Pushover

About

Pushover is a single player puzzle game with a comedy theme. It was developed by Ocean Software and was released on April 13, 2018. It received positive reviews from players.

Help G.I. Ant to gain access to the crazy world of Captain Rat's Treasure Caves. The game consists of 100 levels of increasing complexity over nine different themed worlds. Each level features several interconnected platforms holding a number of "dominoes". The aim is to rearrange the dominoes, such that with a single push, all of the dominoes are toppled, thus opening the exit to …

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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83%

Audience ScoreBased on 36 reviews

optimization2 positive mentions

gameplay3 negative mentions

The game has a faithful visual recreation and charming cartoon-style graphics that evoke nostalgia from the early 90s.
The puzzle gameplay is addictive, clever, and challenging, with a smooth difficulty curve introducing various domino mechanics.
It runs well on modern systems and devices like Steam Deck using DOSBox emulation.

The Steam version is criticized for poor audio quality and lack of original music and character speech.
The game lacks modern updates such as widescreen support, save functionality, and better user interface convenience.
The price is considered too high for an unmodernized abandonware title, with some complaints about the publisher's practices regarding community management and value.

gameplay
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
45%
33%
The gameplay is praised for its solid and engaging puzzle mechanics, introducing a variety of domino types and interactions with a smooth difficulty curve that effectively teaches players new elements. While the mechanics are clever and well-paced, the lack of evolution beyond level 15 slightly limits its lasting appeal. Overall, it's a highly recommended action puzzle experience despite some missing classic audio elements.
- “The difficulty ramps up smoothly teaching players new mechanics at a steady pace.”
- “I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but for an early 90s puzzle game, the levels do a pretty solid job of introducing the game's various mechanics, which have a surprising amount of subtlety and interactions.”
- “Making this tricky is that there are around a dozen different types of dominos - dominos that explode (making holes for others to fall through), dominos that split in two and go both ways, dominos that float up to the ceiling before falling, dominos that make bridges across gaps... the early levels introduce each of these, while also being set up to demonstrate some of the interactions and other mechanics.”
- “Push-over specifically does a reasonable job of easing you into the mechanics with the earlier levels, but it's entirely on you to figure out how to actually pick up and push dominoes (for the curious: spacebar and arrow keys).”
graphics
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
Users appreciate the game's graphics for their simplicity and nostalgic charm, describing them as perfect and cute despite being outdated. The art style remains appealing and contributes to the overall enjoyable experience, even as the visuals show signs of age.
- “Graphically, it's perfect.”
- “The graphics were amazing back in the day; I still like it to this day, to be honest.”
- “I absolutely love this game's art style and music.”
- “It may be simple and old graphics but it doesn't need to be more than that.”
- “The decades do decay the visuals and controls a bit but the core puzzle formula still stands strong.”
- “Controls are simple enough, the puzzles are very interesting and tricky (but not too tricky to make you feel bad), the graphics is very cute, the sound has that awesome 'sound blaster' feeling... 'pushover' is just one of those games that you can't stop playing.”
story
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
28%
43%
The story of the game is minimal and serves primarily as a product tie-in, centered around the mascot rescuing snack packets in an anthill. It is considered secondary and largely irrelevant to the core puzzle gameplay, which is praised as the main attraction.
- “Full disclosure, when I played it at the time, I got it at a LAN party, so nearly 30 years later, I've paid for the game for the first time... I was an American teenager who had no idea what "quavers" were, and if not for the game's story, I never would've suspected this was a product placement tie-in.”
- “Despite what the Steam description says - which describes the SNES version that had its Quavers branding stripped and the story replaced, this is in fact the original, branded version, where the story is that you're descending the anthill to rescue packets of snack food.”
- “No story!”
- “Despite what the Steam description says—which describes the SNES version that had its Quavers branding stripped and the story replaced—this is in fact the original, branded version, where the story is that you're descending the anthill to rescue packets of snack food.”
- “Most of the releases follow an utterly abstract plot of the bulldog Colin Curly (old mascot for British snack food Quavers) losing his collection of Quavers down an anthill and enlisting the help of his pal G.I.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game's music is generally praised for its upbeat, charming, and nostalgic qualities, with some users particularly enjoying its art style and soundtrack. However, Amiga veterans note the lack of original music and character speech as a notable drawback, and some prefer the DOS version's sound over others. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's presentation but does not fully meet all fans' expectations.
- “I absolutely love this game's art style and music.”
- “Maybe I'm nostalgic too when I say that the characters are cute and the music would still hold up today.”
- “The presentation is charming, especially the upbeat music and smooth cute cartoon animations.”
- “For Amiga veterans, the lack of original music and character speech is a major distraction that keeps this from being a perfect 10/10.”
- “Even though very often Amiga versions had better music, Pushover was not one of those games (I totally prefer the DOS sound), while all “big three” versions (Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS) look almost identical and I'm not a big fan of those “filters” from fan-made remake.”
- “Maybe I'm nostalgic too when I say that the characters are cute and the music would still hold up today, but well... the controls are taking a bit getting used to (having to quit a level after hitting 'esc' if you don't want to lose a token and such small, annoying things) and the unskippable intro is a pain too.”
monetization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Monetization in this context reflects nostalgic advertising games that prominently featured brands, which were more creatively integrated and accepted in the past compared to modern intrusive ads. These branded games, despite being tied to marketing, were often well-made and valued by players, contrasting with today's more disruptive monetization methods.
- “With no internet, with TV being way more influential than today and far fewer regulations applied, ads were more than just the annoying interruptions we see now.”
- “Back in the early 80s, advertising games like 'Pepsi Invaders' were so poorly made they almost killed the entire video game market during its recession.”
- “Although advertising games were often dismissed, some were actually quite good and more complex than you might think.”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game runs smoothly on modern systems through DOSBox emulation but lacks native support for contemporary display resolutions and widescreen monitors, indicating it has not been updated or optimized for modern gaming PCs.
- “It is the original DOS version, and it runs smoothly on Windows 11 environment with pre-configured DOSBox emulation.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the humor aspect to be subtle and somewhat dry, often appreciating light, understated jokes that add a touch of wit without overwhelming the experience.