Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! was developed and published by Konami in Japan in 1992 and in 1993 in North America and Europe for the SNES. It is the third main Tiny Toons game released for a home console and the first Tiny Toons game released for a 16-bit console.
This is a game I grew up playing a lot since my brother had it. I personally loved playing through it, even if I wasn’t the biggest Tiny Toon fan. Sure, I watched it if it was on, but it wasn’t among my favourites. This game, on the other hand, was something I really enjoyed.
There isn’t really much of a story in this game, at least not a cohesive one, as each level has its own story of sorts.
This game is mainly your typical platformer. Although you can’t just jump on enemies. Instead you have to use your kick attack, which acts sort of like a jump, and it is honestly a bit awkward to use. I would have preferred just jumping on enemies, but it’s easy enough to get used to. You can also use your dash attack to defeat enemies by literally running into them. The dash can also be used to climb walls.
There’s six levels in this game, with several sections each. It could take maybe up to an hour to beat this game. The levels are generally well designed and take place in different setting such a level at the university, a western level with a train section, a haunted mansion, a sky level and a space level. There’s also some nods to movies in certain levels, such as Back to the Future and Star Wars.
But there is one level in particular I absolutely hate. That is the American Football themed level. The reason is that it is completely based on luck. There is no set pattern of the defenders. You have to either jump over them or dive under them, but it is impossible to tell beforehand. You also need to progress at least 10 yards per four turns, otherwise you lose a life. You could try to pass but it’s just way too difficult to catch the ball that way. This should have been a minigame, not a level you actually have to beat, because it is purely based on luck.
After each level there is a minigame where you can win extra lives. Some of these are purely based on luck, such as the Bingo and the Guess the Weight minigames. Others are more skilled based such as the squash one. Which one you get is completely random however.
There’s three difficulty settings. Children, Normal and Challenge. If you choose Children you won’t experience the full game however. Challenge has one hit deaths, so I went with Normal, where you get three hits before you die. You can expand your health meter by finding hidden carrots, but when you get to the next level the health meter will reset. As for the difficulty on normal, I didn’t find most of the game to be particularly difficult apart from some parts of the train section of the western level and certain parts of the final level, the game was quite easy. The big exception to this was the luck-based American Football level which was just unfair.
The graphics look quite good for an early SNES game, and I remember being really amazed by the floor in the squash minigame as a kid. Otherwise, most things look quite good here. The levels are varied enough to not look boring, and everything is quite colourful. The music is decent, the Tiny Toon themes sounds great, and the rest of the music is pretty good but not anything specifically memorable.
Overall, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose is a good platform game. It might not be the best game on the system, but it is a solid licensed game of the same quality as a Capcom Disney game. It might be a bit generic, and the annoying American Football level almost ruins the game, but apart from that, everything is well made.
Is it worth Playing?
I would certainly recommend it to Tiny Toon fans, or really any platform game fan who wants a game that is not overly challenging. It may be a bit short, but it is still well-designed enough to be worth playing through if you enjoy this type of platform game.
Final score: 8/10
Screenshots via MobyGames: http://www.mobygames.com
Retro Viking Reviews 