Fatal Rewind
System: Genesis
Release Date: October 1991
Developer: Raising Hell Productions
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Action
And now it’s time for the greatest show on Earth, The Killing Game Show, Fatal Rewind! The government’s enemies are given a chance to compete for their freedom. But they aren’t meant to win, this is punishment, after all. Get ready to solve environmental puzzles and platform your way to safety. Will you be able to overcome the 12 pits of death and survive?
You have been captured and placed in a robotic suit. You’re armed with an arm cannon and you have one goal. Survive the onslaught in front of you and escape the level. Hostile Artificial Life Forms spawn from specific spots and will respawn every time you trip them. Killing them all will get you a little bit of life back if you catch the heart. Just avoid the skull, that’s bad. The other obstacle you have to be aware of is the Deadly to Organic Life Liquid that slowly fills the stage from the bottom. Touching this is instant death, giving you a time limit to your adventure.
This means you have to move fast, but you’ll come up against walled off areas and need to find a specific shaped key to open them up. This requires platforming, quickly. Remember, the DOLL is constantly rising. That is, unless you are holding a Water Freezer item. Holding the fire button down while you have this equipped will stop the DOLL from rising. Unfortunately, you can’t shoot or carry any other items while you’re holding this.
In order to make the game show entertaining, you are able to equip an arsenal of different weapons, one at a time. These are also limited in ammo, but taking on the HALFs without them is difficult. There are also other utility items mainly revolving around regaining life. I got hit a lot and needed them whenever they popped up.
The novel concept on display here is the ability to begin your next life from anywhere you want in your previous run. Did you make it almost to the end, but got caught up on something? Your previous attempt plays as a replay when you die. As long as you don’t touch the d-pad, it plays out. You can fast forward with the A Button. When you want to take over, start moving and you will. Helpful when you’ve done well, not so much when you haven’t.
Graphics: 1.5
Some of the color choices (like blue on blue) are odd and everything looks not quite 16-bit.
Sound: 2.0
I didn’t mind the music and sounds, but I didn’t like them either.
Gameplay: 1.5
It’s not very deep or interesting gameplay, you have to survive while completing navigation puzzles.
Difficulty: 1.5
Levels rely on memorization and although you’re able to fast forward to avoid having to replay sections, if you didn’t play perfectly, it doesn’t matter.
Fun Factor: 1.0
I was frustrated a lot more than I was having fun. There needed to be a lot more graphical variation to give the player a real chance.
Overall Rating: 1.5
Fatal Rewind earns a C-. Were I forced to play this game show, I’d resign myself to death.