Net Yaroze Month: Pushy IIb

In Net Yaroze Month, we are playing every Net Yaroze game featured on the UK Official Playstation Magazine, and ranking them all in the order we liked them. You may have other opinions as to the ranking, which is awesome.

To learn more about Net Yaroze, read our introductory article here.

Each level has a name. This one is David.

Pushy IIB is based on block-pushing game, Sokoban. If you are not familiar with Sokoban, the idea is to move a number of crates to a target location. Once this is done the level ends, and it is on to the next level.

You can’t pull crates, only push them. You can only push one crate at a time, and you can’t walk through crates. The game takes a lot of pre-planning and restarting the level until you work out the best crate pushing route.

Pushy IIB is no different. If you like Sokoban games, you’ll be in your element here.

If you’re wondering where Pushy I and Pushy II are, you’ll need to look here. R. Fred Williams, the author of the game, originally coded Pushy for Acorn’s RISC computers.

It’s not just crates to push about in Pushy IIB though, which makes things more fun. Some levels feature balls, which once you push them continue on their trajectory until they hit something.

As a fan of Sokoban games, this is right in my wheelhouse.

Legacy​

Williams did a GBA port of the PSX version of Pushy II, which can be found on his website. Unlike many Yaroze developers, Williams was an industry veteran by the time the Playstation came out, and had previously worked on many Codemasters games, amongst other things. Since then, Williams has worked on some Angry Birds games, Typing of the Dead Overkill and a bunch of other stuff.

Game: Pushy IIB
By: R. Fred Williams
Genre: Puzzle (Sokoban)
Available on Euro Demos: 37, 42, 87, 92, 108

Net Yaroze Month rankings:​

I really enjoyed Pushy IIB and will definitely be checking out the GameBoy version to play on the go.

1. Time Slip
2. Blitter Boy
3. Rocks n Gems
4. Total Soccer Yaroze
5. Terra Incognita
6. Super Bub Contest
7. Robot Ron
8. Decaying Orbit
9. Psychon
10. INVS
11. Haunted Maze
12. Roller
13. Pushy IIB
14. Gravitation
15. Squeak
16. Adventure Game
17. Katapila
18. Sam the Boulderman
19. Pssst!
20. Game Involving Triangles
21. Yarozians
22. Tanx
23. PingPing
24. Opera of Destruction
25. Video Poker Simulator
26. Shroud
27. Between the Eyes
28. Bouncer 2
29. Yaroze Rally
30. Sphere
31. Blockz
32. Technical Demo
33. Surf Game

Still to play:​

• Pandora’s Box
• Down
• Snowball Fight
• Arena
• A Dog Tale
• Mah Jongg
• Samsaric Asymptotes
• Hover Car Racing
• Clone