Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt!

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Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt!
Sorry but no, you're not awesome, even Bubsy is better than you, Awesome Possum! - Dr. Machino (probably)
Genre(s): Platformer
Action
Platform(s): Sega Genesis
Release Date: NA: November 25, 1993
JP: December 25, 1993
Developer(s): Tengen
Publisher(s): Tengen

Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt! is a video game created by Tengen for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis that was released in late 1993.

Development

In April 1992, Richard Seaborne was hired by Tengen to do a concept for an environmental game. Seaborne came up with the character "Awesome Possum" and by July 17, 1992, presented his proposal "Rad Rhino and Awesome Possum" to Tengen and they approved it. Development for the artwork was underway by Fall, but animations were unsatisfactory. Tengen hired Jules Marino on January 18, 1993, to polish the game character's sprites. The final title of the game was made official on May 13, 1993. The development team included a 12-page comic in the manual. When Time Warner Interactive took over Tengen in 1994, they also got the rights of the video game. Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt was produced and released during a trend of platformers starring animal mascots. The absence of Sega's third Sonic the Hedgehog title in the fall and holiday season of 1993 enabled other publishers to fill in space for mascot platformers, such as Tengen with Awesome Possum and Irem with Rocky Rodent.

Plot

Mad scientist Dr. Machino has sent his robots to pollute the earth and endanger the wildlife. Aided by Killer Bee and Rad Rhino, Awesome Possum sets out to destroy the robots, put a stop to the mad scientist and save the world.

Why It's Not Awesome And Deserves To Have Its Butt Kicked

  1. The game is clearly a rip-off of Sonic the Hedgehog, judging by Awesome Possum's way to jump when he jumps on an enemy to even the main villain who uses robots.
    • The level design is also a rip-off of the said game since there are springs, and there's even a zone that almost looks like Ice Cap Zone from Sonic 3.
  2. The controls are very terrible and unresponsive. Awesome Possum will always go very slippery when he jumps on an enemy. Not only are the controls terrible, but they aren't adapted to some of the level design. The jump is also very clunky and stiff, which can make it hard to master the game or even the controls.
  3. Awesome Possum, the main character of the game, has a lot of voiceovers, which easily get annoying and play almost all the time. Thankfully, however, they can be disabled.
    • The protagonist/mascot is also quite terrible (much worse than Bubsy) because of his over-the-top attempts at being cool. According to the box, his given name is actually and literally Awesome, which makes everything worse.
  4. False advertising: The box-art claims that this is an excellent educational game, but it's actually a simple platformer just with some questions about environment lessons in the bonus stage, and they are the only educational things about the game.
  5. The stage design is awful. For example, in the first level, it seems to be made with dry poop instead of earth; in the trees, it looks like rotten chocolate, and the leaves look like snot; another example is The Sea Caverns, where it looks like vomit and the water looks like an energy drink with blueberry flavor. Not only that, but the stages are just a random mishmash of things without any thought put into them.
  6. The game is quite short, even for a 1993 game, as you can beat the entire game in only 50 minutes to 1 hour.
  7. While the soundtrack isn't bad, there are a lot of songs that are repetitive, or some that are downright terrible, such as the music in the bonus stages.
  8. There are no continues, so if you lose all of your lives, then the game is over, and you have to restart the game at the beginning. There are no passwords to access a specific level either.
  9. The final level is basically a boss rush, but it's extremely terrible since the boss fights are awful and you can lose a lot of lives due to this.
  10. In a way, hypocrisy: if this game was made to promote saving the environment, the cartridges, manual, and boxes are not eco-friendly.
  11. The graphics are very ugly, especially for a 1993 Sega Genesis game, with a very saturated and terrible color palette; in fact, it looks like the game was released in 1989, not 1993. Games like Super Bomberman, Sonic CD, and Mega Man X all came in 1993 and look better than this game.
  12. Some of the damage inflicted by enemies doesn't make any sense, such as a submarine itself dealing more damage than the missiles that it fires.
  13. Sound recycling: an example is how the defeated enemies sound effect is ripped straight out of Sonic Spinball.
  14. Environmental lessons are shoehorned into the game, and they are mostly awful.
  15. The game over is extremely nightmare fuel for a kid game and can even be disturbing for adults in some cases. You basically see the grave of the deceased titular character in a dumpster around the rotting environment, with it being very realistic. Instead of the transition color being black as when you're transitioning to the next part of the game, it turns green when transitioning to this screen, making everything worse.
    • In fact, it's even worse in the beta version, as the transition color to the Game Over screen is blood red instead of green in the final/released version.
      • Additionally, this might be so scary that some little kids would never play the game again due to how much they got scared of the game over.
    • The music doesn't help either; while it's decent and catchy, it's another factor that makes this screen very scary.
  16. Despite the fact that there are a good variety of enemies, they all follow the same pattern of walking left and right, even including the bosses.
  17. Choppy and unstable frame rate that skips frames to try to hide that there are actually fewer animations than intended; also, due to how ugly it is, it can become a bit unplayable.
  18. The enemies take a lot of damage before they are defeated, which is a problem because Awesome Jump is so clunky to control.
  19. When enemies and/or bosses hit you, the facial expressions that Awesome's icon makes are quite disturbing, especially in the beta version.
    • In the beta version of the game, Awesome Possum's face in your health bar slowly decays into a skeleton as you lose a bar in your health, as opposed to just gradually becoming tired as you lose a bar and eventually having X eyes as you lose the last bar of your health in the final/released version.
    • The death animation in the beta version of this game is also disturbing, as Awesome rots into a skeleton, which would scare young kids.
  20. Dr. Machino, the villain of the game, is a poor man's version of Dr. Robotnik/Eggman. The sad part is that he's the only truly likable character in the game since he tells Awesome Possum that he's not so awesome, which is unfortunately true.
  21. Somewhat odd choice of art direction, namely in the Bonus Quiz areas, where the six animals that appear look way too realistic and clash very awkwardly with both Awesome's and the bee's more cartoony designs.
  22. Spotty collision detection. You could be literally walking underneath an electric eel that still manages to hit you. Certain enemies require you to land right on top of them; otherwise, the game thinks they hit you.
  23. The level and boss design is awful, and sometimes it's so bad that it's not adapted to the awful controls. For a full list:
    1. The Rain Forest is a very badly designed stage that is the easiest level of the game, but the problem is that there's a lot of traps that might hit you, such as spikes.
      1. The boss of this stage, a mech with a flamethrower and a buzzsaw, is too easy even for a first boss, as despite the reach that the flamethrower has, it cannot hurt you.
    2. Sea Cavern is very terrible and is the worst stage of the game, as it's painfully long, there are enemies all over the place trying to kill you, and you also swim very slowly, making all of the levels of this stage painful. It's also the hardest stage of the game.
      1. The boss fight against a scuba diver is a massive difficulty spike despite being only the second boss, as it attacks by shooting tridents in fast range, and it can take out three quarters of Awesome's health. Coupled with the terrible swimming controls, this makes it the worst boss of the game.
    3. Arctic Circle is a poor man's version of the Ice Cap Zone of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and there are a lot of awful platform placements.
      1. The main boss of this stage (a hockey player with a monkey wrench for a weapon) is also too easy, in fact it has the same pattern that the mech has only with shorter range attacks.
    4. Dr. Machino's Domain is a maze-like area where it's easy for players to get lost in.
      1. The boss of this stage (a weird green man that rides a flying cannon) is super annoying as it flies around and shoots projectiles. due to Awesome's controls, it's easy to mess up.
    5. The Fortress of Garbage is a massive difficulty spike as it is one big boss rush.
      1. The final boss against Dr. Machino (while a challenge) goes overboard with his attacks by firing homing missiles that can take a good chunk of Awesome's health and has a flamethrower (very much like the first boss fight against a mech) that can cause cheap hits.
  24. No real ending after beaten the game. It is nothing more than a scene where Awesome Possum is now shown being part of Mt. Rushmore.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. The fact that Awesome has a lot of voiceovers is quite impressive for a Sega Genesis game, despite these being a bit annoying.
  2. Awesome Possum's design is nice, especially in the box art.
  3. Players get to actually and literally kick Dr. Machino in the butt at the end, so the game's title doesn't lie at all.
  4. The soundtrack is catchy and decent for most parts, despite being repetitive.
  5. Awesome can ride on animal buddies such as a bee, a swan, and a rhinoceros, predating the Donkey Kong Country trilogy. Should those animals go off-screen, they will respawn the next time they are on screen. It is also useful to skip some sections of a level, especially the bee.
  6. You can pause the game, press any direction on the D-pad, and return to the previous checkpoint you touched.
  7. Thankfully, you can disable Awesome's voice.
  8. The singing on the title screen of the game is catchy to sing along with and is the most memorable part of the game.
  9. Somehow, the game can be enjoyable due to how terrible it is.

Reception

The game received mixed-to-positive reviews back in the day, but now it's considered to be one of the worst Sega Genesis games ever made. It's also considered to be even worse than Bubsy and is also considered to be one of the worst platformers on Sega Genesis and even one of the worst games of all time.   Critics praised the sound but criticized the poor graphics, terrible controls, and the framerate.

Lawsuit

On June 20, 1997, Time Warner Interactive was charged with copyright infringement by Paul A. Roginski, who claimed that the game copied his comic book concept and character name for his manuscript. With Roginski lacking evidence to prove his claim, the case was closed and the defendants were acquitted.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awesome_Possum..._Kicks_Dr._Machino%27s_Butt

Trivia

  • The developer admitted that the game needed some improvement, which not only hints that Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt! might have been rushed, but also means that even the developer knows how bad the game is.

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