A squirmy new hero. A king of the jungle. And a prehistoric bad boy. Is this an epic about to unfold before your eyes? Naw, just some new video games for Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis that were previewed recently at Chicago’s Consumer Electronics Show for release in the fall. What were some of the hippest? Wellll:
-“Earthworm Jim,” Playmates Interactive: Can an earthworm walk like a man? Yes, when this earthworm gets himself into a super space suit that he can use to save a princess. Jim uses his earthworm head to whip objects the same way you snap a towel, and twirls it around like a helicopter blade so he can fly.
-“Donkey Kong Country,” Nintendo: The king of the Nintendo world of characters is back, and he has a whole new country to make trouble in. The Kongster, with his new buddy, Diddy Kong, goes from jungles to islands to caves. The series of adventures are aimed at defeating Donkey’s foe, the evil Kremlings.
-“The Simpsons: Virtual Bart,” Acclaim: Bart Simpson straps himself into a virtual reality machine at the school science fair, and turns into six characters in six wild worlds. He’s Dino Bart in prehistoric times, and Doomsday Bart, a Mad Max-type in a post-nuclear era, and Pig Bart, who doesn’t want to become a tasty treat. The bad boy gets bizarre.
-“The Lion King,” Disney Software and Virgin Interactive; and “Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse,” Sony Imagesoft: New and old Disney favorites go through the same animation vid-game process that made “Aladdin” so much fun. Simba, both the playful cub and adult lion, has many adventures that copy stuff from the hit movie. And Mickey’s travels are takeoffs of several animated features he’s been in, from “Steamboat Willie” to “The Prince and the Pauper.” And like “Aladdin,” both games make it seem as if you’re moving cartoon figures around, instead of those usual clunky-moving vid images.
-“Sonic & Knuckles,” Sega: Where’s the game? Sega won’t show it. They just put out this logo of Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles, a dreadlock-haired anteater that was briefly seen in “Sonic 3.” Sega did give up a small, but important, tip: When you play “S&K,” things will be revealed that will allow you to go back into “Sonic 2” and “Sonic 3” and play in an entirely new way. Sweat it until October.
-“Nickelodeon Guts,” Viacom: Based on the popular TV sports action show, the game uses real kids and their movements, and places their vid-images on the screen. Players face challenges like slam-dunking basketballs, running through a training course and overcoming the obstacle-filled Aggro Crag mountain.
-“Jaguar” isn’t a game but a game system from Atari. And the company that makes this new 64-bit video game system hopes it will push Atari back into the spotlight that Sega and Nintendo have hogged for so long. Jaguar promises CD-quality stereo sound, 3D animation and 16 million colors. (Nice logo, too.)
