Going Looney With Game Boy Color: Challenges, 'Twouble'

By ARRON CURTISS

March 8, 1999 12 AM PT

I was waiting for a way home from Wyoming when I whiled away an afternoon playing Game Boy Color titles based on that wascawy wabbit, Bugs Bunny, and his friends in the Looney Tunes lineup.

Building a game around some of the most popular and identifiable cartoon characters in the world can be tricky business--as “Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3,” “Looney Tunes Carrot Crazy” and “Looney Tunes Twouble” demonstrate all too well.

The first is a great puzzler that would work well with any hero. Making Bugs the star only adds a little familiarity. “Carrot Crazy” is a wonderful side-scroller that definitely would suffer without Bugs at the center. And “Twouble” is a frustrating adventure starring Sylvester and Tweety.

In addition to leveraging the cartoon characters with various degrees of success, the three games make wildly different uses of Game Boy Color’s ability. “Crazy Castle 3” would benefit from a little tweaking. “Carrot Crazy” adds color in just the right amount and in just the right places. And with “Twouble,” it was easy to forget that it’s a title designed for Game Boy Color. It sure didn’t look it.

“Crazy Castle 3” is one of those games that looks simpler than it is. Looney Tunes characters such as Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck are under a spell cast by Witch Hazel, who wants to prevent Bugs from finding the Old Castle. So the characters walk around zombie-like as Bugs tries to find keys to unlock various levels of the castle.

How does it work?

Keys and other goodies hide behind doors. As Bugs scrambles up, down and across the levels, he has to dodge his one-time friends--or blow them up with a bomb, squish them with a 100-ton weight or pop them with a cork gun. Just finding the keys can be tricky enough, but avoiding a zombified Tweety Bird is a real challenge.

The “Crazy Castle” series has been a favorite of Game Boy players for years. The original was recently re-released as part of Nintendo’s Player’s Choice series, in which older games get new life. All of the original fun remains intact in “Crazy Castle 3,” but the addition of color gives the game new life.

Bugs is gray and white. Sylvester is black and white. Daffy is black, orange and white. The backgrounds vary in color from yellow and green to blue and red. Given that Game Boy Color can display just 56 colors at a time, “Crazy Castle 3” makes good use of the palette by assigning specific characters to specific levels.

The only gripe about “Crazy Castle 3” is that it uses a password system to continue games. The puzzles are challenging, and the whole idea of a Game Boy is to be able to play any time, anywhere. Not everyone carries a pencil and paper with them to write down alphanumeric passwords. An auto-save feature on the cart would have been better.

“Carrot Crazy” also makes good use of color as Bugs and Lola work their way through environments that range from a treasure-filled island to Marvin the Martian’s space station. As in the “Donkey Kong Country” games, players actually control two characters. In “DKC,” players guided Donkey and Diddy, but in “Carrot Crazy,” it’s Bugs and Lola. Each has unique characteristics and it’s impossible to get through a level without switching back and forth between the two.

For instance, Bugs can dig under things, but Lola can use her umbrella to glide gently down big drop-offs. It’s a nice feature that adds playability to a side-scroller that already was pretty good. Control is tight and characters move swiftly through even the most complicated combinations.

So far, it’s the best side-scroller for Game Boy Color I’ve seen. It’s better than “Wario Land II,” which is yet another old Nintendo game dolled up with a little color.

Sadly, the designers of “Looney Tunes Twouble” didn’t even dress the game up with color--with the exception of a rather lame opening sequence. Players become Sylvester as he hunts for Tweety in an adventure-style game that lacks almost any redeeming quality.

The environments are washed out in pale shades. I’ve seen old games designed for Super Game Boy that offer better color than this. Control is awkward as characters move stiffly across the screen. And everything moved at about half-speed.

I couldn’t wait for it to be over.

That’s all, folks.

Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games every Monday in The Cutting Edge. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send e-mail to aaron.curtiss@latimes.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

ESSENTIALS

Title: “Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 3”

Platform: Game Boy Color

Publisher: Kemco

ESRB rating: Everyone

Price: $29.95

Bottom line: Puzzling fun

Title: “Looney Tunes Carrot Crazy”

Platform: Game Boy Color

Publisher: Infogrames

ESRB rating: Everyone