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| Title: |
Bugs Bunny in Crazy Castle 4 |
| Publisher: |
Kemco |
| Features: |
GameBoy Color only. Password feature. |
| Format: |
Platformer |
| Reviewer: |
Heiss |
|
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Introduction
One of the very first Game Boy games I remember playing when I got my first
Game Boy in the early 90's was Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, a simple platformer in which you guide Bugs inside a castle
while collecting keys to open the next level. Now, years later, the fourth game in this series is released, and
this time it's for Game Boy Color only. Crazy Castle 4 has been out in Europe for quite some time now and was recently
previewed during this year's E3.
Gameplay
During the colorful introduction, Bugs has found a mysterious map of a castle,
but it's so old and worn out that Bugs can't make out the first word of the castle, only that it begins with "C".
Being the logical thinker that he is, our Bugs can only conclude that "C. Castle" stands for "Carrot
Castle" and goes off with visions of an entire castle filled with carrots. What he doesn't know is that the
"C" actually stands for "Crazy."
Gameplay is done in stages, with 5 levels per stage, and you don't actually start in the castle, but outside its
environs, gradually making your way inside. The direction pad controls Bugs, and he can climb ladders, vines, or
pipes, and can go to higher platforms by jumping on mushrooms. Bugs has to collect 8 keys hidden in treasure chests
found inside rooms in order to unlock the door that will lead to the next level. Touching a chest automatically
opens it, and can contain a key, weapon, mallet, pick, shield, power-up, or extra lives.
Each level also features various Looney Tunes characters that wander around, and when they touch Bugs, he loses
one life. Most of them can be avoided by carefully timing your moves but some, like Daffy Duck, can follow you
relentlessly. To thwart these characters, Bugs can either kick objects towards them or push objects from above,
making it fall on them.
A more effective method would be to use the weapons found inside the chests: a balloon or a gun. Whenever you have
these in your inventory, Button A switches weapons and Button B activates them. For the gun, just aim in the direction
to shoot and press B to fire it; as for the balloon, press B to inflate it and release it; step aside and wait
until a character runs into it until it explodes. Once you get rid of a character, they're gone for good on that
level.
Other levels feature impassable walls, which you can smash with the mallet, and there's another that you can climb
over with the pick. Getting a shield will enable Bugs to touch the other characters harmlessly while a power-up
will get rid of the other characters quickly by touching them. And once in a while you will find two chests inside
a room-- opening one will make the other disappear, so choose wisely, and if you're really unlucky the chest turns
out to be a monster and you'll end up losing a life.
Graphics and Sound
Levels are colorful and detailed, but sometimes the colors are too off in
some parts, and as a result some elements can be hard to spot, like the keys in the early levels--they seem to
blend in the background. Bugs and the other characters are nicely animated, and Bugs himself strikes a relaxed
pose when no button is pressed after a few seconds. Sound is adequate, and the same can be said for the music,
which consists of standard Game Boy music fare and hardly anything noteworthy.
Other Comments
After four games in the Crazy Castle series, nothing can be said about this
game that hasn't been already said in the first three games. There's really nothing new here, and 5 levels per
stage that look exactly the same can get pretty tired easily. It plays and looks almost the same as the previous
games, except for the colofrul eye candy and bigger pics in the introduction. It even includes the same annoying
password save feature that requires you to memorize a combination of 6 letters, numbers or symbols, really irritating
if you're in a hurry or on the go.
I expected more from this cart since it's a Game Boy Color only game and with a bigger cart capacity they could've
placed nicer music, maybe more sound effects or speech, and lots of other things that Bugs can do, like jump on
his own, not just walk around. Play this one only if you want more of the same and hope that Crazy Castle 5 will
be a lot better. |
