The Mask is one of the movies of my childhood, I think it was one of the first movies I saw of Jim Carrey and it had a great impact on me at the time. It is a timeless movie that even today is quite funny and its special effects have not aged badly, although some things do look a little bad, but still is part of the essence of this movie. That's why while I was looking for a new game to play I found that there was a SNES game of the movie and it was something that took me by surprise since I had no idea that they had made a video game adaptation of The Mask. Video game which follows to some extent the events that occurred in the film with its logical changes to make it a proper video game adaptation, which is a video game of the genre of action and platforming quite conventional, but that manages to capture all the charisma of this character so crazy and charismatic.
A small fact that I discovered many years after having seen the movie is that The Mask is originally an adaptation of a comic of the same name but with many differences since the comic is something totally violent, bloody and with a lot of black humor, something totally different from the humorous and to some extent "familiar" tone of the movie, although the movie does have its "adult" moments, but nothing is compared to the comic. In fact in the comic the mask has different wearers, something they wanted to replicate in the disastrous movie sequel to The Mask. There is also an animated series adaptation that I remember watching when I was younger.
Today's Retro Review is about: The Mask.
The Mask for SNES is a game that graphically serves its purpose, it is not a visual marvel, but what it represents visually is decent and it is able to recreate accurately locations that can be seen in the movie correctly and some other new locations to add more things to do that are also fine. It is a game that is quite faithful to its source material and that is to be appreciated, as at least you can tell that although logically this video game was made in order to further monetize The Mask product, despite that its developers took the trouble to make a product that is quite similar to the movie and very final to its charisma. And since I mentioned the word "charisma", it's time to talk about the most charismatic character of The Mask and it is of course its protagonist, which is an excellent adaptation of its film version, with a spectacular character design, which manages to emulate many of the things that this character does in the movie, in addition to a series of extremely fluid, original and especially funny animations.
The character design is quite great, being able to easily notice elements and details. The enemies however, are somewhat repetitive as well as certain scenarios, which repeat many elements on screen, although they do not look bad, it is at times a bit boring to always see the same elements in the scenarios, especially because this game also has a certain exploration factor that is very important to advance. But without any doubt and logically Stanley Ipkiss/The Mask, that is, the protagonist of the story, is the one who stands out the most on screen thanks to his impressive animations that are an exact copy of his version of the movie or even his version of the animated series, which presents even more similarities.
The Mask for SNES has a soundtrack that represents the soundtrack of the movie, some of the melodies I could recognize since they are direct adaptations of the movie, being this a pretty good detail, some other melodies I'm not sure if they are adaptations or simply music that was made exclusively for this game, but anyway, in general terms the soundtrack of The Mask for SNES is good, although I also think that there are certain melodies that sound similar and that can be a little boring. In terms of sound effects it also achieves its purpose, since thanks to these they contribute much more to the comedy and "madness" factor of the protagonist. The sound effects are also very much in line with the cartoon style of the game.
Each action performed by our protagonist is represented by a characteristic sound effect. This game has really surprised me both in terms of graphics and sound, since it can be considered as a faithful adaptation of a classic film of the comedy genre (with their respective and obvious changes) but still the end result is something pretty good if compared to other video games that adapt movies.
The Mask for SNES is a platform game and with certain elements of fairly conventional exploration, which is a fairly accurate representation of the events that occurred in the film, being able to see emblematic places but adapted in a video game. When controlling The Mask, our character is able to perform all kinds of actions and as is characteristic with this character his actions are based on the "toon-force", therefore the attacks he performs are of the most bizarre and exaggerated, being this an excellent representation of both the film, as well as any animated series like Looney Tunes. As a good platform game, our character can perform the classic actions such as running, jumping, hitting enemies using a hammer or hitting them with boxing gloves, all with a dose of humor and exaggeration, but in addition, you can stun enemies using a huge horn.
As we advance through the scenarios we will find different enemies to defeat, as well as certain obstacles that we must overcome to overcome the level and reach the final boss, which will always be a challenge to overcome. As I mentioned earlier, this game has certain elements of exploration, so going through the scenarios to find certain items that will be of great help or to find passages that allow us to advance immediately to some part of the stage, is a very important aspect. In addition, the control of our character is quite easy and will respond very well to the actions we want to perform. The Mask for SNES is not an extremely difficult game, but in some moments it can be a bit frustrating, especially because it becomes a bit monotonous.
The Mask is a pretty decent platform game, which if we compare it with many of the movie adaptations that are in the industry this is a game that stands out for its fidelity to the original product, although in the end it is a game that in terms of mechanics and gameplay is very conventional, but in the end it is a game that manages to entertain with what it has.
