It was such a silly game that surprised me that it ended up as popular as it was. I had a lot of fun with it back in my Genesis days.
I don't know about you but I was hesitant to buy this back in the day because it just seemed so stupid when I was looking at the box (which is all we could do back in those days.) It was a risky choice but one that I ended up being glad I made.
It does seem stupid although the game itself looks querky... I would try it but as you say back in the day all you could do was look at the box.
I didn't have enough money to make risky choices on new games at the time but I would sometimes buy things I otherwise might not have when they were on sale. I picked up Solar Jetman that way on the NES and it became one of my favorites on that system. I don't think I had even heard of it before I got it on sale for less than $10.