TazMania review - Sega Megadrive
Many years ago in prehistoric times there lived a race of giant flying reptiles, legendary for the huge eggs they laid - one of which was capable of feeding a family of Tasmanian Devils for a whole year! Legend also has it that somewhere, in a lost valley, these creatures live on. Naturally, these eggs seem very appealing to young Taz, who sets his heart on a couple. Sadly, Tasmania is not known for its specialist delicatessens and it becomes apparent to the hapless young Devil that he will have to sally forth and find the valley himself.
Unfortunately, Taz has two major problems. First of all, he doesn't have the foggiest idea where to start his search - so it's up to you to help guide him around the platform-style world of Tasmania. Secondly, everyone else in Tasmania loathes and detests Tasmanian Devils - which leads them to attack Taz with no provocation. Still, Taz has his mighty spinning and leaping abilities to depend on, as well as a healthy tendency to eat anything in his path!
What the Mean Machines staff thought
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. |
Retrospective comments
I love this game! (I think I start quite a few retrospectives with that phrase!) |
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