Tiny Toon Adventures review - Nintendo Entertainment System

Introducing Buster Bunny, Plucky Duck, Dizzy Devil and Furball, a bunch so cute that any self-respecting individual couldn't help but throw up if exposed to their presence! Tiny as they are, they do have a big problem. Montana Max has kidnapped Babs Bunny and is holding her hostage in his mansion. Her fate now rests in the hands of Buster and his buddies.

This NES toons escapade bounds around six stages with plenty of levels to conquer on each one. The journey is fraught with the usual danger as Buster comes up against Dr Gene Splicer, the skateboarding psycho, Arnold the body building pitbull and a whole host of other nasties. Once defeated, each of these bosses leaves behind a cage key. Six keys are required in order to save Babs from Montana Max's murderous clutches!

Buster is not alone though. Before each stage begins Shirley the Loon pops up and gives Buster the option of taking a pal with him on his quest. When Buster comes across a 'toon-a-round', his partner appears in his place. Only by using this special technique will the Tiny Toons be able to defeat their twisted nemesis and his many minions.

But for the fluffy bunny and his cute cohorts, there is a long way to go before the cuddly Babs is saved, and the whole furry lot of them can live happily ever after... Bluurrghh!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

As a fan of cuddly cartoon characters I was looking forward to this. But having played Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout, which was pretty awful, I was wary of the fact that Tiny Toon Adventures might not live up to expectations. However, when I got into the swing of things I really started to enjoy this game. While the backdrops are nothing to write home about they are colourful, and the sprites are cheerfully drawn and well animated. The opportunity to choose different characters is also an entertaining option which adds a further dimension to the game. Unlike many other platform games of its kind, Tiny Toons Adventures is quite difficult, and while this is certainly a good thing, it is marred by the restart points in the game. The problem is that you have to keep going back to the start of the stage. This makes the game frustrating at times, and it meant that I could breeze through the stages I was familiar with, but got stumped pretty quickly when travelling into uncharted territory. But gripes aside, if you're a platform fiend, or a cartoon fan, Tiny Toon Adventures could be an adventure!

Just when I thought I couldn't take another NES platform game, along came Tiny Toon adventures. Whilst not suffering from a severe case of originality, Tiny Toons has enough going for it to make it enjoyable. The choice of characters for each level adds a little strategy to the proceedings and the cute graphics and good animation give the game a cartoony atmosphere. Tiny Toon adventures is also blessed with good collision detection and responsive controls so it's very easy to get in to. What really makes Tiny Toons a worthy title is the high difficulty level. Although there aren't that many levels, later on they get pretty hard and even platform experts will be challenged. My one major problem with this is the restart points. Every time you die you are sent back to the beginning of the level, or sometimes even the stage before that! This tends to make things disheartening, especially if you've just been killed by the boss, and repeating early levels again and again is monotonous. If you're not yet sick of platform games give Tiny Toon Adventures a go, but only if you're sure of your platform skills.