The Ultimate Stuntman (or just Ultimate Stuntman on the title screen) is a 1990 Action Game by Codemasters for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In it, you play as the titular Ultimate Stuntman, who has to save Jenny Aykroyd from Dr. Evil. It's up to him to traverse through eight stages with four levels each, beat his androids, and thwart the doctor's plans.
Compare Vice: Project Doom, another NES action game that switches gameplay frequently (albeit that one's licensed).
This game provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The game came out in 1990 and takes place in 1997, where androids exist and bomb disposal tech relies on microchips, but people still use walkie-talkies.
- The Ahnold: The title character. He's a stuntman with blond hair (on the box art, in-game they are blue or black) and lots of muscles.
- Bald of Evil: Dr. Evil has a completely bald head.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: One of the enemies in the climbing sections is giant 4-legged arthropod. And slightly smaller yet still large hornets.
- Bomb Disposal: One of the gameplay styles is a bomb disposal. In it, you have to get rid of microchips by moving a tool and making sure there's always a path that lets you keep going. The number on the chip indicates how many times it must be touched, the ones with arrows push you in the respective direction, the goal chip must be reached last. The bomb acts as a time limit and if the spark goes down the fuse and reaches the bomb, you lose a life.
- Cartoon Bomb: Bomb that Stuntman is disposing is represented by a black sphere with a burning wick.
- Collision Damage: Colliding with enemies damages the player.
- Crate Expectations: In platforming sections, stacks of classic wooden crates are often in the city, blocking the path.
- Damsel in Distress: Jenny Aykroyd is a female scientist who has been kidnapped by Dr. Evil and it's Ultimate Stuntman's job to rescue her.
- Depth Perplexion: The gliding segments attempt depth by letting you increase/decrease altitude, though it's hard to tell at what height other objects are and trying to fly through holes in walls (as you can't go over them) is nervewracking.
- Directionally Solid Platforms: Many platforms can be jumped through and dropped down from.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Rats, birds and frogs are after the stuntman. So do slowly falling debris and ominous eyes.
- Flash of Pain: Bosses, as well as a part of the area they're fought in, tend to flash upon getting hit.
- Game-Breaking Bug: The Stuntman and the boss running out of health at the same time causes the game to crash.
- Gameplay Roulette: The game switches between being a driving game, a platformer, a wall climber, a bomb disposal puzzle, and gliding segments frequently.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Conveyor belts can be found in the streets, hanging in midair, and sometimes leading to spikes.
- Invincibility Power-Up: Shield powerup in climbing stages grants a few seconds of invulnerability.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Evil, who kidnapped Jenny Aykroyd and holds a staff with a skull to show he's evil.
-
Nintendo Hard: There are almost two dozen levels to beat, with only a few extra lives and no continues, plus the bomb disposal segments can be very stressful if you don't get the hang of how to do them in time. - Palette Swap: All bosses get rematches with a Mk. 2 form that has a different color palette and slightly changed attacks. Techno Beast even has a Mk. 3.
- Ramp Jump: During boat stages, the player must use ramps to get over solid ground. During dune buggy stages, it's the water that must be jumped over instead.
- Sentry Gun: During sidescrolling shoot'em up stages, enemies that are encountered include stationary hemisphere turrets.
- Spikes of Doom: Spikes are common hazard in the platforming sections and dune buggy sections.
- Spread Shot: By collecting spread shot powerups, the player can upgrade the weapons to have 2-way and then 3-way spread.
- Timed Mission: Each level has a typically one-minute long time limit.
- A Winner Is You: The ending is just one scene with a few lines of text which is no different than the between-level screens.
