Attack of the Mutant Penguins

Attack of the Mutant Penguins is an action-strategy video game developed by Sunrise Games and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar in Europe in December 1995, and North America on March 15, 1996. A port titled Mutant Penguins was released in 1996 by GameTek for MS-DOS. The plot follows Bernard and Rodney, intergalactic heroes defending earth against alien invaders disguised as penguins. The player must dispatch the alien penguins before they reach a doomsday weapon, in the form of a weighing scale. Earth also has real penguins, who help the player by fighting the aliens and counteracting their weight on the scale. Attack of the Mutant Penguins was one of the first projects supported by Atari's European development center, established to work with European independent developers on new Jaguar games. Atari selected the project after soliciting presentations from multiple game developers. Sunrise Games founder Wayne Smithson worked with Atari producers Alistair Bodin and Darryl Still, focusing on unique gameplay rather than maximizing the console's hardware. Gaming publications gave both the Jaguar and DOS versions mixed reviews. Some reviewers found the game's concept fresh and innovative, but others felt there was a lack of direction due to the changing gameplay elements, while criticism was geared towards its learning curve.