It won’t be much longer before you discover some clever new moves that have been included and thankfully without changing the simple controls from the first game. What is immediately noticeable is extra detail on the devil himself and generally a lot more colour than was seen in the last game. Upon starting you are treated to an entertaining series of comic stills outlining the plot before literally being dropped right into the game. The game is still a single-player only adventure, and the options menu lets you simply re-arrange what buttons do what before setting out on your escape. If you played the original, much of the presentation, graphics, and sound effects will feel immediately familiar to you from almost the moment the Sega logo fades.

It was with naive enthusiasm then that I went on to tackle the ins and outs of this game and experience the few improvements along, with many shortcomings. After all, how wrong could it go? The original could only be improved upon, as far as I was concerned, and the setting for this game was so good as to almost guarantee a great time in my eyes.

When I first went to turn the console on, I was wildly optimistic that this would be a great game. The sequel eluded me (though I always wanted it) for the entire 16-bit generation, and I didn’t end up picking up Taz in Escape from Mars until only recently. After years since my last playthrough, my smile would have visibly broadened as I began enjoying it all over again. Turning it on after many years since I last saw it running was a pleasant surprise. It did have its flaws, such as some bad level design and music that was either absent or annoying, but the game was still a lot of fun. It had the feel of the cartoon, along with some wonderful locales and Taz himself, moved, sounded, and acted like the popular cartoon character should. The original Taz-Mania was a surprisingly good game. Genre: Platformer Developer: Headgames Publisher: Sega of America Players: 1 Released: 1994

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