The 90's was a great time for animation. A light at the end of the tunnel that was the dark ages of the 80's. And while the 80's had its fair share of awesome cartoons, let's be honest, most of them were glorified toy commercials. Thankfully by the time we entered the 90's and shows like Tiny Toon Adventures became more of the norm and less the exception, we were finally beginning a true golden age for the industry.
Tiny Toon Adventures was a trendsetter. More than just another addition to the cartoons about younger versions of classic characters. It wasn't just Baby Looney Tunes... before they actually made a Baby Looney Tunes. It had its own original characters, ideas, and humor that really blended in well in that late 80's/early 90's pop culture. It was a massive success that led to many other great cartoons like the far greater successor in Animaniacs.
But like most things successful around that time, there were of course video games. Lots and lots of video games. Konami were quick to acquire the license to the Steven Spielberg directed series, and released multiple games over multiple consoles. One of which would be the game we're covering for this review, the Sega Genesis exclusive "Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure" released in 1993 by Konami. The good Konami too, not the slave driving monsters that infest the once great company.
Plot of the game sees Buster Bunny find a treasure map while cleaning at Acme Looniversity. Montana Max steals the map from Buster and seeks the treasure for himself. And to make things worse for the blue rabbit, he has Dr. Gene Splicer (who I swear was just in one episode, yet appears in every game) to brainwash Buster's friends Plucky, Dizzy Devil, Hamton Pig, and Calamity Coyote. And to continue his dickery, he kidnaps Babs Bunny, Fifi La Fume, and Shirley the Loon. So it's up to Buster to travel through 33 levels of danger with the help of Gogo Dodo to find the treasure and save the day.
The game is your standard left to right platformer. You control Buster with the D-Pad, can jump with the C button, slide while using your fast momentum with B, and summon a helper with the A button if you have one stored. Buster can also perform wall jumps, but they do feel a bit slippery at times to perfectly execute, which makes for more annoyance than fun.
What you'll notice off the bat about the gameplay styling of Buster's Hidden Treasure is that it plays a lot like another popular blue rodent themed game on the Sega Genesis. In many ways, this is Konami's answer to Sonic the Hedgehog. Buster even has extremely high speed like Sonic. But the game never feels like the focus is mainly on the speed, and even some times it feels like a detriment to Buster in terms of momentum.And most levels are built for more precise platforming where the speed is usually never handled to its full potential.
Buster has three hit points as he platforms his way through perilous forests, caves, volcanos, snow levels, factories and more. You even can get bell items to boost your hit point count up to five. However, if you die (and trust me, you'll die a lot in this game), you return to three hearts. Another item Buster can have is through a fellow Tiny Toon that can help you. Depending on the level you can summon Concord Condor, Little Beeper, or Little Sneezer to eliminate enemies. You gain a helper for every 50 carrots found, or a helper icon in a level.
On the music side of the game, the soundtrack is well done, with some very catchy tunes, and a great Genesis rendition of the classic Tiny Toon Adventures theme. The graphics are also beautiful looking with great looking levels, lots of color, and every Tiny Toon looking close to their animated counterparts. A testament of just how great Konami used to be.
If you think this game is a cakewalk because of the Tiny Toon license, you couldn't be more wrong. This game is hard. Fiendishly hard. Levels are long, with some tricky obstacles that can cause easy deaths. When you get to levels like the caves with their low ceilings and trickier platforming, you'll definitely see just what I mean by this game's difficulty really being a pain. The worst thing is that you have no checkpoints, meaning it's all the way back to the first of a level if you die, even if the end of a stage is in sight. Thankfully there are passwords and unlimited continues.
But the game gets downright unfair by the end. You have to go through the final factory stages to get to the final boss. And when you see the boss level in sight, before you can even face Montana Max, you have to avoid Elmyra in a long corridor, where you have to time your jumps just right. And if Elmyra touches you once, it's an instant death. However, if you get game over, you start at the first factory level. What the hell? I thought this was Tiny Toon Adventures not Ninja Gaiden.
Despite some difficulty and mild hit detection issues, Buster's Hidden Treasure is still a solid Genesis platformer. It's not a Sonic killer, but in a sea of knockoffs, it's one of the better titles in the bunch. If you're a big fan of the cartoon, and are collecting Genesis games, this one comes highly recommended.
RATING: B+