Hydrofool
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Hydrofool is an Isometric Projection Adventure Game released in 1987 by Gargoyle Games/FTL on the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. It is the sequel to Sweevo's World and was written by Roy Carter, Greg Follis, and Rob Hubbard.
The robot Sweevo, having cleaned up Knutz Folly faster than his master expected, is given another job: drain the polluted aquarium planet known as Deathbowl.
This time Sweevo gets only one life, can carry only one object, and continually rusts in the polluted water. Contact with sea creatures makes him rust faster, as does swimming into objects. Fortunately, someone has left a number of oil cans around the caverns of Deathbowl, and there are several weapons available - so it isn't as Nintendo Hard as it sounds. The lifts and holes of the previous game are replaced by bubbles and whirlpools.
Draining the aquarium requires Sweevo to collect a number of objects and use them to pull out four large plugs. The bottom-most plug has to be pulled last.
Hydrofool was favourably received, with reviewers praising the graphics and gameplay.
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- Call Back: One of the objects to be collected is an opened (presumably empty) tin can. Unopened tin cans were an important tool in the prequel.
- Exact Words: The instructions say the plugs have to be pulled in the correct order to prevent areas from becoming inaccessible. In fact, on the Spectrum version at least, the top three can be pulled in any order and their levels can be revisited afterwards. Pulling the bottom one, however, makes the entire map inaccessible, so that one has to go last.
- Fun with Acronyms: Self-Willed Extreme Environment Vocational Organism.
- Well, he has to be controlled by a human, so "Self-Willed" is questionable. "Extreme Environment"? Maybe, but so far he's only been seen on once-inhabited planet(oid)s, and he isn't fully waterproof. YMMV on whether a robot should be called an "Organism". "Vocational" is right though, he's built to do jobs. Presumably the other letters were added because V was already taken.
- Hammerspace: Collectible objects are almost as big as Sweevo, but take up no space when he carries them.
- Instant 180-Degree Turn: In two plains.
- Life Meter: There's a "rustometer" at the bottom of the screen.
- Nonstandard Game Over: If the bottom-most plug is pulled out before all the others have been pulled, Sweevo gets pulled down the plughole and out of the game. The player is then advised,
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Hydrofool - don't go so fast! The wise man pulls the last plug last! |
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- What Could Have Been: On completing the game, the player gets the message "You've pulled the plugs, just as you planned. So - see you soon - in Wunderland!". The wording suggests that Wunderland might have been part of a planned sequel, but it never appeared.
- A Winner Is You: Completion conveys a congratulatory couplet (see What Could Have Been).