Hook review - Super Nintendo

It's a fact of life that, sooner or later, all boys become men. Well most do, except a special few who never grew up - the Lost Boys. These geezers and their leader Peter Pan pursued their adolescent antics on the secluded island of Never-Never Land and enjoyed life to the full... until one day when the evil Captain Hook arrived to press-gang them all as galley slaves and turn the island into a pirate's paradise.

Now, since the UN is occupied elsewhere, it is up to Peter Pan to liberate his homeland alone. Landing on the south shore, Pan follows a route through many sectors teeming with Hook's minions. His destination - Hook's ship, where he meets his nemesis for the final showdown.

To get there our hero is required to jump around the platform environs of the island, ready to jab Hook's scurvy hordes with his trusty, rusty cutlass in the quest for liberation and eternal youth!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Quality graphics and sound this most certainly has. Challenge gameplay it hasn't. It's just all too easy, and the lack of new things and innovative features means that anyone who's played a couple of platform games before will breeze through this with ease. Given some more interesting bosses, a bit more oomph in the combat department and a few more challenging landscapes to tax your leaping skills, this could have been a winner. It's not, though, and only younger players and beginners will find themselves getting anything out of it.

To be frank, Hook is not an original product. Platform games for the SNES are backlogging at a frightening rate, and, although fun for a while, this hasn't got any features which lift it out of the crowd. To cap it all, it's not really a man's game at all - progress is too rapid. You could find yourself twiddling your thumbs after completing it in not too many days. The bosses would especially be much more entertaining if they were a bit more robust. Most of all, it seems to be severely lacking in the gameplay department. It's a shame to have to say all this, because Hook looks and sounds very nice in places and plays pleasantly. But if it's thrills you're after, leave this as the choice of a younger generation.

Retrospective comments

This is one of only Mean Machines reviews I don't agree with. Personally I loved Hook to bits. The graphics are excellent, the music is catchy and fits the on-screen action perfectly and the gameplay is addictive and fun. Perhaps the MM team let the fact that this was a movie tie-in colour their judgement? Whatever the reason, I think they were too harsh on what is fundamentally an excellent platformer. I've not seen any confirmation of this, but I've always suspected that Hook was programmed by the same Sony Imagesoft team that produced the excellent Sky Blazer (which was released later to almost universal praise). The graphical style is the same and the action is very similar - the 'flight' system seen in Hook is recycled in Sky Blazer.

Have your say about this review

Dan - 29 Apr 2009, 10:38 GMT

What a flat game to sign off on, Hook wasn't my cup of cha at all and suddenly it embodied the uninterestingness of what was to come in the gaming world :(.

Jono - 17 Jan 2012, 04:50 GMT

Don’t be so foolish Damo; the fact this is a movie-tie-in has nothing to do with the overall score the MM staff gave it.
The problem with this game is the fact that it’s just far too easy to complete (same can be said for Mega CD and Master System versions is no different. The game itself isn’t that bad; the graphics are smart, scrolling is smooth and the music is well appropriate for the game, but it can easily be completed (on the default settings) on you’re first sitting – which lets face it, isn’t a good thing.
72% sounds fair to me.
- Jono

Jono - 17 Jan 2012, 04:52 GMT

Woops few typos on my first post – serves me right for posting while at work :)
Don’t be so foolish Damo; the fact this is a movie-tie-in has nothing to do with the overall score the MM staff gave it.
The problem with this game is the fact that it’s just far too easy to complete (same can be said for Mega CD and Master System versions). The game itself isn’t that bad; the graphics are smart, scrolling is smooth and the music is well appropriate for the game, but it can easily be completed (on the default settings) on you’re first sitting – which lets face it, isn’t a good thing.
72% sounds fair to me.
- Jono

Samael - 01 Nov 2012, 09:53 GMT

There's that whine again - "It's too easy!" scream the hardcore in frustration, as they face another game that welcomes new people into our addiction. Of course, if they really meant it, they'd keep the upgraded sword throughout the game, not taking a single hit, but then it's "Too hard!"

Get over yourselves. This one of the few games with animation so well done that you can see the wind rustle through clothing as the character leaps into the sky. Even without magical pixie dust, you can see he was meant to fly. Combined with John William's score, and a game engine that's almost always fair, this is one of the few games to actually make you feel the rush of being a hero.

Leave the bitter old men behind, and unleash your inner child. Remember what it was like to play these kinds of games for the very first time.

Rob - 16 May 2013, 17:13 GMT

Totally agree with Samael. Hook doesn't deserve 100%, but its more than worth playing

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Publisher: Sony Imagesoft