Tiny Toon Adventures
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nostalgia Factor:
When I turned this game on last night, I was convinced I had played it before. I liked the Tiny Toons TV show when I was a kid, and I played a lot of games on my NES. You'd have thought that I would have played this growing up. And I really thought I did. But when I started playing it, nothing looked familiar. Surely I would have remembered the overworld map, the ability to switch to different characters mid-level, or the upbeat rendition of the Tiny Toons theme song. But nothing was ringing a bell as I played.
I shrugged my shoulders and continued playing anyway. Would I have liked this as a kid, and how would I like it now in present day? Let's dive in.
Buster Bunny is at home, chillin' and watching some TV. His regularly scheduled programming is interrupted by the evil Montana Max, who announces that he's captured Babs Bunny. He issues a challenge to Buster to come rescue her. So Buster gets off his couch and races off into battle against Montana Max and his evil forces.
There is absolutely nothing special about this game's story. It is your classic damsel in distress tale that we've seen hundreds of times throughout the history of video games.
Gameplay:
This is a very traditional 2D platformer. There are 6 worlds to conquer, each one split up into several stages. At the start of each world, you are asked to pick a partner. Your choices are: Plucky Duck, Dizzy Devil, and Furrball. When the first stage of the world begins, you start out as Buster Bunny. Buster controls similarly to Mario. You've got two basic actions: jump and run. You defeat enemies and bosses by simply jumping on their heads.
As you make your way through the game, you'll encounter floating balloons that contain one of two items: a heart or the ability to switch your character. You start with an empty health meter. Just one hit will kill you. If you collect a heart, it will take two hits to kill you. If you have a heart in your inventory when you collect another heart, it gives you an extra life. If you pop a balloon and it gives you the character switch item, this is where the choice you made at the beginning of the world comes into play. If you picked Plucky Duck, he has a special ability where you can glide through the air. Dizzy has a special attack that turns him into a tornado (although he does not possess the ability to run). Furrball can slide down walls and jump off of them if need be. Furrball seemed the most useless to me. I picked him once and then never again.
You collect carrots as you play. Every once in a while (maybe once per world) you'll encounter a white door frame. Enter the door frame and you can cash in 30 carrots for an extra life. Nice. Otherwise, these carrots have little to no extra function.
Most worlds consist of three stages. The first stage, you simply have to make it to the level exit. The second stage, you make it to the level exit - and then have to avoid Elmyra who tries to kiss you. If she gets you in her clutches, you are sent all the way back to the beginning of the world, which sucks. I learned this the hard way on my first attempt through this game. I tried to jump on her head like I would with any other enemy, and got sent back to the beginning of the game. The third stage of each world usually starts with a standard "make it to the end" platformer level, which ends in a boss fight. None of these bosses are too hard. Just watch their patterns and try to jump on their head three times in order to defeat them.
I played through this game twice before reviewing it. On my first playthrough, I became frustrated with the game and how I kept dying and/or getting sent back to the start of each stage or world. I was having to replay large chunks of the game I'd already beaten, which was not fun. I decided to just start using save states to make my way to the end and beat the game.
I revisited the game this morning and gave it a go without using save states. Now that I knew how the game operated, I had little to no trouble with it. My extra lives were maxed out by the end of the second world, and I didn't die or lose a single life for almost half the entire game. There is a definite difficulty spike about midway through the game. It starts in that stage where there are enemies popping out of windows and garbage cans to throw things at you. They just appear mid-jump before you have any chance to react to them. I suddenly found myself dying left and right. My stock of extra lives which had been maxed out dropped precariously low. I was able to make it through the rest of the game and beat it for a second time, but not without great difficulty.
I think I would have loved this as a kid. It's tough, but it eases you in with the difficulty level. While the second half of the game is a big challenge, it never feels too unfair. Undoubtedly I would have played this game over and over again when I was a kid, to the point where it wasn't even a challenge at all to me anymore.
Graphics:
This is not the best looking NES game of all time. It is very generic and basic looking. There is almost no detail in any of the stage backgrounds. This game looks like an early generation NES title, even though it came out in 1991.
If there is any saving grace to the graphics, it is in the boss and character design. All your favorite characters from the cartoon are represented here. They look good. You can tell who is who, and they don't look ugly. Not exactly glowing praise from me, but I suppose this game could look a lot worse.
Sound:
If you like the classic Tiny Toon Adventures theme song, you'll like its 8-bit musical rendition that they use in the game. It's cute and charming and brought a smile to my face when I first heard it. Be prepared to hear it a lot, though. It's the stage theme for quite a few levels in this game. The other music you hear is pretty good, too. It's got that signature Konami feel to it.
Sound effects are nice as well. Some sound effects were pulled straight from Mario, which I thought was funny. The entire game seems like an homage to the Mario series (the game's ending even has curtains and a stage that look identical to Mario 3's), and I am totally okay with that.
Overall:
You know, I had a surprisingly good time with this game. I wasn't sure what to expect of it when I first began playing. I thought I'd played it as a kid, then quickly figured out that I didn't. I would have loved it as a kid, though. It checks all the boxes for being a fun and engaging 2D platformer.
The game isn't very long, so it can be beaten in just about an hour. Maybe even less. But it is a fun hour, and a challenging one at that. It can be a bit frustrating at times, but a little practice makes perfect. I actually enjoyed it much more on my second playthrough. As a kid, I would have fired up this game dozens and dozens of times. I am positive I would have loved this growing up.
Is it as good as Ducktales? No. But I still had a fun time with this game. And I'd return to it again in the future. This is definitely a quality title. While I wouldn't say I was ecstatic about the game or that it is one of my new favorite NES titles, I can still freely admit I had a good time with it. It's definitely worth checking out if you have never played it before.
THE GRADE:
B
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