SEGA before even Master System!

Regulus - Star Jacker - Up'n Down - Flicky - Bull Fight - Mister Viking - Spatter - SWAT - Water Match - 4-D Warriors - I'm Sorry - My Hero - Ninja Princess - Pitfall II - Teddy Boy Blues - Brain - Rafflesia - Wonder Boy - Block Gal

Spatter/Tricycle San - 1984 - Personal high score: 553950

Sometimes all it takes for a game to stand out is a unique gimmick on top of an already existing formula. When designed entirely around a central mechanic that the other games lack it can shake up everything about how the game plays and the strategies involved. Spatter shares a lot of it’s core design with the likes of Namco’s maze games such as Pac-Man, Rally X and Mappy, but the unique jump mechanic results in the game being shifted in a more hectic and aggressive close-quarters direction.

In spite of that, “aggressive” feels like the wrong word to describe Spatter. It’s a game about a small child on a tricycle collecting flowers, it’s one of the cutest games you’ll ever play. Even the name “Spatter” feels misleading for this adorableness. The Japanese title of “Tricycle San” lets you know what you’re in for much better. A colourful, cutesy little maze game with dreamy visuals and surreal backdrops.

I mentioned a jump mechanic earlier (depicted in the two screenshots above), but that also feels somewhat inaccurate to what actually happens in-game, even if it’s officially called a jump by the game itself. What pressing the jump button does is have Spatter swerve his tricycle into the fence running parallel to him, causing him to bounce off of them like the ropes surrounding a wrestling ring. Not only can this be used to avoid enemies by leaning into the fence as they drive past you, but additionally certain types of enemies on the other side of the fence will be sent flying off-screen if the fence bumps into them. Versus something like Pac-Man where you’re mostly running from the ghosts and the chances to fight back are limited and short-lived, in Spatter as long as you have a fence you’re able to fight back, resulting in that previously mentioned more aggressive play-style. You’re not hiding in a corner luring the enemies away from the collectable you need, you can go straight in and grab it instantly with well-timed jumps on both defence and offence.

The primary collectables are flowers, of which there are eight in each level. Collecting them all finishes a level, with bonus points awarded for clearing the level as fast as possible, thus further encouraging that aggressive play style, alongside an element of risk vs reward. It may be safer to hang back and lure the enemies away from the last flower, or you could try and jump your way through them for a massive end-of-round bonus. In addition, throughout the levels are crates which can be kicked into enemies to knock them out and get more points, the amount of points multiplying depending on how many enemies you hit with a single crate, as does the value of the fruit inside the crate that can be collected once the crate hits a wall and breaks open. Hitting an enemy with a crate also causes a paper airplane to spawn in, which glides across the screen and is worth 2000 points when collected. Among these crates, one of them in each level will be silver and give you a diamond upon breaking it open, worth 2000 points. Getting these diamonds in every single level is integral to getting a high score as if you collect five of them without missing any, the fifth diamond will be worth a massive 50000 points. Keep this up for ten levels and then you’ll receive an even better reward, a lucky cat worth 100000 points.

Every 2-3 levels you’ll enter a bonus stage which shifts to a side-on single-screen 2D platformer style of gameplay. In these stages your jump is a standard vertical jump and your objective is to get to the girl at the top of the screen before your time runs out. Reaching the top awards you 10000 points, and there are also ten fruit in each of these bonus stages which are worth 1000 each for a total of 20000 points. This is already good but you can actually improve this even further by avoiding the fruit entirely, requiring some precise jumps threading the needle between fruits. Reaching the top without collecting a single fruit will instead reward you with 50000 points total.

I actually thought I was pretty good at Spatter until I did some more research and quickly discovered I’m utterly terrible at Spatter. See, I assumed that the game would be like 24 or 32 levels long and then just loop infinitely. Yeah, um, turns out this game is 100 levels long, although the level layouts and themes start getting recycled by around level 40. Meanwhile on average I’m making it to level 21, only just over a fifth of the way there. Spatter is surprisingly massive and with limited extra lives and no continues it’ll be a struggle to see this through to the end. It actually does have an ending too, it doesn’t just loop forever.

Spatter absolutely comes recommended for fans of Namco’s maze games. It’s an adorably charming game with a unique core mechanic well executed, some interesting scoring mechanics, hectic fun and a ton of content to keep you coming back.