Review: Cosmic Spacehead

Cosmic Spacehead is a game released in 1993 by Codemasters for the Sega Mega Drive. It's actually a re-release of a NES game called Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade released in 1991 with shiny, new 16-bit graphics, fixed glitches and a 2-player mode. It's quite a unique concept, sections of open-ended world exploration with point-and-click adventure style puzzles with each world screen broken up by 2D side-scrolling platforming.

Set in around the year 4000, Cosmic Spacehead is a young alien boy who has just returned from visiting planet Earth, and has come back to his home planet of Linoleum only to find out that nobody believes him because he has no proof. So Cosmic sets out to re-visit Earth, this time armed with a camera so that he can take snapshots of New York city and rub them in everyone's faces.

The point-and-click puzzle sections are pretty basic, but after a while, can require backtracking half way around the planet in order to find the right items and the right places to use them. Using the C button, your puzzle approaches are limited to 5 different actions: "TALK TO," "USE," "GIVE," "PICK UP" and "LOOK AT." The vast majority of the puzzles are a bit roundabout, such as using icing sugar to freeze a stream to create a new pathway and building a tactical missile to clear away debris. But when interacting with objects, Cosmic will give you his own opinions on rude post office clerks and vending machines that sell gunpowder.

The side-scrolling platform sections are encountered the first time you leave a screen and attempt to enter the next area. These start out basic, simply avoiding walking eggs and hopping across floating platforms, but gradually get more and more complex, resulting in the player having to time their jumps to avoid being electrocuted or to adjust to changing gravity levels. During the side-scrolling levels, Cosmic can collect cosmic candy bars - 10 of which will award you with an extra life. 

One of the awkward gameplay mechanics of Cosmic Spacehead is that it uses the archaic password system. These passwords are marked by big colourful Ps found in the main city and town areas. However, if you feel that you are doing well for lives, items and money, they can be ignored and returned to at a later stage to be used when you really need them. Using a password point will record all of your cleared levels, solved puzzles and you will retain all of your items and money.

The Mega Drive's 16-bit graphics aren't exactly pushed to their limit, but all of the characters and enemies are unique, colourful and full of personality. The pre-rendered backgrounds range from the jazzy, multi-coloured patterns of the planet Linoleum to the bleak, abandoned areas of the planet Detroitica, which has been overrun by its robot workers. The overly colourful and psychadelic graphics have often been likened to 60s cartoons such as The Jetsons.

For some reason, Cosmic Spacehead also has a 2-player mode. I'll admit that I was disappointed with this. What I wanted was a 2-player co-op style adventure like Sonic The Hedgehog 2. What I got was a regurgitated version of a car driving mini game from the main single player game. Each player drives a bumper car around a maze and tries to throw custard pies at each other.

If you have a Mega Drive, I really reccomend investing in a copy of Cosmic Spacehead. Being over 20 years old now, it's virtually impossible to find new, but I managed to grab a copy of it, with a box, booklet and a poster for only £3. I had it as a child and had been itching to play it again for around 12 years. Being a cartridge game, it's stood the test of time very well. From start to finish, if you know what you're doing. you can look for about 2 hours of gameplay - but if you get stuck looking for the plug for the bathtub or keep losing all of your lives in the Space Station, possibly longer.