 It is impossible to talk about a game like Jim Power, The Lost Dimension in 3D, without addressing the painfully obvious, eye-crossing and nauseating flaw right off the bat, so let's just get right into it. This game starts out as a 2D side-scrolling run-and-gun game. You pass by the first background layer as you normally would, but then there's a second background layer beneath that that scrolls to the right? And there's another layer behind that that scrolls even faster to the right. The effect they're going for here is incredibly disorienting and game-breaking for many people, so I have to point it out right away. Oh, but there was a method to the madness. When bought new, Jim Power came packaged with a pair of 3D glasses, so to speak, but they weren't normal glasses. They had one clear lens and one dimmed lens, creating what's called the pull-frich effect. When your brain puts together all the background images scrolling together when wearing these glasses, each layer looks like it's slightly angled a bit. But the thing is, it only works when you're moving. So when you stop to fire at enemies and then keep running, it's arguably even more disorienting than it is without the silly glasses. So yeah, I just had to get that out of the way right away, because just like Mohawk and Headphone Jack, which I looked at a few weeks ago, Jim Power is one of those games that has an immediate deal-breaker right from the get-go. Either this game gives you motion sickness just by running to the right, or you're okay with it. Alright, moving on, Jim Power is actually a pretty ambitious game beyond all the misguided pseudo 3D stuff. There's seven levels here that range from side-scrolling run and gong, to horizontal shoot'em up, to overhead levels where you use the L and R buttons to rotate, just like Contra 3, as well as boss fights where you're floating around using a jet pack. The Y button single fires your weapon, while the X button is rapid fire, B jumps, and A uses smart bombs. There's a lot of good ideas in the gameplay here, and each style fits together pretty well. Even the overhead levels. The problem, however, is that the game is ridiculously difficult. There's one hit deaths, four lives, and three continues. To be fair, there are plenty of opportunities to find extra lives, but most of the time the screen is so incredibly busy with all the lines and colors and movement that it's really tough to see projectiles coming at you, or in some cases, to see enemies at all. There's only seven levels, but this game will still take you at least an hour to complete. Each level is also timed, but get this, the instruction book actually gives an explanation. The timer is actually the timer remaining on your cloaking device, and the timer icons you find that boost your time are actually boosting your invisibility. Oh, so that's why these guys are just mindlessly dropping boulders out of windows, or why these dudes are just aimlessly jogging back and forth. They must be trying to reach their Fitbit goal for the day or something. Anyway, the book says when the timer runs out, then suddenly all enemies can see you and you're dead, I guess. I like the shoot'em up levels the most in this game, I just find it a little easier to see what's going on, since the scrolling is consistent, instead of just constantly stopping and starting. As far as shoot'em ups go, however, it's pretty average, it's not going to touch stuff like Axelay or UN Squadron. The overhead levels are okay-ish, they drag on a little too long for my taste, but it's decent enough. You can actually jump in this mode, which is kind of cool. The run-and-gun stages do kind of have a Turrican vibe to them, with a similar weapon power-up structure, but again, there's just so much stuff going on in the screen all at once that it's hard to concentrate, giving these stages a bit of artificial difficulty. So the Turrican vibe here is fleeting at best. Speaking of Turrican, one of Jim Power's strong points is the music, which was made by Turrican composer Chris Hulsbeck. So if you like the music to the Turrican games, and who doesn't, then you'll love the music here as well. Jim Power actually originated on computer systems like the Amiga, the Atari ST, and Amstrad CPC, under the title Jim Power in Mutant Planet. The Super Nintendo game is similar to that one, but it is its own game, yet it's not quite considered a sequel, so I'm not quite sure what's going on there. A Sega Genesis version was planned, but eventually cancelled. But I should mention that it's available as part of the Jim Power Lost dimension package available on Steam for $5. You get 6 different versions of the game, including an 8-bit styled NES version, as well as a soundtrack in high quality. But yeah, going back to the beginning of the video, to determine if Jim Power on Super Nintendo is worth playing today, you just gotta answer one question. Does the pseudo 3D effect going on here make you want to throw up? If yes, then this is an obvious stay away, and you're not missing out on too much. If no, this is an interesting playthrough, albeit an absurdly difficult one, but it does offer a lot of gameplay variety and some great music. Jim Power isn't going to measure up to stuff like Contra 3 or Super Turrican, but I'd put it a shade above other Super Nintendo running gun games like Realm and Time Slip, so if you can stomach both the visuals and the difficulty, then Jim Power can be an interesting playthrough.