Johnny Bazookatone - Saturn, 12/2/96

Question: What has a purple quiff, a gun/guitar combination, and an array of enemies ranging from skeletons to walking hooters?

Answer: You know - it's Daff Ducky!

Incorrect. It is Johnny Bazookatone, star of US Gold's new platformer. Hasn't he got a funny name, everyone? It's because he's Polish, of course!

Johnny Bazookatone doesn't really want to kiss all those new wave, new generation, 32-bit gentlemen. Which is a bit stupid, really.

It's a traditional platformer in every respect, despite some rendered graphics and the odd special effect.

That would probably be dumb enough, but the difficulty level is mercilessly harsh, nay, unfair. Enemies randomly appearing from nowhere is a bad thing.

Johnny Bazookatone isn't a very big game, which probably explains why the decision was taken to make it so tough early on.

However, the music is really nice - if occasionally out of place - and it does come with a free CD of the soundtrack.

We may have to wait for Mario 64 to kill the old school of platformers, but having said that, who paid any attention to Mario on SNES?

Johnny Bazookatone - Saturn - by US Gold

Players: 1
Graphix: 80%
Sonix: 87%
Gameplay: 72%
Lifespan: 73%
Originality: 23%
Uppers: It's not awful
Downers: Could have been done on SNES
Overall: 70% - Johnny Rotten joke