Freak369's Full Review: Pipe Dreams 3D for PlayStation 1
I used to consider myself a hard-core gamer in the area of kids games. The entire Spyro series ranks at the top of my list with Yoshi’s Cookie, Croc and Yo Noid! also making the list. I have a real weakness for puzzle games as well. When I saw the Pipe Dreams 3D game for sale [used] at Game Stop I thought that it would be a great game. It looked like it would be fun to play and a great alternative to the Nintendo [NES] game Loopz [1990 Audiogenic Software] that I was addicted to. Getting it home and playing it was a completely different story. I wasn’t expecting much from the graphics but I had hoped that the gameplay would be ‘average or better’ but I was grossly let down with what I found. It was after the first few weeks of playing the game that I understood why there were so many copies for sale and why they were priced at $6.99.
The Premise
The game is simple in theory – take different shaped pieces of pipe and create a pathway for the green ooze, called Flooze, to travel through. You are only shown the next few pieces that are available to you and any misplaced pieces that aren’t attached to the existing pipeline will be blasted off the screen after about 90 seconds. Your goal is to create a path from the start line to the finish line – seems simple enough – the catch is that the finish point isn’t shown for a certain amount of time. You have to create a path without knowing where you are going! There are a variety of pieces to place, corner curves, straight pieces, criss-crosses that allow you to get extra points. To use these you have to make sure that you have enough corner curves. If you run into a situation where you are getting pieces that you can’t use you can either scatter them around the edges of the screen [se up to look line a grid] or blast them off the playing board. To do this takes a little bit of time since there is a time out period so rapid clicking won’t do you any good.
After a while the game starts to take a toll on your eyes and you will start to misplace pieces or lose track of the finish goal when it appears. You are working against a clock as well as the flowing green ooze. You are to try and get 100% of the ooze into the drain [when it appears] and if you misplace a piece the ooze will start to flow out resulting in a lower score. Bonus points are awards for getting 100% of the ooze into the drain, using the criss-cross connector pieces to create a more elaborate pathway and collecting the little yellow stars that appear on some levels.
Levels
I’ve only managed to make it through the first two worlds before I either got so frustrated that I threw the controller across the room or ran out of lives. Since you can only get extra lives when you hit a certain point level, you really have to get through the sections as quick as possible while trying to get the most number of points. The Beach and Amazon areas are fun to navigate through but the third area – Fiesta – is where it starts to get a little more difficult. Later on in the game you travel to places like the Jungle Zone, Tropical Zone, Space Zone and Tomb Zone. I wish there was a code to unlock all the different parts of the game because playing through to get to the last level / world is almost impossible because later in the game you are only awarded extra men at every 500,000 points.
Graphics
The graphics aren’t anything to brag about. They are nicely done but there are more than a few glitches when trying to place the different sections of the pipe on the grid as well as painfully slow loads between the levels. If you have ever played Croc or Toonenstein this is pretty much what you have to look forward to in the way of graphics. For an older game it is decent but when compared to today’s standards, it is pretty plain and boring. The higher levels seen to have the most amount of trouble – mainly when you have to work your way around walls and other obstacles. Sometimes only part of a wall is shown, other times part of the plumber will disappear. These are small little things but occur a little too frequently in my opinion.
Sound
Overall the sound quality is good but you might want to turn down the special effects sound when you start up the game. Once you start running out of time or the green ooze starts to leaks from one of the pipes an alarm starts sounding. The first few times you hear the alarm and sounds from the plumbers it isn’t that bad, but after playing it for a while it tends to get tedious. There is a little bit of background music while you are playing the game but after an hour or so it gets nerve-racking. You do have the option to turn down the music and sound effects at any point in the game.
Replay Value
I’ve been playing this off and on for the better part of a year. It does get frustrating to have to start over when you run out of lives and since there are literally no cheat codes to get extra lives it makes it a real pain to try and complete the game. You are awarded extra men / players at certain point levels but when you are just starting out with the game, prepare to lose several times. This is the type of game that you can load and play when you are looking to kill some time but I doubt this is something that you will sit down and be able to finish in one or two sittings. There are eighteen levels / worlds to make your way through with each of them having three areas to beat / clear. It’s hard to say how much time you will have to spend on each level since this all depends on what you are going for – creating the simplest pathway to the drain or getting the highest number of points [which means more extra men]. I haven’t gotten tried of this game but it does easily frustrate me.
Gave Saves
This is a part of the game that I really hate. You can only save your game when you complete a level so if you are losing and want to do a quick exit you can’t do so without losing the points you have accumulated. When you are running low on players this can make or break you. Loading a game from a saved game takes the same amount of time as when you go from level to level – anywhere from 20 to 45 seconds – longer in some cases. I’ve had a few problem loading saved games when I am in the middle of a zone, instead of loading the game from the next available area within the zone it loads the beginning of the zone. This is great if you want to get some quick points but if you are trying to beat the game it means having to navigate through areas you have already beaten.
Age Recommendations
The game is rated “E” for everyone but I would have to say that this would be appropriate for those ages eight and older. The early parts of the game are suitable for all ages but when you get into the harder screens with less time to place the pieces and a faster flowing ooze – it gets tricky to try and beat the level. Sadly, there isn’t a ‘easy / moderate / hard’ type of selection for the game so after the first world smaller kids won’t be able to keep track of placing the pieces, collecting the stars or coins, directing the ooze and navigating around the obstacles.
Comparisons
If you like puzzle type games this might be something worth looking in to. Fans of Tetris, Yoshi’s Cookie and Dr. Mario might like this but the load times between different parts of the game are monotonous so you don’t get constant game play. If you get easily frustrated or have trouble with problem solving areas of video games, steer clear of this one and avoid the aggravation.
The Bottom Line
It’s not surprising that there were so many used copies for sale at Game Stop. The game is fun but at the same time extremely frustrating. The slow loads between scenes, lack of bonus men at the higher levels [every 500,000 points] and choppy game play really take away from the game as a whole. I’ve started to get back into playing the NES Loopz game now that I found a new Game Genie and code book. It’s pretty sad when a game that is 13 years old is more entertaining and fun to play than one that was released just a few years ago. If there were cheat code for Pipe Dreams 3D I’m sure I’d play it more often but as it stands this game is only for people who like a real challenge in a video game. I like a challenge but when it seems literally impossible to advance through the harder levels, it sort of takes the fun out of the game.
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