Screenshots from VG Museum

Year released: 1993 (Genesis)

Number of Players: 1

A game!

Graphics: Oof! Edging towards overly cartoony. In the early levels, the background distracts you from enemies that can hurt you if you run into them (as you can see by the screen shot--there is a dog robot to the middle left of the screen). This problem rectifies itself, but can get really annoying until the player either gets used to it or moves on to stages with less complex backgrounds.

Play control: Jump with A or C, kick with B. Side to side on the d-pad to move left or right. Up plus B to kick upwards. Kicking is the only way to damage something.
Socket can move on a curve, and even up walls, if he's moving fast enough. Sometimes, though, it's difficult to gain enough speed to go up a wall properly. It's not hard to simply move around these difficult segments by jumping off the wall half-way up or something, though.

Sound: Not fantastic. It's quaint and plain both in sound effects and music.

Challenge: First off, you get a really long energy bar. Socket can collect little lightning icons to fill it back up. It drains very slowly (and I mean verrry slowly, it will almost never become a problem) on its own, or in larger increments when Socket gets hit by an enemy, gets crushed, or touches spikes/lava. Basically, challenge lies in avoiding enemies and keeping your health bar full long enough for you to get Socket through the series of challenging leaps and creepy devices (riding in mine carts and walking along dots that move along a set path, destroying the back ones as more are created in front--think Super Mario World castle 5, if you can) that's called a stage.
Oh, yeah, and bosses are simple. Their methods of attack are plain but effective. The fights don't get very intense, but I end up being so careless that the health bar is very low by the end of a boss battle.

Gameplay: Basically what I have said above.

Bottom line: A plain game that I would expect your average Genesis owner to find somewhat enjoyable. If you need a platformer fix and can't find anything better, Socket will do in a pinch. Certainly a rainy day game. I can't help but wonder what this game would be like on Game Boy.

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