Developer: Kemco Publisher: Kemco Seika Released: 1989 Genre: Action
Licensed games were routinely terrible on the NES. Whether they came from LJN or Activision some of the most beloved movie and cartoon franchises were done dirty in their video game incarnations. While Disney would get their due thanks to Capcom the Looney Tunes were not so lucky. Among the worst of the bunch is the Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. This could have been a good game but its mechanics do not hold up under such a long and repetitive game.
There is a long, confusing history behind the Crazy Castle series of games. The first game which this game is based on was originally released in Japan as Roger Rabbit. Unfortunately LJN owned that license in the America and released their own turd in the wild. So they swapped rabbits. But it doesn’t stop there. Crazy Castle II in the US was actually the second Mickey Mouse game in Japan. Mickey Mouse III became Kid Klown in Night Mayor World. Funny that. Somehow Mickey Mouse IV was turned into a Ghostbusters variant. If that isn’t strange enough in the PAL region it was replaced with Garfield! I’ll just stop here because it gets even stranger but you get the jist. Even re-reading everything I just wrote sounds unbelievable.
The goal in every level is simple. As Bugs Bunny you must collect eight carrots in each level. Thwarting his progress are various Looney Tunes characters such as Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, and Sylvester. On his own Bugs can do nothing except push objects; he cannot even jump. Throughout each stage are various items to deal with his enemies. Boxing gloves allow you to punch out one enemy while you can push boxes and buckets on top of enemies. The rare invincibility power-up is freeing as you can bulldoze enemies for the few seconds it lasts. But for the most part you spend your time navigating around the extended cast.
The game’s premise is incredibly simple. Yet somehow playing the game is an absolute chore. I can’t describe just how poor the controls are. Bugs Bunny slides when he performs any action and it is infuriating. Try to move a few steps and he will glide a few feet. Step on a staircase and he will automatically move nearly the whole length rather just a single step. It makes any precise moves a crapshoot as to their effectiveness. Unfortunately the game calls on you to be incredibly nimble in outwitting your fellow Looney Tunes and the controls are not up to the task.
There are also plenty of other problems beyond the controls. Because Bugs Bunny can’t jump the level design is different to compensate. Navigation is done through stairs, doorways, and pipes. The game can be clever at times in its layouts; stage thirty is an excellent pipe maze that gives you ample opportunity to outmaneuver the various enemies. But there are far too many like stage twenty-six that rely on luck for progression. To an extent you can control the enemies; each has specific behaviors that once you notice you influence how they will act. But later in the game the weird level design is at odds with their AI and it becomes aggravating rather than fun.
The biggest problem with the game is that it shows all of its cards too soon. Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle has sixty levels in total. But the game only has three separate themes for its environments that it cycles through. By stage ten you will have seen all it has to offer. The game may shuffle the deck for the sake of variety but its gameplay and mechanics are not strong enough to keep it interesting for the long haul. If they introduced new items, enemies or traps maybe it would have been better. But you see everything early on and sadly it never changes. The repetition is too much for this one.
In Closing
I like the idea of Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. But the reality is another story. The game does everything in its power to turn players away. There is the gem of a good game here but it is far too long and repetitive for its own good. Stay the hell away from this one. Somehow this series would persist for decades to come, god help us all.
