Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt!

Awesome Possum Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt! is a platformer for the Sega Genesis from 1993 by Tengen, which stands out from similar games through its pronounced ecological message. The player takes on the role of an opossum named Awesome Possum, who sets out to stop the mad scientist Dr. Machino, who is using a giant machine to destroy nature and pollute the environment. The path to his base leads through a series of varied biomes that must be crossed one after another while facing machines and animal opponents affected by pollution. The levels are thematically tied to ecological motifs – recycling, forest protection, and clean water – and short informational interludes with environmental facts appear between levels. Awesome Possum can also briefly speed up with a sprint and use the environment to get around the traps Dr. Machino has scattered throughout the levels.

In terms of gameplay this is a standard, honestly made platformer with jumping, collecting items, and fighting smaller enemies as well as end-of-level bosses. The graphics are colorful and clean, the music upbeat, though the game doesn't bring anything fundamentally new to the mechanics compared to the competition. The difficulty is on the lower-to-medium side, making it an accessible title for younger or less experienced players as well. The individual levels have distinct environments, from forests through swamps to Dr. Machino's factory complexes, giving the game more visual variety than its otherwise straightforward design would suggest.

The game was rated in contemporary reviews as solid, if not exceptional, with its main asset remaining its original environmental theme at a time when such awareness in video games was rare. Today Awesome Possum is remembered more as a curiosity and proof that even an ordinary platformer could carry an unconventional message, rather than as a mechanically outstanding experience. Within the Mega Drive catalog it remains an interesting detour for collectors looking for less common, thematically distinctive titles from the early nineties.

Why play it: As a curiosity with an unconventional environmental message, Awesome Possum is worth trying more for collectors looking for thematically distinctive detours than for players expecting a mechanically outstanding experience.