Impossamole
System: TG-16
Release Date: October 1991
Developer: Gremlin Graphics
Publisher: NEC
Genre: Action
Find the scrolls and save the day in Impossamole! Monty the Mole was chilling at the beach one day, when his relaxation was interrupted by a UFO hovering overhead. After being abducted, he was anointed the Chosen One and transformed into a super hero in a flash. Now he has to go through four levels collecting scrolls for some reason or another. Can you complete this task, or will you die trying?
Monty has an attack and it’s a kick to the enemy. The range and hit box of this attack is not as nice as you may hope. After he kicks them enough, they turn into a little block. You can kick this block and catch it, then throw it at enemies to kill them more rapidly. He throws these blocks in an arc, which isn’t ideal.
Levels are extremely platform heavy, which should be expected. Many jumps will be taken blind. Enemies will spawn and respawn over and over when you trip the correct pixel. You can take a large number of hits, as shown by the meter at the top right of the screen. Watch out for falling rocks. They will zap your health quickly. Many areas have low clearance ceilings, which makes platforming a real pain.
If you find yourself low on health, you want to find a health restoration item. This will take you from near death to full in an instant. A blue canister with an S will power up your kick and give you a sporting chance. There is also a gun that you can collect and switch to with the Select Button. This will shoot out bubbles or bullets, but I’m not totally sure the rhyme or reason.
There is a boss at the end of the levels and I dealt with one of them. It was a war of attrition that I barely was able to survive. I usually try and stick with games even when they’re bad or unfun, but I couldn’t handle it. The lightning effect and falling blocks I had to fight in the Amazon rainforest level made me call it.
Graphics: 1.5
It’s not altogether ugly, but I would be lying if I said it looked nice.
Sound: 1.5
The music is kind of nice.
Gameplay: 1.0
The controls are sluggish and floaty. For a super hero, Monty is super underpowered.
Difficulty: 1.0
Levels are a slog and a chore.
Fun Factor: 0.5
I threw in the towel a lot more quickly than I normally would, because it’s really not good.
Overall Rating: 1.1
Impossamole earns a D. This is a really sub par port of a PC game that I bet was subpar on those platforms, as well.