Wayne’s World (1993) NES Game Review

Wayne’s World
Developed by: Radical Entertainment
Published by: THQ
Release date: April 1993 (NA) | 1993 (EU)

Wayne’s World! The movie about two metalhead slackers running a public access show went on to be a cultural milestone of the early 90’s. “Shyeah,” “schwing!” “that’s what she said,” and “NOT!” were but a few contributions Wayne’s World made to the American English lexicon. It also contributed a handful of crummy video games onto the home consoles of the day. Here comes one of them now. Oh, the humanity.

The NES’s twilight years were full of swan song titles, pushing the gray box to its absolute limits before it was put out to greener pastures. Wayne’s World was not one of those swan songs. It was more like a goose honking incessantly over a much better tune. But that’s not to say it’s all terribad! The game’s cutscenes do a solid job of capturing the spirit of the movies, and they’re genuinely entertaining to read. There was a “babia majora” joke in the manual that managed to squeak past Nintendo’s censors that got a legit laugh out of me.

But nobody wants to hear about the manual! Let’s dish about the game. Wayne’s World is a platformer that alternates between playing as Wayne and Garth. Garth is world’s better, since he has a ray gun that takes out enemies from a distance, while Wayne has a bogus kick with no range whatsoever. Of course, since Garth is WAY more fun to control, you’re forced to play as Wayne for a majority of the game. Sigh. The most frustrating gameplay mechanic is that when you get hit, there’s no window of invincibility, meaning the enemies can wail on you relentlessly in a matter of moments. Always a lovely and well-liked feature in any title.

NOT!!!!

One Nintendo Power reviewer eloquently referred to the graphics as “oogy,” and I couldn’t agree more, even if I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean. Credit where credit is due, there was an attempt to bring a Nickelodeon-esque cartoon vibe to the background graphics…but everything looks slightly off-kilter, even by wacky 90’s visuals standards. The character and enemy sprites also suck big time; even their walk cycles jerk around erratically, adding to the game’s overall ooginess.

But that’s enough ragging on the graphics. How are the levels? Imagine if I gave you a basic game-making engine and asked you to whip up a platformer level in just five minutes. What would you make in such a short time frame? Probably something crazy simple and straightforward, with very little in the way of variety or challenge. That’s what the level design in Wayne’s World feels like. I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume they had more than five minutes to come with these layouts, though.

Said levels are also VERY literal interpretations of the film. They go to a music store in the movie, so the first level is a music store where googly-eyed instruments attack you. The rest of the game’s four levels follow this format, too; the metal nightclub the guys frequent in the movie comes after the music shop, which is then followed up by an alleyway (how exotic) and a TV studio. The final boss fight takes place in a condo, for Chrissake. Even if you’re a mega fan of the movie, this doesn’t exactly make for an exciting game, does it?

This got me to thinking. Could it be that not every major motion picture makes for great video game material? Did the games industry of the early 90’s need to fall back on this blatant greed so much when there are countless good ideas out there, just waiting to get made? It’s like people only do things because they get paid, and that’s just really sad.

Despite my griping, the individual aspects of Wayne’s World aren’t the worst I’ve ever seen; controls are decent, music is so-so, overall game design teeters on bad, graphics are worse. Bringing these elements together and throwing ’em in a pot makes a vaguely unpleasant soup. You ever tried out a new restaurant, only to find the food wasn’t all that great? Like, you’ve had worse, but the meal didn’t make you wanna go back to that restaurant? It’s sorta like that.

If this game were any longer it’d become a human rights violation, but it’s short runtime makes it a below average platformer. By no means is it great, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it one of the worst on the system. I’d much sooner run through Wayne’s World a second time than, say, play Toxic Crusaders or The Addams Family again. With that being said, your time is better spent watching the movie, or reading the official Wayne’s World German novelization instead of playing it at all. Oogy indeed.

Final Rating: