Super Nintendo, NES & GameBoy tomfoolery;

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Up from (Super) Obscurity

My latest Super Nintendo acquisition seems to be a blend of several different games. It involves a blobby character, for whom gravity switches every now and then, and who can run very fast (if he has enough runway to build up speed).
So basically, you could say it's like...
meets Metal Storm...
...meets Sonic the Hedgehog depicted here with the world's worst Sonic "fan-art" (drawn by yours truly).
This being the first time I needed a picture from a Genesis game, I'll be keel-hauled if I'm going to figure out how to get Genesis screenprints for 1 picture when Microsoft Paint is RIGHT THERE!
So, what is this great gummy amalgum?
...and as its title screen will attest (because its projected over vomit-inducing tye-dye swirliness), they certainly spent a lot of effort on the graphics. But let's look at it somewhat just a smidgen deeper:
Basically he runs around and collects CDs,
and goes blobby and clay-like when he hits the wall or crouches down.
Not only can he walk around giant loop-de-loops, (making whatever part of the loop that's below him be the bottom of the screen)
but various other places, either potatoes in space or "stripy arrows" cause gravity to flip, so that different parts of the level are the bottom of the screen.
You have pretty decent jumping abilities --
to the point that you have a "Jump" button AND a "Leap" button but I can't really tell the difference
Ok, but what's it like to play?
One thing that's quite nice is that you can roll up into a spiny ball (which kills enemies when you collide with them), even while traveling at full-speed:
This helps avoid the normal "speedy platformer" problem of never getting to run for very long without hitting an enemy.
Also, even when not spiny, you take a few hits before you die (as indicated by the rotating triangle count at the bottom left of the screen). And you can recharge your hits or find a few power-ups scattered here and there.
In fact, I think those Giant CD-s actually unlock extra tracks in your start-menu "CD Player".
But unfortunately, finding the "Start Button Menu" was the beginning of the end...
Because then I tried the "Select" button, which zooms out by what I estimate to be a factor of four...
to show you the level map.
Then you can pan-and-scan around the whole level with the D-pad.
...and when you're done looking around the whole level's map, it zooms back to you.
And then you realize...
  1. how huge that the levels are
  2. and how confusing the game is, in regards to what surfaces you stick to
  3. and how, even though you can move quite fast, it takes a long time to get across the level and you're not getting anywhere interesting, just more metal gray walls sprinkled with teensy platforms and mini-cds.
And then -- well,
another game down
and another game gone
— carlmarksguy, 2014-06-27
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