Kacie's Adventure

Kacie's Adventure is a 1991 platform video game developed by Sqweek Interactive. It is the first video game based on the Incredible World of Riddles franchise, and stars Kacie as she sets out to rescue the inhabitants of Riddle World after they are kidnapped by Synther. The game was released for the Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear throughout PAL regions in September 1991.

Plot
The game's plot is very vague in the actual game itself, but explained more in the instruction manual. Whilst visiting the Riddle Central, Kacie finds that everybody is missing, only to be explained by Diomo that everybody, including her Earth friends Onita, Paddy and Tenet, had been captured by Synther (the villain from the special Kacie's Grand Adventure). Scared over what Synther intends to do with her friends, Kacie sets off to rescue them.

Despite appearing on the box art and being mentioned in the game's manual, neither Mr. Riddles nor Diomo actually make an appearance in the game.

Gameplay
Kacie's Adventure is a side-scrolling platformer in which the player controls Kacie through various levels. As Kacie, the player can walk, look upwards (Mega Drive version only), jump and double jump, duck and crawl. The objective of the game is to get to the end of each level, although the player can also collect Coins located throughout the level to increase their score. Throughout each level, the player occasionally has to battle enemies or solve puzzles in order to progress. Kacie generally attacks enemies by kicking them whilst they're defenceless, though she can also collect Magic Orbs scattered throughout the level which allows her to fire blasts of energy at them. Defeating multiple enemies in a row without getting hit allows the player to build up a score multiplier. It is impossible for the player to die in the game, although getting hit by an enemy causes Kacie to drop a few coins and also resets the player's score multiplier.

The Mega Drive version features eight larger levels which each lebel featuring a boss fight at the end as well as some sort of gimmick that makes it unique compared to the rest of the levels. In between each level features a small text-based cutscene featuring Kacie interacting with the character she just rescued from Synther's minions. The Mega Drive and Master System versions on the other hand feature eighteen shorter levels set of six worlds. The Mega Drive version also has three minigames which can be played with two players.

The game was meant to be played in one setting and as such, it is impossible to save progress in the middle of a playthrough, although the Mega Drive version does save the top six high scores for each playthrough as well as individual levels. The player can insert a three-digit nickname next to their score if they make it into the top six of any of the leaderboards.

Development
Kacie's Adventure was developed over a thirteen-month period that began in the spring of 1990 after Sqweek Interactive acquired a license to develop games based on The Incredible World of Riddles for Sega consoles. The game was directed by Marie Waalfort, although franchise creator Ashley Maverick assisted in development in order to give her ideas and to make sure the game fit with the franchise's setting.

According to Waalfort, one of the biggest challenges was making sure the game was easy for young children but still entertaining for older audiences. In order to do this, she got several children between the ages of five and thirteen, including Tenet and Paddy's voice actors Melissa Emery and Avoc Westwind, to playtest the game. Another concern Maverick had was the potential inclusion of violence. At one point Kacie was unable to attack enemies and simply had to sneak past them and find ways to get them to move out the way, but both Waalfort and Maverick thought it made the gameplay too slow and boring. It was instead decided that enemies would not "die" but rather run away after being defeated or simply fall off the screen.

Release
Kacie's Adventure was released in Kuboia on 13th September 1991, just one day before the franchise's television series debuted on Bumper's Block. The game was released in other parts of the PAL region, including the rest of Europe, Australia and Brazil, shortly afterwards. The Mega Drive version later saw a release in Japan in the spring of 1992 and North America in 1993, although the Game Gear and Master System versions were not released in these regions.

Re-releases
The Mega Drive version of Kacie's Adventure was re-released on the PlayStation Network in June 2010.

Reception
Kacie's Adventure received mostly favourable reviews from critics. Reviewing the Mega Drive version, Sega Magazine Kuboia awarded the game a 5 out of 5 citing "Whether you're a Riddle fan or not, this is a must if you own the console", praising the fun and addictive gameplay, the variety in enemies and levels and the accessible nature of the game. The magazine also awarded the Game Gear version a 4 out of 5 in a later issue, noting it was similarly fun albeit inferior to the Mega Drive version. In a mixed review for the Mega Drive version, British magazine Sega Power praised the game's graphics, level design and the use of a playable female heroine, though also criticised the gameplay as being too easy and repetitive.

Kacie's Adventure was commercially successful throughout Europe, with the Mega Drive version being the second best-selling video game for said console in Kuboia in 1991 behind Sonic the Hedgehog. The Master System version was particularly successful in Brazil, with its popularity increasing the awareness of the Incredible World of Riddles franchise in the region.