While investigating Professor Stinkbaum's lab, Boogerman stumbles upon a strange machine that opens a portal to another dimension.

Almost everybody knows Earthworm Jim - But Boogerman, which was created inbetween the first two Jim games, is much less familiar. This is a bit unjust, as it's every bit as quirky and fun as the aforementioned series.

Boogerman stars Snotty Ragsdale, a nosy millionaire who is keeping an eye on the latest invention of Professor Stinkbaum, the Anti-Pollution Machine, as he is quite interested in it. When he disguises as a janitor to spy on the contraption, a monster comes and steals it, so he disguises as the "superhero" Boogerman to save the day and rescue the scientist's machine.

Boogerman isn't like your everyday superhero - He doesn't have any superpowers to speak of. He's a rather fat, lazy man, and as such has "powers" fitting for his personality - Namely, the ability to let loose farts and burps at will, pick and flick boogers straight out of his nose, spit loogies, and more.

Boogerman's general gameplay is pretty simple - Just get to the end of every stage. There are 5 areas in the game, with 4 levels each for you to plow through. Boogerman can take a number of hits before dying, as indicated by the colour of his cape - A cape flashing red and yellow means he can take 3 hits before biting the dust, a red cape means he's got 2 hits left, and a yellow cape means one more hit will send him to the grave. On-screen you can also see a booger meter and a gas meter - These indicate how much more boogers you can throw and how much more burps/farts you can let loose. Burps and farts can be charged in order to send a shockwave straight forward, but if the enemy's close, a quick button press to only hit the area next to you will suffice. Did you know Boogerman's gas is strong enough to crush rocks? All attacks are accompanied by a stock sound effect, which makes the game even more crazy.

That's not all of the weapons though - There's a number of items which will enhance your existing weapons in a few ways. If you pick up red peppers, your burps and farts will be lit on fire, doing extra damage to whatever they hit. Picking up a bottle of milk will allow Boogerman to spit loogies instead of throwing boogers, which, much like the flaming burps/farts, causes extra damage. As is to be expected, there are also recovery items to restore used booger/gas energy, in the form of snot blobs and cans of beans. Boogerman can also pick up a cape to withstand one extra hit (And change his cape's colour). Every level also has a huge load of plungers lying around - Picking up enough of those will get you an extra life at the end of the level.

Like its cousin, Earthworm Jim, the game is rather splendidly animated - Sometimes it feels like you're watching a cartoon. Every animation has a huge number of sprites, meaning that all characters move very fluidly. There's actually a button you can press to make Boogerman strike a pose (And shout his catchphrase - "Booger!") at any time - This is completely useless, but does add some more comedy relief.

Each world also has the obligatory boss - These seem to be other "not so superheroes", such as Hick Boy, a generic hick armed with a chicken, Deoder Ant, and the evil Booger Meister. Like Boogerman, these all have voices and a few lines, something which is always nice to hear in a 16-bit game.

Boogerman isn't really special gameplay-wise - But the graphics, presentation, sound effects and pretty much everything else combine to make it a really strange and, believe it or not, funny game. It can get pretty hard - But passwords make that a non-issue. The only thing that's a bit of a miss is the music - Some tunes have a nice beat, while others aren't any good at all and will only get on your nerves.

It should be noted that the SNES version of the game actually has completely different level layouts. The general concensus seems to be that the Sega version is better, though.