Unfortunately, I just learned a few weeks ago that this game exists.
I thought I was done with these two, I really did. I reviewed The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends in year one, and it was one of the few games from the early days that I had expectations for going in. And those expectations were very, very low. Every gaming content creator, big or small, blogger or YouTuber, retro or modern, seems to have "that game" that they absolutely hate. The Angry Video Gamee Nerd infamously despises Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde for the NES, for example. Well for me, Rocky and Bullwinkle for the NES is, was and always will be "that game."
Simply put, that game made me realize that videogames could, in fact, suck. I had a lot of "bad" games, but most of them offered something, anything that would make you keep playing. Gaming is always better than not gaming, right? I used to think that way as a kid, at least before I played Rocky and Bullwinkle. I remember being so excited to receive a game as a birthday present from a friend, that was a rarity in those days. You would maybe get them from relatives, but never friends. Well, that excitment was short lived, because I knew immediately that this game was garbage. It was so bad, I actively stopped playing to go do homework. And I never want to play it or talk about it again, but I had to bring it up here to set some level of expectations.
You see, I learned not too long ago that there was also a Rocky and Bullwinkle game released for the SNES and Genesis as well. And for the sake of morbid curiosity, I had to at least boot it up. This was starting to be around the time when you were getting both 8 and 16 bit versions of games, which were often the same mechanically. I couldn't imagine how this game could have gotten any worse on better hardware, but I wanted to see if it could get any better. I am happy to say that they did make Rocky and Bullwinkle better...by making it a different game entirely. I did have to bring up the NES game to give a baseline of how low my expectations were for this one. The SNES/Genesis version could have exceeded them by merely being borderline playable, a mark I am happy to say it met. Don't get me wrong, the game is still not good, but it was at least substantially better than one of the worst games I've ever played.
The Adventures or Rocky and Bullwinkle puts you in control of the eponymous squirrel and moose, who are tasked with finding and recovering three artifacts stolen from a museum. That's it, that's the plot. And you know what? That's totally fine for a 4th generation platformer, no one is playing this for the plot, they are probably playing it because one of their grandparents found it in the bargain bin at K-Mart and didn't know any better. I guess Rocky and Bullwinkle were somewhat popular in the 90's, they were the lead-in show on "Nick at Night" for those lucky enough to have cable. But anyawy, I digress. At least the game looks and feels like the show, which was certainly not the case for its NES counterpart.
Again, I'm not going to call the graphics good here, they are lacking in color and look kind of washed out, especially in the Genesis version. But they are at least okay and they capture the look and feel of the show. In a weird way, the dull colors kind of fit with the older style animation and the pastel colors certainly fit as well. At least Rocky and Bullwinkle actually look like themselves this time. The animation on their sprites is even decent, though it does lead to some problems we will discuss later. The backgrounds are fairly boring, but again, they look so much better than the graphics in the NES game that it stands out. Speaking of being better than the NES game, the sound is a massive step up from that version. And the music in this game isn't very good, its weak at its worst and boring at its best, which should give you an idea of how bad it is in the NES game. Seriously, if you ever feel the need to make your ears bleed, look up the soundtrack for that game.
While it's still a 2D platformer, the gameplay here is completely different from the abominable NES version. You move from left to right, battling enemies and jumping over pits. There is quite a bit of verticality here, the first level starts with a mountain climbing section that kind of has its own unique mechanics. Bullwinkle can once again attack with his horns, but this time the hitbox is actually decent and he doesn't hurt himself by doing so. The bombs are gone, now he can throw mooseberries to deal with enemies at range. These are a little week, but they are way batter than the stupid bombs from the NES game. Enemies aren't particularly well placed, but they don't come at you at unfair angles either and can mostly be dealt with if you are prepared. You have three lives with three continues, and it's game over if you lose them all. You can earn extra lives before you start by playing the two minigames at the title screen, which was an interesting mechanic. Neither of these games are very good, but at least they feature series side characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Dudley DooRite, who were absent from the NES version.
But alas, being better than one of the worst games of all time isn't much of an accomplishment. The platforming may not be completely broken anymore, but its still fairly poor and leads to high artificial difficulty. You aren't falling through floors or jumping like you are on the moon anymore, but things are still rough once you leaver your feet. The jumping is so incredibly stiff and unweildy that it's hard to clear enemies or judge distance between platforms. I never felt like I could quite get a hold of how hard I needed to hold the d-pad, like I was always either over- or undershooting platforms. There are some pretty small platforms too, so this was a major issue. It was also hard to jump from the climbing sections to the more straightforward ones, which was frustrating.
The lack of graphical detail was also a substantial issue that led to quite a few extremely cheap deaths. It isn't always clear what platforms can be jumped on and which are walls, which led to falling through places it didn't look like I could fall through. Some enemies throw really small projectiles that are hard to see, leading to some unecessary hits as well. The general stiffness of the controls don't help with any of this, you constantly have to slam on the controls to get them to do anything, which compounds both of the aforementioned problems. I guess iIt's way better than the NES version, which had completely broken controls.
Overall, this was a big improvement over the NES version, but it still isn't a very good game. Its bland backgrounds and short length aren't huge issues, but its poor controls most certainly are. Again, my expectations for this game were so low it wasn't going to be hard to meet or exceed them. The NES version is awful, like straight up 9th circle of hell bad. The NES and Genesis versions are just normal, everyday bad. The late 80's and early 90's were prime time for horrible licensed games. It seemed like just about every IP that was on TV for more than a second got some sort of video game adaptation, so I'm going to guess that's what happened here. Overall, I've definitely played worse, but Rocky and Bullwinkle is just not worth playing. There are too many better platformers for the Genesis and SNES for this to be worth your time. Unless your only other option is the NES version, then this would be a better option.
4/10
I thought I was done with these two, I really did. I reviewed The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends in year one, and it was one of the few games from the early days that I had expectations for going in. And those expectations were very, very low. Every gaming content creator, big or small, blogger or YouTuber, retro or modern, seems to have "that game" that they absolutely hate. The Angry Video Gamee Nerd infamously despises Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde for the NES, for example. Well for me, Rocky and Bullwinkle for the NES is, was and always will be "that game."
Simply put, that game made me realize that videogames could, in fact, suck. I had a lot of "bad" games, but most of them offered something, anything that would make you keep playing. Gaming is always better than not gaming, right? I used to think that way as a kid, at least before I played Rocky and Bullwinkle. I remember being so excited to receive a game as a birthday present from a friend, that was a rarity in those days. You would maybe get them from relatives, but never friends. Well, that excitment was short lived, because I knew immediately that this game was garbage. It was so bad, I actively stopped playing to go do homework. And I never want to play it or talk about it again, but I had to bring it up here to set some level of expectations.
You see, I learned not too long ago that there was also a Rocky and Bullwinkle game released for the SNES and Genesis as well. And for the sake of morbid curiosity, I had to at least boot it up. This was starting to be around the time when you were getting both 8 and 16 bit versions of games, which were often the same mechanically. I couldn't imagine how this game could have gotten any worse on better hardware, but I wanted to see if it could get any better. I am happy to say that they did make Rocky and Bullwinkle better...by making it a different game entirely. I did have to bring up the NES game to give a baseline of how low my expectations were for this one. The SNES/Genesis version could have exceeded them by merely being borderline playable, a mark I am happy to say it met. Don't get me wrong, the game is still not good, but it was at least substantially better than one of the worst games I've ever played.
The Adventures or Rocky and Bullwinkle puts you in control of the eponymous squirrel and moose, who are tasked with finding and recovering three artifacts stolen from a museum. That's it, that's the plot. And you know what? That's totally fine for a 4th generation platformer, no one is playing this for the plot, they are probably playing it because one of their grandparents found it in the bargain bin at K-Mart and didn't know any better. I guess Rocky and Bullwinkle were somewhat popular in the 90's, they were the lead-in show on "Nick at Night" for those lucky enough to have cable. But anyawy, I digress. At least the game looks and feels like the show, which was certainly not the case for its NES counterpart.
Again, I'm not going to call the graphics good here, they are lacking in color and look kind of washed out, especially in the Genesis version. But they are at least okay and they capture the look and feel of the show. In a weird way, the dull colors kind of fit with the older style animation and the pastel colors certainly fit as well. At least Rocky and Bullwinkle actually look like themselves this time. The animation on their sprites is even decent, though it does lead to some problems we will discuss later. The backgrounds are fairly boring, but again, they look so much better than the graphics in the NES game that it stands out. Speaking of being better than the NES game, the sound is a massive step up from that version. And the music in this game isn't very good, its weak at its worst and boring at its best, which should give you an idea of how bad it is in the NES game. Seriously, if you ever feel the need to make your ears bleed, look up the soundtrack for that game.
While it's still a 2D platformer, the gameplay here is completely different from the abominable NES version. You move from left to right, battling enemies and jumping over pits. There is quite a bit of verticality here, the first level starts with a mountain climbing section that kind of has its own unique mechanics. Bullwinkle can once again attack with his horns, but this time the hitbox is actually decent and he doesn't hurt himself by doing so. The bombs are gone, now he can throw mooseberries to deal with enemies at range. These are a little week, but they are way batter than the stupid bombs from the NES game. Enemies aren't particularly well placed, but they don't come at you at unfair angles either and can mostly be dealt with if you are prepared. You have three lives with three continues, and it's game over if you lose them all. You can earn extra lives before you start by playing the two minigames at the title screen, which was an interesting mechanic. Neither of these games are very good, but at least they feature series side characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman and Dudley DooRite, who were absent from the NES version.
But alas, being better than one of the worst games of all time isn't much of an accomplishment. The platforming may not be completely broken anymore, but its still fairly poor and leads to high artificial difficulty. You aren't falling through floors or jumping like you are on the moon anymore, but things are still rough once you leaver your feet. The jumping is so incredibly stiff and unweildy that it's hard to clear enemies or judge distance between platforms. I never felt like I could quite get a hold of how hard I needed to hold the d-pad, like I was always either over- or undershooting platforms. There are some pretty small platforms too, so this was a major issue. It was also hard to jump from the climbing sections to the more straightforward ones, which was frustrating.
The lack of graphical detail was also a substantial issue that led to quite a few extremely cheap deaths. It isn't always clear what platforms can be jumped on and which are walls, which led to falling through places it didn't look like I could fall through. Some enemies throw really small projectiles that are hard to see, leading to some unecessary hits as well. The general stiffness of the controls don't help with any of this, you constantly have to slam on the controls to get them to do anything, which compounds both of the aforementioned problems. I guess iIt's way better than the NES version, which had completely broken controls.
Overall, this was a big improvement over the NES version, but it still isn't a very good game. Its bland backgrounds and short length aren't huge issues, but its poor controls most certainly are. Again, my expectations for this game were so low it wasn't going to be hard to meet or exceed them. The NES version is awful, like straight up 9th circle of hell bad. The NES and Genesis versions are just normal, everyday bad. The late 80's and early 90's were prime time for horrible licensed games. It seemed like just about every IP that was on TV for more than a second got some sort of video game adaptation, so I'm going to guess that's what happened here. Overall, I've definitely played worse, but Rocky and Bullwinkle is just not worth playing. There are too many better platformers for the Genesis and SNES for this to be worth your time. Unless your only other option is the NES version, then this would be a better option.
4/10
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