 SIGAAAAAAA DRUNK! Back in the 80s and early 90s in certain parts of the world, it wasn't about Nintendo vs. Sega or anything like that, it was all about the Amiga. Yes, that's right, some of you watching just got goosebumps from the mere mention of the word Amiga. And I don't mean a Spanish girlfriend, I mean the computer that still has a maniacal fan base to this day. In fact, I think if you say the word Amiga in the mirror five times, an actual Amiga computer materializes above you and crushes you like in a Monty Python sketch. So, what kind of games did the Amiga feature at the time? Stuff like Chuck Rock, which caught on so well that it became the mascot of developer Core Design, but the main character even appearing in comic books overseas. It was also released for the Atari ST, Commodore 64, and like a dozen other platforms, but my only exposure to Chuck Rock was the Super Nintendo port, which is not the greatest. It's choppy, sluggish, and just pretty forgettable as far as platformers go. Fast forward to today when I get a Patreon request from Antony, who says to play the Chuck Rock games on Sega Genesis, and sure enough, they're actually pretty good ports. That's one thing I miss about the old Nintendo vs. Sega days, even though the games were pretty much the same, and yeah, Chuck Rock is basically the same on both Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. One game just lends itself better to Sega than it does the SNES, and that seems to be the case with a lot of Amiga ports, mostly for technical reasons that I won't bore you with. But the point is, Chuck Rock is a better time on Genesis than Super Nintendo. You get four lives and one continue to get through five levels with a password system. You have a pretty substantial health bar, and your attacks include a jump kick and this belly bump. You can also throw all sorts of rocks at enemies. Get it? Chuck Rocks? Nah? Nah. So why is this game better on Genesis? Don't get me wrong, this isn't some incredible hidden gem or anything, but it's still a perfectly okay platformer as opposed to a totally mediocre one. But one reason the Sega version is preferable is because of the wider screen resolution. The levels here are pretty huge and enemies come from all over the place, so just being able to see more of what's trying to kill you makes this a more comfortable playthrough. Also, the game just plays smoother and comes across as more polished, and like I said earlier, the Super Nintendo version is choppy by comparison, as you can see. The level design does a decent enough job making this game stand out. The main mechanic at work here is the ability to use a rock as both a projectile and as a platform, but it does take quite a bit of practice to make sure you're not accidentally throwing them off of ledges. All the typical caveman stuff is here, you know, bones, dinosaurs, caves, jungles, although the last level has you traversing the inside of a dinosaur, so that's pretty cool, even though it does blatantly rip off Joe and Mack. Also, your character may look like he'd be the starting left guard for the Minnesota Vikings, but he controls surprisingly well, like here. Most underwater levels are such a pain because it's just the same old stuff in slow motion, but in this game, it's handled pretty well. And I enjoy the cartoonish nature of the art design here, like this instance where you squash a slug and it straightens out and acts like a platform. I should mention there's quite a few flaws here. There is at least one instance where you can mistakenly throw one of these larger stones in the wrong spot, and the stones don't respawn, leaving you with nowhere to go, softlocking the game and forcing you to kill yourself and start over. Again, I only ran into this problem once, but I wouldn't be surprised if it showed up at least a couple times. Also, the belly bump attack just sucks. It's range is way too short to be effective, and I'm reminded of the pathetic sword attack in Lagoon. Just stick with the jump kick and you're much better off. But getting back to this game's strengths, I have to mention the game's opening theme, because it is great. Chuck Rock received a sequel a couple years later, Chuck Rock 2, Son of Chuck, where, sure enough, you play as the infant son of Chuck Rock, only this time you get to swing a bat around. Again, this game originated on the Amiga, but got ported to all the major Sega platforms at the time, but unfortunately this game is a lot more bland compared to the original. Sure, there are some halfway interesting boss fights, but the swinging attack kinda sucks. And there's just not as much personality as the first game. It's the classic case of a game not being bad, just kinda boring. But going back to Chuck Rock, it is very much a product of its time in a lot of ways. It's a mascot platformer among dozens and dozens of them, and it's a caveman game, so it's easy for something like this to get lost in the shuffle. Along with games like Joe & Mac, Kongo's Caper, Prehistoric Man, or the Bunk series, the Super Nintendo edition of Chuck Rock definitely comes across as generic, but the Genesis version is halfway decent if you're into platformers. It definitely has its flaws, but at the very least it's a subtle and interesting look at how two ports can be the same game, yet play quite differently. And I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.