Ooze for the C64 is a charming old school platformer with a bit of a twist. On initial sight, this reminded me of Putty on the Amiga where you played a blue blob but actually the game mechanics are somewhat different here.
The game starts up with a decent chip tune and there are decent tunes throughout. There doesn’t appear to be much in the way of sound effects.
The game begins with your green blob of “ooze” materializing in a glass jar with electricity wizzing about inside and which continues to break, releasing you to explore / escape.
Unlike Putty there is no jumping here. Instead pressing the fire reverses “gravity” sending you upwards to stick to the ceiling and pressing fire again returns you to the floor. You can move left and right whilst in mid air which allows you to navigate some obstacles and being able to stick to the ceiling allows you to navigate other roadblocks. You will come across toxic goo, laser beams and toxic flumes amongst others.
Along the bottom of the screen you can see how many lives you have as well as a mini map of the rooms you have been to. Above that on the right are the keys you have collected which open various locked gates/doors. You will need to avoid the deadly enemies and environmental obstacles along the way.
I enjoyed this quite a lot. Simple to pick up and play but far from easy..but always “one more go”.
This game is also available as an Amiga version. Both are programmed by proliferous programmer Haplo and you can get them from the excellent indie store itch.io for a price of your own choosing. It runs well on C64 Together alongside my Immortal Joystick.
