I've Been Diddled Again! Let's Play Plok!

Hello there, friendos! Welcome to the highly anticipated (by Garrison) Plok Let's Play!



I'm DemoWeasel and I'll be your host for this season of everyone's favorite block of persimmon-free cartoons, Saturday Morning Sundae!

Heh! I know you; you're probably asking, “Mr. Weasel, what the hell is a Plok? Sound effects can't be games!”

That's where you're wrong! Haven't you ever heard of Zoop?

Originally conceived as an arcade game called Fleapit, Plok! is a side-scrolling mascot platformer released in 1993 by UK-based developer Software Creations and publisher Tradewest. You might be amused to discover that Nintendo themselves published it in the PAL regions, while Activision handled it over in Japan! The game's designers, the Pickford Bros., are still active in the game development industry to this day.

Unlike most third-party mascot platformers of the 16-bit era, Plok never received a multiplatform release. I kind of see this as a good thing; who knows what awful things other consoles might have done to Plok's amazing soundtrack composed by Tim and Geoff Follin?

I never had a copy of this game to call my own, but my older brothers did! Appropriately enough, they purchased it at a flea market a few years after it came out.

Anyway, before we start with the LP proper, I want to take a moment to address the game's box art.



The box art looks pretty great for the most part; it's bright and colorful and has a lot of nicely-sculpted clay figures of the game's enemies in the background. What bothers me about this art is that our hero has very well-defined pecs for some reason. I understand Plok had pecs in the game's original design docs, but why did he have pecs there too? Is there some sort of market out there for muscular bell-shaped lumps of clay? I sure hope there isn't! Lucky for us, Plok's actual in-game sprite lacks this level of upsetting muscular definition. Hooray for hardware limitations?

With that out of the way, let's get this show on the road! ONWARD TO THE INTRO!



Plok starts with a small cutscene informing players of our hero's sole motivation to kick this adventure into high gear: somebody stole his... flag. What importance does this flag hold? Is it the only thing keeping the rebels of Akrillic at bay? Is it a family heirloom handed down from the first inhabitants of the archipelago Poly-esta? We may never know.

Yes, those are the actual names of locations in this game.



Plok has gotten desperate enough to pull out his trusty telescope, which we never see in the game ever again. Looking all over the game's overworld, he finally spots his flag hanging on a pole over on the mysterious Cotton Island. You may be a bit disheartened to learn that you don't actually get to move Plok around this overworld; the game plays out in a linear fashion with Plok automatically walking (or boating) to each flagpole-marked level.



Ahh, Cotton Island; the relaxingest place in all of Poly-esta! Well, it was. Those pesky pineapple-esque Gershwins have overrun the land with their squeaky bounces and blue hair and made every place the complete opposite of relaxing. Luckily for Plok, these nuisances are easily disposed of with one solid punch from his free-flying limbs. Yes, that's right! Like the significantly more popular Rayman, Plok shoots his limbs at enemies to pummel them to death. Unlike Rayman, Plok can also shoot his feet at enemies to kick them in their stupid pineapple teeth!



The first level of Plok is really short, like, shorter than World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. Short. On Cotton Island, all you have to do is get from one end of the level to the other, fighting whatever baddies are in your way while getting used to the controls and Plok's moveset. Here you can see one of Plok's two jumps in action: the Spin Jump. The spin jump doesn't actually do any damage and Plok can't shoot his limbs like he can with a regular jump, but the tradeoff here is that this jump travels a lot higher and farther than the wimpy regular jump does. As you probably guessed, Shells are to Plok as coins are to Mario; fill up Plok's head in the top center of the screen and you get a 1-UP! Reaching the end of each level in Cotton Island results in Plok finding some sort of doofy item instead of his square flag.

PLOK! WILL RETURN AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL BREAK.

BUY IT. BUY IT NOW.





In between levels, Plok enjoys talking to himself. I don't really get anything out of these little vignettes other than the realization that our hero kind of has anger issues. Anyway, this level starts out with a couple of Logs flying out from the left side of the screen as soon as the level starts up. They're big! They're heavy! They're wood! I can almost guarantee that you'll get hit by these things the first time you play through the game. Logs are one of the few obstacles in Plok that can't be destroyed with a punch on the game's Normal difficulty level, but wait, what's this? A shiny metal buzzsaw-looking thing! Foregoing all sorts of safety regulations, our hero decides to run right into it.



WHOAAAAA! The Buzzsaw powerup turns Plok into, well, a buzzsaw! It immediately sends him rocketing forward at high-speed, slicing through logs and unpunchable fish named Gibson like a warm knife through buttah. This powerup lasts only for a few seconds, but it's still a thrill using it! On one of the saddest-looking trees ever, Plok finds some Purple Fruit; fruit replenishes his health but is kind of hard to come across. Something I wasn't aware of when I played this game as a kid is that Plok can punch purple fruit to make it bigger; the bigger the fruit, the larger the health boost! Do try this at home, kids!



I think that buzzsaw took us a little too far forward in the level; let's go back and see what we missed! Aha! The clever dogs hid a very exciting-looking present right underneath the level's starting point. What could be inside? Our hero eagerly rips apart the wrapping to find out!



Oh, sweet! It's a Costume! A Pugilist costume, to be exact! Every Present in the game contains a costume; sometimes they're repeats, other times they're not. These costumes last for a pre-determined period of time that I haven't bothered to actually time out yet, but they stick around for a good while. Pugilist Plok's special ability allows him to send out an infinite amount of rapid punches without having to worry about losing his legs in the process. These punches can destroy logs and Gibsons, so it's a pretty useful powerup to come across in the early levels of the game. Reaching the end-level flagpole while in costume reverts Plok to his normal form, allowing him to look at scarves and ask silly questions.

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL! PLOK WILL RETURN AFTER THIS COMMERCIAL BREAK.
DO IT, YOU ASSHOLE.

Plok's next stop on Cotton Island brings him to a place named after a crummy puzzle game. Hey, wait a second, why's this sign facing the wrong- GAH! It's a Rockyfella! These disturbing fellows are always hiding beneath signs pointing in direction opposite of where Plok is supposed to go, so it's easy to prepare for their incoming rock attacks. Rockyfellas take three punches before burrowing back underground to socialize with the mole people.



Oh! It seems that Rocky was so grateful for the severe beating Plok gave him that he decided to leave a shiny precious Gem in his place. Collecting this gem makes Plok invulnerable for a few seconds, so the best strategy is to dish out as much facepunching pain as fast as you possibly can. Every defeated Rockyfella leaves one of these behind, so it's easy to keep up an invincibility chain in this level. Eventually, our hero comes to a collection of shells pointing down at a gap. Being the suicidal maniac he is, Plok takes a dive down into the unknown.



Oh, it's just one of those sad trees bearing purple fruit =T. Fruit is kind of pointless at this point since Plok's health is pretty high, so he decides to count his losses and make his way back up to the flagpole awaiting his arrival. I like to imagine this particular flag came from a comically large gun, and Plok's outdated vocabulary only makes this more amusing. One thing I should mention at this point is that each time Plok gets through a level without losing a life, he gains a letter of his name. Getting all four letters gives our hero a well-deserved Continue! With no passwords or save system in place, we are really going to need these continues to make it through the rest of this soon-to-be surprisingly tough journey.

Welp, that's it for today's block. No need to be upset, though! There will be more Plok next week to satisfy those seemingly insatiable urges you refuse to tell anyone about!

See you in 7!

Holy crap, I've played through the beginning of the game several times and didn't know that any of this stuff was there. I'm digging the LP so far, just like Demo predicted.

The first stage is short, but there's a bonus level to the left of the start.

I have a lot of nostalgia for Plok, even though it's one of the few SNES games to achieve early NES levels of unreasonable hardness.

WHAT

When you get to the tree, pop the fruit.

Grumpy-eyed Plok is pretty much the best thing.

Just so you know.

Five Stars!

HELL YES PLOK

This game is a real piece of work. The platforming is nothing to write home about, but the painterly backgrounds and soundtrack? So good.

Godspeed, Demo!

This game was something of a cult classic among my friends and I. If only it had a save feature... But the fact that your location on the world map seemed to change somewhat depending on where you died made the world map seem rather enigmatic to me, and the fact that you knew you'd never reach the end of it with the limited lives and continues of the cart made every playthrough something of a, "Will I see more of the infinite new things in this game?" I'm sure someone somewhere has beaten the rom by now, but I don't know if I could ever believe someone beat the cart. Regardless, really looking forward to this!

The creators seem to remain very fond of Plok!, and there's plenty of promotional/concept art and an interesting article about it on their site here. The Softography section is also interesting, if you wonder what else these guys did.

I can already tell this is going to be magical.

Plok made a cameo appearance in the recent Atari Lynx release Zaku. Near the end of the game he pops up as an enemy in a boss rush, and he's a right pain in the ass to kill. The cameo is official, with the blessing of the character's creators.

I would hate to get diddled by Plok!

i played this until it got really hard and then i was sad

I honestly can't remember ever playing this game, but things like the intro screens to each level just keep giving me déja vu.

This is wonderful!

I played this game constantly as a kid!

Actually, I played the first few levels constantly as a kid. Once the Flea Factor enters into it, the difficulty and exploration got to be too much for me. So I would play the early levels again.

Will you be the one to show me what happens past the spider level?

I would like to revisit the game as a Man, but alas, my SNES stopped functioning while stored in a closet, having died from lack of love, it's only companions a game of "Risk" missing some pieces and a slow-bleeding Stretch Armstrong that my brother had long ago stabbed in the name of discovery.

You should use PNG format for your screenshots, not JPG.

Huh, I thought I had converted them to PNG last night; I guess that's what happens when I decide to put together an LP update at 1 AM.

EDIT: Now with PNG!

Hooray for PNG!

I dunno why, but when I saw the words "I've been diddled again!" here, I thought it was slang for some kinda lewd sex act. O_O;

Anyway, I've never played Plok before, but I approve of a sawblade transformation. =D I'm interested in seeing how things go once the game bares its fangs.

Plok is one of my favorite games and its soundtrack is unsurpassed. I was never able to beat it though, that very last world is too hard.

This pretty much describes my experiences with Plok as well. I honestly think I picked up a copy just to listen to the sweet harmonica solo in the opening.

Does Plok eventually get snookered and boingered as well?

I am jealous that you have a wider selection of commercials to use for your LP than I do for mine. Of course, I shamelessly cribbed that device from you, so I guess that's what I get.

The only Plok fansite. One of Geocities' more regrettable casualties.

I'm still holding out for Plok 64!

Man, I do not miss auto-loading MIDIs.

QFT. Jesus, those were awful.

wonderful

It's weekend time again, and weekend time means a fashionably late edition of Saturday Morning Sundae! I'd like to apologize for this airing so late; there was an enormous Christmas party here at the studio and I might have done some things that I will come to regret doing in due time! In exchange for your patience, I think you deserve a fairly hefty SPECIAL HOLIDAY UPDATE!

But enough about breaking the law; it's time for some more CARTOON ACTION with our buddy Plok! Today's episode concerns our hero's journey through the rest of the whimsical Cotton Island, where the water's deadly and the parking's always free.



Silly Plok, flags don't have minds! If that were the case, they would have been very frightened in the '70s. As you may have surmised, this level consists of logs that fall. In a jerk move that is very similar to the one the game played in the previous level, logs immediately fly out at Plok from the left side of the screen as soon as the level starts. They seemed to be moving pretty slowly, though, so avoiding them with a simple spin jump proves to be no grand feat. Most of Log Falls is made up of these multi-colored floating platforms with the occasional island stepping in to provide a safe haven from the deadly water below.



Well, they're safe half of the time, anyway. Plok eliminates the Gershwins with extreme prejudice before taking his daring leap off of Strange Tree Island, once again landing on an oddly-shaped floating platform. A pair of oncoming logs usually greets Plok as soon as he lands on the larger platforms, but they're easy enough to avoid. Something about that pink platform up there doesn't sit right with me, though; maybe Plok should head up there and see what sort of secrets it's hiding! Aha! I knew my suspicions would lead to something good! I wonder what costume this particular present holds?



The large punctuation mark disappears to reveal Hunter Plok! This costume allows Plok to shoot a large spread of pellets from his adorably tiny blunderbuss. The pellets destroy pretty much anything in their path and can also be used to collect large swaths of shells! Those logs and Gibsons don't stand a chance against Plok now!



Blasting logs to pieces is so satisfying! It makes me wish Plok were able to keep these powerups from level to level or at least collect them in an inventory like in Super Mario Bros. 3. Too bad that probably would have made this game too easy. Post log-destruction, Plok manages to collect enough shells to receive a delightfully-named BONUS PLOK. Forget about 1-UPs, Extra Lives, or FREE MANS; this game is all about the bon-i.



The Hunter costume really makes this level a complete joke, but then again, the levels on Cotton Island are as easy as pie in the first place. Does this doubly-easy level make up for the harder ones the game tosses at you near the end? Hahaha NO. Finishing the level grants Plok the last letter of his name; he has an actual identity now, with the benefit of a PLOKONTINUE to boot! Who cares if it's a stupid word? He's got something that's uniquely Plok, now! As for the level's flag, I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to be. It kind of looks like a floppy disk, but I'm probably wrong. Onward to the next destination!