Tiny Toon Adventures

Moby ID: 5786
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/27 7:19 AM )
See Also

Description official description

Tiny Toon Adventures is based on an animated series of the same name. The Tiny Toons are kid versions of the famous Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

After (once again) losing an animation festival at Acme Looniversity to Buster Bunny, Montana Max has taken his revenge by kidnapping Babs Bunny and locking her up in his mansion. Now, a single player controlling Buster or any one of his three friends Plucky Duck, Dizzy Devil, and Furball must embark on a rescue mission to save her. There are six side-scrolling platform levels, comprised of three stages each (except for Wackyland which has only one stage). Before each level begins, Shirley the Loon will ask the player which of Buster's three partners should join them on that level. Once the player makes a selection, it cannot be changed. Each of the four available characters have different abilities, so it's important to choose the right partner.

Buster begins the game with three lives, but more can be collected by visiting Hamton J. Pig and cashing out 30 carrots each. The game is over when all remaining lives are gone or when Montana Max has been defeated.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (NES version)

11 People (9 developers, 2 thanks)

Chief Director
Main Programmer
Character Designer
Special Thanks
Sound Designers
Presented by
  • 1991 ©Konami

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 31 ratings with 2 reviews)

A really good platformer with some controversy

The Good
Tiny Toon Adventures is a platformer developed and published in 1991 by Konami for the FC/NES. Konami build it success in the 90's by making actual good games from a lot of American popular IPs from comics and cartoons like TMNT, X-Men, The Simpsons and here the classic Warner Brothers Looney Toons spin-off, Tiny Toons. Features beautiful graphics, rich in colour and details; funny and cute animations, if you leave the characters standing for too long each will show impatience in its own style, which for some reason I always loved to see back in the day. They could have animated just a couple of toons, but they give you variety of characters from this world that are just a joy to see (like the dodo stage screen). The music suits the game well, probably the worst song is the actual Tiny Toons theme but the rest are fine.

You always begin a level controlling Buster Bunny and you can pick from three other toons as a partner; each one has a unique talent: Buster runs very fast, Plucky Duck can swim, flap his wings and glide, Dizzy Devil spin attack breaking blocks and Furball can climb walls; to switch the character for your partner you must find and grab a "Change" Star Balloon in the level. Carrots and fruits acts as in-game currency and if you collect 30 of them you can trade them for an extra live (provided you can locate Hamton's secret room). There's even a secret bonus Duck Vader boss that rewards you with carrots if you defeat him.

The gameplay is fast, which adds to the challenge of platforming (frustrating but fun); the controls are responsive, though a bit slippery at times. In this aspect the best character to control by far is Plucky Duck; the gliding is such a helpful mechanic for platforming that makes everything else pale in comparison. At the same time, levels are designed to be cruised with every character, and of course that sometimes completely changes the experience. There are 6 areas with 3 stages per area (that's 18 total!) The enemies and obstacles, their movement and projectile patterns are surprising at every turn; requiring knowledge of the level and careful - patient running and jumping (which sometimes makes the time limit really your worse adversary). Bosses are varied and interesting and also Elmyra acts as a sub-boss, in a game where you must avoid her hugs, becoming harder with the inclusion of different platforms as the game progresses.

The Bad
I couldn't understand why people compared this to Super Mario Bros 3 (1988), some even calling it a "clone"... which seemed to me like a really silly thing to say, this being an original game doing its own thing, though of course as happens with every other platformer in the era showed its undeniable influence of Super Mario 3. And it borrows a lot! But apparently there are suspicions that SMB3 was reversed engineered by Konami and literally chunks of code were copied. It has a very similar Hud, and identical (to the frame) scrolling, running and jumping; the "theater" set up, with the curtains and end level screen, are the same, and even some minor mechanics like the gliding tanuki suit/ gliding duck that are very much the same... So, there's no official word but this sameness - exposed by a French retro game blogger - seems weird -offers some strong evidence of something very suspicious at play, but still doesn't completely convince me (might be because I like this game so much and really find it to be, contrarily to what is said - overall very original) Why would Konami risk to do something like this? - copy just a portion of it - in a game that is not just a cash grab? And what about Nintendo - one of the most protective of their own IPs developers out there, they didn't notice? just allow it?

The Bottom Line
This is a fantastic game, with excellent graphics, suitable music, enjoyable gameplay mechanics and level design, harsh difficulty, making one of the best platformers on the system. And it's kind of sad really because is already difficult for a licensed game to see a re-release for modern systems, but specially harder when its also surrounded by all these controversy. So, if you are able to see a hard copy in the wild grab it because that's probably the last we've seen of an official 8 bit Tiny Toon Adventures.

NES · by pelida77 (36) · 2023

The First Tiny Toons Game is a Good One

The Good
Tiny Toons Adventures brings many of the characters from the TV show to your NES thanks to Konami. In this Super Mario 3-esque platformer you play as Buster Bunny who runs, jumps, slides, and swims through six worlds and about fourteen stages. When Buster picks up a star orb he can change places with his chosen partner Plucky (flies short distances and swims easier), Dizzy (spins through enemies and certain walls), or Furrball (climbs walls). Noticeably absent is Babs Bunny who, predictably, plays the damsel in distress.

There are a lot of good things one can say about this game: there's a nice diversity of levels, the ability to switch between characters that play differently is a cool feature, the graphics are great for an NES game with lots of detailed sprites and bright colors that match the look of the show, and fans of which will appreciate that almost every character/enemy in this game is actually from the show and not just some generic video game baddie. This game even includes a secret boss which most people won't even meet during their first run.

Some people might find the controls too bouncy and strange but after spending a lot of time with the game I found this is completely due to people, myself included, playing the game wrong. See, this game uses the run button differently from the more familiar Mario games. In Mario the run button is generally held down to avoid moving too slow but in this game the run button is used only sparingly to catch extra air, jump extra far, move extra fast, etc. and is not intended to be held down for more than a second or two unless you're an expert trying to speed through levels like some other kind of blue woodland game character.

The Bad
It's debatable, but many may find this game to be too difficult especially since it's geared more towards kids. It really isn't that difficult to be honest though, especially when compared to other Konami games, at its most difficult it is like Ninja Gaiden if Ninja Gaiden was intended to be a children's game. Most players won't beat it on their first try because, just like in Ninja Gaiden, you have to learn how to get past specific obstacles on later stages or you'll never make it and that takes experience, creativity, and patience. The game also leaves little room for error since your characters can't take more than 2 hits fully powered and there's just one power-up per stage

More problematic for me than general difficulty is just the kind of obliqueness of certain aspects of the game. There's a lot of nuance to the game's controls but none of it is explained outside the manual and the same goes for less obvious abilities like Plucky's near-essential swimming ability during the water level. Perhaps most maddening are the Elmyra sections where your first thought is "this is a boss, I must jump on her head" but your actual unspecified goal is to avoid being sent back to the beginning.

The Bottom Line
Although not as creative as some others, Tiny Toons is one of the best licensed games for the NES with its great graphics, controls, faithfulness to the show, and challenge.

NES · by Joey Taylor (10) · 2013

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Stackers
Released 2001 on Game Boy Advance
Tiny Toon Adventures: Scary Dreams
Released 2002 on Game Boy Advance
Tiny Toon Adventures: Wacky Sports
Released 1994 on Game Boy
Tiny Toon Adventures: Plucky's Big Adventure
Released 2001 on PlayStation
Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break
Released 1992 on Game Boy
Tiny Toon Adventures: Dizzy's Candy Quest
Released 2001 on Game Boy Color

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 5786
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by quizzley7.

Game added February 11, 2002. Last modified January 6, 2024.