Play Squish'em Online

Summary

Squish'em (often called Squish'em Sam) drops you into a dizzying vertical climb of 48‑storey scaffolding. Each building is a shifting grid of girders, and you shimmy horizontally before leaping up to the next level – once you’ve risen you can’t go back down. Reach the roof, snatch a suitcase of cash, and parachute back to the base of the next tower, watching the colors and patterns change as you progress.

The climb is guarded by creepy monsters that patrol the girders and by debris that rains down from above. You can smash an enemy by jumping on its head, but after a brief window the creature turns white and becomes untouchable, forcing you to dodge or leap over it. As you advance the foes grow taller and faster, and the falling debris forces you to time your ascents carefully, lest you be knocked off the structure.

The ColecoVision version even throws in digitised speech – Sam shouts “squish ’em” after a hit and “money, money, money” when the suitcase is grabbed – a rarity for the system. Reviewers praised the cute charm and voice effects, though they noted the game doesn’t stray far from its Crazy Climber roots, and a later Atari 2600 clone kept the name alive in 2007.