Looney Tunes: Back in Action

Movie tie-in games have had a tumultuous history often ranging from solid to horrible—but where other long-loved franchises were able to make headway in the market with one-off releases, Looney Tunes already had a large catalogue of games in its arsenal before the release of Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Based on a movie of the same name merging live-action (with Brendan Fraser) and the famous cartoons including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, this game sought to cash-in on a relatively popular box-office release in an, almost, interesting way.

Jokes or Gameplay, You Can’t Have Both

That’s not entirely true as, with this game, you can have neither. That feels like both, at least—a little. The movie this game was based told a story about Bugs and Daffy as stars in Hollywood—it offered up some good laughs and saw a return to form for these long-loved characters.

On the other hand, this game offered a partner story that felt like ‘one of the movies’ these famous characters begrudgingly take part in to maintain their fame. For context, this game sees our heroes stopping a supervillain from turning the world into monkeys, as Bugs and Daffy must platform and collectathon their way to victory. However, beyond the story, most of the jokes seemed to be reserved for the movie, as this game was given the throwaway lines. That, and it doesn’t go all the way with the idea of a tie-in, or a real-life version of the characters like the movie did—and, because straddling the fence, it ends up somewhat of a mish-mash when it comes to story and definitely when it comes to gameplay.

Camera 1, Camera 2, Camera No!

It’s not necessarily the fault of the game developers that movie tie-in games lack polish. A majority of the time the movie has been in production long before the game has found a team to make it. That being said, most of the time these games emulate other popular games of the time. In this case, the slew of platformers like Mario, Crash Bandicoot, or even Spyro. However, with just the superficial comparisons to be made, the game never really excels at any of the aspects that made those games classics. For a prime example, this game cannot master the third-person platforming camera. It can’t decide how far or close to be, gets lost in walls, and clips through a lot of environmental features. Not to mention, the platforming doesn’t have the weight or precision that the games that inspired it do—making it feel like the characters on screen don’t want to listen to your input. Something done unintentionally as an annoying oversight, that a game like Last Guardian did intentionally as a feature.

Suffering Succotash

It’s easy to be a fan of the iconic characters of the Looney Tunes and, like Kingdom Hearts, that’s enough of a reason to try the game out. However, that is where the comparison falls apart. Where the first Kingdom Hearts (not the third) gave exciting versions of their fictious Disney characters, this game feels like it could have had any cartoon characters in place of Bugs and Daffy and still not made any sense or been fun to play. If you’re a huge fan of the series, and it’s enough for you to hear all the wonderfully voiced cartoons just, saying things—play the game.

Pros

• Great voice acting
• Good character visuals

Cons

• Sloppy controls and camera
• Generic story lacking humor
• Repetitive gameplay loop