Big Nose Freaks Out

Camerica's back on the scene with a honker of a second episode in its prehistoric, hop-n-bop series -- Bignose the Caveman. Bignose Freaks Out sends Camerica's favorite Neanderthal on a fun but familiar NES adventure.

Decent control, graphics, and fun combined with an evolved level of challenge may make you hang out in your cave long enough to play it a few times, but the game doesn't exactly reinvent the NES wheel.

In this dub-banging, action/adventure game, Bignose (Camerica's answer to Bonk) has to round up Leroy, the varmint who's swiped the nose-man's rather hefty deposit from the local Savings and Bones bank.

A Look and Listen into the Past

To send Leroy directly to B.C. jail, Bignose must traverse five average-looking worlds, each with four levels. He rolls through forests, fields, caves, and factories on his hunt. The scenery and graphics aren't primitive, but they're average by 8-bit standards. The jungle sounds are worse. Very limited music and poor sound effects put your remote control's mute button to good use.

Bignose's side-view game play is good, but it doesn't exactly rewrite NES history. The cave guy's main weapon is his club, but he can also sling rocks at enemies, baseball-style.

Bignose doesn't have to hoof it anymore, either. Instead, he rides an ancient skateboard. The somewhat speedy one-wheeling and monster bashing is fun for a while, but eventually repetitive.

A decent assortment of bonus stages and secret surprises fill out the levels. To enter bone-grabbing bonus areas, Bignose hops on mushrooms, walks through walls, and leaps on invisible teleporters. Positive power-ups include rocks, high-jumping power, extra skateboard speed, and invincibility. Bignose also risks finding such negative items as vision- impairing lightning storms.

Hard as a Rock

This Bignose game doesn't play too hard, but limited continues jack up the challenge. Bignose begins with one continue and can earn more along the way. He runs out of continues quickly, though, and starting over from the beginning is as much of a drag here as it is in any game.

No Bones about It

With the addition of the skateboard, Bignose Freaks Out is a slight improvement over its predecessor. Although Camerica can always be counted on for a rock-solid 8-bit game, a little further evolution just might make Bignose a winner in the NES survival of the fittest.

Like nosing around in the bad guy's business? In this game you can, in a BIG way. You and your shnoz have to sniff out an enemy infested Island to rid the land of the intruders.