Captain Planet and the Planeteers (video game)

Captain Planet and the Planeteers
NES cover art of Captain Planet
Developer(s)	Chris Gray Enterprises
Publisher(s)	Mindscape
Composer(s)	Peter Stone, Nick Eastridge (NES) Antony Crowther, Ben Daglish (Amiga/ST)
Platform(s)	NES Amiga Amstrad CPC ZX Spectrum Mega Drive
Release	NES: NA: September 1991 EU: August 20, 1992 ZX Spectrum: EU: 1992 Amiga: EU: 1991 Mega Drive: EU: 1992
Genre(s)	2D action platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Captain Planet and the Planeteers is a video game released for various platforms in the early 1990s, loosely based on the environmentalist animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers and developed by Mindscape Inc. Three versions were developed to suit three different platform capabilities, each with markedly different gameplay. The Amiga and Atari ST versions were released in late 1991, and the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Sega Mega Drive versions were released in 1992.

Gameplay

NES version

The NES version has five levels, each of which are divided into two different types of stages. The first involves controlling the international teen heroes, the Planeteers, flying their Eco-Jet to an enemy fortress, while avoiding instant death by touching any of the scenery, projectiles, or birds. The second stage involves controlling Captain Planet, fighting toward an ecovillain from the TV series.

The NES version's levels are set in the Yellowstone National Park, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, and Antarctica.

Amiga/Atari ST version

The Amiga/Atari version has five stages, one for each Planeteer, and a final stage controlling Captain Planet. Each Planeteer stage has at least one objective, and some have two: to clean up pollution using the Planeteer's magic ring power, or to rescue a particular type of animal using a Planeteer vehicle. Completing the objectives opens the exit gate for the level; touching environmental hazards or the unusual monsters costs a life, failing the objective by killing any of the animals will crack the Planeteer's ring depicted at the bottom of the screen (in the Amiga version), opening the level's exit gate early. The final level allows the player to control Captain Planet, who must be navigated to the end of the stage by using and swapping powers held in bubbles throughout the level. He has an ecovillain boss fight, with either Hoggish Greedly, Dr. Blight and her computer MAL, Looten Plunder and his assistant Argos Bleak, or Duke Nukem.

Reception

The computer magazine Crash rated the game 88 out of 100. Sega Pro gave the game a mixed review, rating it 59 out of 100 and describing it as "dull and repetitive".