DUD OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
IMPOSSAMOLE
(Gremlin Graphics, 1991)

Intro and story:
Although the Turbografx-16 didn't enjoy a lot of success compared to the competition out there at the time, it did have quite a few really good games for it like the popular Bonk's Adventure for example. That platform game was great because you play as a cool caveman character that head butts dinosaurs and how could you go wrong there, eh? He even became the mascot of the Turbo for a few years. Unfortunately, there went too many of these action style platformers with starring a marketable mascot for the system and we wanted more. Famous European developer Gremlin Graphics decided to take one of their characters and make their own platformer for the Turbo here to see if it would be the next Bonk. Did they put it off?

In this odd game you're playing as a mole named Monty. This fat little dude was just relaxing on the beach but then he gets adducted by aliens and these guys give Monty super powers. Your going to need these super powers because he is on a lone mission to stop a group of evil aliens from invading the earth. Yeah, I don't get it either but who plays these games for the award winning story line?
The game play and bottomline:  
Now the story says you are suppose to have all these cool super powers like the ability to fly and smash through anything that gets in the way like a real super hero but you actually don't have any of these moves during the game itself. Monty's main attack is this pathetic short range kick that isn't too effective. OK, you can pick up other items like hard to throw boxes and guns with very limited ammo too here but surprisingly there are tons of enemies that can't be killed here no matter what you use so you have avoid a lot of the crap in this game instead of fighting it. Yeah, it's pretty lame and because of this the game can get insanely cheap too.

Anyway, Impossamole is a short game with only 5 worlds but at least it's a very challenging action platformer. Sadly that challenge comes from getting use thanks to the spotty hit detection and weak main character. Although the graphics and sounds are above average (for a turbo game anyway), the game isn't that fun to play. Another annoying thing I hate about the game is it gives you this cool story line at the beginning but the ending itself here is just weak so it may not be worth all the effort. Impossamole is not only a stupid name but the overall game blows too.
Here is my 9 minute video review of Impossamole too!
Conclusion:  
*Uncommon Turbografx game

Impossamole
overall rating: 40/100

Find Impossamole on eBay here!

For 1 player only
graphics: 7/10
sound: 8/10
gameplay: 5/10
replay: 3/10

-StarSoldier
(Ryan Genno) 2008


See other Total Recall duds of the month