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/vr/ - Retro Games

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6640587 No.6640587 [Reply] [Original]

Plok deserved better. I didn’t like it the first time I played, but I came around. The levels get really fun after the first few, there’s a ton of personality, and there’s some really cool mechanics. Plus, the soundtrack is killer.

Why didn’t this game get more recognition or rack up more sales? Why didn’t it get a proper sequel? I know it’s got some spinoffs and the webcomic, but it never got an actual followup.

What happened?

>> No.6640594

>>6640587
Marketing

>> No.6640597

If it was a first party title, it would have been regarded as a classic. Eurobros at the time couldn't catch a break.

>> No.6640618

>>6640597
If only it had been published by Nintendo. Everything woulda worked out fine.

Why is there hate for Euro games from the ‘90s? I hear a lot of it - I get there’s a lot of shovelware but a lot of the output was still really good.

>> No.6640652

ya i luv plok. probably didn't get a proper sequel simply because software creations had moved onto something else by then, and that's ultimately up to the fact that plok didn't do exceptionally well. it's nice that their designers really care about plok though and that it's got the webcomic going for it

>> No.6640810

Miyamoto liked the music

>> No.6640851

>>6640810

Who wouldn't?

The music in Plok is pure awesomeness.

>> No.6640917

Quit shilling your game on /vr/ already, Stu.

>> No.6640919 [SPOILER] 
File: 43 KB, 500x379, 1595771799492.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6640919

>>6640851
captain, im detecting a profound amount of homoerotic energy coming from this post.

>> No.6641340

>>6640587
Plok sold pretty well for being a non-licensed non-port third party game without a significant marketing push. It's also pretty well known to SNES fans as well as video game music enthusiasts. I do agree that it's a pretty cool game that could have used a sequel, but "deserved better"? I don't think that's necessarily the case. It did okay.

>> No.6642998

I can think of several reasons, but the biggest one is that mascot platformers never sold well in America. Or maybe they did at one point, but not 1993.

The ones that sold well were 1st party games with marketing muscle behind them, licenses like Mickey, Aladdin, The Lion King, Tiny Toons, etc, and a few titles like Earthworm Jim and Bubsy that, for better or worse, felt like licensed games for a cartoon that did not exist.

>> No.6643014

>>6640587
Game runs too fast, camera is positioned incorrectly, and Plok is too large of a sprite. No bueno

>> No.6643025
File: 319 KB, 1200x803, plok_uk_print_ad.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6643025

>>6642998

This is likely related to the game's lack of a real hook (besides the soundtrack, and good luck marketing that in a magazine). Sonic had speed, Bubsy had his "personality", DKC a year later had its graphics, MMX was your favorite NES character but edgy. Plok's limb throwing mechanics made it unique but weren't gonna make people drop everything they had to play it. The game's charms are numerous but also modest.

I love Plok to the point of infodumping about it literally every time it's brought up on /vr/ but I am not remotely shocked it didn't sell.

>> No.6643039 [DELETED] 

>>6643025

fwiw it sold well enough in the UK and Germany, but they also thought pic related was a viable game character, so make of that what you will.

>> No.6643046
File: 367 KB, 640x900, japomg0f.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6643046

>>6643025

it sold well enough in the UK and Germany, but they also thought pic related was a viable game character, so make of that what you will.

>> No.6643076

I'm just waiting for this to devolve into a Tim Follin praising thread.

>> No.6643086

This game is fucking relentless. At least Plok lives on in the form of a comic maintained by the Pickford Bros themselves.

>> No.6646056

Fucking love Plok.
I bought it back in the day. Never beat it because it was hard as balls, though. Still good memories, it was a good game.

>> No.6646082

>>6640597
lol it's not that good

>> No.6646130

>>6640594
I'd say this is the real answer. I never heard of it back then, not in stores, magazines, etc. Good game, looks like a kiddie game but it's pretty tough.

>> No.6646153
File: 51 KB, 413x243, 1520991072535.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6646153

>>6643076
Did someone say Tim Follin. The greatest composer of the 20th century.

>> No.6646269
File: 1.55 MB, 1077x1396, Untitled.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6646269

>>6646130

I've seen a few ads in various game magazines, but they were limited to the month of the game's release, and (with the weird exception of a Japanese ad) never told you how the game played or even showed a screenshot. It's like Tradewest was banking entirely off Plok as a mascot, which, uh, was probably a mistake.

>> No.6646292
File: 793 KB, 1268x1710, CtCpdinWYAE-wJD.jpg large.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6646292

>>6646269

The most common being a 2 page comic ad seen in EGM and Nintendo Power. The modern webcomic is 90% obscure injokes about British vidya and comics and even it is more clarifying than this ad.

Not only is this another character-focused ad for an unappealing character, it's not even canon to the actual game!

>> No.6646304
File: 1.17 MB, 1280x1710, plokcomic.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
6646304

>>6646292

Though maybe it should have been. The question of how these characters ended up missing (or dead?) would have added some meat to the in game story.

>> No.6648454

>>6641340
Do you have the sales numbers? I always thought it failed comercially - seems like I’m wrong here. Other than Wikipedia I don’t know where to find that type of info.

>> No.6649239

>>6648454

The developers estimate 200,000 copies each in Europe and the US, though that can be misleading as I think a few European countries like Spain had the US publisher.

>> No.6649242 [DELETED] 

>>6640587
Anyone else think the graphics look like it could be a game for the classic retro handheld Game Boy Advance?

>> No.6649259

Plok was great but was unfortunately crowded out by other Scotformers on the system.

>> No.6649320 [DELETED] 

>>6640587
Decent game with a very nice soundtrack. It makes me a little sad that other euro scotformers never made it to SNES such as Chuck Rock II: Son of Chuck. Imagine hearing *that* soundtrack in glorious SPC700 form, wow.

>> No.6649684

>>6649259
>>6649320

It was made in Manchester, so it's a bongformer.

>> No.6649714

You can't have both "euroshmup" and "scotformer", you have to pick one

>> No.6649717 [DELETED] 

>>6649684
Manchester is in europe

>> No.6650251

>>6649684
Or a Mancformer.