When I was a kid, video games were like those of treats in Elementary School, “You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”. Growing up, you had to be content with whatever games you had because getting any others soon was unlikely.
My Childhood Copy
I usually found Block Buster prices too high, so I often made blind purchases. If you want to know more of my favorite licensed games, you can go here and here.
Why This Game?
When we first got our Super Nintendo, we got one game with it. The game I’m referring to is Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday. Whenever people bring up the Super Nintendo, I don’t think of Mario, Zelda, Chrono Trigger, or Earthbound… No, I think about Porky Pig and this spooky platformer game. I have so many fond memories of this game and I decided it was time to see if it still held up today.
The Setup
I went to my sister’s house to grab our physical copy of the game and I decided to use my Odin 2 and my 8BitDo controller with a CRT filter so I could go back in time with this one. You can get the same controller below.
Playing Porky Pig’s Haunted Holiday
Upon firing up the game, I was instantly met with nostalgia. Porky Pig is reading through brochures of where to take his holiday vacation as he drifts into sleep. Suddenly, he is woken up in a haunted Holiday world. It is like Christmas but with a scary and eerie feel to it. There is Silent Hill-esque fog and leprechauns all about.
Climbing a Tree in Level 1
The graphics absolutely hold up. The sprite work and backgrounds look fantastic. The controls also felt very tight and not very floaty or slippery, which is a welcome addition. I had some serious muscle memory for this game and instantly knew all of the secrets and tricks to the first level.
As I played more of the game, I noticed it was much easier than I remembered. I breezed through the first few levels but couldn’t help noticing how long each level felt. I don’t think I ever beat this as a child, but I had a feeling I would be finishing this one relatively quickly.
The game does a great job of making lives available and even if you do lose them all, there are infinite continues as well. There are only 6 levels, but they are designed pretty decently, although they are a little too long in my opinion. I found myself wondering when they would be over multiple times.
Worth a Try Today?
Well does the game hold up? In my opinion, it is a very decent platformer. Would I go out of my way to play it again and recommend it to others? Probably not. If you are a fan of the Looney Toons, this could be worth it to check out if you have never played it before.
Taking on Yosemite Sam
I did enjoy the sprite work and level design, despite the levels going on for a bit too long. It was also very exciting to see who each boss of the level would be. There were various characters like Tweety Bird, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, and more. They were not your typical iterations though, but rather a sort of monster form of each.
In the end, Porky Pig’s nightmare was not a nightmare to play. The game feels like a solid 6/10 and it is easy to beat in under 2 hours. Nostalgia glasses put aside, it is still a very capable platformer. Maybe it will join us on Game of the Week sometime in the future?
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