Mean Machines Sega


The Lawnmower Man
By SCI
Sega CD (US Version)

 
Published in Mean Machines Sega #28

The Lawnmower Man

Brit-funded movies usually feature old bids trundling around in Dickensian London, or doing the luvvy bit with Ken and Emm. So The Lawnmower Man was a bit unusual in featuring American stars and yesterday's "cutting edge" techno subject for the chattering classes, Virtual Reality. The film has been even more unusual for being a success through video, sell-through and the spin-off games, like this very one up for review. And Pierce has gone on to become James Bond.

Vorticism

A tense little section occurs when you approach a series of interlinked platforms suspended in space. A deadly opponent assumes powers of invisibility, and both of you take a series of moves across the grid, your aim to not select his space.

Consontant... Vowel...

Jobe has been cunningly defending his terminals by a series of logic puzzles. Appearing as a grid of hexagonal tiles, the player is invited to pick the odd one out from each of four files within the time limit.

Domain Of Pain

The intro sets the scene of the movie and game, with you in the role of Angelo, once trapped within Jobe's cyber domain and now the sole agent capable of defeating him.

The quality of the rendered graphics within the game is similar, but the gameplay is sadly only a little more interactive than the intro.

Gus

Graphics do not a good game make. It's an inviolable law, and on The Lawnmower Man is unable to flout.

The intro makes interesting viewing for the first few games, as do the long rendered sequences. But video games are not primarily about viewing - they're about *participating*.

The Lawnmower Man CD is woefully short on interaction, to an often comic extent. Actually, it's tragic that so much effort is spent on producing something technically progressive, but with gameplay from the Dark Ages.

Steve

I first saw this several months ago and thought that it looked quite nice. I was right. It does look nice.

Sadly, it plays like a brick. If you were to strip away the cinematic interludes, you're left with a series of very limited reaction tests, none of which prove particularly exciting.

All credit to Storm for creating one of the best-looking games for the Mega-CD, but at the end of the day The Lawnmower Man is nowt but a fancy-looking multiple choice test.

Verdict

Graphics 86%
Excellent rendering without graininess. Muted colours are sometimes hard to distinguish.

Sound 87%
A couple of nice techno tracks from System seven, but some very fuzzy speech.

Playability 45%
Seriously lacking in playability, most section being simple reaction/decisin sub games.

Lastability 47%
The simplicity of the game tasks offsets their inscrutability.

Value For Money 49%
If you're a fan, get the video and save an absolute packet.

Overall 46%
Any residual goodwill for this movie has gone with this game. Mrs. Doubtfire had the right idea...