Bear Stormin'

Bear Stormin' is a small 1993 arcade game from Humongous Entertainment, the studio famous for its children's adventures. It is not a full title: the game began life as a minigame inside Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon and was also released on its own, free of charge, as a taster that circulated on magazine cover disks and alongside demo collections.

The star is Fatty Bear, the studio's second mascot. He sits in a biplane, the screen scrolls steadily to the right, and your job is to reach the finish flag at the end of each level. You steer the plane up and down, weave through obstacles and watch the fuel gauge, which drains constantly — flying through balloons tops it up. Hitting anything, or running dry, costs a life. That is the whole game: no shooting, no bosses, just a slalom in the sky.

For something so simple it moves along nicely. The balloons are placed with a bit of malice — often forcing a choice between the safe route and the fuel — and the later stages ask for a steady hand. Technically it runs on SCUMM, the same engine the studio used for its adventures, which is why the clean cartoon look matches them exactly.

Honesty requires saying what this is: a promotional trifle, good for ten or twenty minutes, and it should be judged as such. As a game it has no depth to speak of; as a curiosity it is rather lovely — a snapshot of how children's games were marketed before the internet, when instead of a trailer you got a tiny playable toy. Fans of Humongous will also enjoy a visit from the mascot who never became as famous as Putt-Putt.

You can take off right in your browser on oldgame.cz — no installation, and one coffee break is plenty.