Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
I was never that big of a Tiny Toons fan, I remember I'd just rather watch the old classic cartoons, though I did love Animaniacs though, as well as the Pinky and the Brain spin-off. Now with that said, is this 16 bit interpretation of the cartoon any good? In a word: meh.
The game has you control Buster (and only Buster) who looks like a younger blue haired Bugs Bunny, he controls like a mix of Mario and Sonic, basically, his jumps and enemy types are similar to Nintendo's plumber, but his speed and momentum work very similarly to Sega's Mascot.
Now, I have no problem with a game "ripping off" another title, but Tiny Toons doesn't seem to understand WHY certain features are fun or how they're supposed to be implemented. Yes, you can run like Sonic, but placing instant death spikes as soon as you reach top speeds or placing hard to see cans on the ground that make you trip and lose momentum are not good level design, they grind the game's pacing to a halt. Buster can jump like Mario, but there are no power ups, making the platforming sections rather basic, our rabbit can however wall-jump, but this rarely comes into play.
Another idea brought over from Nintendo was the overworld, which serves as a flashy elaborate level select screen, but once again, Konami seemed to have missed the point on WHY this feature worked so well for Mario. For starters, there are no secret levels (at least not to my knowledge), also, you can't pause the game to quit a level and go back to the level select screen, so I tried to kill myself but that only brought me back to last checkpoint I crossed, meaning if you want to return to world map, you have to completely waste all of your lives/reset the game and then punch in a password (there's no save feature).
Oh and speaking of passwords, if you want to view it, you'll also have to waste all of your lives, at one point I had to kill myself 7 times just so I could save my progress, what kind of bull*censored* is that?
Graphically the game has some nice spots here and there, I like the cartoony animation and some backgrounds look really good, I especially loved the sonic-inspired stages with the nice, lush forests and lakes, but then you have certain levels which feature boring, static backgrounds.
The game's soundtrack is quite nice if a bit repetitive, I liked its rendition of the Tiny Toons theme and while the other tunes aren't quite as memorable they are good enough.
Overall, Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure isn't a bad game, but it's also not what I'd call good, I picked it up for cheap having no expectations for it and what I got was an "average" game, it can be fun in short bursts but any more than that and it becomes too derivative for its own good. It tried to mix and match several gameplay aspects from both Sonic and Mario but it seemed to have missed the point of what made them fun. Oh Well, it's a decent game, but I wouldn't pay too much for it.
The game has you control Buster (and only Buster) who looks like a younger blue haired Bugs Bunny, he controls like a mix of Mario and Sonic, basically, his jumps and enemy types are similar to Nintendo's plumber, but his speed and momentum work very similarly to Sega's Mascot.
Now, I have no problem with a game "ripping off" another title, but Tiny Toons doesn't seem to understand WHY certain features are fun or how they're supposed to be implemented. Yes, you can run like Sonic, but placing instant death spikes as soon as you reach top speeds or placing hard to see cans on the ground that make you trip and lose momentum are not good level design, they grind the game's pacing to a halt. Buster can jump like Mario, but there are no power ups, making the platforming sections rather basic, our rabbit can however wall-jump, but this rarely comes into play.
Another idea brought over from Nintendo was the overworld, which serves as a flashy elaborate level select screen, but once again, Konami seemed to have missed the point on WHY this feature worked so well for Mario. For starters, there are no secret levels (at least not to my knowledge), also, you can't pause the game to quit a level and go back to the level select screen, so I tried to kill myself but that only brought me back to last checkpoint I crossed, meaning if you want to return to world map, you have to completely waste all of your lives/reset the game and then punch in a password (there's no save feature).
Oh and speaking of passwords, if you want to view it, you'll also have to waste all of your lives, at one point I had to kill myself 7 times just so I could save my progress, what kind of bull*censored* is that?
Graphically the game has some nice spots here and there, I like the cartoony animation and some backgrounds look really good, I especially loved the sonic-inspired stages with the nice, lush forests and lakes, but then you have certain levels which feature boring, static backgrounds.
The game's soundtrack is quite nice if a bit repetitive, I liked its rendition of the Tiny Toons theme and while the other tunes aren't quite as memorable they are good enough.
Overall, Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure isn't a bad game, but it's also not what I'd call good, I picked it up for cheap having no expectations for it and what I got was an "average" game, it can be fun in short bursts but any more than that and it becomes too derivative for its own good. It tried to mix and match several gameplay aspects from both Sonic and Mario but it seemed to have missed the point of what made them fun. Oh Well, it's a decent game, but I wouldn't pay too much for it.
Pros:
- Graphics are quite pleasant in places
- Fun in short bursts
- The music isn't bad
Cons:
- Fun in short bursts
- The music isn't bad
Cons:
- Level design could have used some tweaking
- Takes a lot of features from Mario and Sonic but implements them poorly
- Could have used more power ups
- Becomes quite repetitive before long
- Could have used more power ups
- Becomes quite repetitive before long
Final Grade: C
For a game based on a TV show with as much imagination as Tiny Toons you'd think they'd put a little more effort into the cover, I mean look at it, it's the Tiny Toons logo between two palms trees and a patch of sand! Come on now! Are you telling me you couldn't think of a better cover?
The manual as a few short paragraphs detailing the game's backstory, it's not really needed for a game like this, but it is a nice touch nonetheless. Other than that it's the standard fare for game manuals of this time, you get a few instructions on how to play with a few black and white screenshots to serve as visual aid. Some of the pages feature simple colorless drawings of the main characters, all of them pretty lacking in detail save for Gogo Dodo, he looks pretty darn good and sticks out like a sore thumb.
Overall the packaging isn't the best, the cover is boring and while the manual has a few extras here and there, for the most part not a lot of effort was put into them.
Packaging Grade: D+
The manual as a few short paragraphs detailing the game's backstory, it's not really needed for a game like this, but it is a nice touch nonetheless. Other than that it's the standard fare for game manuals of this time, you get a few instructions on how to play with a few black and white screenshots to serve as visual aid. Some of the pages feature simple colorless drawings of the main characters, all of them pretty lacking in detail save for Gogo Dodo, he looks pretty darn good and sticks out like a sore thumb.
Overall the packaging isn't the best, the cover is boring and while the manual has a few extras here and there, for the most part not a lot of effort was put into them.
Packaging Grade: D+
No comments:
Post a Comment