SUPER SEYMOUR SAVES THE PLANET By: Codemasters Download: ssstp.zip What a dump earth is turning into. Pollution just keeps getting worse, but hopefully they will never reach the stage it's at in this game. Various locations around the globe are littered with toxic canisters and that can only be a bad thing. Its no surprise then that mutants are appearing in these contaminated areas and the bad news is that these mutants aren't the friendly types. No ninja turtles/toxic avengers here, no sireee bob. Only one super hero can save the day... Super Seymour. Seymour who is best known for his adventure game exploits in Seymour at the Movies and Wild West Seymour dons a cape and mask and sets off to clean up mother earth in this platformer.

Anyone who has played Bomb Jack before will feel right at home playing Super Seymour. The game is a blatant copy of the old arcade classic. Seymour's costume even resembles Bomb Jack's outfit so its not like Codemasters are trying to hide the fact. Some people may not be amused by the fact that both games are so similar, but to be honest Bomb Jack was a great game so a good copy isn't exactly a bad thing. Isn't the basic idea of Bomb Jack for example just a copy of pac man where you have to collect things around the screen whilst avoiding the enemies?

In each level you will see a number of canisters scattered around and you will have to get Seymour to collect them all to finish the stage. Each level also has a few platforms for you to jump on to help you in your mission. Your awarded points for collecting the canisters and there is always one glowing canister which is worth more points than your bog standard canister. When you collect it one of the other canisters will start to glow so the basic idea if your trying to set a high score is to collect the canisters in order, although it isn't necessary. You'll have to hurry because the glowing canisters explode when the time limit (represented by a bar) at the bottom of the screen expires.

The game would be pretty easy if that was all there was to it. In each level a number of enemies will appear from time to time and try to stop you. You can choose to avoid them or try to get rid of them, its up to you to decide. Until the screen has been cleared of canisters more bad guys will appear so you can try avoiding the mutants at first but eventually you will have to kill them. You probably won't get much choice on the matter because after a while the beasties start to overrun the screen.

Super Seymour gets the upper hand on Bomb Jack in terms of the enemies you encounter. There several kinds of mutant which you will face and each kind has their own characteristics. Some depending on the enemy will either walk, fly or bounce around the screen trying to get you. For each enemy you will have to work out how to defeat them. Many can be squashed by jumping on them ala Mario brothers but some need to be hit from below or you'll hit them and quickly run away before they explode. You can collect various powerups when you defeat the mutants which include melon seeds which you spit out, a boomerang or speed boost.

Like the previous Seymour games the graphics are top notch. They are far better than Bomb Jack's sprites although far less colourful. As with the Seymour adventure games there is a lack of quality sound. There seems to be two schools of thought regarding this game. Some loathe it for being so similar to Bomb Jack. I on the other hand think it's a fine game. If the levels consisted of more than one screen it would be comparable to a NES platformer in terms of look and feel. If your not the type that is extremely loyal to Bomb Jack I don't see why you wouldn't enjoy it.

Rating: 80%