Pets Rescue

Pets Rescue is one of those games that makes you stop and ask why more people aren't talking about it. Released on 25th February 2018 at the BCC#12 party in Germany, this is a full-blown platform adventure built for the Commodore Plus 4 and the expanded Commodore 16 with a 64K RAM upgrade. The game was developed by Plus/4 All Stars, with coding by Stefan Mader, graphics by KiCHY and Luca, and music composed by Luca, Degauss and 5tarbuck. It was published commercially by Psytronik Software and went on to win awards in the homebrew retro gaming scene.

The game follows Dr Andrea Brown, a veterinary surgeon whose lab is torn apart when her assistant Dr Edward Vil conducts reckless DNA experiments. The explosion mutates every animal in the building, and now Dree has to chase them down across 24 massive scrolling levels to bring them home safely.

What makes Pets Rescue genuinely impressive is what it achieves on this hardware. The levels feature animated backgrounds and parallax-style scrolling. The gameplay gives you controllable mid-air jumps, which is a detail that many bigger productions on more powerful machines got wrong. There is a gigantic final boss, a full intro sequence, and a proper ending. The soundtrack across the levels is original and varied, and the game was compared favourably to Giana Sisters and Super Mario at launch.

In this video we play through the game with full commentary, sharing thoughts as the action unfolds, pointing out what the development team nailed and what surprises the levels throw at you. This channel is all about diving into real gameplay with honest reactions, and Pets Rescue absolutely earns that treatment.

If you are new here, welcome. This channel covers classic and retro gaming with commentary, exploring machines and software that deserve far more attention than they get. Pets Rescue on the Commodore Plus 4 is exactly the kind of game this channel was built for.

The game is available from Psytronik Software in digital form and in three physical editions including a full Collector's Box Set with a soundtrack CD, poster, badge, and more. Worth every penny.

Available from https://psytronik.itch.io/pets-rescue.