Looney Tunes Collector: Alert!
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Infogrames Developer: Infogrames Lyon Media: Cartridge/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Platformer
Graphics & Sound: Considering the platform, the graphics in Looney Tunes Collector: Alert! are quite good. They are most reminiscent of Zelda, with a top-down viewing angle and a slightly skewed perspective. Each character is easy to recognize once you’ve seen them before, although sometimes it’s tough to see traps on the ground because of the small screen on the Game Boy. The world itself is quite nice looking, with the requisite dark dungeons, green forests, and sandy deserts. The ocean area is a bit dull graphically, but you won’t spend too much time in it, so it’s really a moot point. The music in LTCA is irrepressibly Warner Bros. bouncy, even in the dark and scary areas. At first, it was okay, and then it went into the realm of annoying, and finally into the realm of nonexistent. You’ll learn to selectively tune out the tunes, so to speak. The sound effects, for what they are, are passable, if limited in number.
Gameplay: Looney Tunes Collector: Alert! is a cute little Zelda-esque platformer that manages to avoid the fate of almost every franchise-based game in existence: it turns out to be fun. Infogrames has put out a happy little number with LTCA, and it’s one that kept me amused for quite some time. After a rather endearing intro movie featuring our favorite xenophobe, Marvin the Martian, you’re placed in the role of Bugs Bunny, about to leave on vacation. Needless to say, your plans go awry, and soon you’re busy searching for ten pieces of a transporter before Marvin can find them. Bugs is pretty limited in what he can do -- he can jump, and he can go into rabbit holes, and that’s about it. Soon after you pass the first few screens, however, you’ll be picking up some other Looney Tunes characters that will help you on your quest, from Elmer Fudd and his gun to Mot the alien baby (huh?) and his ability to move things with his mind. You may not recognize all of the characters, but I’m sure they were in some obscure short or another... yeah. Most of them you’ll recognize immediately, though, from Witch Hazel to the Road Runner. There are a lot more characters to gather than you can play as, and they pop up in a gallery inside the game. The game itself plays relatively linearly, with you finding item X to get character Y who has ability Z to get past area Q. Fortunately, it’s a whole lot of fun, and the characters and areas never fail to amuse. You’ll find yourself using Bugs most of the time, switching to other characters when you need their unique abilities -- Witch Hazel flies over spikes and holes, Elmer Fudd blows up rocks, and so on. At times, the switching can border on tedious, but it never quite crosses that line. The game is relatively large, but chances are you could beat it in one day of heavy play. You’ll also probably get most of the characters that you’re capable of getting, simply because they’re thrown in your path as you play. But a few may turn out to be rather elusive.
Difficulty: If there’s one gripe with this game, it’s that some of the boss fights are absolutely insane. I had to fight Muggsy and pal five times before I successfully beat them, and the first Marvin the Martian fight took me a bit as well. But then you’ll fight Yosemite Sam and beat him without danger of getting hit. Luckily, you can save wherever you want, so you don’t have to worry about backtracking too much if you lose at a boss fight. Oh, and certain items replenish every time you exit an area, so you can stock up on things that might otherwise be hard to come by later in the game.
Game Mechanics: The controls in the game are tight and easy to use, with the ‘A’ button executing whatever special move your current character has, and the ‘B’ button using whatever item you have equipped. The ‘Select’ button takes you to the character select screen, appropriately, and the ‘Start’ button lets you select items. Pressing both takes you to a menu, but I found it easier to hold ‘Select’ and then press ‘Start.’ There’s not much you can do -- the Game Boy has a limited control scheme. But LTCA does a fine job of utilizing what it has. This game is geared towards kids, but kids and adults alike will have a good little time with Looney Tunes Collector: Alert!, finding old favorites (and new favorites, at least for me) and having a hopping good time. Just don’t be surprised if the little ones have to ask the big ones to get them past a boss fight or two.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
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