Dennis the Menace (1993, SNES) by Ocean

Current Any% Leaderboard (Speedrun.com)Dennis the Menace, a 1993 platformer made by Ocean, is a boring, average game when it does what it intends to do… and an awful game when it fails to do so.  A very short, uninspired, and generic game, you control Dennis Mitchell as he platforms through very basic worlds: a sewer, a park, the woods, etc., collecting 5 coins over, and over, and over… it really makes me sad to think that this game was developed.  I’ve played some garbage in my day, and this isn’t THAT bad… it’s just so BORING.

Every single stage except for the solitary autoscroller is the same: guide Dennis around enemies using 3 weapons, all of which do similar attacks, and collect 5 gold coins.  Every 3 stages, you fight a silly, easy boss.  It’s so boring that even typing this out makes me feel exhausted and wishing I could do anything else.  The graphics are average; the music is decently good, and the controls stink.  The worlds are designed so generically that everything looks the same, and it’s sooo, so easy to get lost.  On top of that, every level is a maze; this game took me longer to learn than BUBSY 3D, and that game is AWFULLY DESIGNED!

The one saving grace is the gameplay.  Not the controls per sé (those are terrible), but rather combat is still kind of fun, and there’s some decent platforming action and speed tech in this game.  That doesn’t make up for the yawn-inducing gameplay premise that it was built around, however; you can’t take a Ford Escort and race it against an F1 racer, no matter how much you soup it up.  This is not even a Ford Escort.  This is a Pinto.  Steer far clear of this turd.