The Ooze

The Ooze is a Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game, created by STI in 1994.

The Ooze is based on an algorithmically-generated cellular automaton. As such, the main character can be split apart and reformed like a viscous liquid. The gameplay is reminiscent of the Bitmap Brothers' game The Chaos Engine also called Soldiers of Fortune. The art style evokes a cartoony (necessitated by the constraints of the medium) H.R. Giger. The story recalls The Toxic Avenger. The development team included people who later worked for Blizzard North on Diablo and Diablo II, including designer Stieg Hedlund. Some of the programming was fairly advanced for a 16-bit system; for example, the speed powerup effect was actually created by decreasing the viscosity of the character.

The game takes place from an overhead view. The main character is a puddle of ooze with a head. He can move around and has two attacks. One is stretching out a steerable psuedopod of ooze whose length is only limited by how much ooze he currently has to attack, and it can also be guided around with the control pad. He can also spit gobs of ooze, although this takes off a bit of his puddle. Enemy attacks can cut off a bit of the ooze, and the player will die either if his puddle of ooze is reduced to a very small amount or if his head is attacked directly.

The game's status as a cult classic is confirmed by its inclusion in the Japanese version of Sonic Mega Collection and in all versions of Sonic Mega Collection Plus. It is unlockable in two ways: In the Xbox and PlayStation 2 version, it can be unlocked if you have a Sonic Heroes save. In all versions, it can be unlocked by playing any game on the disk for 30 hours.