If you were to count all the Pac Man clones that have been made, you wouldbe busy for some hours...
When I saw the first screenshots of Juniper Games upcoming "Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso", I thought: "Oh no! Now I'll need to have to be busy counting Pac Man clones even longer..!" I was very wrong; This is not a Pac Man clone.
First off, in Mr.Smoozles Goes Nutso, which is based on Steve Ince's comic "Mr. Smoozles", has a great story! The evil Goragons has messed up reality, made the cat Mr. Smoozles nutso and locked up Ed's (the heroes) friends. Although Ed managed to escape, and now it's up to Ed to resuce his friends, bring back Mr. Smoozles to normal and get rid of the Goragons. All this while being chased by a crazy cat with a laser gun.

It was here I thougt the game would be like a Pac Man game, because Mr. Smoozles feels like one of the ghosts chasing Ed/Pac Man. But like I said, I was very wrong. Yes, you are chased by Mr. Smoozles, but not always. You also need to solve puzzles, pick up items and talk with people to proceed with the story. So you never fight, instead you solve puzzles/pick up items to avoid Mr. Smoozles (of course you also run from the mad cat when you need to). To sum up the gameplay: You have a health bar, but you also got an inventory. Even if it looks much like an arcade game, it plays just as much as an adventure game. Another nice thing is that instead of levels, there is one big world to explore and run around in.

The other thing make me think this was a Pac Man clone, was the camera view: You see the game from a classical birdview, but that works really well with the gameplay. You also play with the keyboard, and even though only a few keys are used, it never feels like there is to few or to many buttons.
Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutos graphics is in 2D, which I think was a good choise, because it maintains the original cartoon feeling. The 2D graphics are also very detailed while they still got the simple good look. The animations are also excellent.

The music in the game also fits in very well and there is often different songs for different rooms/places in the game. The music actually feels quite familliar with the old Super Nintento rpg's music. The only thing is that voices should be added for the characters, because it's a very funny dialog, but maybe, since it's based on a comic, it would loose the comic feeling.

The preview version of Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso gave hours of fun gaming (and it was far from the whole game) where you explored, solved puzzles and picked up items for your inventory. It even contained a Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky easter egg! The unique mix between arcade and adventure gaming makes Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso feel very original, and definitley worth to check out for any gamer when it is released!

For more info on Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso and Juniper games, check out the official website.