Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back

An evil witch has brought evil and darkness to the enchanted wood, wiping out all but one of the innocent pumpkins. As the poem in the instructions sheet explains, the only way to put things right is to capture a lock of her hair, then take it to the cauldron and cast a spell to undo things.

Controlling the pumpkin is difficult at first, as it has a very high bounce, the exact level of which can be toggled. Direction can only be changed when the ball is on the ground. Ricocheting into enemies costs energy, and you only gain weaponry by landing into magic pools. The starting positions are random, making mapping advisable and increasing the initial challenge.

Even then, enemies respawn quickly, so all you're doing is buying a little time to pass them. Others can't be shot, and must be passed by possessing the right object - possibly one of the five you will ultimately need to vanquish the witch.

Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back is a computer game developed and published by British developer Palace Software (Palace) as a sequel to their 1985 title Cauldron. The two-dimensional (2D) platform game was released in 1986 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC home computers. Players control a bouncing pumpkin that is on a quest of vengeance against the "Witch Queen". The roles of the two were reversed from the first game, in which the witch defeated a monster pumpkin.

Following the success of Cauldron, Palace employee Steve Brown began work on a sequel. To provide fans of the original title with a new experience, a very different gameplay was implemented for the sequel, although several minor features retained connections to the first. Inspired by the bouncing pumpkin character in Cauldron, Brown designed the game around the character's movement. The bouncing mechanic proved problematic for the programmers who were unable to perfect its implementation. Technical limitations also prevented them from implementing certain animations, such as turning pages of a book.

Cauldron II was first released on the Commodore 64. It was released in the following years on other systems and as re-releases. The game received praise, mainly for its audio-visuals, in video game magazines. Difficulty in handling the bouncing pumpkin's movement was a common complaint, although reviewers felt the overall package was of good value.