Taz: Wanted

Taz and his lady friend, She-Devil are together until Yosemite Sam comes along and captures them. Taz breaks free, but She-Devil is taken away and Yosemite Sam and his team of catchers put up wanted posters which Taz must locate and destroy.

In each of the 10 levels, there are 7 wanted posters to destroy which is necessary to progress. There are 100 sandwiches to collect, plenty of items to destroy, and a hidden Sam statue. To destroy the wanted posters, you must locate them and either interact with them directly (such as spin attacking them), or indirectly (such as destroying machinery or interacting with objects such as cannons). To help you, the targets are marked on your map, and you are given clues on how to destroy each one.

Throughout the environment, there are plenty of objects to destroy, and reaching a certain target gives you a destruction bonus. There are enemies that attack you throughout the level, but they don't cause too much problem because Taz has no life system. The only slight threat is the catchers who cost you $500 penalty if you are caught, but you thrown straight back into action as you break out of your cage. To get rid of the catchers, you must locate the phone box, where Taz will don an outfit and can then perform a special attack to eradicate them.

There are many annoying jack-in-the-boxes that will punch Taz and send him flying back if he gets close. To get around these, you must find the spin pad to temporarily disable them, then quickly locate the jack-in-the-box(es) to spin attack and destroy them once and for all.

I found the level design to be very poor since they seemed designed to frustrate the player. The paths loop round and are on different levels of elevation which then becomes disorienting. The map doesn't provide too much use because you are represented as a flag but you can't tell which direction you are facing. All the platforming sections are insanely frustrating since they will put platforms in the water (Taz cannot swim) and then put nearby platforms at obscure angles and at a distance whereby if you do manage to land on it; you will probably just slip off the curved, slippy surface and end up in the water anyway. It seemed like you require a good run up or to spin-jump, but its too hard and unreliable on such a small platform, and when Taz reacts inconsistently; it becomes infuriating.

Occasionally when spinning and moving, Taz will shoot off at an insane speed, but it is unclear why he does this. Also, you can't double jump, but if he is pressed against a platform, he seems to be able to double jump. Taz usually sinks when hitting the water, but sometimes you can spin over the surface. It is so weird how there are so many inconsistencies with Taz's movement.

There are 5 'boss' fights which play out like mini games. For example, the first game against Gossamer plays out like air-hockey, and the battle against Daffy Duck sees you rolling inside a ball over targets.

The game takes about 6 and a half hours to complete, and as much as you want to like the game, it seems far to frustrating too enjoy. On the plus side, the graphics are really crisp and cartoony, and Taz is a great character and can cause a lot of havoc in the destructible environments which obviously complements his characteristics.