with the joystick, with the fire button being used to kick in whatever direction Pengo's facing. If a block's in front of him when he kicks, it値l slide until it hits something, and if a block is trapped against something when he kicks it, it'll shatter. You kill Sno-Bees by kicking ice blocks into them, and if you can get more than one with one block, that'll earn you a lot of extra bonus points. Besides the regular ice blocks, there are also a few diamond blocks scattered around the maze. Not only are the diamond blocks unbreakable, but if Pengo can line them up in a horizontal or vertical line, he'll get a ton of bonus points. If you池e having trouble killing Sno-Bees with the ice blocks, you might want to try lining up the diamond blocks, since lining them up will also stun all the Sno-Bees on screen, letting you walk over them to kill them.

The Sno-Bees make a pretty valiant effort to not get killed, and they tend to alternate between wandering the maze and actively hunting you down at a moment's notice. Either way, they're making things harder for you. When the Sno-Bees aren't chasing you, they're wandering around, smashing all your ice blocks, and generally making it so it's harder to kill them. When they're chasing you, they will amost always take the most direct path possible towards you, smashing through as many blocks as they need to reach you. Some Sno-Bees are also hidden inside ice blocks, indicated by the blocks that flash different colors and a meter that shows how many eggs are left on a board. Once you kill off so many Sno-Bees, more will hatch from the ice blocks and come after you. You can stop more Sno-Bees from spawning by shattering an ice block with an egg in it, which means less enemies for you to deal with. You also need to be quick about clearing the board, because taking too long mean all the Sno-Bees become even faster, along with making it so you don稚 get any bonus points for clearing a level.

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