The Ooze

The Ooze is a Mega Drive/Genesis game, created by Sega in 1995.

The Ooze is based on an algorithmically-generated cellular automaton. As such, the main character can be split apart and reformed like a viscous liquid. The gameplay is reminiscent of the Bitmap Brothers' game The Chaos Engine also called Soldiers of Fortune. The art style evokes a cartoony (necessitated by the constraints of the medium) H.R. Giger. The story recalls The Toxic Avenger. Some of the programming was fairly advanced for a 16-bit system, for example the speed powerup effect was actually created by decreasing the viscosity of the character.

Story

The Ooze starts with DR. Caine, an excllent scientist who invented an achromatic odorless toxic gas and its antidote. He sneaked into the research lab where he worked in order to find evidence that crimes were being conducted by using the toxic gas he created. He was discovered by his colleagues and chemically done away with. Little did his former colleagues know he was now the Ooze.

Gameplay

The game takes place from an overhead view. The main character is a puddle of ooze with a head. He can move around and has two attacks. One is stretching out a steerable psuedopod of ooze whose length is only limited by how much ooze he currently has to attack, and it can also be guided around with the control pad. He can also spit gobs of ooze, although this takes off a bit of his puddle. Enemy attacks can cut off a bit of the ooze, and the player will die either if his puddle of ooze is reduced to a very small amount or if his head is attacked directly.

Cult Status

The game's status as a cult classic is confirmed by its inclusion in Sonic Mega Collection Plus. It is unlockable in two ways: In the Xbox and PlayStation 2 version, it can be unlocked if you have a Sonic Heroes save. In the Japanese version of Sonic Mega Collection, this was also an unlockable by playing any game on the disc for 30 hours (this method also works on Plus).

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.