Taz-mania

"A poor attempt - avoid at any price"

Everybody knows who the special creature Taz Mania is. I was quite curious to see what a Taz Mania
video game would be, back in 1993-4, and so I bought this game. This is one of GG's worst games.
You're basically Taz and your mission is to find a lost egg, or something like that - that's not
very important. You travel through 7 lands (levels) until you find the egg on the end of the last one.
It took me an awful long time to understand the controls. You start the first level with a big
bomb that's going after you. If the bomb touches you - you die. So you need to run away from it,
but its faster than you. The only solution is to do the special roll/run. It took me a long time to get how to do
that (down+button 1). Anyhow, as you run, your power meter goes down. So you occasionally need to stop (when
it reaches the minimum you can't run/roll anymore). You have to pick up some food and eat it.
That's the basic scheme. Anyhow, it's difficult to get the hang of it. But once you do - you'll discover this
is a very easy game, and you should win it quite easily. All 7 levels are quite short, and once you learn what
obstacles there are along the way, and how to avoid them - you're able to move on. The bad things are the terrible
sounds, and the terrible animation. The graphics are not bad, but they barely flow, and its not because of the GG.
The GG can handle such graphics and scroll them smoothly, its just terrible programming.

Here is a breakdown to categories:

Graphics: 4/10
While the pictures themselves are neat, the animations within the game are the worst I've ever seen
on the GG. The framerate is quite poor, and the movements are rough and bumpy.
Again, I want to emphasize that the pictures are GOOD, but the movement of the characters, and the
animations are just too poor to save the graphics here.

Sound/Music: 2/10
Terrible. The background tunes seem to have been 'composed' to drive the gamers nuts and on purpose.
The sound effects are few and poor. In addition, it all sounds much poorer than what the GG
allows. There is only one sound channel in the music (out of 4 possible), and it sounds even worse
than a cellular phone's ringtone (imagine that for a video game!!)

Controls: 5/10
The controls are difficult to learn. But suppose you already understand them its still difficult
to play because of the bumpy movement of Taz, and the other creatures. Jumping over creatures is also
difficult, and all of this together takes all the fun out of it.

Gameplay: 4/10
At first - you'll probably barely be able to control Taz and pass the first level. Later on - when
you'll get the hang of it, you might have some fun. But because the game is both short and because
its always the same, its no fun. Once you learn where each obstacle is, you'll avoid it the next time
and pass on. The game is too monotonous, and acts the same each time. AI? That's a good one...

Replayability: 4/10
Once you beat the game there is no point at all in doing it again. The game doesn't change a bit,
and even the enemies act the same each time.

Overall: 4/10
This is a bad game, and there is no point in playing it, and especially getting it.
I can write for hours how bad this game is, but I can also sum it up in one sentence and tell you
not to get it in anyway. Don't fall for the nice looking screenshots and Taz Mania's appeal,
this is just a terrible game, and that's just too bad.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/01, Updated 10/14/01