A 1993 licensed Platform Game for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear, based on the Children's book series The Berenstain Bears. Developed by Realtime Associates. It was released as part of Sega's "Sega Club" line of games aimed at children under twelve.
The Bear family go on a camping trip. After collecting firewood, Brother and Sister Bear go on a hiking adventure in the woods, only to wander too far and wind up lost. The Bear siblings have to make their way back by going through five unique stages. Collect butterflies, find diamonds, catch fish, collect honey, scale tall trees, and survive against legions of homicidal wildlife.
The game can be played with either Brother or Sister Bear in a one-player game, or play as them both in a Two-Player Co-Op Adventure as two players control the two characters at the same time. Level design is changed in 2-Player, meaning that the Two players have to work together to get through the levels.
This game contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Sister Bear is playable and kicks butt alongside her brother.
- Amphibian Assault: Frogs are part of the enemy line up in Goin Fishin'. They have a basic attack pattern of jumping after the cubs and are easily beaten by jumping on them.
- Animals Hate Him: Gangs of deadly animals stand in the way of the bear cubs' adventure.
- Ant Assault: Ants serve as enemies in Nature Walk. They crawl back and forth, harming the cubs with Collision Damage.
- Bee Afraid: They appear in Honey Hunting. In a game where all the forest animals want Brother and Sister dead, it should come as no surprise the bees aren't friendly. It doesn't help that the bears collect honeycombs on that level, giving the bees a logical reason to attack the cubs.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The aptly-named Haunted Forest is this, which is the fifth and final level unlocked after beating the initial four levels, but only on Brown Bear (normal) Difficulty or higher. Expect to be attacked by owls, porcupines that shoot their spines at you, and of course, inexplicable bear ghosts.
- Circling Birdies: The characters get this when they lose a Try.
- Collision Damage: Of course. Everything in the game deals it straight up, but some enemies like the snakes and turtles actually try to lunge and attack you. In Grizzly Bear difficulty, all enemies come after you in force.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: The 2-Player Mode has the two Bear siblings playing levels at the same time. They share a Life Meter and Tries, so if one cub gets hit, loses a Try, or gets taken out completely, it affects the other just as negatively.
- Continuing is Painful: Zigzagged. The stages do not have level checkpoints, so dying is of minimal consequence (other than losing the power-up item you were carrying) and you can pick up from exactly where you left off. The game compensates for this and gets painful once you get a game over, however, because you have no continues. Have fun doing the entire game over again!
- Difficulty Levels: The three different difficulty levels affect the amount of Tries you start with, and how much damage you take from enemies. The Easy mode, Bear Cub gives you six Tries, but blocks you from reaching the final stage.
- Downer Ending: When a Game Over occurs. Brother and Sister Bear are defeated and fail to make it back to the campsite, and are lost in the rain. Papa Bear comes to retrieve them, cutting the adventure short and ending the game. Almost in a literal sense, as you have no continues and have to start all over again. Hope you didn't get too far.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: Bear Cub mode end stages after one section, boss fights are eliminated, you can't reach the fifth and final stage and the game ends after completing the initial four stages.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Everything in the forest wants the two Bear children dead and come after them in force. Snails retreat into their shells and quickly roll in your direction, turtles charge to snap at you, skunks swipe at you with their tails, squirrels throw their acorns at you, woodpeckers fly off of their trees and try to peck you to death. Christ. The Butterflies and Salmon are the only things that aren't out to get you, as they are merely collectables.
- Feathered Fiend: Blackbirds swoop down and charge at you, but getting within sight of woodpeckers causes them to stop whatever they're doing to relentlessly dog you in an attempt to latch on and peck you, which they will do until you shake them off.
- Final Boss: A fierce, dangerous wolf awaits the Bear cubs in the Haunted Forest. Watch his right hook.
- Four-Leaf Clover: One of the game's collectibles. Find fifty or more in one stage and you'll get an extra try when you complete it.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: If you play as one of the Bear Cubs, you get the opening cutscene with one of them going alone on the nature hike, but the other still appears on the Game Over screen with your character, even though they didn't leave with you in the first place.
- Giant Flyer: A giant eagle is the boss of Honey Hunting. He is immune to the Bear Bottom Bounce, but luckily you have some rocks available to clip his wings.
- Goomba Springboard: The Bear Bottom Bounce is called that for a reason. You can jump on enemies consecutively to get across gaps. Some levels actually require you to do this to find some hidden secrets.
- Goomba Stomp: Subverted. The Bears can't walk onto the top of enemies without taking damage, so they have to Ground Pound them instead.
- Gray Rain of Depression: You're treated to a dejected and tired Brother and Sister caught in the rain on the Game Over screen.
- Green Hill Zone: Nature Walk takes place in a grassland. Ants, crows, monkeys, skunks, snakes, and sentient mushrooms all serve as enemies, and butterflies serve as the stage's collectible. The stage's boss is a mountain lion.
- Ground Pound: The Bear Bottom Bounce is this game's Goomba Stomp, done automatically by jumping.
- Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: Most of the bosses are a breeze compared to the levels, with each only taking three to five hits to defeat and having simple patterns. They do however make up for it by dealing twice as much damage as regular enemies.
- Hearts Are Health: Hearts make up your Life Meter, and there are Heart collectables to grab to restore it.
- Heart Container: Hearts and Hot Dogs extend your hit points, but only if your Life Meter is already full (As in, you have six hearts). Hot Dogs extend by a half heart and Hearts give you extra full hearts. Snack Baskets restore your health but only up to six hearts (you can have as many as eight, though, which can only be attained by grabbing Hearts and Hot Dogs as mentioned earlier).
- Horrible Camping Trip: Subverted. The actual camping is fine, it's the nature hike that has gone bad. The Bear cubs are lost and have to make their way back, surviving the dangers on the way.
- Hub Level: A small one. There are four levels which can be chosen from the start, which you can play in any order; Nature Walk, Honey Hunting, Goin' Fishin', and Cave Adventure. Beating all four gives you access to the final level, The Haunted Forest.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Bear Cub, Brown Bear, and Grizzly Bear. The hierarchy is obvious.
- Idle Animation: Both characters have their own unique ones. Sister plays with a hula hoop and skips rope, while Brother plays with a frog and does the moonwalk.
- Invincibility Power-Up: Strawberries make you invincible, but only for a very short while.
- Kaizo Trap: Due to the way the game handles the victory routine after a boss fight, it's possible to get killed by falling into the bottomless pit after dealing the final blow to the Spider boss in Cave Adventure. Subverted if you still have Tries remaining, as you still win the level, but if you're on your last Try, it's played straight as a line - time to start afresh!
- Leitmotif: The game has a main theme song that is played on the title screen and continually remixed into different versions and reprisals throughout the game.
- Life Meter: You get a simple one with six hearts. It can be expanded if you find Hearts and Hot Dogs.
- The Lost Woods: The whole game takes place in a forest, but the levels Honey Hunting, and the Haunted Forest represent this best.
- Never Say "Die": Lives in this game are referred to as "Tries". To be fair, the cubs don't really "die" in this game, but they can lose.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Sneaky ones in Goin' Fishin' wait in the water before popping out to bite you.
- Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: Falling into a pit simply returns you to the point you jumped off from, minus half a heart (or a whole heart in Grizzly Bear).
- Platform Game
- Point of No Continues: From the word go, you have no continues. Lose all of your Tries, and it's back to square one.
- Power-Up: Rocks are a projectile weapon, useful for nailing things from a distance, the Catching Net lets you grab items easier, and the Pickaxe, only found in Cave Adventure, lets you break walls to access alternate paths and bonus items. Of course, losing a Try makes you lose the item you have.
- Power-Up Food: Snack Baskets restore your health to full (six hearts). Hot Dogs are Heart Container items, extending your health by half a heart. Strawberries grant invincibility.
- Quicksand Sucks: Found in Nature Walk. The Bears have to use a conveniently placed Beach Ball or log to cross it. But it's not overly dangerous and you can jump out of it easy.
- River of Insanity: Goin' Fishin' takes place in a river stream with lots of dips and waterfalls. Beware of aquatic critters like turtles and crocodiles as you catch and collect salmon. The boss of the stage is a beaver who attacks the cubs with a Spin Attack.
- Seesaw Catapult: There are plenty of seesaws in the game that can launch the cubs to higher places. In one-player mode, there's a boulder on the other end, but in two-player mode, one cub will have to jump onto the other end to launch the other one.
- Shared Life-Meter: Brother and Sister share their life meter in 2-Player Mode.
- Spiders Are Scary: The boss of Cave Adventure is a cluster of spiders who attack the cubs by shooting webs at them.
- Spike Shooter: In the Haunted Forest, the porcupines attack the cubs by shooting their quills.
- Spikes of Doom: Present in Nature Walk and Haunted Forest.
- Springy Spores: Giant grey mushrooms act like trampolines, which you can use to reach new heights.
- Super Drowning Skills: The Bears cannot swim and will drown when you jump into deep water. It's a non-lethal example, thankfully, as you'll merely lose half a heart (a whole heart in Grizzly Bear) and respawn where you jumped from.
- Underground Level: Cave Adventure takes place in a cave. Enemies include bats, rats, and moles, and diamonds are the stage's collectibles. The cubs also have to beware of falling stalactites and can use pickaxes to break down stalagmites. A cluster of spiders that shoot webs serve as the stage's boss.
- Video-Game Lives: The amount of Tries you begin with depends on the difficulty set. The Easiest difficulty gives you six. Normal Difficulty gives you four. And the hardest only gives you three. You can earn more by collecting Extra Try items, or at the end of a stage if you collect 50 or more four-leaf clovers. You have no continues though, so don't waste them.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: In 2-Player Mode, if one Bear Cub ends up losing the last Try, it's Game Over for both of them, even if the other Bear Cub is fine.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Diamonds, the collectable in Cave Adventure, are no more valuable than the collectibles from the other stages, even though said other collectibles are butterflies, fish, flashlights, and honeycombs.
- A Winner Is You: Brother and Sister get back to the campsite after a successful and fun adventure, and... that's it. Not much of an ending but It's the Journey That Counts.
