"An evil ringmaster has captured the animals of the forest and jungle for use in his evil circus. All the animals have been captured...all but one little elephant named Rolo. Rolo must now free the caged animals from the ringmaster and work toward infiltrating the circus to get what is most precious to him back, his mother."
Rolo to the Rescue is an example of how a solid platformer should be designed. Start with a novel plot, add respectable graphics, cram it full of gameplay, mix in a soundtrack, and voila! Rolo has all of this...well almost.
Rolo jumps, bounces, and vacuums (yes, he actually vacuums) his way through forests, deserts, canyons and cities on his quest to save his trapped animals friends. Progression through the levels is cleverly indicated through a giant jigsaw puzzle. For each level Rolo clears, another piece of the map is shown, slowly unveiling the path to victory.
The animals Rolo acquires on his journey include: a mole who burrows through the earth, a little blue bunny who reaches the stratosphere with every bound, a squirrel who climbs up things, and a beaver with a portable rubber tube for floating around. These animals, once freed, are usually used in combination with Rolo to solve puzzles or reach hidden areas of the level eg. the bunny can reach places in the air filled with score and life bonuses. While the extras aren't essential, bonuses like extra pieces to the map are occasionally in the harder to reach spots as a nugget of goodness for the diligent gamer.
To progress through the game, the assortment of animals gained must be used in conjunction with each other, and here a small problem is evident. The method of switching between character is cumbersome, requiring a change of screens to an options screen. While no big issue at first, it tends to get a tad irritating when done constantly for larger scale puzzles that require greater interaction between the animals; just a minor quibble. A real problem lies within the control of the characters. Control over Rolo and the animals tend to be too loose and twitchy.
Rolo is cute. The graphics are cute. This leads to the sound having a strong cutie-pie edge. There is one upbeat theme used throughout the game, with a short tune when entering new areas. The music tune for the forest area sounds like the theme from 'Teddy bears picnic.' Sound effects include a limited array of animal noises for each character.
The biggest problem that marred this game from receiving accolades, as a cart was it didn't have a savegame feature or password. Usually this isn't a problem for normal platformers because of size restrictions, but the amount of levels in Rolo is ridiculous (70!), thus not being able to save pissed a lot of people off. Fortunately, most MegaDrive emulators have the save snapshot feature, therefore this game can be exercised to its true greatness.
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I've noticed a graphical glitch in Rolo that occurs with both the Genecyst and KGen emulators; it seems that moving log platforms show up as garbled graphics. All up, Rolo is a substantial game, a shining example of the hardcore cute gaming. Get Rolo to the Rescue for an addictive, cutesy romp. |
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