8 Insanely Different Versions Of The SAME Video Game

Back in the heyday of Saturday morning cartoons, every company going was trying their best to tap into the sugar-crazed youth market with colourful, over the top and outlandish tales of action and adventure, and in their quest to grab attention however they could we saw the rise of some utterly insane formats.

Captain Bucky O'hare, Street Sharks, Mummies Alive, Gargoyles, and so many more decided to be as utterly off the wall as possible in order to make kids actually pay attention for ten seconds. Therefore the altogether less insane Pirates Of Darkwater seemed to sail off into the fog without much notice such was its more grounded approach of pirates and sea fairing shenanigans, which is a huge shame because this show actually had a pretty engaging central plot concerning hidden treasures and great evils looking to dominate the High Seas.

Still, it was popular enough to spawn it's own video game, well technically two because despite sharing an IP the Sega Genesis and SNES versions differed drastically. The SNES iteration was an utter wet fart of a title, aping the likes of Final Fight and Streets Of Rage and doing so with none of the charm and quite possibly the most ear-bleeding of soundtracks.

Therefore it was up to the Genesis to save the reputation of Darkwater and did so by incorporating RPG elements into a platforming game to much greater success. The jump in terms of quality is night and day, and it's a shame that the cement shoes of the SNES version drowned any chance the Genesis game had of keeping the franchise afloat.