Thoughts by kdenk (24 00 2017) – PC (DOS)
Cosmo Cosmic Adventure is a platform game published for PC by Apogee software. The game is divided into three episodes, with the first one released as shareware.
The main character is Cosmo, an alien boy. After his ship is damaged, he and his parents are forced to land on an unknown planet. He decides to explore the planet, but when he comes back to the ship his parents are missing. His mission is to find out what happened to his parents and rescue them.
The gameplay is similar to other platformers of the time: Cosmo can move around, jump and kill enemies by jumping on their heads or by placing bombs near them. Cosmo can also hang and climb walls using the suction cups he has on his hands: this skill is very useful, expecially to find secret areas and objects climbing down holes in the ground. Every two levels, if the player has collected enough stars, there’s a bonus level, with many objects to collect and the possibility to score many points.
When Cosmo is hit by an enemy he loses one unit of health (he starts with three). When he’s hit with no remaining health or falls into a hole, the player restarts the level. There are no checkpoints, so everytime Cosmo dies the player restarts from the beginning of the level. It’s possible to save the game anytime, but when the player loads a savefile, Cosmo will be at the beginning of the level in which the game was saved.
Duke Nukem makes a cameo appearance in the game, giving Cosmo one (of only two available in the game) health power-up (a cheeseburger!). Another fun fact is the default score board: players have the names of Simpsons' characters (with Homer being last).
Given the difficulty of the levels and the lighthearted theme of the game, I believe it is a game for all ages, especially suitable for kids, but also a solid platformer, that can give even an experienced player many hours of fun!
