REVIEW: Mr Nutz 1993 SNES
	By: Nintendo Type: Platoform Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard

    Back in '93, it seemed like a very trendy thing for bog-standard third party software companies to design some furry mascot animal and cast it as the star of a shoddy platform game, with said "charismatic" character, and a "cartoony" atmosphere as the game's main (only?) selling points. The horror of it. The ravages caused by Drabsoft's "Eeno the LSD-addicted poodle" can still be felt today (not that such a game ever existed, but you get the idea ^^; ). So the excellence of Mr Nutz comes as a pleasant surprise ideed.
    You see, instead of stuffing the game with loads of "hilarious"animations for the main characters, Ocean's humble European coders have gone for a more sensible approach and have concentrated instead on the game good and proper. It takes someone special to realise that a game that is "just like playing a cartoon" is all very well, but no substitute for a game that is, well, a game.
 
    Still, this no-nonsense attitude hasn't prevented Ocean from giving the game a hefty dosis of visual polish. The graphics are very impressive indeed: large, detailed sprites with very fluid animations, a bursting colour palette and some of the most lush backgrounds I've ever seen make this game quite a visual treat.
    Then there's the very impressive music. It's very well composed and full of atmoshpere. The overall tone of the music is a wonderfully relaxing and enchanting one. It's difficult to describe with words how much the music adds to this game, but it really is something special.
 
    And now, on to the core of the game. It plays, apparently like any other platformer. Nothing revolutionary really happens, just your basic walk, jump etcetera. But here's the good part: it works extremely well. Ocean have managed to take the simple concept of an old-fashioned platform game to new heights with some very inventive level design and an enormous challenge.
 
    See, the levels are huge, with quite a lot of secret areas to discover, and loads of things to do. And they soon become very tough as well. This is one of the most sturdy platform challenges you will ever face. It's vast, and at some points very tricky (the later bosses, for instance).
    And that's where the game's only shortcoming comes in: there's no save option, and with a game this large and tough, it's not so great if you have to start at the very beggining each time. Another small niggle: sometimes, the controls seem a tiny little bit rusty, but this is very rare, overall, play is very fluid.
 
    The lack of a save option is it's only real drawback. Even if the game is excellent, most gamers are not perseverent enough to sit through such a big dosis of gaming in one setting, it's just too much to take.
    Shame, really as this means many will probably miss out on this unsung gem of the Super NES platform heritage. Those brave enough to give it go, however, will be
richly rewarded. - Toasty 90%

[Key to the reviewing system]

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