Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit!

Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! is a 2D platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System based on the sitcom Home Improvement. A Sega Genesis version was planned but never released.[3][4][5]

Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit!
Developer(s)Imagineering[1]
Publisher(s)Absolute Entertainment[1]
Designer(s)
Programmer(s)
  • Jason Benham (lead programming and design)
  • Andy Rogers
  • Bill Jannott
  • David Lubar
Composer(s)
  • Dan Foliart
  • Jim Wallace
  • Steve Melillo[2]
Platform(s)Super NES
Release
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

On a special broadcast of the show Tool Time, Tim prepares to unveil the new Binford ultra power tool line named after him, the Binford-Taylor Turbo Power Tool Line. He goes to retrieve them, only to discover that they are missing and a note left in their place demanding Tim to come.

Gameplay

The player's weapons include modified tools such as a nail gun, a blowtorch (used as a flamethrower), and a chainsaw which hurls energy waves. These weapons are used to fight dinosaurs, acid-spewing mummies, robot sentries, and other enemies. The game is broken down into four worlds of four levels, each world containing a boss level. The game had no real instruction manual explaining each of the buttons. In its place, a fake manual was used with a sticker reading "Real men don't need instructions", a message which also appears on the splash screen.

Development

Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! was published by Absolute Entertainment, which Disney hired the company to produce the game after it completed another video game based on a Disney property, Goofy's Hysterical History Tour (1993).[6] It was presented at the 1994 winter Consumer Electronics Show.[7]

Reception

GamePro gave Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! a mixed review, calling it "like Pitfall with power tools." They commented that the game plays well and is easy to pick up on, has solid graphics, and features mediocre music, and concluded that it would be fun for side-scrolling fans and enthusiasts of the TV show, but is not challenging enough for hardcore players.[10] Mike Weigand of Electronic Gaming Monthly called it "an intriguing action title, with some cool weapons and excellent graphics."[8] Less favorable towards the game was Entertainment Weekly, which was turned off by the concept of Tim Allen fighting enemies like dinosaurs and "alien beasties";[12] and Nintendo Power, claiming that despite its "fun worlds" and many type of attacks, it suffered from "awkward" controls," "poor placement of objects" that artificially increased the difficulty, absence of humor from the TV series, and the fact that the "gameplay never rises above standard jumping, shooting and the collecting of items."[11]

Retrospective

The sitcom adaptation's concept of Tim Allen fighting through fantastical enemies such as mummies, dinosaurs and robots had led it to appear on several all-time lists of weirdest video games, such as PC Magazine ranking it the second-weirdest video game adaptation ever made,[14] Gaming Respawn featuring it on their list of "7 Strangest Games That Were Actually Released,"[15] Arcade Sushi placing it at the top of their list of weirdest all-time tv-series-based video games,[16] and Rolling Stone listing it as one of the eight weirdest SNES games.[17] It was one of The Gamer's "15 Awful [SNES] 90s Games Everyone Played,"[18] one of the source's "20 Worst Console Games Based On TV Shows,"[19] and listed on their "20 Lamest Console Games Of The 90s," where Tanner Fox unfavorably labeled the game as "oddly difficult and somewhat off-putting."[20]

Notes
  1. GamePro gave a 4/5 score for control, two 3.5/5 scores for graphics and fun factor, and 3/5 for sound.[10]
  2. Nintendo Power gave a 3.2/5 score for graphics and sound, and three 3/5 scores for play control, challenge, and theme/fun.[11]
  3. Gabe Soria, who wrote the main review of Home Improvement for Video Games, gave it a 7/10, while three other editors who provided brief comments all gave the game a 6/10.[13]

References
  1. "Home Improvement Release Information for Super Nintendo - GameFAQs". gamefaqs.gamespot.com.
  2. Composer information for Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit! at SNES Music
  3. "Welcome To The Next Level: 1994 And Beyond... - Sega Genesis". Sega Force. No. 5. Sendai Publishing. July 1994. pp. 8–26. Archived from the original on 2020-12-05. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
  4. "CES News - CES Directory: Your Guide To The Show". Mean Machines Sega. No. 23. EMAP. September 1994. pp. 12–14.
  5. "News - Front Page: TimeLine". Game Players. No. 47. Signal Research. December 1994. pp. 8–11.
  6. Ceccola, Russ (March 1994). "Home Improvement: A look at Absolute's take on the hit sitcom". Electronic Games. Vol. 2 no. 6. p. 56.
  7. "Las Vegas CES: The Winter Consumer Electronics Show, 6–9 Jan 1994". Super Play. No. 17. March 1994. p. 25.
  8. "Review Crew: Home Improvement". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 67. February 1995. p. 32.
  9. Lucas, Victor (June 30, 1995). "Home Improvement". Electric Playground. Archived from the original on January 26, 1997. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  10. Larry, Scary (March 1995). "ProReview: Home Improvement". GamePro. No. 68. p. 70.
  11. "Home Improvement". Nintendo Power. No. 71. April 1995. p. 102, score on 105.
  12. "Home Improvement: Power Tool Pursuit". Entertainment Weekly.
  13. Soria, Gabe (March 1995). "Home Improvement". Video Games: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine. No. 74.
  14. Dashevsky, Evan (February 4, 2017). "18 Bizarre Video Game Adaptations That Actually Exist". PC Magazine. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  15. Dobing, Finlay (June 16, 2018). "7 Strangest Games That Were Actually Released". Gaming Respawn. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  16. Langley, Alex (July 15, 2014). "10 Weirdest Video Games Based on TV Shows". Arcade Sushi. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  17. Stuart, Keith (August 23, 2016). "8 of the Weirdest Super Nintendo Games Ever Made". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  18. Ormrod, Jacob (April 10, 2019). "SNES: 15 Awful 90s Games Everyone Played (And 10 Classics Nobody Did)". The Gamer. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  19. Jurkovich, Tristan (October 19, 2018). "The 20 Worst Console Games Based On TV Shows (And The 10 Best)". The Gamer. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  20. Fox, Tanner (August 7, 2018). "The 20 Lamest Console Games Of The 90s (And The 10 Best)". The Gamer. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
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