


Oscar, by Flairsoft. Distributed in North America by BMD.
CD-32 format.

	Oscar could almost be the CD-32's icon, like Sonic is to Sega and Mario to Nintendo. I don't know what exactly Oscar is, but he's got spunk, humor and great looks. The CD-32 version of Oscar is a large platform game in the same vein as the Sonic-type games, with 9 vastly different worlds, bonus rounds and hidden things galore. And while the game may not exactly utilize much in the way of CD-ROM capabilities, it does, without a doubt, use the AGA graphics set. This game is gorgeous and some of the cartoony graphics are almost breathtaking.
	The premise of the game consists of the little guy going through a super-lux cinema center, where the worlds are the theaters themselves- each world is a different type of movie. Science Fiction movie worlds, War movies, Horror, childrens, even a Commodore level with blatant CD-32 plugs in both the fore and background. This game has diversity of scenery to spare.
	Each world is divided into three different "scenes" where Oscar must collect a certain number of Oscar statues, then make it to the movie clapperboard, whereupon, the director appears to shout "CUT!" Every time Oscar obtains an Oscar( odd as that sounds.) he lets out a "Thank you, Everybody!"
	Appropriate enemies abound throughout the various movie worlds and Oscar either jumps on them numerous times, or hits them with his yo-yo weapon once he has found it. There are many, many items to find within these worlds- most inside of movie reel canisters that must be caught once the canister is popped open. Some of the items are helpful, others are harmful and some I have yet to figure out what exactly they do- the Gameboy and Game Gear items, for instance, change the foreground color scheme, but little else.
	Oscar has three or four problems that prevent it from attaining true gaming greatness. The first is the joypad control. The four colored buttons all have the same function- that of the yo-yo attack. The top right and left buttons are used for jumping, which is awkward and in addition, pressing up also makes him jump- a kickback from the floppy version, which is both annoying and inexcusable. There is no option to reconfigure the controls either, which should be a given for any game- especially a console system game.
	With nine worlds, each with three scenes, and a multitude of bonus rounds, Oscar is a pretty huge platform game and it is time consuming to just complete one of the worlds, let alone all of them. So why does Oscar have no save feature and no passwords? Good luck to anyone who can spend that much time on one game at one sitting. 
	Also, there are no bosses at the end of the worlds, which I found both surprising and disappointing and the bonus rounds are extremely hard to complete in time- the game doesn't give the player nearly enough time to explore the bonus levels and reach the exit. Oscar has only on-disk instructions which is regrettable and a little cheap on Flairsoft's part, but not a terribly important flaw.
	Oscar has been translated to NTSC, with the exception of a few in-between screens. It doesn't have a cartoon intro like James Pond, unfortunately, and I was a little disappointed by that exclusion, also, but the game makes up for the loss. Sound is certainly good, though not as striking as the music found in other games, like James Pond. 
	If you are a CD-32 owner, then Oscar is definitely a must-have. The graphics are fantastic and the game itself is fun even with the control problems. Oscar is quite difficult, however, and the lack of passwords is regrettable to say the least. Overall, this first outing of Oscar is extremely promising, as Oscar makes for a very good game, despite the flaws and I can't wait for a sequel. It should also be noted that Oscar has officially been chosen as one of the pack-ins for the American CD-32 machine and there will be some minor improvements on the pack-in version.
 