Swiss Army Skunk

What's black, white, is a Gen-Xer, and loves extreme sports? The answer is Punky Skunk, the hero of Jaleco's newest game. Monday the company officially announced its newest PlayStation game, Punky Skunk, which will be hitting stores in February. The game centers around the main hero, Punky, and his adventures while trying to stop an evil wolf named BB Badler from ruining his forest playground.

In his quest, Punky uses different tools to help him finish levels, gain access to secret areas, and to beat the living daylights out of his adversaries (btw, this game is aimed towards the younger set of gamers).

Punky paraglides, skates, pogos, snowboards, and digs his way through each of the game's 34 stages. The final stage has Punky donning a super-smooth jetpack. Plus, bonus stages have our skunk friend racing paddleboats, playing volleyball, and pedaling exercise bikes to get extra points and items.

The game's set up like an old-school Super Nintendo side scroller and has sprite-based animation. Jaleco is hoping that this game will cater to the younger PlayStation gamer in the family, making the console a truly family-oriented machine.

Originally known in Japan as Kuri Skunk by Visit, one can hope that Jaleco keeps this game aimed at kids and people who enjoy a good, challenging side scroller and don't get carried away in the all-too-often-used "we got attitude" mascot game market.

Check out these screenshots of the Japanese version of the game.