Mr Nutz 2: Hoppin’ Mad was set to be released on the Sega Megadrive back in April of 1995, a release date which sadly never materialised.
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.