Taz in Escape From Mars

"A flawed Genesis platformer starring Taz"

When I think of the idea of being Taz, Warner Bros.' energetic cartoon tazmanian devil, I think of spinning till my heart's content, eating whatever was in my path, and just having all sorts of mindless fun. Unfortunately for the player of Escape From Mars Starring Taz, the game's creators didn't see it the same way.
In Taz, you take control of the crazy guy and make an attempt to escape from the clutches of Marvin the Martian - who's decided to add you to his personal zoo - and return to Earth. In your escape, you'll go through a number of worlds that don't happen to be documented in our current Science books. You'll encounter Moleworld, for example, where you can tunnel through dirt with your spin. Funny, I didn't know there was a Moleworld in between Mars and Earth!

In your short library of moves, you can spin, spin, spin; and you can collect certain items. You can collect a box of rocks and spit them at your foes, or down a can of gas and spew flames. Yeah, it's a pretty short list, but it keeps the game's character more faithful to his roots.

Unfortunately, it's Taz's main attack that causes a lot of frustration. You can spin all you want through levels, but you'll be bounced off of enemies, items, and walls whenever you run into them. More often than not, you'll be bounced right into a nice set of spikes, causing some damage. It's annoying that the developers designed the levels the way they did, because otherwise, this would probably be a more enjoyable experience. In the cartoons, Taz can just spin right through anything. Rocks, items, foes; you name it, he goes right through, leaving a hole. Why his legendary spin isn't as useful and powerful in the game, I don't know.

Taz's spin does allow for some advantages, though. If you spin while in a tight horizontal corridor, you can bounce off the walls and ride the ricochet all the way up. Also, you'll occasionally spin right into a corner that's at an angle that allows Taz to continue to spin right up the wall and even onto the ceiling. It's very similar to how Sonic performs his anti-gravity maneuvers.

The visuals in Escape are quite nice. Everything looks very similar to how it does in the traditional Taz or Marvin the Martian cartoons. Fans of them will be quite pleased with how the game looks. The game's enemy creatures are either drawn from the shows or entirely new. The designs for the new ones fit right in, so it's hard to tell what's been inserted from the cartoons and what's been created for use in the game.

Sonically, the game's nothing too special. The level themes fit them fairly well, but they're not really catchy or too enjoyable. They provide decent enough atmosphere, but you won't be whistling them tomorrow.

Overall, Taz's single ''bounce flaw'' really ruins the game for me. Perhaps fans of the little guy can look past it and have a good time playing as their hero, but I just can't stomach playing it when it's so frustratingly laid out.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/02, Updated 10/31/02