Its just bad
Now I confess I havent actually played the game in the last 10 years (Im doing this review off the top of my head) but I do distinctly remember a couple of things about RASCAL:
Rascal is not very good.
Lets begin with the story. Haha Im only joking, there is no story. The manual (As well as this web page) states that our hero Callum Clockwise is on a quest to rescue his father from the evil time traveller Chronos! Other than this there is really no explicit dialogue to further this premise, and expecting a cutscene in this game is just plain wishful thinking. I do remember the game over screen being extremely creepy though.
But wait, even today games with little to no story are being pushed out. Games like peggle are a testament to fun addictive gameplay (although admitedly in a different league). Unfortunately the protagonist in RASCAL controls like a tank (literally) yet the developers somehow managed to make him feel weightless. There is actually an acceleration to the character.
The guns are unimaginative and artistically generic (OMG A RAYGUN!!!!! But wait.....it shoots BUBBLES!!!!!!!!! XD ), the character himself looks like a young boy on his epic journey to becoming a douche and the levels are flat and boring. The platforming is also not very good. A lack of direction and meaningful level progression dont help either.
Although the idea of time travelling sounds like a great premise for a platformer (Crash Bandicoot 3 anyone...??) RASCAL is anything but great.
Its actually hard to describe, I spent too much time trying to decipher this game when I was young, trying to figure out exactly wtf I was meant to be doing. Answer: I should have been doing ANYTHING else.