Mr. Nutz (MD, 1994)
Graphics-8 Sound-7.5 Control-7 Challenge-7.5 Story-4.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8 Fun-6.5 Originality-4.5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Good-great use of colour and very good animation, Large and detailed boss sprites, Pretty good art direction
Some hidden paths and items (branching path before the octopus boss and before the clouds part of the volcano level)
Pretty good enemy variation (most of them act the same though)
Some decent bosses (spider, octopus)
Some fun level gimmicks (rubber blocks - Alex Kidd and Kid Chameleon)
Collection percentage stats at the end of levels
A few interesting enemies (the little dudes that drop something if you take them out before they run off screen - too bad what they drop isn't useful?)
Little to no slowdown despite many sprites on screen at times
Hidden flight+invincibility power up in one level (too OP and too rare)
Can bounce on some enemies' projectiles and you can bounce pretty high off of enemies letting you reach new parts of some levels
+/-
Password save (get it after each beaten boss)
Kinda small hit boxes on both your avatar and on items
Starting HP and lives options but no difficulty modes
The second boss rips off the witch and the basin level the coffee cup level from Castle of Illusion. Some enemies and hazards are ripped from the Mario and Sonic series
Can't replay beaten levels
Some death pits later on
1-ups also fully heal you
-
Some control/interface issues (kinda floaty jumps, kinda high default bounce height when jumping on enemies, can't use the melee attack unless you're on the ground and ducking, can't look up/down+loose upwards scrolling - leads to leaps of faith, can't aim up or down nor diagonally (plenty of small flying enemies), unforgiving hit detection on the snowballs dropped by small birds)
Fairly slow paced (key and switch searching - gets tedious at times with large and vertical focused levels, spongy bosses; no NTSC version unlike on SNES) with some tedious elements (some very slow moving platforms, too many vertically focused levels where you have to repeat a longer segment after falling down, sometimes unrewarding detours, giant boss)
Some trial & error (finding some switches needed to progress, invisible platforms (until you land on them) in the volcano level, clown boss - non-solid body, snow level blind jumps, some fast attacks from off screen)
Throwing and killing enemies kinda lacks impact and snappiness
Lacks creative mechanics (at one point you become tiny but it's just used for a transition into a player as miniature level)
Sometimes lacking transitions between sub levels
No alternate weapons or gained moves
Nuts don't carry over between levels
Missing the temporary shield power up featured in the SNES ver?
No intro
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8 Fun-6.5 Originality-4.5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Good-great use of colour and very good animation, Large and detailed boss sprites, Pretty good art direction
Some hidden paths and items (branching path before the octopus boss and before the clouds part of the volcano level)
Pretty good enemy variation (most of them act the same though)
Some decent bosses (spider, octopus)
Some fun level gimmicks (rubber blocks - Alex Kidd and Kid Chameleon)
Collection percentage stats at the end of levels
A few interesting enemies (the little dudes that drop something if you take them out before they run off screen - too bad what they drop isn't useful?)
Little to no slowdown despite many sprites on screen at times
Hidden flight+invincibility power up in one level (too OP and too rare)
Can bounce on some enemies' projectiles and you can bounce pretty high off of enemies letting you reach new parts of some levels
+/-
Password save (get it after each beaten boss)
Kinda small hit boxes on both your avatar and on items
Starting HP and lives options but no difficulty modes
The second boss rips off the witch and the basin level the coffee cup level from Castle of Illusion. Some enemies and hazards are ripped from the Mario and Sonic series
Can't replay beaten levels
Some death pits later on
1-ups also fully heal you
-
Some control/interface issues (kinda floaty jumps, kinda high default bounce height when jumping on enemies, can't use the melee attack unless you're on the ground and ducking, can't look up/down+loose upwards scrolling - leads to leaps of faith, can't aim up or down nor diagonally (plenty of small flying enemies), unforgiving hit detection on the snowballs dropped by small birds)
Fairly slow paced (key and switch searching - gets tedious at times with large and vertical focused levels, spongy bosses; no NTSC version unlike on SNES) with some tedious elements (some very slow moving platforms, too many vertically focused levels where you have to repeat a longer segment after falling down, sometimes unrewarding detours, giant boss)
Some trial & error (finding some switches needed to progress, invisible platforms (until you land on them) in the volcano level, clown boss - non-solid body, snow level blind jumps, some fast attacks from off screen)
Throwing and killing enemies kinda lacks impact and snappiness
Lacks creative mechanics (at one point you become tiny but it's just used for a transition into a player as miniature level)
Sometimes lacking transitions between sub levels
No alternate weapons or gained moves
Nuts don't carry over between levels
Missing the temporary shield power up featured in the SNES ver?
No intro