Ludography
Squish 'em cover

1983 · Action · Arcade

Squish 'em

A action game written by Tony Ngo that was published for various 8-bit platforms. The player controls Sam who must climb to the top of a 48 story building and collect a suitcase full of money while avoiding being knocked off the building by a variety of creepy creatures or falling objects.

Released
1983
Platforms
Atari 8-bitColecoVisionCommodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXCommodore VIC-20MSX
Genres
ActionArcadePlatformer
Developers
—
Publishers
Sirius Software
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Action
Country
United States
Languages
English

About

Squish'em, also known as Squish'em Sam, is a 1983 action game designed by Tony Ngo and published by Sirius Software for the Atari 8-bit computers, VIC-20, Commodore 64, MSX, and ColecoVision. The ColecoVision version plays digitised speech without additional hardware and was published as Squish'em Featuring Sam. The game is the sequel to Sewer Sam.

Keywords

  • climbing
  • vertical scrolling
  • falling object

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player controls Sam in an attempt to climb a series of vertically scrolling, uncompleted, 48 storey buildings. Each time Sam reaches the top of a building he grabs a suitcase full of money and parachutes to the start of the next building. Each building is represented by a grid of girders connected vertically and horizontally in different patterns; sometimes there is only a single way up to the next storey of the building. The style of buildings does not change, but the grid layout and colors change as Sam progresses through the game. Sam moves by shimmying horizontally across the grid and climbing upwards; once he has moved up a storey he cannot climb back down.

The buildings are patrolled by dangerous enemies which move horizontally across the grid. Debris is dropped from above which Sam must avoid. Making contact with an enemy without jumping on them or being hit by falling debris results in Sam being knocked from the building and losing a life. The player starts the game with four lives; extra lives can be collected during play and up to 128 can be held by the player.

Reception

Craig Holyoak of Deseret News rated the ColecoVision version 3 out of 5, praising the game's voice effects but criticizing it for being unoriginal, despite the boundaries of technology being pushed. He stated that the game contains "plenty of cute", enabling it to appeal to all ages and both genders. He also stated that "there is little new here that will keep an experienced gamer long at the screen." Holyoak played the game intensely for a number of days, but lost interest after mastering the ability to squish the more dangerous enemies. He finished by stating, "if you are less jaded and are looking for a climbing game with a new twist, Squish 'em may well be it."

In a "B−" review of the Commodore 64 version, Video Games Player wrote, "Once you really learn to slide and squish, it feels like dancing. But don't expect this game to keep you occupied over the long winter."

Legacy

An unofficial clone, even using the same name, was released for the Atari 2600 in 2007.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari 8-bit31 December 1983North America
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1983North America
Commodore VIC-2031 December 1983North America
ColecoVision31 December 1984North America
MSX31 December 1984Japan

Editions and related releases

Included in
ColecoVision Flashback

Games like this

Collections1 collection

Platform libraries

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.