Mr Nutz was already a well known character on the Sega Megadrive and Nintendo SNES, in a rather lacklustre adventure simply called ‘Mr Nutz’. The first Mr Nutz adventure for these consoles was released in 1994 across Europe. Sadly what these Nintendo and Sega gamers didn’t realise is that a few months later that year, Commodore Amiga gamers were a few steps ahead playing Mr Nutz Hoppin’ Mad (aka Mr Nutz 2) already.

The Megadrive & Amiga Versions.

Mr Nutz 2 actually started life as a completely different game, Timet: The Flying Squirrel by a company called Kaiko. The rights and code to this game were quickly bought up by Ocean and NEON had the job of getting Mr Nutz into the mix.

The game itself is a good mix between Sonic and Zelda, featuring very fast platforming action levels, with a small basic RPG style element to the mini map. The story behind Hoppin’ Mad is that Chickens from outer space are trying to take over the world and it’s up to Mr Nutz to stop them.
Featuring a vast array of levels in many different settings with a good few hours worth of gameplay, it was surprising this game didn’t take off as well as it could have done.

A few months down the line, NEON began porting Mr Nutz Hoppin’ Mad to the Sega Megadrive, a project that was never finished. But possibly one that someone could finish…

Screenshots from mr Nutz 2 (Megadrive)

Back in February 2009, a member of the AssemblerGames message board managed to get hold of the source code for the unfinished Megadrive version of Mr Nutz 2. Also within the files he acquired was source code for Turrican III for the Amiga. But what does Turrican III have to do with Mr Nutz? Both games were products of NEON built using the same engine. Turrican III was also released for the Megadrive under the name Mega Turrican. Sadly, this code was beyond repair as a vital file was missing, meaning a ROM file could not be compiled, leaving this mystery unsolved.

Scan from Sega Power May 1995

Unfortunately, apart from a few reviews and screenshots in Sega magazines, that’s about as far as Hoppin’ Mad ever got. Why? Who knows!?
But one reassuring piece of information lives on, the fact that there is a Rom file in existence, it just can’t be released yet due to copyright.

But for anyone with curiosity as to how this game plays, Mr Nutz: Hoppin’ Mad on the Commodore Amiga is a must.

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A fishy puzzle…

Magic Bubble is an unlicensed puzzle game for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. It was made by a small Taiwanese company by the name of ‘C&E’ in 1993, the same company who made the well known NES game ‘Mermaids of Atlantis’ and the more recent release ‘Beggar Prince‘. This game could also be linked to the famous Bubble Bath Babes, for having identical gameplay, but Magic Bubble is definitely a much ‘cleaner version of this game‘.

Without a doubt, Magic Bubble is a 16-bit version of Mermaids of Atlantis (NES) with updated and new visuals. For those not familiar with Mermaids of Atlantis, Magic Bubble plays like a Puzzle Bobble/Tetris hybrid. As different bubble combinations are given to you and slowly pushed up the screen, its up to you to carefully align them. Match up at least four bubbles and they’ll pop, making way for the rest of the incoming bubbles. If your screen fills up with bubbles, with no room for anymore… Game Over!

What makes this game different from Tetris and other puzzle games, is the lack of lenience that it offers you when you make a mistake. As we all know, one mix up of blocks in Tetris leaves you with a gaping hole you have to work your way down to clear, no problem. Magic Bubble on the other hand has a much more sinister approach, it floods those empty spaces with clear bubbles. These new additions to your bubble area can only be cleared if adjacent bubbles are popped.
However, there is another solution… Similar to the memorable Streets Of Rage’s panic button (calling an assisted Police attack), the player can call upon one of the fish in the background to consume the clear bubbles a number of times.

Screenshots:

Magic Bubble Box, Instructions and Cartridge & Gameplay Screenshots

Collectors information:

Final thoughts:

Magic Bubble has its charms, a grumpy deformed fish greeting you when you pause the game, an unusual introduction that doesn’t flow too well with the fishy theme and some interesting digitised speech. But to a regular gamer, there isn’t enough gameplay to make it worth tracking down. Magic Bubble will remain as one of those retro rarities for the die hard collectors.

Further Reading: Magic Bubble on Guardiana.net

There is currently no ROM available for this game (so please dont ask for it).

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