review with price, video and gaming experience on Arcade, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam and Xbox One

review with price, video and gaming experience on Arcade, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam and Xbox One.

What SEGA is one of the largest companies in the history of video games Not even the most staunch shopkeeper can escape it (especially since it has been receiving video games for its Nintendo consoles for years, such as the applauded Sonic Mania). However, not all his IPs have had continuity, unfortunately, like Dynamite Düx, or have been relegated to oblivion, like the mythical Shinobi.

If we take a look at the refreshingly innovative 1984, SEGA was inspired by the Mappy by Namco (from 1983) to serve in arcades Flicky, a nice arcade in which we control a blue bird to save its young from cats.

I thought I saw a cute kitten …

Every arcade must have a simple premise in its conception, but difficult to master to bite the player, and that he knew how to do perfectly Flicky, who knew how to get us out of our minds as it was not so easy to rescue these babies from the claws of the felines and other lizards that appeared on the scene.

The goal was always the same: pick up each baby and reach the door where we started the phase, so on until all the kids were taken to go to the next area. The good thing is that we could take all the hatchlings at once, following us in single file. The problem? That you could break the line, of course.

The cats could surprise us on both sides of the screen (the phases had an extremely small design, but without borders on the sides: when going to the right we would appear shortly after what would be the left part), so we had to be vigilant and anticipate each movement, keeping an eye on the platforms to avoid them. And this had its intricacies, of course.

The reason? That Flicky inertia, with an excess of skating and an excessive clumsiness to go down certain platforms if they had little gap in between. It was quite difficult to get the point and each phase was a world according to its own design. There was bad slime as we progressed through levels, of course.

Flicky, another nice classic by SEGA

And what could we do to counter Tiger (cat) or Iggy (lizard)? Catch some unique objects scattered on the screen, which we automatically launched when jumping with Flicky. Hence also that complicated part when it comes to mastering the game, but without going to the extremes of Dig Dug, of course.

In this way, each object had to be dosed (we could only carry one at a time) and don’t jump crazy, having patience until a cat appeared on stage and sweep it as in the Tumblepop on duty, seeing how it circled until it fell to the bottom of the screen. And this gave more points, logically. The same as rescuing several hatchlings at once, increasing the multiplier of points.

The design of each level became more and more convoluted, with more closed spaces and more prone to be surprised by lizards climbing the walls or cats with a jump. And to top it all Flicky had a knack for bouncing off walls, which complicated some jumps.

Throughout the almost fifty phases that there were, its main song did not vary one iota, which was nice at the beginning but too repetitive in the few phases. At least the design, as we say, varied and was colorful, counting in between from time to time with a minigame to increase the points. The pity is that it has never had continuity, except to make cameos in other classics or appear in collections, such as SEGA Mega Drive Classics.

Has it stood the test of time well?

Yes, except for that control so difficult to master due to skating and rebounding. If given a chance, Flicky is still a fairly solvent classic that deserves more recognition and return to the fore, as Bomb Jack, another from 1984.

Flicky

The best

• Simple mechanics, difficult to master
• Achieve the perfect rescue combo
• The convoluted design of certain phases

Worst

• How it skidded and bounced
• The melody was always the same
• That there has been no more Flicky