Saturn Longplay [135] Mr Bones (US)

http://www.longplays.org
Played by: MadMatty

Mr. Bones. Developed by Zono and Published by Sega in 1996. The game comes on Two CDs.

The Story: DaGoulian, a mad philosopher who believes that one can only "ensure the survival of good by making evil thrive",sets out to purify the world with evil. By playing a special set of drums powered by science and alchemy, he is able to tap into a primal power which he calls "skeletal magnetism" (or "skeletism") and summon the dead from their graves as his skeletal soldiers.
One inmate of the cemetery, however, is pure of heart and is thus resurrected not with red (evil) skeletism, but with blue (good) skeletism. Because of this, he retains his free will. This fact is quickly noticed by DaGoulian, and he orders his newly created army to destroy this rebel, who calls himself simply "Mr. Bones.

Mr. Bones soon becomes determined to stop DaGoulian's plan. He must find a way to counteract the evil of red skeletism before DaGoulian's minions catch up to him.

The Game is an oddity in that it uses what we now call mini games as individual levels mixed with FMV. One moment its a run and jump then a plat-former and then a shooting gallery. A big part of the game is the music which makes me wonder if the game was designed to fit the soundtrack rather than the other way round. The soundtrack was also released separately at the time.

You only have one life in the game. Lose it and you return to the title screen where you can use chapter select to start on reached levels or watch any unlocked fmv clips. Some of the levels can be quite difficult as well which can quickly kill any sense of fun that can be had with the game. This is partly due to bad collision detection between yourself and collectables on the fmv levels. The Funny Bones level in particular, you need to work out what button says what and then press them in the right order before the enemy takes away your energy and single life. Having to figure out 8 of them would be a painful experience. Thankfully today we have internet!

Unfortunately there is some small gfx corruption in the fmv segments, mostly in the credits. I do not know if this is an emu issue or an issue with the Darkwater cd images. After the game is completed I show two bonus audio tracks not used during the game and the main death sequence. There may have been other sequences but its the blue eyes turning red ending for nearly all levels.

00:00:00 Intro + Grave Escape
00:08:08 The Mausoleum
00:10:05 The Valley
00:18:45 Guitar Solo
00:21:40 Night of the Bats
00:26:30 Dawn of the Bats
00:30:46 Day of the Bats
00:35:00 Rolling Logs
00:38:50 Drum Solo
00:42:10 Glass Shards
00:43:55 Bigbones
00:50:25 Vortex
00:51:35 Underwater Ride
00:55:50 The Little people Village
00:59:05 The Ice Lake
01:04:20 From beneath the Ice
01:04:42 Shadow Monster
01:06:50 Dry Meat
01:10:50 Hall of Pane
01:14:18 Skeletism Generator
01:15:45 Funny Bones
01:19:40 Los Ends followed by credits.
----------------------------------------------------
01:26:55 Bonus Audio Track (CD2-11) speech by DaGoulian on the nature of evil and morality.
01:31:25 Bonus Audio Track (CD2-12)narrative blues song sung by mr. Bones.
01:34:32 Death scene -
Disclaimer: Most videos by World of Longplays use SaveStates!