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Awesome Possum... Kicks Dr. Machino's Butt

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  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Some have interpreted Awesome as having crippling self-esteem issues, with his constant boasting being an attempt to hide how little he actually thinks of himself.
  • Anvilicious: The game's overt with its environmental message, from the recycling imagery to the character telling the enemies to stop polluting repeatedly during gameplay.
  • Catharsis Factor: The game is hard because of the bad collision detection and Dr. Machino would have been a very hard final boss regardless due to his cheapness. So, it's admittedly satisfying and funny to see the game living up to the title once you win.
  • Fandom Rivalry:
    • This game is often compared to the first Bubsy game due to both being platform games featuring a cartoon animal inspired by Sonic with heavy (for the time) use of voice acting. Usually, Bubsy would have the upper hand of the two, with Awesome Possum getting constantly dragged down on the mud.
    • Among the Anvilicious mascots, Awesome is compared to Captain Novolin, usually favorably.
  • Genius Bonus: Awesome Possum doesn't look much like possums are depicted in media most of the time, being brown instead of gray and having a striped tail. This is because he isn't a North-American possum, but rather a less well-known type of possum known as a ringtail possum.
  • Memetic Loser: Awesome's boasts have the opposite effect on players, who view him as a tryhard (the game's lackluster reception feeding this interpretation).
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • "You are not so awesome!" note 
    • "At least the title is honest." note 
  • Narm:
    • The wasp, one of the possum's helper animals, just looks strange and poorly animated even by this game's standards. It barely moves any part of its body, and its eyes have oddly unfocused pupils as if it's on crack. It doesn't help this guy is the first helper animal you'll find in the game.
    • On the enemy side, the diver boss returns in the Boss Rush and still fights as before, swimming and all. The Boss Rush is not underwater.
  • Obvious Beta: This game runs extremely slowly. The framerate is so low that it can be practically unplayable, even at the best of times. It tops out around 15 frames per second... and in some areas, it even drops to single digits.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Harming the environment notwithstanding, many players side with Dr. Machino when he says "You're not so awesome!" to the possum.
  • "Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: The idea of digitized voices in a video game was very new at the time, with it being billed as one of the game's main selling points. It even won an award for the quality of its samples. Nowadays, most video games include much better quality voice clips, making Awesome Possum feel dated by comparison.
  • Serial Numbers Filed Off: Awesome's moveset, the main characters and the preservation motifs are lifted straight from Sonic.
  • That One Boss: Even for a Final Boss, Dr. Machino is not easy. First of all, he employs a Boss Rush to soften you up. Then he shows up with a lot of health and homing missiles, while the bad collision detection and lack of safespots screws you over.
  • They Copied It, So It Sucks!: A major complaint was the blatant copying of Sonic, from the general premise to the characters and move set.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: Beyond just being an obvious product of the mascot boom, the graphics, dialogue, and heavy-handed Green Aesop all date this squarely to the early-to-mid '90s.

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