Bonkers Wax Up! (USA, Europe)

Bonkers Wax Up! is a platform game released for the Sega Game Gear in 1995. It was developed by Al Baker & Associates and published by Sega under their Sega Club brand, targeting a younger audience. The game is based on the Disney animated television series Bonkers, which follows a cartoon cat who works as a police officer in Hollywood. It first appeared at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show before hitting store shelves in North America and Europe. A port to the Master System followed in 1998, handled by Tec Toy in Brazil.

As a standard 2D platformer, you control Bonkers through a series of side-scrolling levels. The main goal is to reach the end of each stage while jumping over gaps, avoiding enemies, and collecting items like stars and other objects. Bonkers can run and jump, and pressing the attack button lets him use a weapon or ability to defeat foes. The levels are themed after the show's setting, with backgrounds featuring city streets, warehouses, and other locations. There are no complex mechanics here - just straightforward platforming action typical of the mid-90s.

Today, Bonkers Wax Up! is a modest but enjoyable entry in the Game Gear library. It doesn't break new ground for the genre, but it faithfully represents the Bonkers cartoon with colorful sprites and decent controls for a handheld system. For fans of the show or collectors of Sega's portable games, it's a fun piece of licensed history. If you enjoy simple, no-frills platformers from the 16-bit era, this one is worth a playthrough. Just don't expect anything revolutionary - it's a solid, straightforward game that does what it sets out to do.