After the original conversion plan was shelved, Ocean eventually released in 1994 a different game on the Amiga under the name Mr. Nutz: Hoppin' Mad.

Developed by Neon Studios, it featured the same titular character but with different, faster and more wide-open gameplay, unrelated levels and enemies, another story, and a large overworld map instead of a linear path to follow in a mini-map.

As with many games, contact with hazards and enemies that does not sufficiently defeat them results in losing one unit of health followed by a few seconds of invulnerability as the character sprite flashes.

By 1990 after the closure of Ocean France, character designer and graphics artist Philippe Dessoly and programmer Pierre Adane decided to work independently on a platform game for Amiga.

[7] When designing a character for the game, Dessoly was considering a turtle or a parrot, but his wife gave him the idea to choose a squirrel.

[9] The game was shown to Ocean Software, which agreed to publish it on the Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis instead of Amiga, because the console market was safer against piracy and more profitable compared to personal computers.

[11] SNES N-Force gave the game 90%, commending the controls and the graphics which the reviewer likens to "a good children's book.

They praised the use of parallax scrolling and the "beautifully drawn" backgrounds, but remarked that "the game play, despite the hidden secret levels and fairly tough challenge, just isn't very interesting.