Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt

The Animaniacs and the Gamecube sound like a great match, with the endless comic possibilities presented by Wakko, Jakko and Dot, and the inimitable team of Pinky and the Brain. Alas, while some of their zany, antic humor is evident, the pointless gameplay sucks a lot of the fun right out of the game.

The story is that the Edgar Night can’t be held this year, as C.C. Deville has stolen all the Edgars, in revenge for never getting noticed by the Edgar award committee. It’s up to Dot, Yakko and Wakko to find the missing Edgars and save the day.

This premise actually works pretty well as it’s a good vehicle for collectables and also for advancing the plot, by requiring a certain number of Edgars to be collected in order to access certain areas of the game. At first, only Yakko is available, then Dot soon joins the team after she’s rescued by Yakko. Wakko takes a bit longer to find. The action begins in the Warner Bros movie lot in a sort of tutorial mode. Once a few Edgars have been found, players can leave the lot and explore movie sets like the Old West, a haunted castle, and other areas.

Most of the gameplay centers on finding scripts, coins and Edgars. The coins are gathered by smashing objects, the scripts are scattered around the lots, and the Edgars are earned by finding a certain number of coins, and by accomplishing tasks set forth by in-game characters.

Yakko, Dot and Wakko have basic moves such as jumping and simple attacks. They each have special abilities, too, but these only become available after certain items are found: a grass skirt for Dot to do a limbo in, a spade for Wakko to dig up things, and bombs for Yakko. There are special power-ups, too, like night-vision goggles, a proton accelerator pack (shooter) and a magnifying glass.

The action is typical platform jumping and running, while smashing objects and enemies. The enemies are easy to defeat, but hard to avoid; it’s almost impossible to keep from losing health points while running around some of them. The main problem in avoiding them is the bad camera design, with some secondary problems of having the hazards too close to the edge of some ledges for the characters to pass by them without getting hit. To break up the platform action, there are amusing Pinky and the Brain mini-games spaced throughout the levels.

The levels are attractively designed, and fairly fun to run through the first time. It’s when you’re going through them the umpteenth time trying to figure out just what you’re supposed to be doing that it becomes pointless and boring. The problem is that there is no direction in the game. A few hints would be welcome, not that players want to be led by the hand, but a few pointers are sometimes necessary. It’s easy to become confused early on in the game. The first level is the Warner Bros main movie lot, which begins like a tutorial. Once I found some Edgars, I was able to access the Old West. There were several areas in this level, and I became bogged down trying to find Dot’s skirt. I spent a LOT of time going back and forth through five or six different areas in the Old West, trying to find that skirt. 

Finally, I realized that there was more than one movie lot off the main Warner Bros lot, which didn’t dawn on me until I revisited the main lot. I guess I just forgot about that first world, as it seemed like mostly a tutorial, rather than a hub world. This is where some direction or help from the in-game characters would have been helpful. To find Dot’s skirt, it’s necessary to visit other worlds, to find the spade for Yakko. This type of wandering around is needlessly frustrating, and especially hard on younger players.

Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt is a decent enough game, but not what it could have been. The Warner Bros. (and Sister) are a hoot and a great premise for a console game, but the idea wasn’t developed enough. The Pinky and the Brain mini-games are right on target in utilizing the humor of the show, but the platform action isn’t very exciting. There’s not enough variety in collectibles, and the lack of information about what to do next bogs down the gameplay. The levels are fairly well designed, but not fun enough to keep revisiting again and again after all the collectibles have been gathered. Parents may want to think about this game before purchasing, as they will probably have to help the younger kids play.

Gameplay: 6.0
The gameplay becomes tiring after replaying several times. Some type of direction is severely needed, to keep things moving along.

Graphics: 8.0
The game looks good, and the characters are drawn very well.

Sound: 8.0
The music sounds just like the old TV show, and the voices sound the same, too.

Difficulty: Medium
This game is not very easy, due to the wandering around bits.

Concept: 6.0
There should have been more done in developing this license.

Overall: 6.5
A decent game in terms of graphics and humor, but a little lacking in level design. The platform moves just aren’t that interesting, especially the third or fourth time around. The Pinky and the Brain mini-games are the most fun, but there aren’t that many of them. The lack of direction is what really kills the game, though. With the generous health points, numerous save spots and easy to defeat enemies, this would seem like a game targeted toward kids, but the lack of more detailed information on the gameplay isn’t kid-friendly. A mediocre game that could have been a lot better.