TazMania review - Sega Megadrive

Once again another cartoon character gets the Megadrive treatment, and once again the end result is a graphically stunning platform game. Zero out of ten for originality, but at least the game is great fun to play. As I've said, the graphics are truly wonderful, with Taz stonking around the screen just like he does in his cartoons. The sound is also good, although I must admit to being disappointed by his roar - it's nothing like the manic screaming and shouting fit he has in the cartoon. Gameplay-wise, Taz is better than Donald Duck insomuch as the action is less rigid and a lot faster, but even so it suffers the same problems of difficulty - or rather, the lack of it. Even on HARD there's no real challenge, and everyone who's played a few platform games of this type will finish the game much sooner than they'd like. I must say that this problem is really begging to cheese me off - how many Megadrive games have we seen that are superb, all but for the difficulty setting? When will Sega get the message?

There's no question that Taz Mania is visually one of the most stunning Megadrive games yet - it's virtually identical to a Taz cartoon, right down to his aggravated fit when he's left alone for a while. The animation is very impressive, the sprites and backgrounds are well defined, detailed and full of colour, and there's a definite a cartoon feel to the proceedings. Despite all of this, the thought of another Megadrive platform game still wasn't all that appealing. True, the first couple of levels are pretty standard stuff, although the action is less linear than usual and Taz must find his own way through. After this, however, things get a bit more interesting and there is a stronger puzzle element to the game. The wide range of actions available to Taz also help sustain interest. The only flaw with Taz Mania is that it's a mite too easy. Although some of the fifteen levels provide a real challenge, a lot of them are a little too short to fully test your gaming abilities. Taz Mania is a very good game with fantastic graphics and some really smart gameplay, but when it comes to the ultimate in Megadrive platform thrills Robocod is still the one to go for.

I love this game! (I think I start quite a few retrospectives with that phrase!)

You can't really go wrong with a cartoon-y platformer, they seem to have a universal likeability, a charm that appeals to the kid in all of us. The Taz Mania cartoon was great. It was one of those cartoons that was for kids but had an adult sense of humour about it. Toxic Crusaders was another one and today we have Spongebob Squarepants.

Any-hoo, this game took up quite a lot of my, and my friends', time.

All platformers have those annoying-as-hell levels where you just miss the last jump or run out of time right near the end.

With my friends and I, it was a case of 'one go then pass the control pad to the left'. The reason for this was not just to keep it fair and give everyone a go, it was more to do with getting the best person for the job. Some people are naturally gifted at timing things to perfection, others are quick thinking and can work out puzzles in record time, while another can bash the buttons really fast. So, you inevitably find that within the group, one would succeed where the rest fail and many of the games that we played were completed as a group effort.

Another thing that I remember about his game was that it was one of the games that we hired from the 'Video Van'.

The Video Van was a small business run by a guy in the village. It was a big, long-wheelbase, white transit van with 'Galaxy Video' emblazoned over both sides replete with the company logo of a rocket and whoosh lines. The inside of the van was kitted out with shelves, front-to-back, floor-to-ceiling and loaded with videos.

Mobile video van…..Genius!

To get to the point, the guy who ran the company decided that he'd make some money by hiring out Megadrive games.

He made lots of money…from me!!!

He had loads of games and I couldn't wait until the next Thursday for him to make his rounds so I used to go to his house and ask for them - really cheeky when I think back on it now but £2 for a week's game-hire seemed too good to miss especially when games could cost up to £40.

Oh yes, the point…one of those games that I hired was (drum roll) Taz Mania (cymbal crash).

Great cartoon, great game, great days.

Or should that be, one of many great cartoons, one of many great games and one of many great days…….except for that day when I jumped on my bike from a wall and split my ball-sack open. That one wasn't so good!