''Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday'' is a 1995 side-scrolling platform video game developed by Phoenix Interactive Entertainment and published by Sunsoft for the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eur ...

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

. The goal of the game is to guide the main character,

Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created ma ...

from the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

s, through his

nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. The dream may contain situations of d ...

s. The game received mixed to positive reviews by critics; its

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

and animations were received well while its length and easy difficulty were not.

Gameplay

''Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday'' is a side-scrolling platform game. The main character,

, can move left and right, jump, swing on chains, climb, enter doorways and ride bubbles underwater. Standing on some platforms causes a vampire-costumed Daffy Duck to appear, scaring Porky and propelling him up into the air to reach high places. Enemies in a

level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *Canal pound or level *Regr ...

can be defeated either by jumping on them or hitting them with fruit after collecting a fruit bowl

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...

. At the beginning of the game, Porky starts with five lives and the goal is to make it to the end of all levels. Porky loses a life if all of his hearts are lost, which happens if Porky is hit by an enemy.

Checkpoints Checkpoint may refer to: Places * Border checkpoint, a place on the land border between two states where travellers and/or goods are inspected * Security checkpoint, erected and enforced within contiguous areas under military or paramilitary cont ...

that look like a red ''X'' mark are scattered throughout the levels. Going past a checkpoint makes Porky stick a flag into the ground and that's where he'll start from if a life is lost later in the level. If all lives are lost, there is an unlimited continue to feature that restarts the player in the same level. The player is introduced to the story of the game with one in-game cutscene. The story goes as following: On the night before

's vacation starts, he goes to bed. Asleep, he starts having

s where he meets different scary characters. In order to wake up, he must travel through all of the levels in the game. There are several different types of

s and items in the game. Collecting the fruit bowl mentioned earlier supplies Porky with unlimited fruit to throw at enemies until he loses a life. Heart items found scattered in the levels refills one of his hearts. Picking up 100 cupcake power-ups, which an on-screen counter keeps track of, rewards the player with an extra life. There is also a cake power-up to collect, which increases the in-game

score Score or scorer may refer to: *Test score, the result of an exam or test Business * Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio * Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company * Score Media, a former Canadian m ...

. A potion power-up will, if collected by Porky, inflate him for a limited time. He then starts to float and can be moved up, down and as always left and right. There are six levels and at the end of each level is a

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

. Between levels, a world map displays the player's progress. The first level, ''The Haunted Woods'', takes Porky through a forest with goblins,

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

s, magical walking cauldrons, spiders, leprechauns and

bats Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

. Notable is also a tree with a rotating 3D-effect. In the end of the level a boss named Spooky Sid is fought. The second level is ''Dry Gulch Town'', and it takes Porky through a western type of town, including

tumbleweed A tumbleweed is a structural part of the above-ground anatomy of a number of species of plants. It is a diaspore that, once mature and dry, detaches from its root or stem and rolls due to the force of the wind. In most such species, the tumble ...

and caged hooligans while foes with moose trophies with rifle barrels showing from their mouths, where Six Shootin' Sheriff Sam is the boss in the end of the level. The third level first takes place on a small raft and later on under the sea in the Ruins of Atlantis. Diving turkeys and

barracuda A barracuda, or cuda for short, is a large, predatory, ray-finned fish known for its fearsome appearance and ferocious behaviour. The barracuda is a saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was ...

s are enemies found there, and Porky can ride on bubbles exhaled from a special kind of sea creature. And Willie Great White is the boss foe. In the fourth level, an abandoned

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

, Hyde Tweety is the boss. The fifth level is in the Snowy

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

, which will eventually transcend into a delusional landscape where it literally rains cats and dogs as well as fish skeletons

Monster Max ''Monster Max'' is a 1994 action-adventure puzzle video game developed by Rare and published by Titus France in Europe for the Game Boy. The player is the titular aspiring rock star, who, in an attempt to fight King Krond who bans all music, trav ...

is the boss of that level. In the sixth and final level, Porky goes through the castle of Daffy The Count Duck and clashes with Herman the robot boss in his chamber as the final boss. In the options screen, three different difficulty levels can be selected. A

sound test A sound test is a function built into the options screen of many video games. This function was originally meant to test whether the game's music and sounds would function correctly (hence the name), as well as giving the player the ability to com ...

feature and a controller configuration setting is also available.

Development

''Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday'' was developed by Phoenix Interactive Entertainment. Darren Melbourne designed the core elements of the game while Kev Bruce composed the music and sound effects. '' The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down'' song, also known as the

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

theme, was added to the game. Notable graphical effects include

parallax scrolling Parallax scrolling is a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene of distance. The technique grew out of the multiplane camera tec ...

and a weather effect which means that every time the game is played the weather can be different. For example: sometimes it may be snowing and sometimes it may be raining. The game's publisher was originally

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...

, who owned the license to publish games with Warner Bros. characters at the time, but it sold the rights to ''Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday'' on to Acclaim Entertainment in 1995. The game was ultimately published by Sunsoft. Some versions of the game were distributed by Acclaim and some by Sunsoft, both under license of

Reception

''Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday'' received mixed to positive reviews. The

and animations received praise as well as the weather system, about which a reviewer from

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The m ...

commented: "It's a great idea; it should be used more often". Generally well received was also the music and sound effects, although some reviewers found the music loops to be too short. In addition, the controls in the game were considered by some critics to be easy to use. On the other hand, some critics thought the challenge of the game was too easy and the levels too short and/or too few. Also, some reviewers thought the game was unoriginal and just reused many gameplay elements popularized by other games in the same genre. Most of the critics recommended the game for younger children.

Notes

Credited as "Kev B".

References

Reference group b *

External links

''Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday''
at

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