This week, a bonus addition to the PlayGamesMore Score Chasing leaderboard (via iScored): our very first cross platform game added to our 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year virtual arcade.
The game is called POOSH XL – pronounced “push” (I think, waiting for clarification from the Steam discussion). POOSH XL self-describes as:
Poosh XL is a neon-infused, one-button arcade score chaser. That’s it! That pretty much says it all. If you like that first sentence you’ll probably enjoy this game. Otherwise, refund it, I don’t care, I just work here. (The spiritual successor to Ding Dong XL)
Poosh XL on Steam (steampowered.com)
The sarcasm in the last sentence is also in the logo on the developer, Adamvision Studios official website (adamvisionstudios.com) logo which proudly shouts all caps: “LEARNING TO MAKE GAMES BY MAKING GAMES.”
You might better know Adamvision for their work on most of the Atari Recharged games (see: 10 Atari Recharged Steam/PC Games Ranked). Interestingly, the Recharged games this author likes playing most were made by Adamvision, not the most current studio Atari is using: Sneakybox. Am hoping Adamvision and Sneakybox are not somehow related, and admittedly didn’t research that. Maybe in an update to this article. I sure hope not, because Sneakybox’s work is, IMO, less quality, less passion, less love.
Back to POOSH XL, the star of this article. Most games literally can/will be played in 30 seconds or less. Please check out my Steam review:
POOSH XL is a rare game using only one button (or touchscreen press) that feels and plays like an arcade game, but can also be at home on your mobile phone (iOS or Android), Steam Deck (plays great there), Nintendo Switch docked or portable, or on a PC or Mac screen using a controller. The latter being the way I’ve scored highest to date.
Depending on when you read this, the Android version of POOSH XL might be available for free, but the regular price is $4.99. You can catch it on sale as well for as low as $0.89, according to SteamDB.info price tracking. With the Winter sale literally right around the corner, at least wishlist this and check back if you don’t want to spend $5 on this. My personal recommendation is this game is well worth five bucks, but your gaming mileage may vary.
There are both global and friends only leaderboards, and those do not appear to be cross platform, so your mobile phone ranking and score will be different than your Steam score. I’m guessing Nintendo is the same, but that’s untested. Let us know in the comments if you’ve played there and notice platform-only leaderboards there. Curious sidenote: the mobile version leaderboard, which might also be different for iOS (untested) and Android, scores are not as high as Steam. So, if you make it to five digits (10,000+) which is not as easy as it sounds, you’ll make the top 100 there. On Steam, 10k+ is more like top 200-ish as of this writing.
The overall #1 score in Survival mode is around 20,000 as of this writing, and can be done in a mere couple minutes. Not easy couple minutes, mind you, as the further you travel upwards, the obstacles moving in your way and around you walls closing in, gravity and more seek to impact your ship. Or push vehicle, whatever it’s called.
There are also a bonus 20 challenges in a special challenge mode, and yes, they are challenging. Each challenge also includes its own global and friends-only leaderboard. This is the way to do a game!
The simplicity of POOSH XL is the beauty of all score chasing games: players are compelled to repeatedly play and replay and replay. I’ve got over 20 hours logged in this super fast game to play and a stats page boasts a detailed amount of stats to compare with others:
Game stats whores, er fans, like me will love this. I mean, it tracks literally everything you do in every game. How far your ship moves, what you die on and how many times, the time playing, number of times you’ve pressed the button (pooshes), powerups, distance traveled, average distance, wow!
Speaking of powerups, those are creative and Steam gamer GiraffeKiller helps sort out what each of these powerups does. Hint: many of these powerups are detrimental to your gameplay, so they should almost be called negative powerups.
The hazard symbol
Destroys obstacles on screen. Simple and effective.The clock
Slows down moving obstacles. Maybe my favorite powerup. I get this at all stages.The up/down symbol
Turns your propeller into some kind of gravity based thing? Not sure how this should be used to your advantage. I avoid it.The nut (or cog?) symbol
I’ve yet to figure out what this does, but it does make a nice graphic on the bottom of the screen.I’ve figured it out! This one lets you hang around and not worry about the bottom of the game killing your progress. This is quite useful later in the game when you really need to plan your propulsion. 10/10.The barbells
Makes you strong. Nothing can pull you on the screen.The lightning bolt
What Does Each Powerup Do? :: Poosh XL General Discussions (steamcommunity.com)
Perhaps the most powerful powerup? Turns you into a wrecking machine, you can go through obstacles without losing and you propel at maximum speed. Although, I avoid getting this when I’m higher up. Just makes you cocky and you can’t focus your propulsion as acutely.
Good stuff, thanks GiraffeKiller (only online ever would I be hat tipping a giraffe killer, lol).
Seriously, POOSH XL is the real deal for fun. This comes highly, highly recommended for fellow score chasing fans. We have it on our leaderboard, ready for your top score, so get on those leaderboads.
This is one where “I don’t have time to play” is not remotely an excuse.
As my review for it states, this game can literally be played waiting in line at the grocery store, an office, before a meeting (during a meeting, if work allows!), while watching TV and so on.
There just aren’t many simplistic games like this that are this good. Give it a try.
Have you played POOSH XL? What did you think? Let us know in the coments below or, even better, play it and get on the leaderboards. If you’re not a friend of me on Steam, let’s become friends today!