Buster Busts Loose

BBL-CA — The cover art for Buster Busts Loose

Buster Busts Loose is a video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1993 by Konami.

Gameplay[]

This game features Buster Bunny in a side-scrolling adventure that takes place in many different areas. Unlike most of the other Tiny Toon video games, this game has no specific storyline/plot, and most of the levels are not in continuity with each other. In short, it's like an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures with episode segments, if it were adapted into a video game. The game has three difficulty settings - "Children" (easy), "Normal", and "Challenge" (hard). On the easy mode, the levels are significantly reduced in size (as noted in the synopsis below), and the boss battles are omitted. In the hard mode, Buster must start each level with only one health unit. If hard mode is cleared, animated sprites will appear during the credits. Passwords are used for easy mode, but are surprisingly omitted from normal and hard modes.

Stages[]

Stage 1: Acme Looniversity

As the game begins, Buster realizes he is late for class and dashes off, despite Babs' warning of the escaped animals within. Over the course of the level, Buster continually encounters what appear to be numerous purple-colored clones of Perfecto Prep student Roderick Rat, as well as frogs and crabs (obviously the escaped animals Babs mentioned). Midway through the stage, Buster will drop into the darkened art room and destroy a statue of Montana Max, prompting the appearance of the mini-boss, Arnold the Pit Bull. When Arnold is defeated, he drops a key which gives Buster access to the elevator leading to the next part of the stage, the cafeteria. At the end of the stage, Hamton tells Buster that Dizzy Devil is destroying the kitchen. This segues into the boss fight (which, along with Hamton's appearance, is skipped in the Easy difficulty mode), where Buster has to jump under the conveyor belt on which Dizzy is standing so that nine total pieces of food are consumed by Dizzy. Every so often, Dizzy will spin and destroy the conveyor belts, making feeding him more of a challenge.

Stage 2: The Western Movie

The next stage is the set of a western movie being filmed, which Montana Max claims he is the star of. The first part of the stage has Buster walking through the town, encountering enemies such as the Coyote Kid from the episode, High Toon and, for some reason, Barky Marky. At one point, he will need to jump rope ten times (the rope moves faster in the hard mode). After jumping rope, he will then enter a five-story building. On the top floor, he catches Max in the act of stealing money from a vault. Max jumps out the window and Buster follows.

The second half of the stage (skipped in the easy mode) is an auto-scrolling stage that has Buster chasing after Max on a runaway train. Here, the dash move comes into full force, as at one point the train goes into a low tunnel, forcing Buster to dash over the tunnel's mountain in order to catch up with the train. This is followed by a run-in with Silas Wonder (as a mini-boss) and his minions from the episode, Sawdust & Toonsil. The end of the level places Buster on the front car of the train, where the smokestacks are on fire as the train is out of control. Once Buster makes it past the smokestacks, he catches up with Max, who is now begging for his help. The level ends with the two of them jumping onto a hand car and pumping it hard enough to get away from the train, eventually reaching 88 miles per hour and zooming off leaving a fire trail (in a reference to Back to the Future).

Stage 3: Spook Mansion

After clearing the previous stage, it starts to rain, so Buster seeks shelter in a seemingly-abandoned mansion, which he notes is an obvious cliché. The enemies here consist of ghosts (from the Return of the Acme Acres Zone episode segment, Boo Hoo Hoo), two-headed monsters (from the wraparounds of the episode, Stuff That Goes Bump in the Night), evil cakes (from the You Asked for It, Part II episode segment, Little Cake of Horrors), and a vampire mini-boss (from the Stuff that Goes Bump in the Night episode segment, Fang You Very Much). When played on the easy difficulty, the stage ends after the third room, but if played on the normal or hard modes, Babs will appear at the end of the stage to tell Buster that her friend, Melvin the Monster (from the episode "Hare-Raising Night", but not referred to by name in the game itself) has been captured and taken under the control of the stage's boss, Dr. Gene Splicer (also from "Hare-Raising Night", but referred to as the Mad Scientist in the game itself). In the boss fight, Melvin will throw light bulbs and screwbolts at Buster, the latter of which Buster must kick so that they hit Splicer's machine, eventually destroying it and thus freeing Melvin.

Stage 4: Acme Looniversity Football

This stage, based on the episode, The Acme Bowl, is set in a football game between Acme Looniversity and Perfecto Prep (suspiciously not called by name in the game), with the score at 10-14. Buster is the star receiver on his team and must run the ball 100 yards over the field to score a touchdown and win the game. Plucky Duck, Hamton, and Furrball accompany him here as the team's quarterback, center, and defense, respectively. The Perfectoids will try to tackle Buster as he runs with the ball, and he can only be tackled four times for every ten-yard section of the field. The player can choose to either have Buster simply run with the ball, or have Plucky pass the ball and Buster catch it. The latter method is preferable, as if the player successfully catches the ball, it will have cleared eight yards, and the Perfectoids cannot hurt Buster until he actually has the ball. This stage has a time limit that varies depending on the difficulty mode - 15 minutes on easy (with the clock pausing whenever the ball is fumbled), 7 on normal, and 4 on hard.

Stage 5: Buster's Sky-jinks

For this stage, Buster goes up into the sky to retrieve an item that Calamity Coyote accidentally left up there. The item is the script for the next episode (which will lead to the final level of the game). Buster climbs about the stage by jumping onto bubbles (provided by Hamton in a plane), balloons, and pinball flippers. The only enemies in this stage are some buzzards who assault Buster while he's flying on a blimp which appears to be promoting the cartoon itself (it later pops and Concord Condor airlifts Buster to the next part). Once Buster finds the script, the sky palace where he currently is begins to fall apart and he has dash up the walls and avoid falling off the screen. This stage is skipped completely on the easy mode.

Stage 6: Space Opera

Based on the episode, A Quack in the Quarks, the game's final stage is an outer space setting where Buster plays "a Knight of Honor" who has to rescue Babs, who is in her Princess Leia-based attire. The enemies are all based on characters who appeared in the episode as well, with the exception of robots who appeared in the Return of the Acme Acres Zone episode segment, Real Kids Don't Eat Broccoli. On the easy mode, the game abruptly ends after the second room, where Buster must avoid giant laser beams by hiding behind barrier walls. The final boss is Duck Vader, also from A Quack in the Quarks (although here, he is simply a costumed Plucky, whereas on the show, he was a completely different character), armed with a paralyzing ray gun. To defeat Vader, Buster must knock his flying saucer away from said gun and then kick the gun around so that its rays hit Vader's ship.

Bonus Games[]

In between stages, the player will be presented with a bonus stage format. It will feature Buster and Babs on a roulette called "Wheels o' Game" (a.k.a. "Roulette"), much like the episode, The Wheel o' Comedy from the series. This portion of the game offers five mini-games in which the player can gain extra lives for the regular game. Landing on a specific character's face will result in that bonus game. By entering Elmyra Duff, Shirley the Loon, and Calamity Coyote, respectively, at the password menu, you can access these bonus games anytime. They are:

Sweetie Bird: Mystery Weight Challenge (a.k.a. "Seesaw") - Using the left side of the screen, the player will select Tiny Toons characters to randomly match up (and hopefully outweigh) the computer's selections on the right. Each character can only be used once for five rounds. In order from lightest to heaviest, the player gets Sweetie Bird (cannot win), Gogo Dodo (low chance of winning), Plucky Duck (fair chance of winning), Babs Bunny (good chance of winning) and Elmyra Duff (cannot lose), while the computer gets Li'l Sneezer (cannot win), Little Beeper (low chance of winning), Shirley the Loon (fair chance of winning), Calamity Coyote (good chance of winning) and Montana Max (cannot lose). If the player's character ends up winning (i.e. Plucky outweighing Little Beeper), the player will get an extra life, while nothing happens either if the computer wins (i.e. Sweetie is outweighed by Shirley) or if the round ends in a tie (i.e. choosing Elmyra against Montana Max). If the player has more wins than the computer (i.e. 3 wins against 2, with no ties), they will win one extra life. In the very rare instance where a player ties all five times, they still are awarded five extra lives. It is most likely a glitch though.
Hamton J. Pig: Hungry Boy Hamton (a.k.a. "Junction") - Hamton is walking along a blue path towards apples. The player uses a hole in the ground to create the path for Hamton to follow (the control is a little confusing, as the player must press left for the hole to move right and vice versa). Each apple Hamton eats nets the player one extra life. The game ends when either time runs out, Hamton eats all the apples onscreen, hits either a blank spot on the floor or a path which goes against Hamton's path (causing Hamton to fall flat on his face) or falls through the hole in the floor.
Plucky Duck: Plucky Duck's Go-Go Bingo - Plucky Duck hosts a bingo game where the player is trying to win extra lives. The player gets a bingo card featuring multiple pics of 10 different Tiny Toons characters; these pics include Babs Bunny, Plucky Duck, Shirley the Loon, Elmyra Duff, Montana Max, Calamity Coyote, Little Beeper, Gogo Dodo, Sweetie Bird, and Bookworm. When Plucky calls out a character's face, every picture of that character will be covered automatically. When a line is completed (either horizontally, vertically or diagonally), the player will win an extra life. The amount of balls Plucky will call depends on the difficulty. There are 8 in Children (Easy), 7 in Normal and 6 in Challenge (Hard). Ultimately, the player will win at least one life (except in the Hard difficulty, where it is actually possible not to win any lives at all).
Furrball: Furrball's Championship Squash - A mini-game where Furrball is playing squash against a wall while Hamton watches. Each time the ball is hit, it will speed up, and the ball must be hit 15 times in a row for the player to win an extra life. Periodically, one of three characters will run against the wall. Hitting them will reward the player differently. Hitting Calamity Coyote (the slowest character) will stop the timer, granting the player more time. Hitting Concord Condor (the character with moderate speed) will slow down the ball. Hitting Little Beeper (the quickest character) will result in the player getting an automatic extra life. The game ends when the time is up.
Babs Bunny: Babs, Find Your Friends! (a.k.a. "Maze") - A Pac-Man-esque mini-game where Babs Bunny has infiltrated Elmyra's house and must free her friends (Little Beeper, Calamity Coyote, Bookworm, Furrball, Concord Condor and Fifi La Fume) who are trapped behind locked doors. Babs is also working against the clock; the amount of time she is permitted depends on the difficulty. The timer has 60 seconds in Children, 30 seconds in Normal and 15 seconds in Challenge. Patrolling the house is Elmyra (who walks around, and will speed up if Babs is in sight), Dizzy Devil (who stands in place unless tornado spinning, moves quickly) and Arnold the Pit Bull (walks around slowly, generally the least menacing). Touching the door will open it, resulting in that character being freed and the player is awarded an extra life. The game ends when Babs frees all her friends, time runs out or Babs comes in contact with either Elmyra, Dizzy or Arnold.

Acclaim[]

Buster Busts Loose was nominated for the Favorite Video Game category at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in 1996.

Trivia[]

The player must have the L and R shoulder buttons set to command "Dash" for the player to advance beyond the train level in the second stage. Otherwise, Buster will walk off the train car before getting to the jump which will lead to the train to meet up with Montana Max and the player will lose lives. A fan patch has been coded to address the issue.
- Similarly, if the player changes the control settings in the options menu, the game's demo mode (seen if the player does not press any buttons on the title screen) is affected, which can lead to it displaying a rather messed-up playthrough. It is even possible for the demo itself to get a "Game Over"!
In the opening cutscene for the second stage, Buster tells the player that the top L and R buttons are used to dash. This cutscene does not change despite the fact that control scheme is customizable. In addition, there are no other instances in the game where an action button for a certain move is explicitly stated.
Unlike most SNES games, the A Button is not used at default, although the commands can be switched in the OPTIONS menu.
Sweetie Bird is shown mad when you lose all lives, and go to the continue screen. The continue screen is shown as a mad Sweetie, and a film line. The player can choose to use 1 of their continues or give up and get "Game Over".
The artwork on the game's box as well as the cartridge stickers and front side of the manuals for the Western and Korean versions of the game depict Buster wearing a swimsuit, yet he never actually wears one in the game.
Some songs played on game were originally played on the TV series, for example:
- Go, Buster! Go! Go! Go!: Played in the Rock 'N' Roar
- Spook Mansion: Played in the The Raven
- Buster Busts: Played in the The Acme Bowl
- Buster Sky Jinks: Played in the Europe in 30 Minutes
- Escape From the Sky Tower!: Played in the Let's Do Lunch

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Main article: Buster Busts Loose/Screenshots