Jim Henson's Muppet Adventure "Chaos at the Carnival" - NES

WOW!!!... I just came across this game and thought, "I like Muppets......I also like games.....I bet the two together will be great. But its more like nuts and gum together at last. But I was curious to see how they incorporated the Muppets into the game, so already it has a point for that. Making me want to see what they did with the Muppets. (Thats about as much excitement I got from this title)

You start out with a News flash, even if they did the "MUPPET NEWS FLASH" with some shoddy animation would have been nice, but sadly no. Instead we find out that Ms Piggy is PIGNAPPED. And the suspect is Dr Grump. Who the hell is Dr. Grump, why not have a character from the show. There are plenty of evil type characters to choose from to have has a boss/enemy, any of the monsters would do. But nope, we get Dr Grump. I wonder if hes related to Forrest Gump?

Anywho, you are given 4 missions to do. A paddle down the stream with Kermit. A Bumper car track with Animal. A spaceship asteroid side scroller with Gonzo and a Maze and Hunt with Fozzy. Each one sucks monkey balls. I figure I breeze through this game and end it like I did total recall in 7 min. But nope, the gonze stage is stupid hard. The other 3 levels could be done by a blind person, but stupid gonzo level takes all your 10 lives and then some. How does it do this.?!CONTROLS!!!!

The controls in this game suck. And not just for the Gonzo level, but all the levels. The characters seem to go where they want to go. Maybe they will turn, maybe they won't, I guess it all depends on what Fozzy/Kermit is feeling at the time I press the left button. LEFT...LEFT........yeah, thats it, go RIGHT!!!!...It was obvious I was pressing the right button. Not only does the characters not respond to the controls, but each level has the character sorta sliding around the screen. The game has a feel like they are all on ice.

Another thing is when you get hit and take damage. Like most games when you get hit, you flash for a couple seconds and you are invincible to another attack. A great thing added to most games so the computer can't take cheap shots. It gives you that last chance to get out of a situation. Well, when you take damage here, you blink as if you are invincible, but NOPE...you still take damage. And the the BOUNCE effect occurs, where you will just bounce off a enemy and the screen side until all your life is gone. In the Gonzo level alone, I would have to say that I lost about 4 lives in the matter of 15 sec. Mainly because the computer randomly drops you in the level and doesn't care where it puts you, even on top of enemy's.

The level designs are horrible, so boring and blan. There is so much with the Muppet Universe that they could have taken from and when playing this, I feel all they took to make this game was the look of the characters and its name. It doesn't feel like a Muppet game. The final stage has Kermit in some kind of Musketeers pose, but I don't know what he has in his hand. When I try to hit things with it, the enemy go through it and hit me. What am I doing wrong.? perhaps nothing. Kermit doesn't hit anybody. The feel of this game can be equated to animating at your desk while 3 people shake, kick, and do backflips off your tablet.

So Here are is comparison of what the levels currently look like and what I've added to them to make them a awesome Ass Blast Fest!!!

1) First level is Kermit going down stream in his raft. He hits rocks and logs and is sucked into whirle pools.


If I am going to bang into things and can't control my raft how I like to control it, then I think being chased by a shark will add the element of panic to a otherwise annoying and boring level. Better get moving fast or that shark will get ya.









































2) Second we have animal driving in a bumper car and ramming barrels and flags and avoiding oils slicks, cherry bombs and bumpers.


I figure we make the level interesting by adding drums and cymbals and now animal has to hit the them using his left and right arms that would correspond to the A and B button. That could be the achievement part of the game. play a perfect tune to the end. Then for the destructive part of animal, you could give him saw blades a the front of his car and he could mow down Gonzo's chickens with a Poof of feathers when he hits. Then if he misses with his saw blades he could finish them off with a big ball and chain attached to his neck that he would tow behind him and smash anything he may have missed.


3) The stupidly hard gonzo game, where he floats around and shoot little pebbles at rocks and weird looking aliens.


Although this wouldn't make the game easier, but would make for more entertainment. Gonzo could shoot out his army of chickens and they would attach to the enemy and peck the thing until it explode, killing the chicken as well. Not knowing that they are all going on Kamikaze missions.


4) Poor Fossy here wanders around the maze waiting for bow ties to appear so he can get it and then move on to the next maze. While he can collect hearts and bones to toss at the bads guys, these things just stop them for a couple secs. Its the most boring level outta the entire game.

Now I figure this will keep ya entertained while you do the mindless maze hunt. While you wait for the bow ties to appear. You could lay waste to everything around you with your Rambo gun. blowing up the stupid looking ice cream walls and blowing the shit outta the mouse things that chase you around. NOW.. I don't mind waiting for the ties to appear.


And thats what I think will make this game tolerable...not playable...but just tolerable. The game play is so simple, you can easily see that no thought or innovation was put into this game. Its not even bad enough to be good.
1/10