Dorian Tyrell and his gang of rogues are secretly planning to take over Edge City, a small and prosperous city where the nightlife revolves around the wealthy patrons who attend the nightclub that Dorian owns and operates for the benefit of himself and his henchmen. The player controls Stanley Ipkiss, a mild mannered bank clerk who transforms into the namesake character after discovering a green Loki mask.
Gameplay
The player has to navigate through his apartment, a high-rent district, outside and inside the bank, the localpark, inside the local prison, and finally through a ritzy nightclub to fight his evil nemesis, Dorian. All the major bosses in the game resemble characters from the film like Mrs. Peenman the angry landlady along with careless repairmen Irv and Burt Ripley; who repaired Ipkiss' vehicle. If the player runs out of health, then he returns to being Ipkiss, wearing his pajamas. Many of The Mask's moves featured in the game were based on scenes in the movie, such as the mallet, the tornado, the massive guns he pulls from his pocket during the final confrontation during the movie, and the huge "living" horn. It also features other moves, such as a sneaking move which makes The Mask invisible, a dash move, and his primary attack which is a basic punch move with cartoon boxing gloves. Many of the special moves use The Mask's "Morph" power, which is replenished with power-ups. If his morph meter runs out it slowly replenishes to a smaller amount than that he started out with, much like the ammo replenishes for the main gun in Earthworm Jim. The ending of the video game involves dancing with a 16-bit representation of Cameron Diaz accompanied by big band music. Cameron Diaz was at the peak of her Hollywood motion picture career during the mid-1990s and was assigned to play the role of Tina Carlyle in the actual film.
Development
Though the game is ostensibly based on the movie, the graphics were based on the cartoony style of the comic book rather than the movie. The game took longer to develop than anticipated, not being released until over a year after the movie's theatrical release. The beta version of The Mask played more like a beat 'em up rather than a side-scrolling action game. Damage in the beta version came in a series of expressions, similar to the various faces used in the 1993 first-person shooterDoom. Different backgrounds were placed in the incomplete version that were scrapped in the retail version. Violent-looking attacks like a projectile-firing gun and a karate-style low kick were deleted from the final version. A version of the game was also in development for the Sega Genesis but was canceled. According to a spokesperson, due to the Super NES version taking longer than expected, the Genesis version would not have been completed until two years after the film appeared in theaters, too late to significantly benefit from the license, and was cancelled because of this. In one speedrun of the game, designer Matt Harmon said that a carnival-themed level was scrapped from the game. In the stage select screen, there exists an unused level called "Wild Ride", and it is possible that this is that level.
Reception
The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave The Mask a score of 6.75 out of 10. They praised the variety of abilities, the faithfulness to the humor and style of the source material, and the graphics, especially the animation, while criticizing the levels as overly large, to the point of being repetitious and easy to become lost. GamePro similarly applauded the game for its heavy use of characters and visual gags from the film, as well as the Mask's many abilities, but said that the graphics of enemies and backgrounds "are closer to '93 standards than '95 potential." They summarized that "Carrey's wild character is still fresh, and solid gameplay makes this lightweight adventure a fun trip." A reviewer for Next Generation was most enthusiastic about the fluid, cartoonish animation and the secret ways of using the backgrounds to move around the level. He was more forgiving of the level design than EGM, commenting that "while the level mazes are, at times, too convoluted for their own good, they're certainly inventive." He gave it three out of five stars, concluding that "The title could have used some difficulty tweaking, and it lacks any sort of save or continue feature, but overall it's a solid, enjoyable surprise."
