Cleared on May 22nd, 2024 (SEGA Genesis Challenge: 75/160)
I wanted to like this game, but there is way too much stacked against it that it ends up feeling unfun in the grand scheme of things.
Taz-Mania is a platformer featuring the Looney Tunes icon Taz as he ventures through the wilds of tasmania in pursuit of a giant egg that could feed his family for about a week. At first, nothing really seems off. You can jump, throw items, and even breath fire if you've collected peppers. However, what makes this game interesting is Taz's spin which makes him go really fast and can damage foes in your way. It is a very powerful tool, but in a platformer like this, it is also very risky since it can cause you to fall off which best case scenario would knock you down a peg and force you to get back up, but worst case scenario is that you end up losing your life.
Yet you are required at points to jump and spin in order to get from one point to another, and sometimes because the camera is so zoomed in on your character, there are times where you can't tell where your platform is which puts you at risk of overshooting it, and you can get ambushed by enemies as well. Even with your spin attack, some enemies like the little spear dudes can still hit you while performing the move.
The game also throws in a few gimmicks such as "perspective platforming" which is where the game looks 2.5D with being able to move from multiple different logs at seeming different angles on the river, but it is so jank and trying to determine where to land is actually really difficult, and it's not like you can just bull rush it either. The minecart level is probably the most infamous of them all because it requires trial and error to figure out the pattern. Not even Donkey Kong Country can prepare you for how precise you need to be. You can slow down, sure. But there are points where you need to speed up to cross a ramp.
On top of that, I just really don't like the sound design of this game. There is often so much going on at once, and it gets more grating than anything. The music is ok, I guess, but nothing to go wild over. The graphics are quite nice with Taz's sprite and the environments, and the game even has an opening cutscene which is limited animation and textbox, but the sprites are pretty detailed. The game's ending felt rather jarring. It was meant to be comedic in Looney Tunes fashion, but it felt like the game just decided to end abruptly after defeating the last boss.
The game feels like a prelude to the Crash Bandicoot series, and I think Crash was even inspired by Taz himself. So seeing Taz take on the idea prior was kinda cool, and I would be down to see him try a 3D platformer with a wild spin to it... wait, there is one?
I wanted to like this game, but there is way too much stacked against it that it ends up feeling unfun in the grand scheme of things.
Taz-Mania is a platformer featuring the Looney Tunes icon Taz as he ventures through the wilds of tasmania in pursuit of a giant egg that could feed his family for about a week. At first, nothing really seems off. You can jump, throw items, and even breath fire if you've collected peppers. However, what makes this game interesting is Taz's spin which makes him go really fast and can damage foes in your way. It is a very powerful tool, but in a platformer like this, it is also very risky since it can cause you to fall off which best case scenario would knock you down a peg and force you to get back up, but worst case scenario is that you end up losing your life.
Yet you are required at points to jump and spin in order to get from one point to another, and sometimes because the camera is so zoomed in on your character, there are times where you can't tell where your platform is which puts you at risk of overshooting it, and you can get ambushed by enemies as well. Even with your spin attack, some enemies like the little spear dudes can still hit you while performing the move.
The game also throws in a few gimmicks such as "perspective platforming" which is where the game looks 2.5D with being able to move from multiple different logs at seeming different angles on the river, but it is so jank and trying to determine where to land is actually really difficult, and it's not like you can just bull rush it either. The minecart level is probably the most infamous of them all because it requires trial and error to figure out the pattern. Not even Donkey Kong Country can prepare you for how precise you need to be. You can slow down, sure. But there are points where you need to speed up to cross a ramp.
On top of that, I just really don't like the sound design of this game. There is often so much going on at once, and it gets more grating than anything. The music is ok, I guess, but nothing to go wild over. The graphics are quite nice with Taz's sprite and the environments, and the game even has an opening cutscene which is limited animation and textbox, but the sprites are pretty detailed. The game's ending felt rather jarring. It was meant to be comedic in Looney Tunes fashion, but it felt like the game just decided to end abruptly after defeating the last boss.
The game feels like a prelude to the Crash Bandicoot series, and I think Crash was even inspired by Taz himself. So seeing Taz take on the idea prior was kinda cool, and I would be down to see him try a 3D platformer with a wild spin to it... wait, there is one?
Joguei pouco porém joguei o suficiente pra perceber que esse jogo não iria ser interessante, a trilha sonora não me pegou nenhum pouco e a arte é bem da ruinzinha, vou nem me dar o trabalho de dar meia estrela pra ele.
Simple but pleasing platformer. Nice graphics, a little difficult to control, but it has its charms. Jump about the place, eating everything in sight. Remember the Taz cartoon show from the 90s? Yeah, that one.
It's fine.
In 1992, some gaming company managed to squeeze an actual garbage fire onto a Game Gear cartridge. The framerate of a first grader's flip book meets the sound of tying catnip to a cat's face and throwing it at a piano to present 9 painful levels (mostly auto-scrollers) featuring everyone's 10th favorite Looney Tunes character. Taz-Mania is a game with zero redeeming qualities, and is best left forgotten, much like how the developers forgot to add "fun" to their video game for children.
Too stiff and frustrating.
Its a great little game. Quick to beat and fun to master! I love the music but I might be a little broken! Need to do a speedrun and put it up on Speedrun.com
This Christmas morning I made a big mistake, I got out of bed.
Some kids were over for the afternoon and spotted my CRT setup and asked to play something, it was then I subconsciously went to turn on my Sega Genesis and moved the cursor of my MegaEverdrive's menu to Taz-Mania. I could've simply just put on Sonic 2 or even Rocket Knight Adventures as a form of kid friendly entertainment, but somewhere in my mind I was bent on destruction.
The joke was on me however, as after about ten minutes of them floundering about on the second stage not knowing how to traverse Taz-Mania's leap of faith style platforming, the controller found it's way back to it's owner. They had the time of their life after that, watching me immediately get flattened into the ground by the truck boss entering the stage without warning, and bursting into laughter at the hundreds of times I slammed into obstacles on the minecart stage that could potentially get Battletoads to respond to it's cacophonous mating calls that make up it's poor attempt at a dynamic soundtrack. It's a bit hard to describe, it's kind of like if the world's most flaccid digitized slide whistle accompanied your every movement. It's a far cry from Desert Demolition's masterful attempt on the same system.
I felled Taz-Mania this day, but at what cost? My stomach has exploded so many times from mean-spirited bomb placement, I've gotten hypothermia in real life from the amount of times I fell in frozen water, and have been zapped dozens of times by pulling the wrong lever.
Well... at least they had a good time.
Some kids were over for the afternoon and spotted my CRT setup and asked to play something, it was then I subconsciously went to turn on my Sega Genesis and moved the cursor of my MegaEverdrive's menu to Taz-Mania. I could've simply just put on Sonic 2 or even Rocket Knight Adventures as a form of kid friendly entertainment, but somewhere in my mind I was bent on destruction.
The joke was on me however, as after about ten minutes of them floundering about on the second stage not knowing how to traverse Taz-Mania's leap of faith style platforming, the controller found it's way back to it's owner. They had the time of their life after that, watching me immediately get flattened into the ground by the truck boss entering the stage without warning, and bursting into laughter at the hundreds of times I slammed into obstacles on the minecart stage that could potentially get Battletoads to respond to it's cacophonous mating calls that make up it's poor attempt at a dynamic soundtrack. It's a bit hard to describe, it's kind of like if the world's most flaccid digitized slide whistle accompanied your every movement. It's a far cry from Desert Demolition's masterful attempt on the same system.
I felled Taz-Mania this day, but at what cost? My stomach has exploded so many times from mean-spirited bomb placement, I've gotten hypothermia in real life from the amount of times I fell in frozen water, and have been zapped dozens of times by pulling the wrong lever.
Well... at least they had a good time.
If you like mediocre plataformers and Frank Zappa's "Jazz from Hell" album, then this is the perfect game for you!
Taz-Mania (1992): Sólo tiene un problema, pero a su vez es lo peor que puede ser un juego de esta época: Es aburrido, mucho. Un plataformas 2D simplón, de tirar para adelante y repetir el mismo patrón. Al menos no se alarga demasiado y no se hace pesado (4,95)