Bust loose from clones and dash to an awesome game!
The player takes the role of Buster Bunny, the Tiny Toon (or baby version) of Bugs Bunny who begins the game realising he is late for class. Buster then dashes off through the school halls to make it to his lesson, encountering several enemies, rival class mates and even Dizzy, the Tiny Toon Tasmanian Devil along his way. This just being the first level, the game has a very television show feel to it, having somewhat unrelated story lines between levels.
The game plays like a traditional side scroller, having running and dashing around as the main aspect of the controls. The player will often have to dash through certain areas, be it to make it to a destination on time, defeat an enemy or simply put some speed on a jump. The player also has the ability to dash up walls, which can be an ideal skill to use when traversing certain areas. Despite the similarities between this and contemporary side scrolling adventure games the game play feels very different. Clearly being a very child friendly game it uses charming and simple mechanics to keep the player drawn on the screen.
Unlike most games of this genre, such as Mario, the player can backtrack at will, being able to return to the start of the level at any point, as opposed to only being able to move one way and the camera block the players' progress should they want to return. Due to this, the player is able to find collectibles, which can lead to bonus stages or additional lives. This is a rather good idea to add into the game, although simple, it breaks the game play up and allows for a small amount of exploration, which is generally devoid from games of this type.
In between the general levels there are mini-games to break up the game and add diversity to the experience. The player will find themselves playing Bingo, Squash, Maze and Seesaw games with famous characters from the Tiny Toon universe. Considering the game is aimed at a younger generation, it makes sense to have these small mini-games added into the narrative. Also due to the nature of the story, having it quite literally told to the player by Buster Bunny, the character seemingly chooses when the player should stop with the story and start to play the mini-games, having a nice child friendly feeling to the narrative. Despite use of the word 'child' the game is still incredibly fun for all ages.
Music is always a very important part of any game, without it, no immersion would be present, and if a player cannot become immersed in a game at all, then they cannot enjoy the experience. Most likely if someone has picked up this game, they have some knowledge of Looney Tunes, Tiny Toones and the cartoon that the game is based off. With that in mind, the player will be pleasantly surprised to find that music and sounds from the show were used within the game, including Buster's Dash, the looped sound that plays when a character is stunned and several others. Some would say this is a move to cut back on costs and time; however this is a rather nice move to use, especially for fans of the cartoon.
An interesting addition into the game is the impact the difficulty settings have on the game. With traditional adjustments to how hard or easy the game is, enemies will become more powerful or the player would start with less lives. However in Tiny Toon whole sections of levels will be skipped, as well as all the traditional changes. This is a rather clever idea as despite a section of a game being made easier, by slowing it down or depending on the situation changing whatever is necessary, sometimes can still be difficult for whatever reason.
Enemies in the game would generally be different depending on the level, for the first stage a character tells the player about animals that have been released in the school such as crabs and frogs, which act as the recurring enemies until the bosses. Another example is on the third level, which takes place in a haunted mansion, with enemies such as ghosts and Frankenstein type monsters. Bosses however would generally include big names in the Looney Toon universe, with the likes of the Tiny Toon versions of Marc Antony, Sylvester the Cat and Foghorn Leghorn making appearances.
The game breaks up the story into six levels, each being very different environments, starting in a school, moving to a western movie set, a haunted mansion, a football field, the sky and finally space, this opens up a large variety of different scenarios for the player to enjoy. The first level is rather simple, travelling along a simple linear path until meeting a boss, having a rather easy and unimpressive environment with a mediocre end level battle in which the player must feed the Tasmanian Devil portions of food until it calms down. As the game progresses however, heavy movie references begin to appear, be it literally stealing a scene from a well known movie such as Back to the Future, or making the final boss a toon version of Daffy Duck dressed up as Darth Vader, the game keeps players wrapped up with its charm.
Being a Konami game, it's very well refined, all aspects having gone though the Quality Assurance stage time after time, however no game is perfect, and this title of course has its share of flaws. The story is somewhat too simple, the controls can be a bit fiddly, the characters are far too bright and the game play can become repetitive after a very short space of time. The mini-games are also somewhat of a let down, having the variety of games at its disposal, there could have been much more there, the only real enjoyable game was Squash, and even that became tiresome rather quickly.
Finding an incredible game is hard work and it's even harder to find one based on another mainstream media such as TV or cinema. Konami struck gold creating this fantastic classic title that is suitable for all ages and is attractive even now. Despite the mountain of faults, the awkward controls, tiresome game play and confusing story, a great game certainly stands tall next to the mighty Looney Toones Empire. This is a game the Warner Brothers should be proud of.