Fatman: The Caped Consumer

Action 1993 Dos Black Legend Platformer Arcade style

Uninspired platform shenanigans

It seems as if most of the imagination went into giving this game its title, hero and background as once you get beyond the novelty of a rather overweight main character, there's little to be found here to keep you playing. The faintly imaginative storyline sees Roy Fat's wife being kidnapped by an evil corporation who want the Duplicator device that Roy possesses in return for her release so it is up to Roy to venture forth and save the day. What this boils down to is seven stages of side-scrolling platform shenanigans, much like Batman or Rick Dangerous but without the charm, where Roy must eat all the food which lies scattered around each level, while avoiding the various wildlife that stands between him and his woman. Once all the food has been gathered, then the exit to the next stage opens up and the guzzling continues. There is a decent selection of weapons to collect along the way, with the likes of mushroom bombs and carrots available, while Roy can also make use of his over-sized stomach and his wind problem to deal with pesky bad guys. There are bosses to contend with every now and then and hazards like spikes, fire and water to keep players on their toes but to be honest it's unlikely that they will be enough to keep any but the most dedicated retrohead playing for long. The visuals are charming enough, with nice big sprites and vibrant use of colour, while the sound and music do a decent if unspectacular job of complementing the action. The real problem though is that the gameplay is simply too repetitive, with no real variation between levels and everything gets pretty dull pretty quickly. Unless you're a diehard platform fan, then this is one you can comfortably skip.

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