GAME CLEAR No. 20 -- Mr. Bones

Mr. Bones (1996, Saturn)

Developer: Zono
Publisher: SEGA
Clear Date: 3/16/2021

There’s been a bit of a GAME CLEAR lull since Dragon Quest IV. This is largely the result of Ghosts ‘N Goblins: Resurrection being considerably harder and longer than I thought it would be, along with spending some time on some other hobbies. Anyway, my copy of Mr. Bones finally arrived from Japan in the interim, and I figured it was a good excuse to take a break from the brutal GnG. It only took a few hours to beat and was indeed a good break!

Mr. Bones is a weird game about a skeleton that is reanimated by a sorcerer raising the dead for nefarious purposes. Unlike all the other skeletons, Mr. Bones is not under his thrall, however, and he realizes he has to stop the madness. After escaping their pursuit, he comes across a blind man plucking the blues in a remote cabin, whereupon he discovers his own skill with the guitar. Turns out the masses of evil undead are marching to the beat of the sorcerer’s evil drums, and this guitar can neutralize that. How nice!

Anyway, from a gameplay perspective, helping Mr. Bones achieve his mission is unconventional to say the least. This is a multi-genre game for better or worse. A few fairly standard platforming levels are peppered throughout, in which Mr. Bones must do his best not to lose his limbs. But there are also levels that involve playing guitar or drums, dealing with Asteroids or Tempest style encounters, or jumping around in space while a disembodied voice muses about what the Blues is. Also you beat the penultimate boss by telling bad jokes! It’s ambitious for sure, but some of these modes are noticeably half-baked. A couple really frustrating stages definitely detract from an otherwise unique and charming experience.

Interspersed through the game are some fairly impressive (for the time) cutscenes, including probably the only video game cutscenes with live actors that I’ve ever seen pulled off well. The cabin guitar man and the final boss are both played by human actors and it works really well? I was extremely surprised by that. Also Mr. Bones’s voice actor Fitz Houston kicks ass. Just a really good job in this regard.

Additionally, the soundtrack was composed and performed by Ronnie Montrose. He’s solidly C-list as far as classic rock guitarists go that I know of (inasmuch as I had to look him up), but it seems he put out a couple decent albums and was a very accomplished session musician. Good for him! Anyway, the soundtrack is pretty good, so good on SEGA for bringing him on.

It’s hard to say how I feel about this game overall. It had some pretty bad moments but is insanely charming and incredibly unique, so I don’t regret playing it by any stretch of the imagination. I’m seldom content to do so, but this may be one you’d be just as well served by finding a good YouTube video on rather than emulating it or buying it like I did. A nice Saturn curiosity, but it has remained a footnote in SEGA history for a reason.