Overview
The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates is a 2D scrolling platformer featuring George Jetson and other characters from the 1960s Hanna Barbera cartoon property. George is tasked by Captain Zoom (his son Elroy's favorite comic book hero) to use a Pneumo Osmatic Precipitator (or POP, a vacuum-like device) to deter an alien invasion by the SPREE (Space Pirates Reveling in Evil Enterprises). Most of the level design centers around the pneumatic properties of the POP device, which allows George to climb walls, throw blocks around, swing across ceilings and breathe underwater.
The game was developed by Sting Entertainment, a Japanese developer better known for unusual tactical RPGs like Yggdra Union and Knights in the Nightmare, and originally published by Taito for the US in mid-1994.
In 1995 video game and magazine publishers Kadokawa Shoten commissioned Sting to create a platformer based on their Marukatsu Super Famicom magazine's mascot character, Yokai Buster Ruka-chan, and Sting's pre-existing Jetsons game received a graphical overhaul to fit the new license. It is a rare case of an existing licensed game being changed for Japanese audiences rather than for Western audiences - as was the case for Yo! Noid, Ninja Kid, Dragon Power, Chubby Cherub, Cratermaze and others, all of which were based on Japanese manga/anime licenses that wouldn't have been recognizable in the US and Europe at the time.
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