"They Would Not Let you Do things Dangerous in Today's Workforce"

A true classic, Hard Hat Mack is fetcher, a platformer, and a hard worker. Usually you have platforming and fetching but rarely do you see such enthusiastic hard work.

This game means a lot to me for two very distinct reasons. One it is one of the first computer games I played when I was like six years old. I was really hooked on it then, and I can still remember the suspense and excitement that came along with Mack riding an I-Beam up and down (more on this later).

The second reason the game means a lot is that I am a plant worker. I've worked out where there are nuts, bolts, and drills. I've been around 2300 degree furnaces, and in a rather naive way I can relate to Mack. Working in the plant is hard work. Although Mack does it without a flinch in the game, the game itself shows in a somewhat humorous way what hard and dangerous work is.

Anyway, as a six year old, a VANDAL looked like some alien Psycho tree, and OSHA was a funny name for his cousin. Today, well a VANDAL is someone who messes stuff up and why he ''kills'' Mack is anyone's guess.

As for OSHA, here is where the bread and butter is. First off OSHA actually stands for Office of Safety and Health Administration. To quickly summarize they check workplaces for hazards, keep up on injuries, and have the power to get people fired by shutting a plant down. They are really, really big on unsafe work practices, which brings us back to Mack (Very Big Smile). Having a driller running wild, picking up what could 200 lbs steal slabs and running around with them, and getting hit with nuts spitting from some face doesn't exactly get you on OSHA's safest workplace list. Furthermore, riding on conveyor belts (HUGE NO, NO), jumping from a moving I-BEAM (You guess it no, no), trying to beat a metal stamper and a vice clamp while it is running, AND riding a conveyor (we said NO, NO on this)into a Face furnace and getting saved in a nick of time by a magnet. Let's not go there as far as OSHA is concern. So it stands reason to be running from this guy that looks like he's wearing a tie and a welding mask.

Anyway, on to the games fundamentals.

Gameplay: 10/10
Run, jump, collect, and avoid a lot of bolts, furnaces, holes, and baddies one of which is psycho tree. Need I say more? It's fun to do. You have timed jumps and you have a timer to beat, to boot, too.

Music 10/10: very good. Poor by today's standards, but good for back then. We're going with back then on this.

Graphics 10/10: Great graphics, has limited animation, but then again EVERYTHING back then had less then limited animation. When Mack gets burned, he looks like he's hurtin' for it.

Overall 10/10: Fun addictive game, game tactics vary by level, and it's always suspenseful when your running with that last box and down comes Psycho Tree and all, killing you with your last life. I still play this game today, and although it has patterns. It's JUST random enough to where you will still bite the dust or metal fillings.

Note: I want to point a few things. One the first level Mack is collecting metal plugs or slabs (not concrete blocks, bricks, or boxes), after words he is drilling them to the I-beam. On the second board they're not lunch boxes. They're tool boxes. Makes better sense now doesn't it??? On the third level it's up in the air. I don't think they're boxes. I think they're metal slugs that get machined into bolts, but call them what you want.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/08/03