| Publisher:
Sony Imagesoft
Developer: Ukiyotei Company, Ltd.
Size: 1 CD
Memory Usage: None
No. of players: 1
Got it for: $7.19, at FuncoLand(with discount!) |
|
Based
on the unbelievably embarrassing film of the same name, Peter Pan's children
have been jacked by the evil Captain Hook. Peter, now fat and old, is
whisked away back to Neverland and transformed into The Pan. He
must now make his way through the land, going
the long way(of course)
to find Hook's ship and save his kids.
What's it all about?
It's a sidescrolling adventure game starring everyone's favorite peanut
butter character: Peter Pan! Only this time, he's not selling peanut butter,
he's kicking ass! Playing as Peter you'll make your way through Neverland,
section by section, slapping bad guys with your dagger(or sword, which
after one hit you loose, and as soon as you get it, you always take a
hit, thus immediately loosing it. Yay!) and fighting the occasional boss.
Most levels will have Tinkerbell hanging around, just randomly dusting
some pile of rocks or piece of ground, who will fill your "fly meter"
via her magical pixey dust. Once filled, Peter can actually fly about the
level and reach places he normally couldn't. After running your ass all
over Neverland you'll make it to Hook's ship where you'll fight him in
a final showdown...then head back to Earth to sell
more
delicious
peanut butter!
|
| Graphics
- Plain. The game doesn't use a lot of special effects at
all, in fact, about the only thing I noticed was a single parallax
layer used for the background of any given level. As this isn't really
going to "wow" anyone, it's nice that all levels have a large amount
of color and detail in the graphics that are present. Animation is
pretty sparse, with Peter owning a good 90% of the entire game's
frames.
The enemies are stiff and usually only contain five to six frames(at
most), bosses are pretty much the same way. |
| Sound
- The soundtrack is gorgeous with beautifully orchestrated
pieces that help set the mood for the world of Neverland. Sound effects
are ok, nothing too memorable, except for that slapping noise that
plays every time Peter hits someone with his dagger/sword(it's hilarious,
and sounds more like you're spanking them than stabbing them). The
voice acting bits are laughable, and super cheesy on top of that.
One odd thing though, and this only pertains to the sound effects,
they
*only*
come
out of the left-hand speaker. I have no idea why that is...and it
doesn't ruin the audio experience in any way, it's just sort of weird. |
| Control
- Slippery and kind of sluggish. First off, Peter's walking
speed is really slow, and almost all of the hits you take in
the game are due to this. Now, he can run, but rather than use one
of the Genesis pad's other buttons to make this happen, they developer's
opted to re-use the attack button to do this. So you hold down attack
plus a direction to run, but you also need to attack while you're
running, so you let off, attack and then have to slam it down again.
Another thing that's kind of annoying is that any time you attack
while he's moving(even if you just tap the direction) he takes
a substantial
step forward. This generally results in a hit for you because he steps
forward *as* he moves his arm back before thrusting it forward. You
can get around it attacking earlier than you normally would, but sometimes
when you're up against a wall, cliff, spikes or whatever, there's
nothing to be done. |
| AI
- Just sort of there. Most enemies sit there and move in
their little area, and only really hit you if you happen to touch
them. Others will actually attack, but they're not shooting/throwing
stuff at you so much as they're just shooting/throwing stuff in the
direction you just happen to be in. The bosses will run their little
patterns, they're not really cheap...and they're not really hard. |
| Replay
value - Moderate. It's a quality game, it really is...but
it's also a very easy and short one. You may find yourself coming
back for the gameplay, colorful levels and excellent
soundtrack more than just a few times though... |
Tips
for better gaming experiences:
When
fighting Hook(either time), the trick to beating him is to wait for the
frame of animation where he rears back to swing his sword(or hook) at you,
and then slap him with your dagger real quick. Doing it too soon will result
in him blocking the hit, doing it too late has you taking a hit.
Cool stuff on the disc:
There
are three text files on the disc, "TXT.txt", "TXT1.txt", and
"TXT2.txt".
Upon opening any of these you will receive the message "hello mr wobbly-jogs".
|
| My
rating: 88(out of 100) - A wonderfully fun and enjoying adventure
game with an excellent soundtrack, pretty levels and solid gameplay.
About the only downside to this one is just how short and
easy the game is, as well as the sometimes-frustrating control. Don't
let that stop you from visiting Neverland though, after all, if you're
not around spank these enemies with your dagger,
who will? |
Sleepy Meister says: The game's a little slow for my taste, but
I do love the soundtrack, helps me to get to sleep after a hard day of laying
around... |
|
|
Rufio
challenges Pan to a duel. |
Damn
these hedgehogs! |
|
|
You'd
think the circus must be in town, but no, these guys just sort
of hang out dressed like this... |
"Nights?
Yeah, I know the guy, we fly together every Thursday after hitting
the bars." |
|
|
Gameplay
Videos:
Attract Mode -
3:17, 11.8 megs
Immediate Streaming - YouTube |
| Description: You
know, it's bad and all but I still love it for that old school Sega
CD charm it's got going on. There's just something about the piss-poor
voice acting that screams "retro goodness". |
Note:
You'll need the most recent Divx
codec to watch these videos. Also, slowdown and jumps in the
playback may not necessarily be the fault of the game so much as
the method I am using to record them. If you are having problems
watching the videos in your browser, just right-click and download
them to your hard drive...
|
|
|
Panning
the cart?:
The CD version of this game is almost exactly like the Genesis
version except for a few things: |
1.
The soundtrack is completely new, and redbooked on the disc itself.
2.
All sound effects have been redone.
3. All character
interaction that was text-only is now fully voiced.
4. FMV scenes of
Hook's ship, Neverland
and a few other things have been added in between certain
levels as well as the intro and ending.
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