Link's Adventure

Link's Adventure is a platform game developed by Hydra Industries in the late 2008, and was published for the Snowtendo Vii console system. In Link's Adventure, the titular character, Link, wants to conquer Pengolia so that he may rule, and overthrow the menacing Penghis Khan, whom is the current monarch. In two-player mode, Link is aided in his quest by his friend, Newman. To assume monarchy of Pengolia, Link must conquer the eight worlds that comprise the USA. Link (or Newman) must make his way to the castle and defeat one of PogoPunk's minions. To reach each castle, Link or Newman must battle through three "sub-worlds" by either destroying or avoiding PogoPunk's henchmen. At the end of each sub-world, a miniboss will appear. If Link or Newman successfully fights his way through the castle and defeats the evil minion, a penguin is freed. Inside the eighth castle, Link or Newman will have a final fight against the main antagonist Darktan, whom has been kept secret for up until the end of World 7.

As of late 2008, excluding Snowtendo DS sales, Link's Adventure is the second best selling game of all time (selling 40.24 million copies), and has yet to be surpassed. It was largely responsible for the initial success of the Snowtendo Vii, as well as ending the 6 month slump of video game sales for the USA.

Plot
While on a sunny day, Link oddly, feels bored of creating havoc and wants something fun to do. A knock on his door approaches, and is greeted by PogoPunk and his friends, whom invite Link to help them conquer Pengolia with them. Link refuses, and goes back to watching CPTV. However, after 10 minutes an idea strikes him, and he decides to go out and conquer Pengolia without the help of PogoPunk, due to Link wanting Pengolia all to himself.

During the end of World 6, Link faces off against PogoPunk, and attacks him with a blast so powerful that it rips off his mask, and shows his face. PogoPunk is depicted as a human, and simply tells Link that he never meant to conquer Pengolia, and tagged along for the fun of it. He quickly covers his face up with his green cape and disappears.

When Link defeats Penghis Khan at the end of World 7, a shadowy substance spawns out of him, and appears as Darktan. He tells Link that he possessed Penghis Khan so that he could be the one to conquer Pengolia. He was the one who sent all the baddies off to roam his castles, not PogoPunk, whom merely tagged along for the fun of it. Darktan then opens a rift, and transports Link to the Darktonian Realm, also known as World 8.

Upon defeating Darktan, Link is hailed as a hero across the entire continent of USA, and then begins to demand money for his efforts. He also wishes to be pampered and treated like a king. After that, the screen goes dark and the credits show.



Gameplay
The player takes on the role of Link, a black, evil penguin or in the case of a second player, Newman, Link's friend whom is depicted somewhat of a nerd, with grey hair, white shirt and a black bowtie. The objective is to race through the USA, eliminate PogoPunk's forces, and conquer Pengolia. Link or Newman can get hurt if either touch an enemy, or get hit with a projectile. If either get hit or fall down a pit, they lose a life and start again. The point where Link or Newman continues from after losing a life depends on how far he ran through the level before dying: either from the very beginning or at an invisible "checkpoint" partway through the level. There are no checkpoints in castles or in World 8, the final world. Link or Newman's primary attack is shooting a pink, sparkly laser at their enemies, which kills the Pengolian soldiers, known as Khanz Ninjas, and sends the turtle-esque penguins, known as Turties, into their shells. Link or Newman can kick these shells at enemies, who will be defeated as a result. Conversely, kicked shells can bounce back off walls or other vertical obstructions and hit Link or Newman, injuring the player. Some enemies such as Mirrorize and the boss Robo-Gary cannot be defeated by using lasers. One of their certain projectiles can be picked up and thrown at them respectively for damage. If one successfully completes the game, they are invited to play "Hard Mode", which increases enemies' attack speeds and hazards appear more frequently.

Music
POGOPUNK32, whom was the composer of Link's Adventure, offered music derived from worlds other than the USA itself, and the music rating was 8.7 in a Snowtendo Wii magazine;


 * World 1-1: "Getting Iggy with It" Music
 * WitchyPenguin Battle Music
 * World 1-2 "Rainbow Road" Music
 * Boss Fighting Music
 * PogoPunk Battle Music

Dimension Pogo
Dimension Pogo is a glitch purposely put in place in Link's Adventure. By passing through a solid wall near the World 7-2  miniboss door, it is possible to travel to "World -1", known as the Negative Zone to players, but to the creators of the game, it is known as Dimension Pogo. In Dimension Pogo, the player loses all of their lives, and the attack button has been disabled. Powerful enemies such as Penghis Tank and the Fiendish Five appear here. Minibosses do not appear at the end of each sub-level, and the end of world boss is PogoPunk, but a more powerful version. New attacks are that he has a special attack to invert the colors of the screen, slowing Link or Newman down or paralyzing them, and his animation attack is far more powerful, giving him the ability to draw replicas of random bosses in the game. Players claim that it takes about 50 hits to take him down, and the attack button is enabled for this boss fight.

Power-Ups
Power-ups have been introduced in the game, that give Link or Newman a temporary advantage. Some power-ups include;


 * Charger: When Link or Newman picks up this powerup, a message will appear on the screen saying "Press A!". If a player furiously presses A, it will charge up an attack. The more times a player presses the A button, the more damage it will do to an enemy. These are rarely found in the sub-worlds, they are found a lot more in certain boss levels.


 * Speedy: This will allow Link or Newman to increase their walking speed velocity, and go much faster than normal. These power-ups respawn, and are required to complete certain puzzles in the game.


 * Invincibility Fish: Link or Newman turns into a giant, pixelated version of themselves, and can destroy any enemy by simply touching them. Any destructibles in their paths will be smashed. In World 1-3, PogoPunk grabs an Invincibility Fish, once Link grabs his treasure chest.


 * Triple Star: This power-up is only available in the Darktan boss fight, and is the only power-up in the game that is permanent for the entire level (excluding the debug menu). This power-up fires a flurry of stars at enemies, and is the only power-up strong enough to pierce Darktan's shields.

Unlockables
A player can unlock a special debug menu if he/she has completed the game on Hard Mode. The debug menu allows the following;


 * Character Replacement: Allows the player to replace Link or Newman with any other character in the game. A reference to Explorer and Fred have been made in the Character Replacement menu, allowing the player to control them, despite the fact that they were not included in the game itself.


 * Monster Mash: The player has the ability to make certain generic monsters spawn in more locations. A number is next to every enemy in the game in each world, which goes from 0 to 5 (0 being the lowest, and the monster never appearing and 5 being the highest, where the monster appears frequently)


 * Warp Ten: Allows the player to teleport to any level (excluding Dimension Pogo)


 * Power Overwhelming: The player may pick from a selection of power-ups to use, and they are permanent for the entire level. However, due to glitches and errors, the player may only pick 1 power-up for a level, then the count resets and they may pick another power-up to use for the next level.

Trivia

 * Numerous references to real-life USA characters have been implemented in the game, such as Mabel, Annoying Old Party Penguin, and Tails6000
 * Snowtendo Magazine received the game a rating of 9.5 out of 10, due to the fun-factor of the game and the graphics.
 * Penghis Khan seems to enjoy the game a lot, due to him being featured in it.

Internal Links

 * Link
 * Penghis Khan
 * Newman
 * PogoPunk
 * Darktan