The Lawnmower Man

About

The Lawnmower Man is a side-scrolling action game where you navigate surreal, fast-moving VR levels filled with hazards and enemies. Playing as Dr. Angelo, you jump between four distinct environments each with their own mechanics. Virtual World has you dodging floating platforms and arches in first person. Cyber War adds shootouts with automated turrets. Cyber Run switches to third-person with timed obstacle jumps. Cyber Tube is a rail shooter through a neon-lit tunnel. Controls are tight but the pacing is relentless as you race against collapsing levels and self-replicating threats. What stands out is the game’s experimental use of 3D transitions for 1993, pulling directly from the movie’s CGI sequences. While the plot leans heavily into 90s tech paranoia, the level design remains surprisingly inventive. Each world forces quick reflexes and precise timing, with minimal checkpoints to ramp up tension. A small but vocal retro community praises its ambition, though modern players may find the difficulty curve punishing. Released during the SNES’ peak, it’s an overlooked relic of early VR hype.

Storyline

Dr. Lawrence Angelo is a scientist working for Virtual Space Industries (VSI) in "Project 5", a secret research facility that attempts to increase the intelligence of primates using psychotropic drugs and virtual reality (VR) training. Dr. Angelo is reluctant to use the research for military purposes, and after one of the chimps escapes and shoots a guard, Dr. Angelo is given a forced vacation. While taking notes on the need for experiment with a human subject, he discovers Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey), a man with an intellectual disability who makes his living by doing odd jobs such as mowing the grass (hence the title of the movie). Angelo takes in Jobe, subjecting him to VR treatment. The first experiments quickly increase Jobe's intelligence, but after an accident, Dr. Angelo stops the experiments. The Shop, a secret agency overseeing Project 5, reinserts the drugs responsible for Jobe's violent behavior into the program and speeds up the treatment. As Jobe develops telekinetic powers, he starts to take revenge on those who abused him before he began the treatments, and plots to take over all of the computers in the world. The SNES version continues the storyline after the point where it ends in the film. Jobe transfers his mind into VSI's computers, and from there is able to corrupt and destroy information systems all over the world, a course of action which is implied to bring about Dystopia. With society in complete meltdown, Dr. Angelo discovers that Jobe has been acting under the control of a person known as Zorn the Doomplayer, who is the head of The Shop, and poised to take over what remains of the world. With Jobe apparently gone missing, Angelo sets off to put an end to The Shop once and for all.