Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure

Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure is a video game programmed by Todd Replogle and published by Apogee Software in 1992. It is a two-dimensional side-scrolling platform game produced for the PC platform, and features 16-color EGA graphics at 320×200 screen resolution. Working titles for the game include "The Adventures of Zonk" and "Cosmo: Kid From Space".
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Technical implementation
o 1.1 Music and sound
* 2 Story
* 3 Gameplay
o 3.1 Fighting and health
o 3.2 Items and points
o 3.3 Enemies and characters
* 4 Reception
* 5 References
* 6 External links

[edit] Technical implementation
Typical gameplay shot

The game's technology at the time was comparable and in direct competition with that of Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers 3 for the NES (which was released several years prior, but was still selling well at the time). Although Cosmo contained superior graphics capabilities in the form of three-layer masked horizontal parallax scrolling, this feature came at the cost of the game's frame rate, moving the graphics in increments of 8 pixels (the size of one game tile) instead of 1 pixel. A file contained with the shareware version of the game urged people not to download it if their computers could not handle it.
[edit] Music and sound

While the game supports AdLib music, it does not support SoundBlaster sound. The sound effects are instead generated by the PC speaker. One can cycle through all the sound effects in the game through the sound test option in the main menu.

Much like in his other games, Bobby Prince "borrowed" music from popular composers; the title screen music is based on ZZ Top's "Tush"[1].
[edit] Story

The storyline is about a little alien boy named "Cosmo". Cosmo's parents are taking him to Disney World for his birthday. A comet hits their ship, forcing them to land on an unknown planet and repair the ship. Cosmo goes exploring, and when he returns, his parents are missing. Seeing large footprints, Cosmo thinks that his parents have been captured and sets off to rescue them before they are eaten. There are 3 episodes in the game series in which Cosmo must navigate through 10 alien-themed levels.
Open Wide!

At the end of the first episode, Cosmo unexpectedly gets swallowed by a large creature. The story continues in the second episode, where Cosmo ends up in the creature's body and has to find a way out. At the end of the second episode, Cosmo finds the city where he thinks his parents might have been taken. In the final episode, Cosmo finds his parents (who, as it turns out, were in no danger of being eaten) and has a great time at Disney World for his birthday.
[edit] Gameplay

The main character in the game is Cosmo, whom the player controls around the levels. Cosmo can walk and jump, and can hang onto most walls with his suction-cup hands. Combining the hanging and jumps allows Cosmo to climb to higher places.

There are some interactive objects in the game, including ceiling pushable buttons, teleporters, and springs that make Cosmo jump higher. There are also hovercrafts (floating pads that allow Cosmo to fly) and hint globes (which cause a message to be displayed if Cosmo runs into one; destroying one with a bomb earns 12,800 points).
[edit] Fighting and health

Cosmo has a health meter initially with three units. Each time an enemy or hazard damages Cosmo, he loses one unit of health. If he takes further damage after losing all health units, or falls off a chasm, the player has to restart the level. There are Power-Up Modules that restore one health unit each, that resemble colored atom-shaped objects. There are also two hidden Cheeseburgers in each episode. Picking one up earns the player an additional empty health unit; thus Cosmo's health meter can have up to five units.

There are several enemies found in the levels (see below). Most of them hurt Cosmo by touching him, though many have other attacks as well. Cosmo can kill many of them by jumping on them once or several times (depending on the enemy).

The player can also use bombs to destroy enemies, which can be collected in the levels. Cosmo can carry at most 9 bombs at a time. After Cosmo drops a bomb, it takes a few seconds to explode, and it can hurt Cosmo if he is too close. Bombs can also be used to destroy other objects and hazards in the game.

There are also Shield cubes, which break open when touched and provide a temporary invincibility shield for Cosmo.
[edit] Items and points

There are several fruits, crystals and other objects that can be found on the levels, which give points to the player's score. Different objects are worth different amounts of points.

After every two levels the player has an opportunity to enter a bonus stage, depending on the number of stars collected during the last two levels. Reaching twenty-five stars allows the player to enter into one bonus stage; reaching fifty allows the player to enter into a different one.

Special bonuses can be acquired by doing specific actions in a level: bombing 15 eye plants in one level, or destroying all boxes in a level, will each give the player 50000 points.
[edit] Enemies and characters

There are several different enemies in the game. Most of them hurt Cosmo by touching him, while some shoot bullets too. They are usually related to the theme of the level: for example, factories contain mostly robotic enemies, and woods contain birds and harmful plants. Some of the most common enemies, such as the small red aliens and the blue round ones, appear on most of the levels.

One enemy is the ghost, which only advances towards Cosmo when his back is turned. They are very similar to the Boo character of the Super Mario video game series.

On many of the levels there can be found "eye plants", pink stalks that have an eye growing in place of a flower, which do not harm Cosmo. They appear on the ceiling or floor of a level. If the player bombs an eye plant, it will return a bomb back, and give the player 100 points.

Other characters include:

* Zonk: The blue alien that is seen at the "One Moment..." loading screen when the game starts, who helped Cosmo's parents to safety as later shown in Episode Three. Originally "Zonk" was going to be Cosmo's name.
* Duke Nukem: Duke Nukem is found on Level 7, Episode 2 encased in a block of ice. The player can bomb the ice to release him, in which case he will give Cosmo a Cheeseburger. He refuses to help Cosmo as he is on a mission (to save the galaxy), but tells Cosmo to watch out for his next game: Duke Nukem II. Duke's name is displayed as "Duke Nukum"; see Duke Nukem for more information.

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