Pinocchio

For the unreleased 32X version, see Pinocchio (32X). For the unreleased Pico game, see Pinocchio (Pico).

n/a

Pinocchio
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: THQ (US), Sega (Europe)
Developer: Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Supporting companies: Westwood Studios (some sprite art), Walt Disney Feature Animation
Distributor: Halifax (IT), Ecofilmes (PT), Tec Toy (BR)
Licensor: Disney Interactive, The Walt Disney Company
Sound driver: GEMS
Peripherals supported: Six Button Control Pad
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code US 1996-11-12 T-239026 EU 1996-10 MK1196-50 PT 1996 MDJDIO128 UK 1996-10 MK1196-50 GR 199x IT 1996 BR 199x 051100
Non-Sega versions Game Boy Super NES

Pinocchio is a side-scrolling action game for the Sega Mega Drive based on the 1940 Disney film of the same name.

Story

The game follows the story of the film (which is itself based on the 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi). An old Italian woodcarver named Geppetto carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio. The puppet is brought to life by a Blue Fairy, who informs him that he can become a real boy if he proves himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish. The game uses intertitles between levels to convey the story, in the form of a children's storybook.

Gameplay

The game is a platformer played as Pinocchio. He can move with and , duck with , and jump with . He can perform a spinning kick with if he finds a red page. He automatically grabs ledges and pulls himself up. Some levels diverge from these controls and play differently.

Pinocchio's health is indicated by a fairy wand in the top-left corner of the screen. It goes down as he takes damage from enemies. If he loses all of his health, he loses a try. He also loses a try if he falls down a bottomless pit. If he loses all of his tries, the game ends, but it can be continued as long as the player has continues.

Items

	Blue Fairy Wand
	Partially replenishes Pinocchio's health.
	Pinocchio's Hat
	Collect a certain amount depending on the difficulty level to earn an extra try (3 on Easy, 5 on Normal, 10 on Hard).
	Pinocchio's School Book
	Collect a certain amount depending on the difficulty level to earn an extra continue (5 on Easy, 10 on Normal, 15 on Hard).
	Yellow Page
	Allows Pinocchio to fly higher on the balloons at Pleasure Island.
	Red Page
	Gives Pinocchio the ability to do a spinning kick.
	Blue Page
	Gives Pinocchio a higher jump.
	White Page
	Lets Pinocchio stay on the sea bed longer when underwater.

Levels

	An Actor's Life for Me
	Pinocchio must find his way to school, avoiding the shifty con artist Honest John and his sidekick Gideon. Pinocchio can collect pages in this level that enhance his abilities. When he chooses the path to school instead of Easy Street, the Blue Fairy appears and gives him the Red Badge of Truth.
	Lampside Seating
	Honest John convinces Pinocchio to join Stromboli's puppet show. Jiminy Cricket must fight off moths and bugs to get a good seat to watch the show at the lamppost. Jiminy moves with and and jumps with . He attacks using his umbrella with . He uses it as a shield with when standing or as a parachute with when in the air.
	Marionette Show
	Pinocchio performs in the marionette show. This level is a memory game, and the player must copy the moves of the other puppets. If Pinocchio makes a mistake, the audience jeers and throws tomatoes that hurt him. If he does a good job, the audience cheers and throws bonus items. Pinocchio moves his arm left with or , moves his arm right with or , spins with , kicks left with , kicks right with , does a crouching kick left with +, and does a crouching kick right with +.
	Pleasure Island
	Honest John is paid by the mysterious Coachman to bring boys to Pleasure Island. He convinces Pinocchio to visit there, and Pinocchio quickly gets into mischief with the delinquent boy Lampwick.
	Escape from Pleasure Island
	Jiminy learns that the sadistic Coachman is turning boys into donkeys. Pinocchio escapes, partially transformed with donkey ears and a tail. Pinocchio knocks the Coachman into the water, and the Blue Fairy rewards him with the Yellow Badge of Bravery.
	Search for Monstro
	Pinocchio and Jiminy learn that Geppetto was swallowed by Monstro, a huge, ship-eating whale, while looking for Pinocchio. Pinocchio jumps into the sea to search for Monstro. He must collect clams to weigh himself down to the sea floor. They only last for a while, so Pinocchio must continue collecting them throughout the level.
	Fish!
	Pinocchio is caught in a school of fish. He must jump from fish to fish, avoiding Monstro. Pinocchio is inevitably swallowed by Monstro, but he can collect more bonus items the longer he can stay ahead.
	Inside Monstro
	Pinocchio is on a shipwreck inside the giant whale Monstro. He must collect kindling by smashing open crates. Once he has collected enough kindling, he must light a fire and then find Geppetto and escape.
	Escape from Monstro
	Monstro is chasing Pinocchio and Geppetto on a raft. Pinocchio must duck and jump to avoid the rocks. The raft can be sped up with and slowed down with . After hitting the rocks, Pinocchio dives into the water to save Geppetto, and the Blue Fairy gives him the Blue Badge of Unselfishness.

History

Development

Similar to previous Disney properties handled by Virgin Interactive Entertainment (Aladdin, The Jungle Book, and The Lion King), animation in Pinocchio was produced by official Disney animators in DisneyWorld, Florida. Virgin would draw the basic concepts of the game in London, which would be sent to Florida for review (often being radically changed in the process) and then sent back, to which Virgin would attempt to recreate the concepts in video game form. The character of Pinocchio has roughly 2,000 frames of animation in total.

Twenty-four Virgin staff members worked on Pinocchio, using an engine built from the ground up. A Sega 32X version was planned for a simultaneous release (though the Mega Drive version had at least an eight month head start on development), but was cancelled for unknown reasons. Disney prevented Virgin from producing a Sega Saturn conversion due to aspirations of entering the video game market on their own.

Production credits

London Studios, Virgin Interactive Entertainment

• Programming: Dave Chapman, Phil Lewin, Leo Skirenko, Richard Turner
• Head Programmer: Mike Ball
• Chief Designer: Dan Marchant
• Assistant Designer: Sarah Thompson
• Head Artist: Kevin Oxland
• Animators: Paul Hallewell, Patrick Beirne, Stephen Cavalier, Simon Swift
• Sprite Artists: Mark Anthony, Wayne Dalton, Marina Vydelingum, Eric Bailey, Matt Butler
• Westwood Studios Sprite Artists: Cindy Chin, Frank Saxton, Penina Finger, Kennn Seward, Andy Wilson
• Background Artists: Mark Bentley, Emma Cubberley, Jonathan Green
• Music and Sound Effects: Allister Brimble
• Storyboards: Sean Millard
• Producer: Dave Vout
• Assistant Producer: Paul Welton
• Executive Producer: Tony Fagelman
• Director: Dan Marchant
• Lead Testers: Tony Hinds, Tony Byus
• Testers: Michael Wenn, Alon Malka
• Special Thanks: All the London Studios Team, Louis Castle, Jonathan Howard, Tim Chaney, Colin Gordon, David Bishop, Julian Rignall, Michael Giacchino, and All the Virgin Atlantic Staff (Florida and LA Routes)

Disney Interactive

• Senior Producer: Patrick Gilmore
• Associate Producer: Leila Chang
• Project Manager: Chip Vollers
• Production Administrator: James Mellot
• Test Supervisor: Jeffrey W. Blattner
• Lead Tester: Mary Schuyler
• Testers: John Castro, Patrick Larkin, Ronny Louie, Daryl David, Jesse David, Andre Aguilar, Toby Espiritu, Weijean Strand, David Mendelson
• Documentation: Andrea Smith
• Special Thanks: Michael Clement

Walt Disney Feature Animation, Animation Services

• Producer: Paul Curasi
• Associate Producer: Chuck Williams
• Character Design and Development: Jim Story, Seung Kim, Michael Benet
• Supervising Animator: Chris Bradley
• Animators: Michael Benet, Tim Massa, Tony Stanley, Craig Grasso, Darko Cesar, Rob Corley, Elliot Bour, Travis Blaise
• Clean-Up: Arden Chan, Kevin Proctor, Merrit Andrews, Caroline Clifford, Kim Torpey, Julia Woolf, Amanda Barnes, Daniela Topham, Joanne Gooding, Annie O'Dell
• Effects Animators: Joe Gilland, Gary Sole
• Head of Image Processing and Color Models: Pam Darley
• Image Processing: Cyndi Sager
• Animation Check: Jacqueline Hooks
• Scanning: Jay Shindell
• Editor: Jeff Draheim
• Post-Production Associate: Gary Blair
• Production ManagementProduction Manager: [sic]: Cammie Cavalin
• Production Coordinator: Laura Roberson
• Assistant to the Producer: Annette Laguer
• Personnel Administrator: Jan Seketa
• Business Manager: Cindy Beltz
• Production Accountant: Stephanie Thrift
• Technical Support: Enrique Santos, Don Gworek, Raul Anaya, Todd King, John Outten
• Production Assistants: Scott Hutton, Jay Shindell, Barney North
• London CrewSupervising Animator: [sic]: Uli Meyer
• Animators: Gary Dunn, Dean Roberts, Arnaud Berthier, Tom Lock, Panagiotis Rappis, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn, Mark Broecking
• Clean-Up: Richard Jack, Christopher Clarke, Niel Bushnell, Michele Craig, Debbie Wall
• Production Coordinator: Julie Pye

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Pinocchio/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 50 Cool Gamer (RU) 70 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 45 Hobby Consolas (ES) 80 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 82 Player One (FR) 83 Sega News (CZ) 90 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 70 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 77

	72
Based on 9 reviews

Pinocchio

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, IT
Cover

Mega Drive, PT
Cover
Cart Manual EU Manual

Mega Drive, GR
Cover

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

Main article: Pinocchio/Technical information.

External links

• Sega of America webpage: Mega Drive