Glover (video game)

Glover
North American box art for the Nintendo 64
Developer(s)	Interactive Studios
Publisher(s)	Hasbro Interactive (N64 and PC), Atari Interactive (PS1)
Distributor(s)	Nintendo (N64, Europe)
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64 Microsoft Windows PlayStation
Release date(s)	Nintendo 64,[1] Windows[2] NA: October 31, 1998 EU: November 1998 PlayStation[3] NA: November 30, 1999 EU: 2000
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Glover is a 1998 platforming video game developed by Interactive Studios and published by Hasbro Interactive for the Nintendo 64 and Windows in 1998 and for the PlayStation in 1999. The game features a magical, four-fingered glove named Glover in his quest to restore the Crystal Kingdom by retrieving crystals that were lost.

The games received mixed reviews for the Nintendo 64 version while the Playstation version received more negative reviews. A sequel titled Glover 2 was planned but was eventually cancelled.

Gameplay

The player uses Glover's "slap" maneuver on the rubber ball in the Nintendo 64 version.

Players control a glove named Glover. The main objective is to maneuver the ball toward the goal in each stage. Once all three stages and the boss stage are cleared, a crystal ball can be restored back to the castle. There are a total of six worlds, each containing three stages, a boss stage and bonus stage which can be accessed by collecting all the magic cards known as "Garibs" in a given world.^[4] When Glover is in contact with the ball, he can roll, bounce, throw, slap, dribble, walk on top of the ball, and use the ball as a trampoline.^[5] Without the ball, Glover can do both regular and double jumps, cartwheel, fist slam, locate the ball and garibs, and grab the ball.^[6] While walking on the ball, the controls are reversed. On the easy difficulty, walking on the ball is automatic while moving the ball across water. However bonus stages are unavailable.

The ball can also be transformed into one of four main forms: rubber ball, ballbearing, bowling ball, and the ball's original crystal form. The rubber form gives the greatest amount of abilities for the ball. It can easily be bounced, slapped, thrown, and even float on water. The bowling ball form allows the ball to not break easily, sink in deep water, and kill enemies by slapping it. The ballbearing form gives precise control over the ball, and can be used to throw and slap the ball more carefully and is also magnetic. The crystal form floats on water and is very fragile, but gives Glover double points for each obtained Garib.^[7] Other forms can be accessed through cheat codes. Throughout the stages, there are also plenty of magic potions that help Glover by giving him power-ups for a certain amount of time.

If the ball gets destroyed or Glover loses all three hearts, Glover loses one life and must start from the beginning of the stage or from the last checkpoint.^[8]

Plot

In a fictional land known as the Crystal Kingdom, a wizard rules from his large castle known as the Crystal Castle. The life force of the Kingdom are made up of seven crystals that rest on the spires of Crystal Castle. The wizard is accompanied by a pair of magical sentient gloves to aid him in creating strange potions and spells. One day, the wizard accidentally mixes the wrong batch of potions in his cauldron, causing a large explosion that sends his gloves flying and turning the wizard himself into a statue. The right glove named Glover, flies out the window and lands safely onto the ground, while the left one lands into the cauldron with the bad mix of potions turning him into an evil glove known as "Cross-Stitch". The explosion also causes the land to become distorted and shakes the crystals from the spires, hurdling toward the ground. Glover notices the falling crystals and casts a spell to transform the crystals into rubber balls to prevent them from shattering. Six of the seven crystals bounce away in all directions, entering into different areas of the kingdom.^[9][10]

Glover realizes that he must find the seven crystals and restore them to the fountain underneath the castle. He traverses from realm to realm, and must protect the rubber balls at all costs.^[10] As he does, Cross-Stitch attempts to thwart him by setting traps and creating monsters. Glover however is able to overcome the obstacles created by Cross-Stitch with his magical skills and retrieve the crystals. The world is gradually restored to its former state as each crystal is retrieved and returned to the castle. In the end, Glover fights Cross-Stitch in an outer space–themed realm, and recovers the last crystal. The wizard is brought back to life, and uses his magic with Glover's aid to purify Cross-Stitch. In the end, everything was restored to the way it was before the incident.^[11]

In the PlayStation intro, it shows that Glover's brother was behind the plot in the first place (He shakes the potion with an evil look on his eyes on purpose,laughs and when on the wizard's arm he winks at the audience) The gloves fall off the wizard before the Wizard turns into a statue this time.

Development

Glover was developed by Interactive Studios and published by Hasbro Interactive. The game was originally reported to being 60% complete on August 1998.^[12] Two months later on December the game was reported to being 80% complete. During late development, it was reported that Glover would have required the character to cross water ^[13]

Reception

For the Nintendo 64 version, Glover received mixed reviews by critics. Matt Casamassina of IGN praised the Nintendo 64 version, specifically on its gameplay and sound. They wrote that the music matched the levels "perfectly".^[19] John Broady of GameSpot recommended the game for patient players in search of a challenge.^[17] Paul Hales of PC Zone gave it a 67% stating, "Its all good, clean, harmless fun in reasonably 3D rendered landscapes."^[21] Edge magazine gave the game a 7 out of 10 stating it wasn't all that original but also stated that the game provides regular surprises that makes it an entertaining game.

Despite positive reviews for the Nintendo 64 version, the PlayStation version was heavily panned by critics. Matt Whine of IGN gave the PlayStation version a "Terrible" 2.6. They wrote that the game "looks bad" in comparison with both the Nintendo 64 version and other PlayStation games.^[20] Miguel Lopez of GameSpot also criticizes this version, stating that "Glover, despite its interesting play mechanics, seems to have lost its soul in the port from the N64."^[18] PC Zone gave the game 56% stating, "There's no denying Glover is bizarre, but at the same its not particularly interesting. The standard trudge through obligatory ice world, water world and space world, flicking switches as you go, hardly constitutes as enthralling gameplay."^[22]

Cancelled sequel

An online advertisement for Glover 2, the cancelled sequel.

On July 1999, Interactive Studios confirmed that a sequel titled Glover 2 was being developed after the first one was released. The game was to continue the story of the first game, and have a more complete story that would unravel as the game progressed. Gameplay features of Glover 2 would have been similar to the original game with enhancements for hand/ball physics, enhanced graphics, and a new multiplayer mode. The game was expected to release late of 1999 but ended up getting cancelled along with another N64 game from Interactive Studios, Frogger 2. ^[23] On October 2011 it was reported that Nesworld.com acquired a prototype cartridge of the game and had released a rom hack and a video of the game.^[24]

References

External links

• Glover at MobyGames
• Glover 2 prototype information at NESWorld.com
• Glover 2 at Unseen64