Disney's TaleSpin

"Higher For Hire takes a dive"

I'm not much of a fan of Disney movies (or games based on Disney movies). In this case, we have a game based on a Disney TV show. Baloo the bear and Kit (a smaller bear?) have their own small business. They're freelance freighters who transport cargo for customers in their sea plane, the Sea Duck. The freight business is just as competitive as any other, except in this fantasy world of talking animals, the competition will do anything they can to slow our heroes down. They're not above such nasty tactics as outright attacking our heroes in an attempt to prevent them from delivering their cargo.

The city is sponsoring a cargo-running contest. First prize is a lucrative contract with the city. Shere Khan the tiger is one of our antagonists here. He's a big businessman who wants the contract, and he's already completed the cargo run in record time. Baloo and Kit have to tour the world, pick up ten cargo boxes from each location, and deliver them faster than Shere Khan did. Our second antagonist here is Don Karnage, a pirate who prowls the skies with his large airship and an armada of attack planes.

This game is a typical side-scrolling adventure game and part time shoot-em-up. You can play as either Baloo or Kit. Your hero of choice traverses eight side-scrolling levels, confronts boss characters, and flies the Sea Duck while Don Carnage's ace pilots try to shoot him out of the sky.

Baloo is big, and he attacks with a paddle ball at fairly close range. Kit is small, can jump higher than Baloo, and he attacks with a slingshot. Standing in your hero's way are natural predators and agents who work for Shere Khan. Birds, snakes, rats, the "tiger in a trench coat", karate cats, and buzzards who carry big guns. Your hero has a health meter (displayed as a number on-screen) and a limited stock of extra lives. Power-ups include temporary invulnerability, a health power-up, an extra life, and a few others. These take the form of hamburgers, ice cream cones, a lucky penny, and other cartoony things.

Scattered about the various levels are cargo boxes that must be picked up. Find 'em all and then find the customs office to complete the level. There are also empty boxes that your character can pick up and carry with him. He can place an empty box on the floor and then use it as a stepping stone to reach high areas that he'd otherwise be unable to reach.

After your guy collects the cargo boxes in a level, he can exit to the customs office, where he faces off with a boss character. These are all guys who work for Don Carnage (or perhaps some of them work for Shere Khan). The boss confrontations here aren't all that interesting, and many of them make repeat appearances as the game progresses. It is amusing to see the customs official looking on in bemusement as our hero fights the boss.

There are a variety of locales that our hero visits. A jungle, a lost city, Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, New York, and San Francisco. Each has its own array of hazards and scenery that your character can interact with (elevators, bouncy springs, and so forth). The level designs are small but labyrinthine, offering us some moderate exploration. Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of slowdown that can make controlling your guy a bit tougher than it should be. It appears that whenever there's a "tiger in a trench coat" on screen firing his gun, everything slows down. The way your character jumps around is also rather imprecise, making it a challenge to traverse an area full of small platforms. It takes some practice to be able to jump around with a degree of proficiency.

After you complete two levels, your hero pilots the Sea Duck to the next area. The Sea Duck's only weapon is a grease gun, which is apparently just as efficient at shooting down airborne pirates as bullets are. Don Karnage's cronies will come after the Sea Duck in their attack planes, firing missiles and dropping bombs in an attempt to blast the Sea Duck out of the sky. Power-ups here are triple-shot and a wrench that repairs damage that the Sea Duck has taken. These levels play out like a side-scrolling shoot-em-up. They're short but fun. At the end, the Sea Duck confronts Don Karnage's huge airship.

Visually, this game is below par. The environments aren't as colorful as they could be, and the characters aren't sharply drawn. This is one of those games where your character flashes when he takes a hit or touches a bad guy. The bosses flash as well when they take a hit. The environments and characters are appropriately cartoony, but there just isn't anything impressive here. The Game Gear can do much better than this.

Our sound department is just as dismal a picture. There are very few sound effects here. The sound of Baloo's paddle ball, Kit's slingshot, and gunshots from the "tiger in a trench coat". None of them are thrilling. Background music isn't terrible, but neither is it great. The songs are catchy and light hearted, setting an appropriate mood, but they're mostly just a bass line and a lead part. Again, the Game Gear can do better than this. One of the songs is interesting to me because it's in an unusual time signature. The boss music from the Sea Duck's confrontation with Don Karnage's airship plays during the end credits. I find that rather strange.

In spite of its shortcomings, Talespin can be a fun little romp. It's not a great game. Perhaps decent at best. The Game Gear has far better offerings in its library. Stacking boxes so that your character can jump on them to reach new areas is a nice idea, but it seldom realizes its true potential here. The Genesis version did a better job with this concept. On the Game Gear, Talespin manages to be less than average.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/05, Updated 02/25/05