Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose (SNES, 1992)
Graphics-8 Sound-7 Control-5 Challenge-7 Story-5
Level Design-6 Frustration-8.5 Fun-5.5 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-5.5
+
Good art direction
Password save
Run up and down walls
Fleshes out the characters of the show a bit better than previous and contemporary TT games (NES, MD)
Extendable lifebar (doesn't carry over to the next stage unfortunately)
Mini-games (5 different ones, chosen via a spinning wheel game), in-level mini-games (rope jumping - not optional)
Hidden items
Pretty good variation
Difficulty options (almost no bosses on easy and the game ends prematurely)
Some decent puzzles (mansion level)
Settings are based on the cartoon episodes
Creative final level and boss, jump off of and onto ladders
One alternate path through part of the final level
+/-
Heavily inspired by Sonic, slow walking speed/fast running speed (no acceleration/deceleration or middle speed)
Running is limited by a charge meter which you need to refill by picking up items (if it runs out where you need to be running up a wall you have to stand in place for a couple of seconds and wait for it to recharge (tedious)*
No wall jumping (see the MD game)
No smart bombs
No hub world (see Buster's Hidden Treasure)
Fairly easy to rack up extra lives
Fairly frequent checkpoints
Ends just like Altered Beast with the characters being in a movie set
Limited continues (5)
-
*It also means you'll fall all the way back down if it runs out while running up a wall (double tedious))
Control issues (running off a platform edge resets your momentum, can't attack (kick or slide) while running up or down a wall or while crouching, running isn't canceled by letting go of the button and/or jumping in the opposite direction - you need to break (to a stand still) while on the ground, running _is_ cancelled when moving between screens/areas even if you hold down the button, can't move while crouching, getting stuck in narrow paths means you have to jump out through the platform/object above Buster which looks glitchy, annoying pause/loss of control when starting to run or when getting hit by an enemy (Buster gets knocked over; you also can't snap out of this knockback animation while falling from taller heights which can be really annoying)
Somewhat sloppy hit detection on the drop kick move and when you hit an enemy you'll do a backflip which kills your forward momentum)
The game is too low res and has too large sprites for the speed you're expected to be moving at in a lot of segments
Can't jump on enemies to attack them or bounce off of them
Trial & error (unlike in Mario you'll die if you let the screen scroll too far in autoscrolling segments (it scrolls Buster off of the screen), vampires are invincible in bat form, football level mechanics, some leaps of faith - can't look up/down, the weighing mini-game, unnecessary points of no return, unforgiving traps or enemy placements in segments where you need to run, nearly impossible to react in time to slide or kick while running and encountering a quickly moving enemy, boss patterns, bab's bonus stage, train segment)
Some tedious parts (some enemies take too many hits to kill, the first boss - takes too long to beat and you have to wait for quite a while in-between attacks, parts of the autoscrolling train segment, the football game level, falling down in the balloon level)
Need to stop to pick up stars dropped by enemies (breaks flow)
Can't play as any other characters in the main game (see the NES games)
Some slowdown
Pretty short (six levels)
Bland intro cutscene (short and can be skipped though)
Notes:
-Runs a little bit slower in the PAL version though the music is the same speed
Level Design-6 Frustration-8.5 Fun-5.5 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-5.5
+
Good art direction
Password save
Run up and down walls
Fleshes out the characters of the show a bit better than previous and contemporary TT games (NES, MD)
Extendable lifebar (doesn't carry over to the next stage unfortunately)
Mini-games (5 different ones, chosen via a spinning wheel game), in-level mini-games (rope jumping - not optional)
Hidden items
Pretty good variation
Difficulty options (almost no bosses on easy and the game ends prematurely)
Some decent puzzles (mansion level)
Settings are based on the cartoon episodes
Creative final level and boss, jump off of and onto ladders
One alternate path through part of the final level
+/-
Heavily inspired by Sonic, slow walking speed/fast running speed (no acceleration/deceleration or middle speed)
Running is limited by a charge meter which you need to refill by picking up items (if it runs out where you need to be running up a wall you have to stand in place for a couple of seconds and wait for it to recharge (tedious)*
No wall jumping (see the MD game)
No smart bombs
No hub world (see Buster's Hidden Treasure)
Fairly easy to rack up extra lives
Fairly frequent checkpoints
Ends just like Altered Beast with the characters being in a movie set
Limited continues (5)
-
*It also means you'll fall all the way back down if it runs out while running up a wall (double tedious))
Control issues (running off a platform edge resets your momentum, can't attack (kick or slide) while running up or down a wall or while crouching, running isn't canceled by letting go of the button and/or jumping in the opposite direction - you need to break (to a stand still) while on the ground, running _is_ cancelled when moving between screens/areas even if you hold down the button, can't move while crouching, getting stuck in narrow paths means you have to jump out through the platform/object above Buster which looks glitchy, annoying pause/loss of control when starting to run or when getting hit by an enemy (Buster gets knocked over; you also can't snap out of this knockback animation while falling from taller heights which can be really annoying)
Somewhat sloppy hit detection on the drop kick move and when you hit an enemy you'll do a backflip which kills your forward momentum)
The game is too low res and has too large sprites for the speed you're expected to be moving at in a lot of segments
Can't jump on enemies to attack them or bounce off of them
Trial & error (unlike in Mario you'll die if you let the screen scroll too far in autoscrolling segments (it scrolls Buster off of the screen), vampires are invincible in bat form, football level mechanics, some leaps of faith - can't look up/down, the weighing mini-game, unnecessary points of no return, unforgiving traps or enemy placements in segments where you need to run, nearly impossible to react in time to slide or kick while running and encountering a quickly moving enemy, boss patterns, bab's bonus stage, train segment)
Some tedious parts (some enemies take too many hits to kill, the first boss - takes too long to beat and you have to wait for quite a while in-between attacks, parts of the autoscrolling train segment, the football game level, falling down in the balloon level)
Need to stop to pick up stars dropped by enemies (breaks flow)
Can't play as any other characters in the main game (see the NES games)
Some slowdown
Pretty short (six levels)
Bland intro cutscene (short and can be skipped though)
Notes:
-Runs a little bit slower in the PAL version though the music is the same speed