platform game
A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...
published by
Ocean Software
Ocean Software Ltd was a British software development company that became one of the biggest European video game developers and publishers of the 1980s and 1990s.
The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchester. ...
. It was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in late 1993 in Europe and in North America and Japan in 1994. In 1994, it was released for the
Mega Drive
The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...
as Ocean's first Sega game, and on the
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
. It was also released on the
Sega Channel
The Sega Channel is a discontinued online game service developed by Sega for the Sega Genesis video game console, serving as a content delivery system. Launched on December 14, 1994, the Sega Channel was provided to the public by TCI and Time W ...
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
in 2001.
The player controls the one player character, Mr. Nutz, an anthropomorphicred squirrel through six themed levels. The end goal is to stop Mr. Blizzard, a
Commodore Amiga
Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...
. After the original conversion plan was shelved, Ocean eventually released in 1994 a different game on the Amiga under the name '' Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad''. Developed by Neon Studios, it featured the same titular character but with different, faster and more wide-open gameplay, unrelated levels and enemies, another story, and a large overworld map instead of a linear path to follow in a mini-map. ''Hoppin' Mad'' was going to be released for the Sega Mega Drive in 1995 as ''Mr. Nutz 2'', but it got shelved. A playable build exists, leaked in the form of source code and compiled upon.
Gameplay
Mr. Nutz can run, jump, swim in some levels and collect items. The character can jump on most enemies, strike them with his tail, or throw nuts he has collected at them to defeat them. Apart from bosses, most enemies can be killed with one strike. As with many games, contact with hazards and enemies that does not sufficiently defeat them results in losing one unit of health followed by a few seconds of invulnerability as the character sprite flashes. No version contains a time limit, the player may spend as long as they wish on each level, although some versions of the game will reward the player with bonus points for clearing a level quickly. Coins found along the way will not only give points and bonuses during gameplay, but the total amount of coins collected in a level will determine the player's completion bonus at the end of a level. Coins, health, and extra lives are often hidden throughout the levels.
The player starts with a limited number of lives and health units, the amounts are different depending on the difficulty and port. Losing all health results in losing one life and the player must restart at the beginning of the current journey. After losing all lives the player may choose to accept a game over or to continue but must then restart at the beginning of the first journey in the current stage with the default lives and health and zero nuts, coins and score. In all versions except the original Super NES version, passwords are shown when the player reaches certain levels and can be input to start the game from the beginning of that level.
Development
By 1990 after the closure of Ocean France, character designer and graphics artist Philippe Dessoly and programmer Pierre Adane decided to work independently on a platform game for Amiga. When designing a character for the game, Dessoly was considering a turtle or a parrot, but his wife gave him the idea to choose a squirrel. Dessoly did his sketches of the character and enemies in pencil as well as level designs. The game was shown to Ocean Software, which agreed to publish it on the Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis instead of Amiga, because the console market was safer against piracy and more profitable compared to personal computers. The working title was ''Squirrel's Game''. The developers changed it into ''Mr. Nuts'', but this was considered too
pejorative
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
and vague by the English publisher. The final title became ''Mr. Nutz''. The development took 18 months for the Super NES version and 6 months for the Mega Drive version. Some levels, such as a water stage, were removed in the final version. The Game Boy Advance remake contains them as bonus levels.
Dessoly showcased the Super NES version at the 2015 Retro Mia convention.
Reception
''SNES N-Force'' gave the game 90%, commending the controls and the graphics which the reviewer likens to "a good children's book." '' GamePro'' gave the Super NES version a mixed review. They praised the use of
parallax scrolling
Parallax scrolling is a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene of distance. The technique grew out of the multiplane camera tec ...
and the "beautifully drawn" backgrounds, but remarked that "the game play, despite the hidden secret levels and fairly tough challenge, just isn't very interesting."
Awards
The SNES version won "Best Platform Game" for 1993 by ''Consoles +'' magazine.
Legacy
A video game developer called Mr. Nutz Studio is named after the character.