Taz in Escape From Mars (Sega Genesis, 1994)

Taz in Escape from Mars puts you in the role of the Tasmanian Devil, the spinning, slobbering, but overall lovable cartoon character. You have been kidnapped from Earth and caged in a zoo on Mars and are being held there by Marvin the Martian. Spunky Taz that you are, you immediately begin planning your escape.

The Mars Zoo holds captive a veritable cornucopia of strange animaloids and other creatures. To escape from this house of feral insanity, you must spin to break through walls and boomerang from wall to wall to reach high places. Watch out for springy, hanging cages, which hold dangerous creatures. A maze of loop-do-loop pipes will keep you spinning like a top. Beware of a giant elephant that stands between you and freedom.

After making your escape from Mars, you will journey through five more exotic locales: Moleworld, Planet X, Mexico (!?), a haunted castle and Marvin the Martian's House. Naturally, you will do a lot of running, jumping and spinning to make your way through the levels, but you will also be called on to fly through the air and ride looping waterfalls. To access certain areas, you must move levers to open and close doors. Certain levers are used to operate machinery.

Throughout the strange worlds, molemen, oreworms, aliens, killer bees, flying eyeballs, laser-shooting robots and other menacing monsters will make your life difficult. You will also have to deal with Yosemite Sam, Witch Hazel and other fellow Warner Bros. characters. Obstacles to avoid or defeat include a wagon train stampede, spinning drill bits, a flying mining machine, bubbling pools, green gobs of goo and much more. As if that were not enough, you must also perform a number of feats such as ricocheting up and out of a trash compactor, negotiating moving platforms, luring a bull into charging walls and burrowing through the ground like a sentient drill bit.

To defeat the enemies and otherwise progress through the game, you are equipped with (or can find access to) a number of special moves: Taz Tornado, Taz Boomerang, Taz Smash, Taz 360, Taz Drill, Taz Turn-On and Taz Whirly Copter. Just like in the cartoons, the Taz in this game has a voracious appetite. He gobbles up first-aid kits, which restore his health, gasoline, which enables him to let loose a blast of hot breath, and bombs, which are not exactly health food.

Taz can also scarf up bubbling beakers, which make him super large or super small. When he's Jumbo Taz, he's tough, but unable to spin. When he's mini-size, he can fit through low tunnels. Shrink rays and growth rays can also be used to alter your size.

Once you've found a crate in a level, you've made it to the end. Jump in to escape to the next level. Transporters can be used to zap yourself to another part of the level you are already in.