It took some fine-tuning, but I set up an Amiga emulator called FS-UAE after realizing quite a number of games I'm interested in have this as their origin point. Of course, instead of (cult) classics like Lemmings and Defender Of The Crown, or even ones people know about like Chuck Rock or James Pond, I went with a game that only one other person has played and has a Genesis version. Clearly, I have the best priorities in mind. On the note of familiarity, let's talk about the developer studio Raising Hell Software, cause a rabbit hole I fell into beforehand was what lead me here. Seemingly, due to some naming shenanigans, they had to rebrand themselves as Bizarre Creations, which later on would become more known as the studio behind Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, among other sleeper hits coming out way after like Metropolis Street Racer and Blur. I've yet to find a concrete source about that particular tidbit, but Martyn Chudley has been open about the transitional period, so at least the lineage is legit. Plus, after playing this I can parse the more quirky, rather off-kilter pastiches of presentation value they would later become known for, so ya know, silver linings!

In this 2D speed platformer, you play as either Wiz or Liz, tasked with collecting "wabbits" and whatever letters of a word they drop after a cauldron mishap has occurred across the same pool of 8, distinct locales in a set cycle depending on whether easy, normal, or hard was selected, with the Genesis port allowing a code to unlock a 'very hard' difficulty once inputted, each one affecting the time limit and how many cycles you have to complete. There's also a different selection as to whether you want the speed to be normalish, fast, or REALLY fast. After completing all of them, you're then finally pitted into a fight - read: dodge while a beam hones in on the target - against bosses such as a snake or a clock or a flower or other strange subjects. To its credit, the loop starts off pretty well, each section has a pretty and detail-ridden setting that don't particularly get in the way of visibility and gauging as to where the floating objects are gonna float over to. Each level also contains ingredients to put onto the cauldron and mix with another for different effects, such as poofing up minigames, a shop and a place to buy hints once nabbing enough stars to trade in, and gags such as a fake-out death. As for getting stuff such as new life and clocks to increase the timer, aside from the aforementioned shop, you're basically accumulating enough points to cross the threshold necessary to constitutes a new life or run around and pick up the clocks when doing the main game, both of which are also available in a filled-in bonus at the end of a level, meaning there's little pressure in scampering for either one.

Due to this, the satiation for the runtime and satisfaction from the loop dry up pretty quickly, and in their place the tedium steps in, what with there being absolutely no shake ups to the levels in each restart nor the speed factor having any more meat to it than "chain the wabbit and item pickups in a satisfying way". Potion mixing is similarly bare, I only got a level skip option once, two bonus minigames, a few different doors cropping up, with the other times being either points or jackshit. Definitely could've used some sprucing up in the gameplay department, there's a good potential within this type of speed-oriented mechanics, but the end product ends up feeling more like a proof of concept for a more expanded game than an outright full package. You could argue that part of the value is replaying this at the increase skill levels, but since the only thing that's changing are the speed of the base kit proportional or contrasting the increase/decrease of a timer, I don't find that really means well in the grand scheme. Consider this a recommend if you're someone that's very curious about the life of the Amiga and/or Bizarre Creation's pedigree. Still, there could've been worse games to kickstart the Amiga emulation train. I mean, no disrespect to the platform, but there seems to be some particularly noteworthy stinkers on offer here... two of which I already mentioned at the beginning. Aw well, those aren't coming for a decent while anyway.