It's nice to see that there are other Inspector Gadget games, but this one - despite being halfway decent - doesn't hold a candle to the Super Nintendo game.
The story begins with Inspector Gadget, Penny and Brain finding out through the news that customers of the Happykactus Company have been mysteriously disappearing after buying their cacti. Suddenly, Inspector Gadget gets a call from The Chief, telling him that he must neutralize the cannibal cactus factory on Awoo-Iwoo, Dr. Claw's secret island, by placing bombs in specific spots. Gadget is dropped off on Awoo-Iwoo Island, but Penny and Brain are not far behind. In the weirdest twist, Penny and Brain are supposed to be here without Gadget's knowledge, but for this entire game, they make up one whole party like in some RPG, which would mean that Gadget not only knows that Penny and Brain are there, but is perfectly okay with it and has them do the stuff they always do. Looking back, I should have touched on this. I didn't. Big missed opportunity there.
The Jungle
World 1-1: The Beach
At the start of every level, The Chief will give you hints. You can use Up and Down on the text here (as well as in cutscenes) to move the text up and down.
Left and Right let you move around, Up lets you look up, Down crouches and looks down, A jumps and B attacks. Down-Left and Down-Right let you crawl. Start gives you the option of quitting the game, and Select lets you select between characters with Left and Right and choose Gadget's weapon by pressing Down with Gadget highlighted and then using Left and Right to pick your gadget.
At the bottom, from left to right, is your current amount of lives, your current health, your current amount of Gadget Points (more on those later) and a gauge that shows how much of your special ability is left.
The question marks will give you lots of information. Get used to not only seeing them throughout the early parts of the game, but the same information up to a certain point in the game via said question marks.
The red arrows will lead you to the exit. Pay attention to them throughout the levels.
The M.A.D. icons (which looks like a cat with horns) will lead to power-ups and secrets.
Pressing Select will let you switch between Gadget, Penny and Brain. You can only do this when you are on dry land and standing still.
Penny is the only character who can go underwater. Gadget and Brain can only swim left and right on the surface and must swim into dry land to surface; Penny can move in any direction underwater and can even jump out at the surface at any time with Up at the surface. The red gauge will be her oxygen meter; don't be underwater for too long or else you're losing a life. To refill your air, just reach the surface or jump out of the water.
Stay away from the jellyfish; they will hurt you if they see you.
The rubber arrow shot lets Gadget take out enemies from a distance. Watch the red meter, and remember that if Gadget picks up a gadget, it will immediately replace his default hammer attack, which attacks only at short range, and you'll need to switch back to the hammer if you don't want to use it. As for Penny and Brain's attacks, the two of them can only punch, and they don't have much range.
Gadget is the only character who can take multiple hits from enemies. Penny and Brain can only take two hits, with one hit emptying the life bar and the second hit killing them outright.
Duck down to hit what look like land jellyfish twice with Gadget's hammer.
If you move around with Gadget for at least two seconds, Gadget's skates will automatically appear and make him faster but harder to control. If you don't want him to do this, let go of the D-Pad and hold Down on the D-Pad to get him to stop. (It took me a while to figure this out, and sadly, the game does not tell you this.)
The muffins will completely refill your health. You'll find plenty throughout the levels, but keep in mind that you can take them even if you don't need them, so save them for when you really need them!
The two G's are Gadget Point. You'll need to get 20 Gadget Points for an extra life.
Brain is the only character who can double jump. Just press A while jumping to jump again. You'll be using him a lot for platforming as a result. Brain is also the fastest character of the three, and he can crawl with Down-Left and Down-Right on the D-Pad, which is another thing that the other two characters cannot do. You may have to beat up enemies while crawling with him; if that happens and you're able to hit an opponent, stay crouched down where you are and keep mashing the B button to take the enemy out. If you move into the edge of a platform or even the middle of a large platform with Brain, you can grab on to that edge. Press Up to pull Brain up or press Down to drop down.
Wait for the mosquitos to approach before hitting them with Gadget's hammer.
The Gadget head gives you an extra life, and there is one in every level. The one here is in a cave below the exit.
The exit sign is the exit. Touch it to head to the next level. Keep in mind that when you're in the level clear animation, you can still be hit, and if you have only one hit left, you will die and you will have to go through the whole level over. If you have more than one hit, you'll just get knocked out of the animation and sent to the next level immediately.
World 1-2: The Jungle
The walking cacti take two hits from Gadget's hammer.
The net power-up is stronger than the rubber arrows and is a powerful weapon for Gadget.
Slides will automatically make your character slide down when you step onto them.
The extra life is in a cave that Brain has to crawl into midway through the level. Be ready to crouch punch an enemy to death.
World 1-3: No Man's Land
This is the first place where Gadget will have to place a bomb underneath an X. The X is at the top of the level. When you move into the X with Gadget, Gadget will just place the bomb there no questions asked.
The M.A.D. agents are pretty nasty. The skinny ones will hit you up close and will also rush at you if they see you, while the shorter and stouter ones will shoot at you with a gun on sight. Believe it or not, you can handle the guys with the guns easily by crawling up to them with Brain and crouch punching them to death. As long as you crawl under the bullets, Brain won't get shot.
Sometimes you will find flashing buttons you can jump on; these can be used to open passageways and reveal platforms. These gray platforms will fall down when you leap off of them; thankfully, they re-spawn after a few seconds.
The extra life is on the right side near the top of the level and requires jumping on a floor switch to reveal it.
The computer with the word "EXIT" on it must be approached with Penny. Go up to it with Penny, then press Up to play a game similar to Pipe Dream. You'll need to connect the conduit on the left side of the grid to the conduit on the right. You only have a limited amount of time in the upper-left hand corner, and the pieces you have next to place will be below the timer, with the top-most piece being the one you are about to place. The D-Pad moves the piece you want to place around, while B rotates and A places. Select starts the electrical circuit early, which is helpful in case you get done with time left. If you need to place one tile over another to replace it, the game easily lets you. The red circles act as dead ends, but you don't really need them; you can have as many sparks hitting the grid as you want, so long as one spark reaches the other end. If you fail to get even one electrical charge to the other side in time, you'll lose a life.
World 1 Boss
The boss here is some sort of bunker manned by a M.A.D. agent. You'll need to hit him with Gadget's hammer when he pops his head out. Not only do you have to worry about the missiles that rain down the sky from the bunker as well as the bombs on the ground, but the bunker will also emit an electrical shock after the M.A.D. agent gets back in the bunker. You'll have to get to the agent while avoiding the missiles and jumping over the bombs, hit him with the hammer, then get away so you don't get shocked.
I have more trouble with this than I should due to Gadget's skates. Again, I didn't know you could take your hand off the D-Pad and hold Down on the Control Pad to get him to stop. As a result, I lose more lives than I want and the game gets more difficult as a result.
After hitting the agent three times, you can exit to the next level.
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