Spanky's Quest is inspired by classic action arcade titles like Lode Runner and Bubble Bobble. Following a simple level progression, Spanky the monkey must collect a number of keys to unlock the door to the next stage, there are many enemies with different movements styles - learning their patterns is important.

The quirky part of Spanky is how he damages enemies, Spanky volleyballs bubbles that you can pop in mid air to send a projectiles - ranging from a meagre baseball to several soccer balls, a volleyball that rotates in place when striking a foe and a wide spread of basketballs down on an enemy.

The challenging part of this is predicting enemy movement, the downward projection arc of the bubble you plan on bursting while simultaneously avoiding getting hit. I found volleyballs could paralyse bosses, while basketballs were great screen clearers. The bubbles can also uncover hidden stages in walls - much like Milon's Castle or Castlevania as well as collect keys and money granted they're not held by an enemy.

There is also some hats for Spanky to wear, a sunhat has a glide if the jump button is held, spiky hats destroy enemies when jumped under (like Mario Bros.) and the top hat raises a Baseball bubble to a fully fledge Basketball bubble in one volley.

There's some nuance in the actions, however the game just feels dated given the old school arcade pedigree they're aiming for. Visually the game is charming and the many fruit and vegetable enemies look cute and appealing alongside the backgrounds of each world.

The game has a password system for each world, but getting through all 10 levels in a world and a Boss with 3 lives can be a chore, sometimes it is beneficial to start from an earlier world to accrue lives before slogging through. I of course just used save states and rewind but I can see how this would be a slog on original hardware.

This style of gameplay seems more at home on the Game Boy (which also received a version). On SNES it is a little out of place, yet here I am saying it's a competent and sometimes enjoyable action arcade game to sink half an hour or maybe more if you're a fan of classic arcade titles.