Taz in Escape from Mars/Gameplay

Controls
Taz jumps, spins, and does other various actions. By spinning and colliding with an enemy, Taz can defeat his enemies and dig into the ground. The actions can be flipping a switch, spitting a rock, breathing out a flame, or picking up something.

Enemies
Most enemies take one hit, others take two. Most bosses take 6 to 8 hits. Only one non-boss enemy's takes more than two hits to destroy. From touching an enemy without spinning, or one of their attacks, Taz loses one hit point of damage. Taz can sustain 12 hit points. Some boss enemies take two hit points and Marvin's dog, K-9, takes four hit points. Some enemies, like the fly or armored soldier (in the haunted castle world) cannot be defeated by the spin, but only by rocks or the flame. Others, like Yosemite Sam, cannot be defeated at all.

Completing levels
Completing a level involves either defeating the boss of that level or Taz eating an exit sign.

Powerups and powerdowns
The most common type of powerup is food. Food replenishes Taz's health. By spinning into the food, the food is destroyed. Food items include burgers (+1 hit point), bread, fruit, ham, and cakes. A special powerup is a medipack which replenishes 6 hit points if eaten, half of Taz's health. Other power-ups include a box of rocks and gas containers. By eating the box o' rocks, Taz can spit out rocks at his enemies. By eating the gas container, Taz can breathe out fire. Each gives ten shots. Extra lives and continues are scattered around in the levels.

Also, there are various power-downs as well that take one hit point away. The most common of which are small black bombs. Others include a time bomb, and a cake with dynamite. When eaten, the object explodes making Taz lose one hit point and become black momentarily.

Other objects include shrink and grow potions. While enlarged, Taz can destroy any enemy by simply touching it and enemy attacks do not damage Taz. While shrunk, Taz cannot destroy anything, but can get through narrow passageways.

By contacting these items in a spin, they are destroyed, useful on the explosives, but bad on the healing items.