The Ooze

n/a

The Ooze

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega Technical Institute

System(s): Sega Mega Drive

Sound driver: GEMS

Genre: Action

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1995-09-22	¥5,800	G-4134
US	1995-05-06	$49.99^[1]	1512
UK	1995-12^[2]	£24.99^[2]	1572-50
FR	1995-12^[2]	?F	1572-50
DE	1995-12^[2]	DM ?	1572-50
ES	1995-12^[2]	?Ptas	1572-50
PT	1995	?PTE$	MDJSE0142
AU	199x	$?	FTHE18SMC
BR	1995-10^[3]	R$?	?

ESRB

ELSPA

OFLC

Tectoy

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The Ooze (ジ・ウーズ) is a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game created by STI in 1995.

Gameplay

The game takes place from an overhead view. The main character is a puddle of ooze with a head. He can move around and has two attacks. One is stretching out a steerable pseudopod of ooze whose length is only limited by how much ooze he currently has to attack (), and it can also be guided around with the control pad. He can also spit gobs of ooze (), although this takes off a bit of his puddle. Enemy attacks can cut off a bit of the ooze, and the player will die either if his puddle of ooze is reduced to a very small amount or if his head is attacked directly.

History

Development

The Ooze is based on an algorithmically-generated cellular automaton. As such, the main character can be split apart and reformed like a viscous liquid. The gameplay is reminiscent of The Bitmap Brothers' game The Chaos Engine (called Soldiers of Fortune in the US). The art style evokes a cartoony (necessitated by the constraints of the medium) H.R. Giger. The story recalls The Toxic Avenger. The development team included people who later worked for Blizzard North on Diablo and Diablo II, including designer Stieg Hedlund. Some of the programming was fairly advanced for a 16-bit system; for example, the speed powerup effect was actually created by decreasing the viscosity of the character.

Legacy

The game's status as a cult classic is confirmed by its inclusion in the Japanese version of Sonic Mega Collection and in all versions of Sonic Mega Collection Plus. It is unlockable in two ways: In the Xbox and PlayStation 2 version, it can be unlocked if you have a Sonic Heroes save. In all versions, it can be unlocked by playing any game on the disk for 30 hours.

Production credits

Producer: Michael Wallis
Concept & Lead Programmer: Dave Sanner
Art Directors: Robert Steele, John Duggan
Artists: Alan Ackerman, Stieg Hedlund, Dean Ruggles, Joe Stephenson, Craig Stitt, Tom Tobey, Marte Thompson
Design: Jason Kuo, Stieg Hedlund, Dave Sanner
Intro & Ending Artwork: Tony De Zuniga, Tom Tobey
Music & Sound Effects: Howard Drossin
Boss Programming: Robert Morgan
Lead Tester: Rey Alferez
Testers: Timothy Spengler, Todd Slepian, Mike Benton, Nelson Chiu, Alfred Dutton, Steve Fallas, Richie Hideshima, Michael Ironside, Dylan Manger, David Paniagua, Sean Potter, Jeff Sanders, Stan Weaver, Michael Wu
Programming & Technical Thanks: Scott Chandler, Jason Plumb, Mark Cerny
Special Thanks: Roger Hector, Sheri Hockaday, Emi Kawamura, Sue Ortlip, Paul Sears, Dean Lester, Michael Kosaka, Hoyt Ng
Created by: Sega Technical Institute
Presented By: Sega & Sega of America

Source: In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: The Ooze/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication	Score	Source
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US)	39
Game Players (US)	64
Joypad (FR)	70
Mean Machines Sega (UK)	79	№39, p66-68^[2]
Player One (FR)	82	№62, p100
Sega Pro (UK)	81	№53, p37
Sonic the Comic (UK)	70	№78, p17