Hodj ‘n’ Podj
Hodj N’ Podj is a series of mini-games that can either be played against
the computer or against another player.
The game is designed as a computerised board game in which two princes, Hodj
and Podj, travel around the country of Po-Poree solving puzzles in an attempt
to rescue two princesses Mish and Mosh. There are three game modes, the board
game, the individual mini games, or the ‘Grand Tour’.
Board game mode: The player always controls Hodj, while Podj can be controlled
either by the second player or by the computer. In this mode the objective is
to locate the kidnapped princesses and get them back to their castle. A game
spinner determines how many squares/furlongs the player can move around the
board, there are also boats, skycars and shortcuts which speed up travel
between distant points.
To win, the game players must collect a specific number of objects and pieces
of information, Appendix A of the manual explains which game is in which
location and whether the reward is crowns, information or an item. The number
to be collected depends upon the type of game the player(s) are playing;
short: around thirty minutes; medium: around an hour; or long: up to two
hours. The required objects are not necessarily earned directly, some objects
needed will have to be bought usually by selling unwanted items in the pawn
shop and using the cash in one of the two in-game stores.
When one player knows where the princesses have been taken and has the
appropriate quantities of goods and information they go to the ladies
locations and then head for the castle. Along the way the other player can
intercept and issue a challenge, win or lose further challenges can be issued
by either player until one enters the castle with Mish and Mosh top win the
game.
This game mode has three difficulty settings and when playing a two player
game the difficulty can be set separately for each player.
Mini Game mode: There nineteen games in all and all can be played separately
from the board game if desired and when played in this way the player has
access to configuration options that are not available in Board game mode. All
games have rules which are both displayed on-screen and read aloud in a very
British accent.
The mini games are;
* Archeroids: a sideways version of a Space Invader game
* Art Parts: a jigsaw puzzle game
* Barbershop Quintet: A solitaire game played with an unusual deck of cards
* Battlefish, inspired by Battleship
* Beacon: a colour based puzzle
* Cryptograms: literally decrypt the code on the crypt
* Dam Furry Animals: a whac-a-mole game
* Fuge: a circular breakout game
* Garfunkel: a game similar to Simon
* Th Gesng Gam: a bit like Jeopardy , guess the word/phrase before time runs out
* Life: this version is based on villages and economy instead of cells
* Mancala: the African strategy game
* Maze o’ Doom: find your way out of a maze
* No vacancy: a dice game
* Pack Rat: inspired by Pac-Man
* Peggleboz: a peg solitaire game
* Poker: a video poker game
* Riddles: a timed puzzle where the player must solve the riddle and type in the answer
* Word Search: a timed puzzle where all the words relate to a specific theme
Grand Tour Mode: In this mode the player plays eighteen of the nineteen games,
poker is the one that’s not available, in alphabetic, geographic or random
order. As with the Board game the player undertakes the grand Tour in any of
the three difficulty settings and if two players are taking the ‘Tour they can
do so using separate difficulty levels..
Hodj ‘n’ Podj