Tazmania
Back in the 90's there was a great spinoff show revolving around the WB character Taz from the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show. The show revolved around the idea that Taz (the Tasmanian Devil) wasn't actually typical of his species; instead he is uniquely maladjusted and a general spaz whereas the rest of his family is quite normal. His dad plays golf, his mom works at the office and his younger brother and sister do brother and sister stuff. And noone quite knows why Taz is the way he is. (He's also the only one that doesn't wear clothes.)
Anyhow, as was the case with a number of popular cartoons at the time, Taz-Mania got licensed out to become your typical side-scrolling platformer. Though, as was the case for me at least, there was always room for another side-scroller and this one was unique enough that it had definitely stood out for me.
Taz-Mania let you spin into a tornado, which was a given and while in that mode you were an unstoppable crazy force could blast through enemies, up walls and through obstructions. Taz also did one other thing great. Eat. You found yourself stuffing anything you found within the levels inside your mouth. Food items granted you heath, hot peppers let you blow fire, water jugs put that fire out and bombs could be eaten to contain an explosion.
The levels and creatures you fought were fun and bizarre. A number of the enemies were characters from the series. Bush mice with spears, the Gators, kiwi and so on. But then were were a bunch off oddball creatures designed strictly for the game, like a giant man-eating rock among others. What really made the game in the end though was all the fantastic character animations and expressions for the lot of them. Care was taken so the sprites nicely mirrored the show's characters. And since I was so super absorbed in as many cartoons as I could get my hands on, the next step was trying to get them in other formats and since gaming was still really new, seeing all these properties on my new gaming platform was pretty exciting. Though sometimes disappointing.
I never owned a copy of Taz-Mania. I kept putting it off and instead bought the sequel when it came out. Though, I can't say that it held the same level of charm that this one did. In the end, I always wished I had bought this one instead. Something about the levels and the ties with the cartoon show that was lost in the second one. I should pop into an emulator and grab this sometime and play it through again.
Back in the 90's there was a great spinoff show revolving around the WB character Taz from the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show. The show revolved around the idea that Taz (the Tasmanian Devil) wasn't actually typical of his species; instead he is uniquely maladjusted and a general spaz whereas the rest of his family is quite normal. His dad plays golf, his mom works at the office and his younger brother and sister do brother and sister stuff. And noone quite knows why Taz is the way he is. (He's also the only one that doesn't wear clothes.) Anyhow, as was the case with a number of popular cartoons at the time, Taz-Mania got licensed out to become your typical side-scrolling platformer. Though, as was the case for me at least, there was always room for another side-scroller and this one was unique enough that it had definitely stood out for me.
I never owned a copy of Taz-Mania. I kept putting it off and instead bought the sequel when it came out. Though, I can't say that it held the same level of charm that this one did. In the end, I always wished I had bought this one instead. Something about the levels and the ties with the cartoon show that was lost in the second one. I should pop into an emulator and grab this sometime and play it through again.
No comments:
Post a Comment