Canon Video Game Review: Shove It ... The Warehouse Game (Sega Genesis)

Today I'm going to review a little video game with a somewhat offensive title, Shove It. Unfortunately, they had to ruin the angry spirit of the title by adding 'The Warehouse Game' to it. Shove It is a game for the Sega Genesis that was released in 1990 and published by DreamWorks, and no, it is not the same DreamWorks that produced such films as Gladiator and Biker Boyz. No, this Dreamworks published a few other games for the Sega Genesis in the early 1990s, but never did produce a hit video game. Here is a look at the cover for Shove It, courtesy of allgame.com:

In Shove It, you play as a warehouse worker named Stevedore. Obviously they didn't put much thought in the name. Besides, a stevedore usually refers to a worker that moves cargo off and on ships, and while you may be moving cargo, there is no ship that I am aware of in this game. Anyway, the plot of the game is this, Stevedore has met a girl and has fallen for her, but in order to gain her interest, he must get a brand new sports car. In order to do that, Stevedore must complete moving all the boxes at the warehouse. There are 16 levels in the game, each with 10 puzzles. In order to complete each level, you must shove the boxes in the correct spot, which is marked with a white circle. The controls are remarkably simple, as you use the d-pad to move the boxes, the b button brings up a menu with a few options (including restart, which trust me gets a lot of use in the game) and the a button allows you to pull the box back one space after you have shoved it.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well not so fast, my friend. For one, you can only push the boxes, not pull the boxes (or otherwise the game might be called shove and tug it or something). Also, you can only undo the last shove you make, so if you accidentally move a box into a corner and leave it, well, tough luck. Make no mistake about it, this is a challenging puzzle game, even in the early levels, and things only get harder as more and more boxes have to be moved. The game gives you a password to use after completing each level (i.e. 10 rooms), so that's something at least. The graphics are incredibly simple, as it's just an overhead shot of Stevedore in the warehouse moving boxes. The surroundings slightly change with each level, but really there's only so much you can do with this type of game. Also, there's an animation of Stevedore shoving a box after you finish each room. The audio in this game is basically one thirty second track that was played on an electric keyboard and loops over and over again. If you wanted to play this game, I would suggest turning the sound off and listening to some music, as you're not really missing anything with the sound on. There is also an edit mode where you can create your own puzzles, but the problem is you can't save them after you stop playing the game.

Overall, I can't imagine anyone dropping 50 dollars on this title back when it came out, as Shove It is a rather simple game in its presentation. But that's not to say that Shove It is a bad game. In fact, it's a rather challenging puzzle game that can be rather addictive. Shove It is far from the worst game to come out for the Genesis, and is actually quite a fun little time waster, even if there are many games similar to this that you could probably play for free somewhere on the internet. Overall, I'll give Shove It a 6.09 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any ideas for future reviews, or comments about this review, then share them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com