Pandemonium! is a 1996 platform video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Crystal Dynamics for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows, N-Gage, There are power-ups located in each level, with varying effects. One is a freeze ray which turns enemies into ice, while another is a shrink ray which reduces the size of enemies to the point where the player character can step on them.
When Nikki begins practicing with the magical book, Fargus and Sid urge her to perform a 10th level spell. With a few magical words, a green monster called Yungo appears and consumes the entire village. They search the book for how to get rid of the monster. The book reveals that they'll have to obtain a wish from the Wishing Engine. With a map from the book to help them, they set off on their journey.
When they find the Wishing Engine, it tells them to speak three wishes. Fargus wastes the first wish on a chicken (he claims it was just to see if it works) and Nikki then wishes that the village was returned to as it was before the spell was cast. Nikki and Fargus are then teleported back to the top of Lancelot Castle. Yungo spits out the village and is pulled back into his own dimension. Nikki ponders what happened to their third wish, and Fargus guiltily admits that out of desire to share his joy with the world, he wished that everyone back home could be just like him, inadvertently turning everyone in the village into Fargus clones. Nikki and Fargus resign themselves to another trip to the Wishing Engine.
Development and release
Work on Pandemonium! began in December 1994, starting with two months spent on learning the dynamics of 3D games. The team concentrated on building a prototype level to demonstrate at Electronic Entertainment Expo 1995.
According to lead designer Paul Reiche III, at the beginning of June 1996 the team decided they wanted the game to be released before Thanksgiving Day of that year and shifted into "high gear mode". As usual for Crystal Dynamics games, the European publishing rights were given to BMG Interactive. However, BMG decided against publishing the Saturn version, so Sega of Europe purchased the rights from BMG and published that version. The Saturn EU release date was originally slated for May 1997, but was pushed back to June so that a bug could be fixed.
The Saturn, PlayStation and PC versions have 18 levels, while the N-Gage version has 11. In the PlayStation and Saturn versions, progress is saved using a password system. The Japanese version of the game, called Magical Hoppers, has considerable changes to the story, characters and cutscenes and is distributed by Bandai.
The PlayStation version was released to the PlayStation Store on October 8, 2009.
Reception
The PlayStation version of Pandemonium received mixed to positive reviews. Critics generally said that while the gameplay is essentially 2D, the open, airy graphic designs and the exceptional camerawork make it easy for players to be caught in an illusion of 3D. Dan Hsu of Electronic Gaming Monthly felt it had little to offer besides the graphics, but the other three members of the review team were much more enthusiastic, saying they particularly enjoyed searching out the levels' secrets. GameSpot gave it a largely negative review, arguing that the level design is flawed and the two playable characters are not differentiated enough. They criticized Burke Tresichmann's music for having tracks which are too juvenile and/or similar to his scores for The Horde and Captain Quazar. However, GamePro and Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly opined that the music was both well-done and consistently suited the tone.
The Saturn version was also well-received, as critics agreed that despite the half a year that had passed since the game's release on PlayStation, it still held up well. Sushi-X of Electronic Gaming Monthly said it "is a step above its PlayStation sibling", citing tighter controls.