Developer: Winky Soft Publisher: Seta Release: 08/89 Genre: Platformer
You really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to license Tom Sawyer for a video game. Licensed titles of all stripes were nothing new for the NES. As the system took off publishers scoured the globe looking for anything to turn into a game. They even went as far back as the beginning of the 20th century with Little Nemo and Dick Tracy. The only thing more surprising about a Tom Sawyer video game is that there were two of them, but the less said about the other one the better. I wish I could say the Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a platforming classic like Capcom’s take on Little Nemo but it is not. This is a bog standard platformer and nothing more.
I will say this, the premise of the game is sound. In the novel Tom Sawyer’s active imagination got him into plenty of trouble. That is used as the basis of the game; the whole thing takes place in his mind as he sleeps in class. That means anything is possible. The fact that this is the best they could come up with speaks volumes. I am not expecting them to throw a million dollar development budget at a low cost license like this. But Christ, could you at least try?
Tom’s main and for the most part only weapon in this adventure is an infinite supply of rocks. Unfortunately Tom chucks them in an arc that makes hitting anything a problem. It also does not help that most enemies are small creatures which your rocks miss almost every time. There is something to be said about developing the skill needed to succeed in this game but it should at least be functional first. Occasionally you can find a slingshot that makes the game tolerable but it only lasts a short while before it is back to rocks. You will avoid most enemies as a result.
You can make up subpar mechanics with good level design. Sadly the Adventures of Tom Sawyer cannot lay claim to that. Between its odd enemy placement and rote level design the game simply is not interesting. Some of the levels are loosely based on specific sections of the novel like the pirate ship and graveyard. These stages fare the best and by that I mean they are slightly tolerable. When they deviate it goes completely off the rails. This could have been a good thing; since this is all in his head they can do anything. There is an overhead river rafting level and even a short shooter segment. But the overall game is ruined by frequent gotcha style design that is at odds with its stupid mechanics. What little fun that could be had is ruined by sloppy design.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is not a particularly difficult game in spite of its faults. It is merely frustrating at every turn. The stiff controls make the simple platforming a chore. Even worse, making a sudden stop or quick turnaround is not as intuitive as it should be. The arc of your rocks makes even the simplest enemies difficult to kill. As I said before it is better to simply avoid enemies whenever possible. The rafting level is frustrating due to its inclusion of timed jumps. However the raft does not always follow your movements. At the very least there are frequent extra lives to cover the cheap deaths but it does not make the game tolerable in the end.
The one area that seems to have some bit of inspiration are the bosses. For some god forsaken reason the bosses the game’s most impressive element. Most are massive and creative in their design. Some might even say they are impressive. The Haunted Castle features a massive blue devil that may look out of place in this game but who cares? It looks awesome. The Indian Joe boss looks cools but that is about all of the praise I can give the game. Outside of these few moments the entire package is unimpressive.
In Closing
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is an average game at best. I do not know what I expected from it to be honest but maybe something a little more. It had potential but ultimately squanders it through subpar design. This is a licensed game at a time when such titles were uniformly bad so I should not be surprised but you cannot help but hope sometimes.
