Hey Friends!
If Jim Carrey is a multi-faceted actor, juggling between very light and serious roles, he excels in crazy comedies where his comic talent, unique and very visual, can be fully expressed. At the box office, it is also especially the latter that cardboard, the general public is limited to associate the actor with roles that only he can endorse.
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 01 In a way, it's hard to blame the audience: in 1994, the year of the consecration for Jim Carrey, the three great comedies Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber and - especially - The Mask have finished to catalog it in the box "comic actor". From a comic published by Dark Horse Comics, The Mask worked very well in theaters, and finding it later as a video game was just a matter of time. It will finally take a small year for Black Pearl Software to transpose the crazy adventures of Stanley Ipkiss, aka "The Mask", in video games. Sufficient time to reproduce the sweet madness of the original movie? That's what we'll see together ...
THE STAR OF THE MASK? THIS IS THE MASK!
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 02No big surprise, The Mask follows the big trends of its time and transforms itself into a rather classic action / platform game, whose different levels are inspired by the film, with a great attention to the greenish character and whimsical, embodied this time by the player. The course of the game does not really follow that of the film, but its objective remains unchanged: as in the feature film, Stanley must defeat the gangster Dorian Tyrell who, like Tom Thumb, leaves behind him bundles of greenbacks. Tyrell absolutely wants to seize the powerful powers provided by the mask of Loki, god of darkness. He has kidnapped the beautiful Tina, dear to the heart of Stanley, and intends to release it in exchange for the precious accessory. You will notice in passing that the boring life of the shy and unlucky banker Ipkiss, whose only friends are his Jack Russell Milo and his colleague Charlie, is completely ignored, and only his masked and very uninhibited alter-ego has been preserved. the game.
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 03To be quite accurate, we can see Stanley in his "human" form, without the mask and in his pajamas, for a brief moment, when The Mask lost all his points of life. But this is only a detail that brings nothing to the game ... Very "self-centered", the title relies heavily on his hero to win the support of the player. Our comic service is indeed endowed with many actions and movements, all taken from the film: to strike with a mallet (to explode these pesky alarm clocks, or to hit the ground in some more fragile places, in order to free a passage), to make the spinning top (like Taz, the Tasmanian devil), unsheath a shovel of huge guns as in the final scene of the film (which allows, here, to remove all visible enemies on the screen), use a huge horn (to reach an enemy while keeping his distance), hitting with boxing gloves (his "basic" attack), walking with soft steps (useful not to attract the attention of certain enemies) or on the contrary running, making huge leaps ... and even go into air vents and other very narrow places!
The different special actions are executed using the character's "Morph" power. Its principle is simple: for each action performed, the Morph counter located in the lower left corner of the screen decreases. If it goes down too low, The Mask can then rely only on its basic movements (punches, normal jump ...), and we must wait for the meter slowly recovering valuable points to be able to use the special moves again. For the record, a similar, rather effective mechanism had already been observed in Earthworm Jim for the management of ammunition, which caused the player not to do anything with his weapon. The goal here is the same, and it will also be better to appear before a boss with a Morph counter with a big figure to hope to get out.
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 05 Of course, the developers have all planned and items bearing the letter M are also present everywhere in the levels: they recharge the famous counter, but as they are rather rare, we will try not to abuse the Special moves and play the card of parsimony. Milo, Stanley's nervous little dog, is also present in the game (only once per level, he also wears a mask), but if you cross him, it's a bit of a lucky day! Not only, he hides very well (hence the difficulty of getting his hands on it), but in addition, it boosts the life of The Mask to its maximum. Normally, however, it will simply harvest green hearts so that the energy of the hero (also expressed in points) takes a little color.
SMALL VERIFY IN CITY
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 06In contrast to many movie adaptations, The Mask can count on a rather original architecture of levels, which is each time similar to that of a small labyrinth whose course is not linear or constantly oriented from the left to the right of the screen. Our hero has the ability to borrow lifts, to slip into the air ducts ... and it does not take away! Moreover, for the player, to browse everywhere is even recommended if he wants to get his hands on the few bonuses stashed everywhere (wads of notes, points of life, 1UP ...), on the "checkpoints" symbolized by the yellow hat of the hero or the friend Milo mentioned above. we do it willingly, as the different places are rather well built, pretty, but without great personality, as if they were deliberately discreet to put a little more hero in value.
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 07The starting point of the game is the very poorly-attended Stanley building, guarded by a dingy concierge who is shooting with his rifle. The Mask will then wander outside, on the roofs of the buildings, inside the bank, in the park, the prison, the sewers of the city ... to finish his journey at the Coco Bongo dance hall, place of the final confrontation against his evil twin: Dorian, who also wears a mask. Colorful and fine enough, the graphics of the game have a connotation very "comics", without making tons. Overall, the levels are quite large, though some are faster than others. The music manages to reproduce the different moods of the film, crazy rumba included! Harmony is not always at the rendezvous (some compositions are quickly on the nerves, including the one that accompanies the final clash against Dorian), but the bulk of the soundtrack fulfills its objectives without too much force.
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 08Finally, what impresses the most, from the first minutes of the game is the impeccable animation of The Mask: we find all the gestures of Jim Carrey (his approach, his mimicry, his crazy poses ...), which, it must be said, represents blessed bread for an adaptation in video games. For the enemies, the table is less flattering since they clearly have less animation steps. Very few or very varied, they all have the same size and are not original for a penny. Some come directly into contact with the hero, while others rely more on the surprise (hence the interest for our hero to sometimes walk nonchalantly). But hey, since in one case as in the other, they serve only punchingball, these gaps are not a drama either ... The handling of the hero is simple and we memorize very quickly the different possible actions. The difficulty of the app is not to look for the handling of the character, but rather in the endurance of the bosses. The Mask makes the difference between, on one side, "simple" enemies that offer little resistance, and on the other, tough bosses "boring" where confrontation rhymes with detection of blows not super precise .
THE FINAL WORD
The Mask Super Nintendo screenshot 09Children and the vast majority of adults loved The Mask when it was released in movie theaters, and apart from some grumpy people who could not stand Jim Carrey's posturing, there were so many potential buyers of the game. . We can say today that those who bought the game at the time were not rolled: the video game is better than most adaptations cine, thanks to a central character whose animations are fly and to non-linear levels that push the player to explore. But at the same time, The Mask is not perfect, with its messy meetings against bosses (in question, a detection of blows not really optimal), its low number of enemies and some "hot" passages where precision is setting for jumps. What prevent him from shining alongside a Batman Returns and a few others in short, while still a very recommendable entertainment. Which is not that bad…
Final note
Technical - 7/10
Without major defects, but without great personality either, the realization of The Mask capitalizes a lot on his main character, with a neat animation and sets "cartoons" that put it even more value.
Music - 6/10
The furious rumba of the film is of course present, and the rest of the soundtrack is rather pleasant, without however avoiding the trap of "the compo which carries quickly on the nerves" (in particular for the final scene of the game).
Gameplay - 7/10
The Mask has a large range of moves and moves. We find it without problem, even if all the buttons of the pad are used. Too bad there is such a difference in difficulty between simple enemies and bosses.
Life time - 6/10
The app has only seven levels. Of a reasonable length, some are quickly shipped while others carry their nickname of labyrinth (especially the level of sewers ...).
Innovation - 5/10
Eeeuuuhhh ... A non-linear progression in levels (thank you air vents and others), a nice skewer of different shots (thank you film), and for the rest, the good action / platform families.
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