Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break

"A nice little platformer."

Tiny Toons was a popular cartoon during the early nineties. As with anything popular in that age there where bound to be some games. In the case of Tiny Toons that amounted to quite a lot of titles across a multitude of systems. The game under scrutiny in this review is the first one for the original Game Boy, Babs' Big Break, released in 1992.

GRAPHICS
If there was one developer that knew how to do great visuals on Nintendo's green and grey handheld, it was Konami. From their first titles for the machine to their last, a Konami game always tended to look good. Tiny Toon Adventures is no exception.

The characters, both the three main protagonists as their allies and adversaries, are all big and bold, sporting a good deal of detail and animation. The backgrounds also look good, having just enough features to be distinguishable without blurring into the foreground. This cartoon style really works for the handheld.

For a Game Boy game, Tiny Toon Adventures looks absolutely great, even without colour. What impresses me the most is that the look of the game bares more of a resemblance to the Tiny Toon games for the SNES then those for the NES. This is how you should handle visuals for the Game Boy.

SOUND
As expected, the score is rather bouncy and happy. It suits the game and it's rendition of Tiny Toon's main theme is good. Sound effects consists of the usual fare of beeps and boops yet sounding quite pleasant.

GAMEPLAY
As the subtitle hints at, the plot revolves around Babs Bunny and her dream to make it big in Hollywood. Montana Max is attempting to disrupt her dream and now her friend must try to stop him. It will not win a Nobel prize in literature but it doesn't deviate from the majority of contemporary platformers.

Tiny Toon Adventures is, in all honesty, a fairly standard platformer. The controllable characters walk, crouch and jump their way along the platforms. They dispatch the numerous enemies by either jumping on their heads or throwing a piece of fruit or vegetable at them. The game is divided in several stages with the occasional guardian showing up at the end of a stage.

Isn't there anything novel or different about Tiny Toon Adventures then? Well, there are the three different controllable characters to choose between. They aren't actually all that different, with each moving at the same speed and jumping as far and as high as the others. Their main difference comes from the type of weapon they use. Buster Bunny throws a carrot in a wide arch, Plucky Duck bounces a pineapple via the ground into the air and Hamton Pig rolls a melon across the floor. In theory, this would seem to add some strategy as to which Toon to use in dealing with the enemies. In practice however this whole system is a bit pointless. Most opponents can be defeated easily with a well timed jump on their head. This is also the only way to defeat the guardians. Seeing that in all other respects the Toons have the same abilities, barring personal preference, choosing between them becomes rather pointless

There are also a few non playable characters that have to be found in order to progress. Each stagel usually has an insurmountable barrier which can only be passed by such a character. Again, this is a nice concept that isn't as fleshed out as it could and should have been. The main problem in this regard lies with the small size of the levels. Because of this, finding these friends isn't all that difficult. It is also a pity that the game takes over the moment they reach the barrier. Limiting the content in such a way only accentuates what a relatively short game Tiny Toon Adventures really is. It would perhaps have been better if these sections also could have been playable. This wouldn't even have required that many adjustments.

The levels aren't completely linear and also feature a few neat ideas. Most levels aren't exactly ‘from left to right' affairs, possessing a few twists and turns that keep proceedings interesting. This also applies to the small interludes like a guessing game, a race and the few boss battles. The level design isn't in the same league as the average Mario platformer but all in all the game is still fun and interesting in it's own right.

FINAL REMARKS
The presentation is impeccable and shows off the Game Boy's abilities when a developer actually knows what it's doing. There are a few negative points concerning the gameplay. The game is rather short, a little too easy and some of the bigger concepts don't really work all that well. It must be stressed that despite these complaints and the lack of anything really novel, Tiny Toon Adventures is still a good, solid platformer. It's fun, the controls are just responsive enough and it simply oozes charm. Because of this, I can still easily recommend this game to any fan of both platformers and the original Game Boy.

OVERALL: a 7,5 which will be rounded up to an 8,0.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/09

Game Release: Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (US, February 1992)