Bugs Bunny Lost in Time Review
For Bugs Bunny's 80th anniversary/birthday I'm going to look back at Bugs' first 3D outing on the PS1.
Release Date: (EU) 29th June 1999 (NA) 31st May 1999
PC release: September 1999
Developer: Behaviour Interactive
Publisher: Infogrames
Shortly after my 7th birthday when I got my PlayStation, I also got my first demo disc. Simply titled Demo Disc and released in 1999, it had on it games that would shape my budding gaming brain giving me my first tastes at what to expect on the PlayStation as well as establishing the kind of games I would grow up to loving. It came with it Crash Team Racing, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Croc 2, Destrega, Devil Dice, Gran Turismo 2, Ridge Racer Type 4, Spyro 2, Wip3out and finally Bugs Bunny Lost in Time. It also had a video on This Is Football and a Hotline + Powerline interactive listing. Before you could look up cheats and tips online with ease or walkthroughs on YouTube, you would have to call up hotlines that you could get a hold of in magazines or in game manuals. Something now as relative as floppy discs I suppose.
But not only did this give me my first exposure into 3D adventure games and sporting games— of which I loved playing the Spyro 2, Tony Hawk’s, Crash Team Racing, Croc 2, Wip3out demos— it started off this titular review. I want to say very quickly as well with the CTR demo it looked SO different to the final product. It had different portraits for the characters in the position menu, different sounds and music so it was interesting to see the changes in the build from this demo to the final product.
The demo of Bugs Bunny Lost in Time started off with Bugs in the stone age with Elmer Fudd sending off a horde of eggshell-headed goons to chase the wabbit. Then as Bugs you wade through the stone aged level jumping on Brontosaurus heads, jumping on the eggshell-headed goons heads, and avoiding swooping Pterodactyls and anvils falling from the sky. Then at the end you defeat Elmer by diving through rabbit holes and sneaking up behind him and booting him up the backside. Overall it doesn’t differ too far at all from the final game. (I promise this whole review isn’t about the demo.)
I remember when playing this demo I was mesmerised by the interactivity of playing as Bugs. You could run, jump, hover with a twirl of his ears, roll around, kick and you could dive into rabbit holes and dig around. You could also freely dive anywhere that wasn’t a rabbit hole and go smack into the hard ground on his head with a resounding thud and comical honk. For me as a 7 year old that was growing up with Looney Tunes cartoons and loving them to death, this was a huge thing to be able to do everything that Bugs can do and everything a cartoon character would do. I would even dive off the stage just because I could. I loved the fun of the interactivity of it all, to be given this cartoon toy and playground to galavant how I wanted around this singular level.
The design of this level as well played heavily on my imagination. Later on nearer the end of the level, you have to sneak by a sleeping Pterodactyl without waking it. I hadn’t sussed out how to sneak by without alerting it and always got caught. But beyond this sleeping sentinel I could see in the distance another platform I knew I could reach. But how? How could I get past this prehistoric bird? I remember I would spend nights in bed thinking about it, about how I could get around this nuisance to get to that platform and imagined what was there and what I could do on it. The following day I figured out how to sneak by. I nailed it. I had imagined it to be bigger than I found it to be. The area was a lot smaller than I thought. But I liked how much these simplistically designed and technically limited levels would play on my imagination a lot. Something I found that happened a lot of times in my younger days playing games is that for what the graphics couldn’t do or detail, my imagination filled in the rest. I loved that games could give that suggestive imagination.
Then I got to Elmer. He scared me but eventually I prevailed and won and beat the demo! And that was that. I never got the game fully, even ended up playing the demo of the sequel Bugs and Taz Time Busters the following year.
15 years later I finally managed to get a hold of the game and play it all (told you!) The plot of the game is a twist of 1955’s Knight-Mare Hare. While trying to find his way to Pismo Beach and not turning right at Alberquerque, he winds up in a shed that houses a time machine. Accidentally turning it on, he’s then transported in time to Nowhere Land and meets Merlin Munroe. The story plays, or rather replays, a lot of the same old gags as Knight-Mare Hare like when Bugs first meets with Merlin and he tries his hokey tricks on him. The game even ends the same way where Bugs thinks none of what happened really happened and then hears a nearby farmer callng his mule Merlin, shaking him nervously. Just like the cartoon. Interestingly, if you complete it without all 128 clocks your end credits scene takes place in a foresty area at night. But if you complete it all 100% you’re greeted with the credits scene at Pismo Beach.
The back of the case boasts over 21 levels of fun-packed action and classic comic humour, 5 exciting time periods - The Stone Age, The Medieval Times, The Pirate Years, The 1930’s, and Dimension X! Encounter 12 of his most famous adversaries including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Witch Hazel, Rocky & Mugsy and Marvin the Martian!
So you’re given plenty of recognisable faces to come across from the classic shorts and more than enough levels over 5 different time periods giving a nice variety of level design. None of the levels last longer than they need to either so it doesn’t feel like you’re getting bored of one area and would rather go elsewhere. Yosemite rules over Pirate Years, Rocky & Mugsy of the 1930’s, Witch Hazel in the Medieval Times, Elmer in the Stone Age (as we already discussed earlier from the demo), and Marvin the Martian of Dimension X. Each adversary works naturally in each given time period and it works wonderfully so. And because of this the developers can play off from the cartoon shorts more easily.
Starting off in Nowhere Land, it serves off as a tutorial stage giving you the space to learn the controls and what you can do. Once you’re all finished you’re off to the Stone Age! Throughout the game you’ll return back to Nowhere to pick up certain magic tricks from Merlin that will help you overcome obstructions such as summoning a giant fan (Hocus-Pocus!), unlocking doors (Open Sesame!), a super high jump (Olly-Olly-Oxen-Free!) and a magical tune that can be used to access new areas.
The goal of the game is to get enough clocks to return back to the present as well as collect golden carrots to access new levels. Simple enough, though there are 124 clocks and 333 golden carrots to obtain throughout for 100% completion. Some golden carrots you can buy with regular carrots, of which you can hold maximum of 99 and these ordinary carrots can also be collected to replenish your health. Which is also carrots.
The look of the game looks identical to the cartoon shorts. The loading screens look like the title cards of the shorts, the characters designs are spot on, Yosemite and Elmer’s designs perfectly match their time periods as a pirate and caveman, and even the levels themselves look like they’re taken directly out of the shorts. You could stop roaming around for a moment and look around at the level’s design. The backgrounds look like drawings stolen right out of a Chuck Jones or Friz Freleng cartoon right down to the platforms. Every detail of these levels are very faithful to the cartoons and I love that.
The music as well plays faithfully to the cartoons. Its original tracks are completely cartoony in their own way while on the odd ocassion uses tracks from the cartoons, such as when Bugs plays at the piano horribly wrong. I feel like it can get a little stale and dull though, especially after hearing the same melody on loop for 5 minutes trying to figure your way around the Carrot Factory or trying to figure out how to make a very big Bank Withdrawal in the 1930’s.
Speaking of The Bank Withdrawal level in the 1930’s, I feel like some of the level designs can be a little bit off. Like working your way around the vaults on this level they feel confusing. Medieval Times levels sometimes feel a little like they could’ve had more refinement. I mean, at the part where you’re running along a castle wall avoiding cannonballs and dragon breath you can just not walk on the path and hop on the edge completely avoiding the cannonballs. To me it feels a little like Mario Kart 64 tracks where it feels like their first attempt at it and it comes off as an elongated mess. I’m looking at you Wario Stadium.
One other thing that I found mostly annoying was in Dimension X. There’s a part where you race against a martian on a scooter and trying to work around not bouncing off the martian and trying to get your timing right on swinging up the pole and not launching yourself off the track to do it all over again is frustrating. But with a little patience and perserverance it’s doable.
Beyond that I can’t think of anything else wrong with the game. It has its faults, sure, like with some level designs, music, and depth perception issues, but it has more strengths to it that make it worth playing the game for anyway. The boss fights are simplistic yet fun as well and it’s so enjoyable playing around as Bugs going through these wide variety of levels exploring different areas of the cartoon shorts.
And later on, Behaviour Interactive would go on to make other Looney Tunes games that only got better the more they toyed around with these characters. Bugs and Taz Time Busters was released a year later as a sequel to this where you could also play as Taz — which I remember being SO much fun twirling around his him — and visit different time periods and that itself had its own wonderful cartoon gameplay. Sheep Dog ‘n’ Wolf where you play as Ralph the Wolf (not Wile E.) to steal sheep from under Sam the Sheepdog’s nose is one of the best games I’ve played that use cartoon physics perfectly and enjoyably. I lost track of how many times I just ran headfirst into a wall just because I could. And they also later made Looney Tunes Racing which I would love to take a closer look at some time soon really.
If you love character platformers and collectathon games and especially love Looney Tunes this is absolutely worth a play.
Where to purchase:
As of 31/7/20
Ebay: £13- £50 / $32.99 - $40
Amazon: £25+ / $22
CeX: £18-25