Growl is the codename for 'comedy'

Growl (1992)

Thought I'd take some time out from the usual random marathon to mention a game I've been having a bash at recently - Growl on the Mega Drive. I'd heard about it before, but nobody ever seemed to mention just how funny it was! I did actually think I'd been dealt Toki at first, but then quickly realised otherwise. Needless to say, the laughter began pretty much as soon as I'd selected my character.

Poachers are apparently big news around the jungle at the moment, and your guys aren't happy at all, no sir. As your pal rages down the phone to someone about the situation (possibly his mother), little does he know that things are about to get rather nasty. You, sat at a table having a quiet half while reading the Times, are rudely interrupted by a mob of pesky delinquents who most certainly aren't there for a round of darts. In fact, completely disregarding the two-for-one offer on Carlsberg between seven and eight, they proceed to blow up the entire establishment with high-powered grenades instead - definitely no darts, then.

Somehow surviving a close-proximity explosion unscathed, yet clearly a little perturbed by the loss of alcohol in the ordeal, you peel yourself off the floor and politely inform your assailants that blowing up your local is exceedingly bad form. Luckily, someone had conveniently left a sword in one of the nearby barrels that blew up and... yeah, you heard me - sword in the barrel, ok? As I was saying - I took the sword and like some kind of possessed devil-twin of Liono, began to hack everything up in sight like there was no tomorrow. For some reason, I found this absolutely hilarious.

But wait, there's more. Confronted by the same harrowing ordeal on a later play of the game, I noticed a couple of other items also dropped after the random act of mindless terrorism - a pistol, and what looked like a chair. This time, I decided to pick up the chair... only I soon discovered that it wasn't actually a chair, oh no. The Landlord, clearly not content with storing swords and handguns in random barrels around his joint, had only gone and stored a fully-loaded military-grade bazooka inside this particular keg. By now, I was cackling like Nick Nolte in a confiscated goods locker.

Back to the plot, with enemies dead you go on the search for a pub with nicer carpets and a quiz night. Alarmingly, you notice the supporting wall is also missing from this one as you make your way through the yawning exit. I guess the landlord never scrolled right enough to notice. Anyway, you presently find yourself in what could only be described as the town of Poacherville. Yep, every man and woman in this town seems to be into the illegal animal handling fad, and they're all after you for trying to spoil their fun. Not to worry, kicking over some random boxes and uncovering the obvious contents of an AK-47 (damn, these guys are careless) ensures a quick dispatch of the first bunch you encounter.

The next piece of comedy gold is just around the corner - the dialogue. Think Captain America and the Avengers and you'll have an idea of what I mean. In a fit of blind rage after having just survived a full-scale onslaught at your regular while massacring ten people in the process, the twig really snaps as you come across a chap randomly whipping a lion. Yeah, that random lion whipping's only for the hipsters these days.

Drawing all your anger, grief and pain from every nerve-ending in your body, you unleash a torrent of verbal destruction upon the hapless whipper.

Wait for it.

'Who do you think you are?'

Damn bloody right! You... lion whipper, you! Put that in your Pez machine and dispense it!

It doesn't end there. After smirking at being able to gib poachers by blowing up barrels by their feet, then being mobbed by a torrenting stream of them from some TARDIS-like train boxcars, I came across a guy who appeared to be getting his face mauled by an eagle. Not to disappoint from your earlier performance, you announce:

'What do you jerks think you're doing?'

To which, I presume the guy imitating a bird-feeder, utters:

'Get lost you wisp.'

Woah, that cuts deep there fella.

The last thing I encountered before I decided I'd laughed enough for one day was the end-of-level boss, who somewhat resembles Dynamo from Running Man. This turned out to be a strange encounter, whereby I'd knock him down, he'd start exploding a lot then get up and charge towards me. Obviously, nobody has told the cast of this game that multiple fatal explosions are actually supposed to kill you. I also discovered that my character was able to pick up and hurl the huge rocks that were lying on the ground at ease, so quite clearly we were dealing with some unearthly beings here. It makes you wonder what kind of people Greenpeace are recruiting these days...

Every once in a while, you'll come across a game like Growl and be glad you did. Even though it's by no means the best scrolling beat-'em-up I've ever played, any title that makes up for its shortfallings with unintendedly hilarious gameplay and quality slapstick dialogue are ok in my book.

[8/10]