The Game: The water is rising! You’re all that stands between the animals and rising floodwaters. Using a pair of paddles, you have to keep a projectile moving without letting it knock a hole in the seawall behind you; if too many holes are blasted through the wall, the game will be over and the water will pour in. (Spectravideo, 1983)
Memories: Of all the places to find an oldie-but-goodie game concept. Flipper Slipper is a game that plays very similar to Cutie Q – i.e., the last game designed by Toru Iwitani before he created Pac-Man for Namco.
Iwitani’s concept – basically a cross between Breakout and pinball, with cute, colorful creatures presaging his next project – undergoes a few changes here, but it’s still fun in just about any form. And it’s likely that in 1983, when Cutie Q was already obscure (if not completely unknown) to most mainstream gamers, nobody counted off points for originality. (Cutie Q probably would’ve faded into total obscurity if not for retro collections on modern consoles, and of course emulation.)
Flipper Slipper combines the best of those two worlds with new characters of its own, and the zoo setting makes for some colorful fun. Granted, this isn’t a title that taxes the Colecovision to its technical limits, but does it need to be? Flipper Slipper gets full marks for fun.