Most Misleading Name Ever
While most games tried to distance themselves from Sonic, Awesome Possum is a blatent copy, with the only difference lying in it's storyline, which is essentually a mixture between Sonic the Hedgehog and Captain Planet. The story is set in a world ruled by the evil Dr. Machino and his army of polluting robots, enter Awesome Possum.
The first thing you notice when the game starts is that it's gameplay is essentually a blatent copy of Sonic the Hedgehog, complete with spinning and jumping attacks that kill oppenents. However, unlike Sonic, the game gives the player a health bar. In most games, finding health packs is fairly common, or like in Sonic you don't die as long as you have at least one ring. In Awesome Possum however, the health packs are few and far between. Also it should be noted that even Sonic's ring system has been stolen, however unlike Sonic Awesome Possum spends his time picking up trash, which is essentually worthless.
Another major flaw the game has is that it's speed. In Sonic, though the game was fast, you could still see where you were going, in Awesome Possum however, the game moves so quickly, especally when Awesome Possum is bouncing around that the player can't really make out where he/she is or where the character is going to land. This is only made more difficult by the poor controls, which are extremely loose, and make stopping and launching attacks against the enemy more difficult then they need be.
However, the game's most fatal flaw is that each stage is seperated by a quiz on Environmental Trivia, which has absolutly no impact on the game except for giving bonus points, and there is no way to bypass these quizes or switch them off. The only upside to the quizes are the hillarious reactions on the animals faces when you get a question right or wrong.
The only other upside to this game lies in a technical advancement. Back in the day most games still used text integrated with a handdrawn background to show what the characters were saying. Awesome Posssum however actually used voice actors, and managed to get the sound to come through clearly. However, this advance is over shadowed by one thing: the dialogue is horrendus and annoying beyond belief.
Over all Awesome Possum is one of the worst games avalable on the Genesis, it doesn't even try to hide the fact that it's a clone of Sonic the Hedgehog and destroys any chance it had to actually be entertaining wth loose controls and worthless envrionmental quizes. In the end this game should be avoided by hardcore gamers, but it will appeal to young children and collectors seeking a complete Genesis library.