Yo! Noid

"A derranged platformer that's quite a lot of fun to play"

I'm personally a little surprised that Capcom made a game using a mascot from Domino's Pizza. I always liked the Noid, but that's a pretty stupid idea! Luckily, Capcom didn't make a lame game and just slap the Noid on for sales. Yo! Noid proves that sometimes mascots are put to good use when it comes to video games.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics are colorful and very well drawn. The Noid really doesn't look a whole lot like himself, but nonetheless the enemies look very cartoonish and cool. Some characters almost look reminiscent to Hanna Barbera cartoon characters! The animations aren't bad either. On the down side, the tide in the first level is pretty annoying, as the screen moves around while the tide does. Other than that, looks great.

Sound: 6/10

The music was okay, but it didn't sound much like what I expected from a Capcom game. The music can get annoying after a while with it's happy setting, which doesn't match the Noid's attitude very well. The sound effects ironically sound similar to the ones from Goonies II, a game released by Konami 3 years earlier. They aren't anything great, but they sound cool.

Game play: 9/10

This game is lots of fun! The first level is kind of boring, but after that the game gets better. To start off, the Noid has a yo-yo to attack (that's also like Goonies 2!) which he swings at enemies and comes right back to him. Along the way, you can also pick up more powerful weapons that take magic to use, like a extended yo-yo swing or a bomb explosion. At the end of each even level (level 2, level 4, level 6, etc,) there's a pizza eating contest with another Noid. How many Pizzas you get to eat each round is determined by cards. You pick a card, and so does the computer opponent. The person with more pizzas wins the round (the number of pizzas you get are determined by the numbers on the cards.) Personally, I think this feature could have been left out of the game, because it is very time consuming and not too much fun (although it is fun to find bonus cards in the levels to help you out.) Anyway, back to the side scrolling action part of the game. All of the levels are good fun (with the exception of the first one,) each one pretty well varied from the next. In some levels, the Noid even gets to ride a skateboard, and in another level he uses a gyro-like jet pack! There huge number of levels also makes the game decent when it comes to challenge, as I still have yet to beat the game.

Overall: 9/10

Sometimes video games featuring great mascots can be a lot of fun after all! Now what about Dr. Craven?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/00, Updated 12/08/00