Mr. Bones

About Mr. Bones

Mr. Bones (1996) is Zono's genre-hopping Saturn game in which a good-hearted reanimated skeleton, held together by "skeletal magnetism", battles the mad philosopher who raised the dead.

Mr. Bones in Depth

DaGoulian, a mad philosopher who believes one can only "ensure the survival of good by making evil thrive", sets out to purify the world with evil. Playing a special set of drums powered by science and alchemy, he taps a primal power he calls "skeletal magnetism" and summons the dead from their graves as skeletal soldiers. One cemetery inmate, though, is pure of heart and is raised with blue, good skeletism rather than red, keeping his free will. DaGoulian orders his army to destroy the rebel, who calls himself Mr. Bones and resolves to stop him.

Much of the play depends on managing the skeletal magnetism holding Mr. Bones together, and the game allows, and sometimes requires, him to carry on with less than a full skeleton. Its most distinctive quality is that hardly any two levels play alike: some just change the camera, while others become a different genre entirely, from music and rhythm games to a Breakout-style game and a memory test, though most remain action-platforming with variations in play and viewpoint. Beaten levels can be replayed directly from the main menu. Reviewers sharply disagreed over whether it was bizarre and extraordinarily original or mundane "hop n bop" platforming.

Making Mr. Bones

Zono developed it and Sega published it for the Sega Saturn in 1996. It met with divisive reviews, some hailing it as strikingly original and others dismissing it as a hackneyed, generic platformer.