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Alright, its pretty damn loony. Riding on the
heels of Ape Escape comes another great game for kids, proving that the Playstation
does market to both young and old. Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time is a non-linear,
interactive cartoon, filled with wonderful graphics and FMVs that bring back memories of
Saturday morning, mom cooking me breakfast, and having the run of the T.V. Essentially,
that is the appeal of this game: its like watching a cartoon. OK, you have Bugs who somehow finds himself in a shack with a time machine in it, while on the way to Pismo beach for vacationing. Being the curious sort, Bugs tinkers and ends up on a mad adventure through time. Your whole quest is to get Bugs from Nowhere (lost in time) to Somewhere (back home and on his way to Pismo). This game runs along the same lines as Ape Escape or Spyro. You are able to control Bugs through either the dual shock or the regular game pad. And yes, there is some vibration during the game, especially when youre tossing bombs back at Yosemite Sam. Although it doesnt take advantage of all the features of the game pad as Ape Escape does, the control still feels really smooth once you get used to navigating the game-world. That was my biggest problem. For a long time in this game the movement didnt feel natural, but after awhile of constant play it began to grow on me. And that it takes awhile to get into this game is all I can say. For a long time I kept putting it down, but once you have made it through the first few levels then it becomes a bit more complex. Each era of time--there are seven--has multiple sub-levels that you must complete. Yet, instead of going straight through each era, you are forced to move on to the next era, then return to the previous one once youve acquired some skills and a sufficient amount of clocks. This is where the game gets interesting. When you enter each era you start in a place where you are allowed to choose which adventure you want to go on. Kind of like choosing door #1, door #2 or door #3. In the Pirate Years youre plopped down on an island that has four different choices, but you can only choose the one for which you have a sufficient supply of clocks. Once you complete your first sub-level you return to going through time and wind up in the 1930s. Depending on what you do, you are able to unlock the sub-levels of, say, the Pirate Years and then go back to complete them. Of course, I vacillated between what my favorite era was. To name a few you have the Pirate Years, the 1930s, The Medieval Period or Dimension X. I really enjoyed Dimension X for the simple reason I was able to go against Marvin the Martian. Oh, and yes he does have a ray gun and yes he does shoot it at you. I hope that doesnt spoil anything, but really it is hard to spoil this game for someone. There are too many things to see and do. One era finds you driving a car, then a goat, while in another you get to shoot a canon and kick people in the rear. There is a also a training level that you must go through at the beginning of the game. This was extremely helpful in figuring out how to do things throughout the game. This is also where you meet your advisor, Merlin, or as Bugs refers to him, Merl. You must acquire skills such as super-jump or musical talent (Bugs has none), which added a different kind of twist to the game considering the fact that you had to find Merl and have him teach you the magic words to do each thing. Bugs Bunny is your standard run-around-and-collect-things game. Each level requires that you acquire so many golden carrots and so many alarm clocks. Oh, and if youre thinking, "well, do I have to get them all?" The answer is no. You can complete levels without getting all of the items in the level, but youll pay for it in the long run, since your movement through the game is dependant upon how many clocks or carrots you possess. I found myself running back to do levels I had already done so that I can find a clock. Its really a pain in the ass sometimes. The games graphics are done in a very cartoony style as one would expect. Its amazing how much the game resembles actual Warner Bros. animation. From the landscapes to the characters and their voices, Infogrames and Behavior Interactive succeed in bringing to digital life the WB canon. This is one of the reasons I kept going back to the game. I wanted to find more characters. Yeah, my quest was for Daffy Duck, but along the way you run into Marvin the Martian, Mugsy and the rest of the crew. Complaints. Dont we always have them, especially me? Of course! The one problem in this game that really, really upset me is the fact that you can sometimes jump through or into an object. Some may say that it really isnt a big deal. Heres an example. During the Pirate Years (one of the levels in the game) some of your time is spent stacking up boxes so that you can get to the top of an even higher stack. Up there there might be a carrot or a alarm clock; something you need. And it begins to get frustrating when you jump up onto the box, but your angle is off just a little to make you jump right into a box then the game pushes you out in the water, killing you. But, heres the balance to dying frequently because of programming problems: essentially, you have unlimited lives and a copious amount of checkpoints throughout the game. Yeah, everyone knows Im big on checkpoints. This really helped soothe my criticism. Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time rounds out to be a rather decent game. Mind you, its not for everyone, but it is for most. If you enjoy the antics of Bugs Bunny or have a love for anyone in the Warner Bros. cast, then this game is certainly worth the dough. If anything itll keep the kids occupied and find you at midnight playing it in the dark. Its been a long time since Ive seen a great adaptation of pop-toons into the gaming world. This is one of them. |