Tazmania

I was going to start my second installment with a completely different game to this one, but I felt it appropriate to follow through after Alex Kidd in Miracle World with the second Sega Master System 2 game I ever clocked and that game is Tazmania!



To quote the back cover of the game:

"Join TAZ, the Tasmanian Devil as he whirls off in search of the world's biggest omelette. Nothing can stand in his way for long as he munches his way through an island filled with precarious plateaus, hostile jungles and crumbling ruins"

This game is pretty easy, there are five levels, where in each level there are three rounds with the third of each round being a boss round. The boss's in this game are really easy to kill. Firstly you come across a bull, then a boy with bows and arrows, then an alligator (probably the hardest of them all), then some witches and finally the bird albatross thing with the egg itself. (these characters probably have names but I can't really recall the cartoon itself so please if you know their names feel free to let me know).

You attack by spinning, it's easy to get carried away with the spinning and fall down the odd crevasse or two, but don't worry there are lives galore with this game and if you die you start at the beginning of the round you got up to and low and behold the life comes back. In most rounds there are two lives so if you make it to the second life and then die and start from the start of the round, make it to the second life then die again etc etc, you would amass a mighty amount of lives. (perhaps that could be a game in itself, but listening to the music of this game over and over again will make you want to take your own life). This game is so easy in fact that only a blind cat with no paws may require a continue ... but even then ...

I don't want to sound like I'm completely dissing this game because it is good fun but it definitely is a sometimes game ... I give it 6 out of 10 which is still a respectable score.

When you finally get to the egg it cracks and a little bird duck thing jumps out and calls you mama. Then the credits roll in front of a pink and blue sunset whilst the chicken thing is chasing you back and forth across the screen ... "The End"

The beginning ...

It was 1991, it was the year I stopped hanging out with my friends, riding my bike and being social altogether, it was the year I discovered Sega Master System 2 and might I say it was one of the best years of my life!

Clocking Alex Kidd in Miracle World became an obsession, but after many weeks and countless hours I faced the evil Janken the Great in a mighty battle of paper, scissors, rock and I turned that vilain into stone!!! After this of course, I had a epic code to crack before I could obtain the crown without ghosts killing me, but thanks to the Hirotta Stone I did it!

There is nothing quite like the exhilarating feeling of clocking this game. Although nothing amazing happens when you do (sorry if I ruined this for you, but you can't give up it's worth it for the amazing sense of achievement). When you clock this game, you see some scrolling text about how he saved the day and feels uneasy as he may not have punched out all the evil critters and the whereabouts of his father is still unknown ... he left that one open for a sequal or three ...


So this is where I start my blog, with the first and in my opinion, one of the best games released for the Sega Master System 2. This game is 16 stages set in eleven locations of pure magic, pixels and fun! In a nut shell, you are Alex Kidd living on the planet Aries, you have been living on Mt Eternal studying the ancient art of Shellcore, which gives you amazing rock punching abilities, this is really quite essential in this game. One day you leave this mountain to head back to your spiritual homeland and you encounter a dying man who tells you that the peaceful city of Radaxian is in grave danger. He then gives you a piece of a map and a medallion made of sunstone and you're on your way.

You go through this platform paradise, punching rocks, frogs, birds, scorpions, riding motorbikes, flying helicopters and having the occassional game of paper, scissors, rock, what's not to love?

This game is from the time when games were tough, you don't just bump into a bad guy and a bit of your life gauge goes down NO, you bump into a bad guy and you are dead! You start the game with three lives, you can buy an additional life at some shops, this will set you back 500.00 Arien dollars or if you know your stuff you can obtain some lives from the ? boxes. There is also a continue cheat if you must use it, I don't as it makes me feel like a cheap whore.

If I had to rate this game out of 10 I would say I'd give it a 10, part of this would be due to the nostalgic memories I have of this game, but a lot of this score is based on the fact that this is a well rounded platform game.