Socket

Socket, released in Japan as Time Dominator 1st, is a 1993 platformer for the Mega Drive/Genesis from the developers at Tokai Communications, published by Vic Tokai. It belongs to the wave of speedy would-be mascots chasing Sonic — and its hero is a duck with an electric plug for a tail.

The plug is not just a gag, it is the core of the game. Socket runs on electricity and his energy drains constantly, serving as health bar and timer in one. You keep him alive by grabbing lightning-bolt icons along the way, which turns every level into a nervous calculation: the fast route keeps you charged, the scenic route can kill you.

The plot sends you after a time-travelling villain, so the stages hop between eras — prehistory one moment, the far future the next. The level design leans into slopes, chutes and long downhill runs where the game briefly becomes a rollercoaster and proves it really can do speed.

Ranked honestly, this is a second-division mascot game: the levels lack the elegance of the games they imitate, the constant energy drain punishes any urge to explore, and the closing stages spike hard in difficulty. On the other hand it is genuinely quick, nicely animated, and the energy gimmick gives it an identity most clones never found.

If you are curious what the race to out-Sonic Sonic looked like outside the big names, this is an honest, playable specimen. It runs on oldgame.cz directly in the browser, with nothing to install.