This is a game I bought because of its name, around the same time I bought Ballz 3D. Well, that's mostly true, but I'll get into it later in the review. There's no getting around that title, and the funny thing is, I've read that they originally called it Mr. Nuts, but they changed the S to a Z in an attempt to make the name less laughable. It... didn't work. Jokes aside, is this game a hidden gem for the Super NES, or is it nut'n special?
...Sorry.
It's pretty middle of the road. As far as Mr. Nutz himself goes, he controls more or less fine. He can jump on enemies, whack them with his tail or throw acorns he's collected at them. He can take up to 5 hits before dying, and he can regain health by collecting a health pickup or by collecting 50 coins. He can also run, but the way the momentum works is a little iffy. He reaches full speed (which isn't much faster than his walking speed) almost immediately, but he'll even speed up if you start holding the button midair. The momentum does function as you might expect when turning around while running, so it's sort of realistic and sort of not. It just feels a little strange. Maybe that sounds like a nitpick, but when you're jumping around on small platforms, it can become an issue.
I have to say that the level design is kind of all over the place, and stages often go on for too long, and you don't get checkpoints until you reach a new screen. That also makes dying on a boss so much worse, since even though you get unlimited continues, you have to start the stage over if you get a game over. Did I say stage? I meant the entire world. It can be a massive pain. While playing it again for this review, I did discover a false wall hiding a bunch of health pickups just before the world 1 boss, so that's kind of cool, I guess.
I actually discovered the game while scrolling a list of video game music and seeing Mr. Nutz listed, which of course made me laugh, so I listened to the first level theme and was amazed. The music in this game is FANTASTIC. It's a member of the well-established genre of "average to sub-standard 1990s European video games with outstanding soundtracks", such as Plok and pretty much anything else Tim Follin worked on. This isn't a Follin game, though, this was composed by one Raphael Gesqua. I'm not familiar with his other works, but he absolutely knocked it out of the park for Mr. Nutz. My favorite tracks happen to be the three longest, being Woody Land 1 & 2, Adventure Park and Ice Scream. I definitely recommend listening to this game's soundtrack. The game was ported to several different consoles (yes, really) but I haven't compared the music. I can only say that the SNES version's OST goes hard. Also, I swear I can hear a bit of Temporary Secretary at the end of Woody Land 3 & 4. Look it up, I swear I'm not crazy.
The game looks great. The visual style is nice and vibrant, and the character designs are mostly pretty fun. The animations and expressions are good as well. Mr. Nutz looks either super determined or completely out of breath when he runs, and for some reason, he looks totally miserable when he's swimming. The boss of the cloud stage is a sight to behold, as well as slightly disturbing. I love the background art for the game as well. It's all truly gorgeous, especially the outdoor stages.
I do however find it strange that Mr. Nutz's design isn't consistent between his design in the official art, his design on the title screen or his design for the in-game sprites. In the artwork, he has this big coif, a green cap, fingerless gloves and his eyes are connected. On the title screen, he apparently shaved the coif and put on a yellow vest, and to match that, he swapped his green cap for a yellow one, plus he swapped the fingerless gloves for Mickey Mouse gloves and his eyes became disconnected. It's like a different character entirely. His in-game sprites resemble his title screen design, but he looks a lot rounder and softer. He can be seen on the box and in the manual to be holding a pair of sunglasses he's never seen wearing, and also to have a few bandages on his arms and legs. Of course, neither of those details appear in-game at any point either.
Now that I think about it, maybe that's unfair to point out. I mean think about Zelda: Link to the Past. They famously made Link's hair pink in that game, despite it being blonde in all the artwork. In Super Mario World, Yoshi had orange arms in the game but not in any of the artwork. Mario himself had an olive green shirt in Mario 1 and black overalls in Mario 3. The Donkey Kong Country games were probably among the only games with visual consistency between promo art and in-game art since it was all done using the same models. I'm starting to get way off track, though... Mr. Nutz is a good looking game, and that's the important thing here. I just can't help bringing up Donkey Kong Country whenever I get the slightest opportunity.
Well, the game is called Mr. Nutz, which I think is pretty good writing. The first stage is also called Woody Land, which is also very funny. I was waiting for the Boner City stage the entire game and I was disappointed when it never came.
...Sorry.
Moving on, the story is about a yeti trying to usher in a new ice age, but you wouldn't know that unless you either read the manual or beat the game. Why does Mr. Nutz specifically decide to stop him? Who knows? We don't learn anything about the character, except for that he has an attitude, but again, that's only if you read the manual. The game contains a few text boxes; one is the first boss talking smack to you, which none of the other bosses do, and the others tell you how to progress in certain stages. Other than that, there's the ending screen, which congratulates you and promises you'll see more Nutz in the future. That's partially true, as the game was ported all over the place, and it even got a sequel on the Amiga home computers, albeit in a Star Fox Adventures manner, where the publisher took an unrelated game a developer was working on and said, "hey, we have a squirrel character already, can't you just use him?" Not counting the cancelled port of that game to Genesis which was to be named Mr. Nutz 2, there never truly was a Mr. Nutz sequel.
It's a shame Mr. Nutz isn't a better game, because it has some good stuff in it. The music and art are really doing a lot to bring this up from a 2/5 to a 3/5 for me. It's one of those games where you're probably better off watching somebody else play it... which is mostly what I did. In December of 2021, TruKuu was hanging out with me at my place before heading home for Christmas with his family. I gave it a few tries, but he played through the entire game pretty much solo. Of everything we played that night, it was probably the least fun, but it also took the most of our time. Having to play an entire world over again after dying to a boss is dreadful when the levels are so long. I'd say if you want a great platformer, look elsewhere, but if you're just in it for the music and/or graphics, then maybe you should give this one a squirrel. I mean a whirl.
...Sorry. It has a little something for everyone.
Published 2/18/23
