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This week, we're going to look at the first half of a Super Nintendo game that's quite shoddy, even by 8- and 16-bit movie game standards. The game in question?

Yes, The Rocketeer, a rocket-jet-pack-'em-up starring Bruce Campbell's brother. Or, in this adaptation of the game, a Comic-Book-Version-of-Bruce Campbell's-brother.

A platformer/dangle-em-up, starring Mr. Rocketeer and a bunch of generic goons who meet up with his fists and/or bullets. Perhaps they'll throw in some tributes to the source material, in the form of flying/rocketeering bonus levels.

Well, that's not quite what we get. Instead the game basically consists of four underdeveloped mini-games. This week I'll talk about the first two you encounter, so let's get start with...

At the bottom of the screen (in that tiny view) it shows your "track position" relative to the goalposts and the other planes, while the main view shows/implies where you are on the track.

The controls are difficult to understand: after throttling up enough to take off, you circle the 2-screen-wide course. You can press "left" and "right" to wobble towards/away from the edges of the invisible "track" that your plane is flying around. Additionally "up" and "down" make you gain/lose altitude.

From what little I played of it a few years ago when I first got the game, it seemed like you could gain speed by diving during a turn, but if you get too close to the ground, you land and go much slower.

You have to be the first plane to complete 15 laps; though each lap is really tiny, because of the weird controls and bizarre views, the overall effect is much worse than the most sub-par of one-screen racers I've played.

And did I mention that this is the first level? (And the second level?) If it wasn't for the Level Select cheat, I would have hung up my dreams of rocket-pack-ery and never gotten any farther.

Fortunately for you my article quota, there IS a level select cheat:

During the title screen, press the shoulder-buttons and the down on the D pad in this order: L, R, L, R, Down. You'll hear a click/gunshot kind of noise if it's successful, then you'll get to the pick level screen after you press start and choose "1 player" or "2 player" (wait, a game made for the Super Nintendo thought Two Player Alternating was a worth-while feature to include?)

Again, this is the only way I'd have the patience to see any further into the game; those weird racing levels are brutal. Of course, the only thing that sounds LESS exciting than "Air Race" is the next different one:

Hmmm, do I have to fix a plane? Or am I finally going to get some platform-y goodness, as I walk/punch/shoot around as The Rocketeer?

Evidently The Rocketeer and his Stan Lee-like mentor keep a two-screen-wide shooting gallery in their hanger. As you move your crosshairs left and right, the rocketeer dashes back and forth. This doesn't particularly help you dodge, as you get hit (or not) by the invisible bullets fired from the multicolor sheets of construction paper that pass for enemies:

I'm a bit mystified about how a more-than-one-screen-wide shooting gallery can work: if you scroll the enemies off-screen can they still shoot you? And does your jet-pack help you dodge, when you launch yourself briefly into the air?

This last point brings up an unfortunate truth about this level: YOU HAVE A JET PACK, yet you're somehow pinned inside a small room, only able to use your jetpack to hop up towards the ceiling. If you were to, say, dash out the door, you could fly quite a bit higher, potentially evading the dozens and dozens of gangsters that are hiding behind each crate, barrel and airplane in the hanger.

But like the AIR RACE levels, the Hanger is more drama-through-repetition: you just have to keep shooting gangster after gangster until the "ENEMY" bar is completely depleted. This will take a very long time, so its fortunate a fact that occasionally you'll find toothpaste tubes(?) of FUEL and first-aid kits appearing at random:

I'll save the other two level-types for next time! But in the meantime, I'll share some of the great "comic book"-versions of the Game Over screen, which varies from level-type to level-type:

Be sure to read next week's article* for more Rocketeer-ing fun Super Nintendo screen captures!