The Cocoa Caper

The story

Ben Blaze is ten, lives for tinkering and has never once left his street. Then his cousin Billy goes missing, and a map in Billy’s handwriting points off the planet.

The Zargs of Planet Zargoth have been stealing Earth’s cocoa beans to refill their drying chocolate rivers. Their boss, Mildred McMire, has bigger plans: every river is being poured into the galaxy’s largest chocolate castle, and she intends to live in it.

Ben follows the map in a spaghetti-and-meatballs saucer, with a pogo stick for high ledges and a Fizz Blaster that fires cream soda bubbles. The bubbles stun. They never harm.

The cast

• 

  Ben Blaze, “Lieutenant Fizz”

  A ten-year-old neighbourhood tinkerer in a bicycle helmet. Armed with a modified pogo stick and the Fizz Blaster, which stuns instead of harming.

• 

  Billy

  Ben’s cousin, fourteen. He went after the Zargs and now sits in a cage at the heart of the citadel.

• 

  Mildred McMire

  Ten years old and the Zargs’ boss. She is turning every chocolate river into the galaxy’s largest chocolate castle, and pilots the Cocoa Colossus from its glass dome.

• 

  The saucer

  A spaghetti-and-meatballs flying saucer with a noodle seat and meatball thrusters, found in a secret lab under the treehouse. Parked where Ben lands.

The Zargs and friends

Every creature has a trick and a way around it. Stunned enemies are harmless for a few seconds, and fizz never defeats them for good.

Enemies, what they do and how to beat them

Sprite	Name	Class	Habit	Beat it
	Gloop slug	Patroller	Paces back and forth, turning at walls, ledges and hazards.	Fizz it, stomp it or hop over.
	Crater hopper	Chaser	Sits still while Ben faces it. Turn your back and it hops after you.	Keep facing it, or stun it.
	Marshmallow blob	Bouncer	Invincible. Shoves Ben aside without hurting him.	Pogo onto it for a springboard.
	Cocoa beetle	Charger	Rams when Ben crosses its row, and is dazed by walls.	Bait it into a wall.
	Crystal bat	Ambusher	Drops from the ceiling when Ben walks underneath.	Fizz upward first.
	Spore pod	Hazard-maker	Puffs every 3 seconds, making the ground on either side deadly.	Time your crossing, or stun it.
	Zarg phantom	Teleporter	Vanishes from incoming shots, reappears and fires a three-way spread.	Shoot during its cooldown.
	Rock roller	Bulldozer	A fizz-proof boulder that speeds up downhill.	Pogo over it.
	Zargoth sentry	Heavy gunner	Tracks Ben’s height and fires a three-shot burst within nine tiles.	Approach outside its height range.
	Gravity drone	Aerial patroller	Invincible, tracing a figure-eight path.	Jump timing.
	Cocoa Colossus	Boss	Hovers, drops globs, slams, charges, then overheats with its dome open.	Three hits while the dome is open.

Snacks and scoring

• Cheezies1 point
• Choc bar2 points
• Fudge cookie5 points
• Cream soda+5 fizz shots
• Red gumdropOpens red cookie doors
• Blue gumdropOpens blue cookie doors
• Green gumdropOpens green cookie doors
• Gold USB driveDropped by the boss; hacks the terminal

You start with 3 lives and earn another for every 100 points. Losing a life returns you to the map. Press F5 to save and F9 to load, or use the pause menu: there are four slots plus a read-only autosave.

The world

Fifteen levels sit on a top-down map of crystal forest split by chocolate rivers. Teleporters link the regions and power up as you clear levels. The map saves itself every time you visit it.

• CRATER FIELDS <DIR> south-west, where Ben lands

  • ├─Crater Fields. Slopes, pogo, fizz and chocolate pools. The tutorial.
  • ├─Meteor Mesa. Daylight mesas, clouds and a hover platform.
  • └─Zarg Lookout. A nine-floor watchtower. Climb to the roof for the red key, then come back down.

• MARSHMALLOW MEADOWS <DIR> north-west

  • ├─Marshmallow Meadows. Soft hills and corrals of bouncing marshmallows.
  • ├─Bonbon Playhouse. A candy theatre with rooms hidden behind painted flats.
  • └─Fudge Bog. Optional. Wide fudge pools, spike runs and spore pods.

• ROCK CANDY REACH <DIR> north-east

  • ├─Crystal Caves. Dark tunnels lit by crystals and your lantern.
  • ├─Mirror Shafts. Bounce fizz off mirrors to wake the crystal switches.
  • ├─Whisper Hollow. Optional. Vines, chimneys and wall-kicks.
  • └─Sugar Glass Gallery. Optional. A long theatre of hidden rooms, and a secret.

• FROSTING FRONTIER <DIR> south-east

  • ├─Frosting Flats. Optional. The hardest open-sky level.
  • ├─Frosting Spire. Twelve floors, three lifts and a key in every colour.
  • ├─Cocoa Foundry. Conveyor belts, crushing presses and molten metal.
  • └─Mildred’s Citadel. Boulder ramp, sentries, phantoms, then the boss and Billy’s cage.

• GUMDROP ISLE <DIR> a secret island in the lake

  • └─Gumdrop Isle. A short bonus course, packed with snacks. Find the way in.

Moves and tricks

• >JUMP Release early for a short hop.
• >POGO Toggle it on and Ben bounces by himself. Hold jump for a high bounce, high enough for the ledges about seven tiles up that hold a cookie and two cheezies. Stomping while pogoing bounces higher still.
• >FIZZ Hold ↑ to aim up, or ↓ in the air to aim down. Cans of cream soda refill your ammunition.
• >WALL-KICK Press jump against a wall in mid air. Two facing walls, at least three tiles apart, make a climb.
• >MANTLE Just miss a ledge by about a tile and Ben hauls himself up.
• >LADDERS AND VINES Press ↑ to grab on, jump to let go. You can shoot while climbing.
• >CRACKED WALLS Shoot one and it crumbles. A crack is always a promise, never a trap.
• >MIRRORS A bubble bounces off a 45-degree mirror. Use that to reach switches you cannot see directly.
• >PAINTINGS Touch one for a line of lore. Some of them point at secrets.

Controls

Default controls

Action	Keen-style	Modern	Gamepad
Move	← →	← → or A D	D-pad or stick
Jump	Ctrl	Z	A
Pogo	Alt	X	B or Y
Fizz	Space	C	X or RT
Menu	Esc	Esc or P	Start
Save / load	F5 / F9	F5 / F9	Pause menu

Both keyboard layouts always work. The Options screen picks which one the on-screen hints show.