 Let's dive back into the world of mascot platformers with Mr. Nuts. Yes, that's the real title, Mr. Nuts, and I'm unable to confirm or deny that his first name isn't Deez. I'm sorry, I couldn't not make that joke. So what makes this platformer stand out from the pack? The answer is, well, in terms of gameplay, not much at all. You play as Mr. Nuts the Squirrel, you can jump on enemies, attack with your tail, and throw acorns that you find here and there. It's single player only, and you can take up to three hits before you die. But you can adjust that in the options to make the game easier or tougher for you. There's six worlds, each with several stages exploring all the usual settings you'd expect from a game like this, the water stages, the cave stages, the sky stages, you get the idea. What Mr. Nuts offers that other hop and bop platformers don't is just how freaking good this game looks, the settings, the backgrounds, the enemy design, everything here looks fan-freaking-tastic, it's really impressive, and the music blends in with the game perfectly. Its closest comparison is probably something like Doremi Fantasy, I don't think Mr. Nuts offers as much as that game does in terms of gameplay, but it has a similar sense of place and atmosphere. Best of all, there's no time limit to any of the stages, and there's plenty to explore. You can go all over and find all sorts of hidden items and even hidden stages. There's weird power-ups here too, like this one here that allows you to jump in mid-air. Some of the boss sprites here are pretty funny too, like this guy who's a very angry giant Salmon Rushdie with regenerating eyeballs, what the hell is this nightmare? But yeah, this is one of those fine-the-exit kind of games, each stage is pretty huge and you're given a percentage at the end based on how many coins you've collected, so if you're into 100% runs, this is a good one to check out. I should mention though that there's no battery safe here, only passwords, so your best percentage won't be saved like it would be in a game like Donkey Kong Country. As great as this game looks, that's really all it has going for it, unfortunately. This is a long game, it'll take over 90 minutes to complete, and while some of the boss battles can be fun, seeing the same enemies over and over gets pretty old, and as a result, this game can make your eyes glaze over after a while, it really could have used some more power-ups or a little more variety in the gameplay, just something to give the game a little more substance. However, it's easy to forgive this game's flaws once you read that it was developed by a team of two people. Okay, that's kind of amazing. The backstory for Mr. Nuts is that it was originally planned for the Amiga, but instead that system later receives Mr. Nuts Hoppin' Mad, a redesigned version of the original. It plays much faster and features an overworld map instead of a linear path. There was a port for that game planned for the Sega Mega Drive that was canceled, but there is an unfinished ROM floating out there that's kind of sort of playable if you want to check it out. But yeah, Mr. Nuts may have been developed with the Amiga in mind, but it was first released for the SNES and later ported to the Genesis, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and even the Sega Channel. It also got a remake on the Game Boy Advance, but it appears to be pretty much the same game. Anyway, yeah, Mr. Nuts is a perfectly decent pick-up-and-play platformer, the controls are intuitive and super easy to get used to, it's vibrant and colorful and looks fantastic, it's just a comfortable game, and it's a pretty significant accomplishment for a game made by two people. But unfortunately if you're expecting the game to deliver on anything else more substantial, you're not gonna find it, for better or for worse. Mr. Nuts is okay, pretty good at best, boring and repetitive at worst, but it's certainly not a bad way to spend an afternoon.