When Popeye: Rush for the Spinach was announced, I was shocked! The reason I was so stunned by the announcement was because I though that the Popeye franchise had fallen out of favor with pop culture, at least here in America. One of the main reasons I thought so, is that carries a pipe, although he professed in the later cartoons circa 1978-1980, and I kid you not, “This pipe is for tooting,” he proclaimed in one particular episode. Yes, you heard me right. Popeye the sailor man confessed he uses his pipe as a woodwind instrument.

Popeye the Sailor Man has long been a cartoon favorite of mine, and even though you may or may not know it, this isn’t his first foray into the video game world either. Many will remember his first, the Nintendo arcade game that bore his name, Popeye, which was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System. There were other games, but they are hardly worth mentioning.

Once I found out that Popeye: Rush for the Spinach was a racing game, I was a bit disappointed. If there is one type of game the Game Boy Advance doesn’t need, is another franchise based racing game. I was also surprised to learn that this game was not a cart racer, but in fact an actual race on foot! Yep, and actual foot racing game, and a side-scrolling one at that. I was at least intrigued at this point. The last [dedicated side scrolling racing] game I remember playing that was BC: Quest for Tires, on the ColecoVision. It was based on the popular comic strip, where you play as a caveman and ride a stone wheel like a unicycle through prehistoric locations. It was a good game, but was more novelty than substance. Since there was definitely room for improvement in this genre I was excited to see how Popeye: Rush for the Spinach would fare.

Popeye: Rush for the Spinach includes the ability to play as Popeye or one of his friends: Olive Oyl, Bluto, or Wimpy in a mad dash of a foot race. This game has more in common with a platform based design than a traditional racing game, but you will still find the basic starting point and a finish line. You will, however have to avoid and jump over various obstacles that range from dinosaurs to packing crates. This all adds up to a unique gaming experience.

Don’t worry, this is not just a foot race. Popeye and his friends do have some limited access to vehicles, both conventional and otherwise. You will find cars, skateboards, rockets, and even pogo sticks. All of these modes of transportation definitely add to the gameplay, but they don’t last very long, and in the case of the rowboat, can even hamper your progression.

The strangest addition to this game is the grab move. Each character has this move, and is sometimes difficult to pull off due to a strange collision mapping. But if done successfully, it will have you switching places with the character you grabbed. Filling out the rest is your standard items -- and yes -- there is a spinach can that makes Popeye run faster.

The courses were a nice surprise for me. We have a city, and even a prehistoric level complete with dinosaurs. Fourteen levels in all and many look like they were inspired by the various incarnations of Popeye over the years.

Popeye: Rush for the Spinach contains various modes of play, but they can be distilled down to single and multiplayer versions. The single player modes include:

Quick Rush: Take on the CPU for a one level romp.

Adventure: Race through all the locales to find out why the Sea Hag has stolen the world’s spinach supply.

Challenge: Pick your character, and then pick your adversary for a one level race.

Time Rush: A nice introductory mode that allows players to learn the level, and attempt to set a new time record in the process.

As far as multiplayer goes, there is Team Rush, which has you and your friends racing through the various levels. They've included some items that are exclusive to this mode that really help flesh out the gameplay. There's one item that switches control of your character to your opponent, so that in exchange you control his character. Neat stuff, but it's a single cart multiplayer, and I doubt you will run into many people who bought this game.

Popeye’s latest adventure looks great on the Game Boy Advance. Each character resembles their cartoon counterpart almost perfectly. Plus the game contains a higher than average range of animation than the typical Game Boy Advance game. Even the backgrounds and locations look like they were inspired by the different incarnations of Popeye throughout the years.

Like the graphics, the audio for Popeye: Rush for the Spinach is above average. The developers choose to include some audio samples of the different characters, and sound effects from the cartoon show. Little touches like these are what help make games more enticing, but unfortunately this cannot cover up the problems in Popeye: Rush for the Spinach.

One of Popeye’s favorite saying is “I yam what I yam, and that is all that I yam.” The funny thing is that this phrase perfectly mirrors my feelings about this product. The game is what it is, and true, it is an interesting distraction. But after weighing the good with the bad, Popeye: Rush for the Spinach barely comes in as an above average game.