Steven Spielberg Presents: Let's Play Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!

WELL HEY! It's that one guy, your old pal DemoWeasel!

You thought you'd seen the last of me didn't ya? Turns out your eyes couldn't have been bigger liars after all! There's this awesome thing called a plea bargain that gave me a little fine and re-approval for broadcasting, and all I had to do was testify against what's-his-name!

Of course, now he's threatening to throttle me 'til my head pops off, but FAT CHANCE tryin' to do that from your cell, wiseguy!

Another part of the bargain says I can't use the SATURDAY MORNING SUNDAE name any more, so, uh, we'll call this new and improved series DEMO'S INCREDIBLE KARTOON SHOW! I think it's got a nice ring to it, don't you? The K makes it extra wacky!

Our bigger budget also gives us access to actual, name brand stuff! There won't be any of that bootleg crap this time around. What better way to show off our syndication power than with that classic '90s chucklefest, TINY TOON ADVENTURES: BUSTER BUSTS LOOSE?





I'm not sure why Buster Bunny's wearing those crummy shorts on the box; it's not like he goes swimming or anything in this zany series of events! I guess they're just there to show off his standin' as a big fat party animal. Either that or he's just a huge idiot like all other rabbits are, but I'm goin' off track here!

Buster Busts Loose is one in a series of the Konami Telemedia's productions of the Tiny Toon Adventures license that also includes some forgettable sports-based programming and some knock-offs of that one Italian plumber sitcom. It's not anywhere near as weird as that OTHER Japanese Tiny Toons bit by Treasure Communications, but it sure is a fun, breezy romp through the world of all that is tiny, toony, and a little loony!

Enough with the introductory chit-chat; let's get to the meat of today's episode!



Each episode starts out with something everybody watches cartoons for: inane conversation!

Folks, if that's not a great setup, I don't know what is.



Yep, this sure is ACME Looniversity! I tried to apply there once, but I got rejected for reasons I'd rather not talk about. As you might've guessed, the star of the show is our good ol' friend Charlie Adler! He can perform amazing feats such as standing still, jumping, and, most exciting of all, crouching!



Uh-oh, looks like Babs wasn't being a conniving jerk when she warned us about those loose animals! These Perfecto Prep Rats want nothing more than to see the Looniversity trashed, but it doesn't look like Buster has any practical means of getting rid of them and instead flings his entire body toward the invaders in hopes of driving them away. Luckily, his tactics are successful, and the rats poof away into a cloud of dust, leaving behind some Stars. If you guessed that collecting a good hundred of these gives Buster another chance at life, pat yourself on the back for a few minutes! Go ahead, I can wait.



There are rats all up in the lockers, too! No point in acting surprised; those lockers look like they're left wide open for any random-ass person to rummage through. Buster eventually finds his bad blue self at the foot of a curiously elevated flight of stairs. He really wants to see where that tiny opening leads to, but how'll he even fit through? Crawling doesn't seem to be a concept that exists in his tiny rabbit brain.



Ah, so there is some light in that attic! Buster utilizes his trusty Dash to speed and slide right through the crevice. He can only dash for so long before that convenient DASH METER runs out and has to recharge, so abusing it is kind of out of the question.

A couple of goodies await Buster, one of which is a Crystal Carrot that extends his health bar by one point, and the other is a Gold Carrot that completely refills all them hearts. The Frog isn't a power up and as such must be exterminated with extreme prejudice.



As he moves into the next area, Buster stumbles into another power up: a Silver Gogo Dodo! These handy trophies refill Buster's dash meter instantaneously, so running into them is a good idea if he wants to keep dashing without interruption! Occasionally, he'll run into some handy prompts that instruct him to either DASH! or JUMP!, but sometimes he doesn't react to them quickly enough and gets some much-needed punishment as a result.



It would seem like all is lost, but Buster's dash miraculously lets him run the hell up walls! I wish I could run the hell up walls. He can even start dashing in mid-air, making absolutely zero sense in the process.



The next scene lands Buster in the ACMEdemic Library, where all the finest literature on gravity-defying maneuvers can be found along with book-tossing PP rats. Buster needs to get up on top of those super-tall bookshelves, but to do that he'd need to do some sort of crazy wall jump! Even if he were to do something that bonkers, the space between bookshelves is far too wide for him to pull it off. It's a good thing conveniently-placed switches solve this problem by sliding the bookshelf over!



Ah, a lovely Silver Carrot is the perfect pick-me-up for the injured Buster! It may refill only one heart, but that's still better than getting nothing at all from it! With all the library business taken care of, Buster throws himself down a chute that leads directly into the next scene.

Yikes! It's Arnold the Pitbull! Way to serve as the first mini-boss, Arnie. Like Buster, Arnold has his own dash move that is pretty easily avoided or countered with a flip. It only takes Buster a few flings to take the cruel canine out and collect the key to the cafeteria. Thanks for being a useless roadblock, dog!



Jeez, these rats just don't know when to quit, do they? Buster quickly takes them out and crosses paths with his porkish chum Hamton, who bestows upon him some terrible news.

Let me get this straight; Hamton wants to stop Dizzy Devil from getting rid of all the cafeteria edibles, so his only solution is to... give him food? Sometimes cartoon logic goes way over my head.



Yep, that's Dizzy alright! In order to stop him from destroying the kitchen, Buster needs to jump and bop those food-hauling conveyer belts from below and knock some food into Dizzy's piehole. This task is made a little trickier by Dizzy's bad habit of giving into his Taz-mania and bustin' up the conveyer belts, though I'm pretty sure Buster'll be safe from his wrath so long as he hides in the doorways and doesn't post on Talking Time.



Ah, the sweet smell of victory! After scarfing down a few meals, Dizzy takes a well-deserved nap while Hamton laments the loss of his precious slop.

Looks like you should've come up with a better plan then, idiot.

WE'LL RETURN TO DEMO'S INCREDIBLE KARTOON SHOW AFTER THESE MESSAGES.





Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! It's time for the Wheel of Morality WHEELS O' GAME! It may have a completely stupid name, but it's Buster's ticket into one of five fabulous events. Let's spin the wheel and see what we get!



Oh! Oh!!!

What luck, we get to witness the first round of Furrball's Championship Squash! All Furrball's got to do here is hit that fancy yellow ball fifteen times in a row to give his pal Buster a FREE MAN. Some other wacky inhabitants of the Looniversity speed on by from time to time, and hitting them with the ball gives Furrball some fancy bonii. Calamity Coyote stops the fairly generous timer from counting down for a few seconds, Little Beeper is ultra-quick but gives a grand reward of a FREE MAN, and Concord Condor slows the progressively quick-moving ball down some.



Two! That's two free men! It's quite the showing for the generally inept Furrball; let's give him a hand, folks!



I'd love to show off some more Tiny Toon madness, but the network gave me a pretty strict timeslot this time around that they're forcing me to stick to. I've got no editor, so guess who has to do all that himself? THAT'S RIGHT it's me. We're in for some good stuff next time, I promise! There might even be a train in it for ya!

'Til next time folks, adios!

Demo, I can not condone the creation of any LP that involves the rabbit-induced murder of Michigan J. Frog. Regardless of how off-model he may be.

Nope, I'm boycotting this LP.

And TO HELL with any who dare read it!

So THAT is where my favorite TV show went.

I wonder if we'll get a repeat of last season's shenanigans?

(Also what difficulty are you in?)

So how did you convince Spielberg to produce your LP?

Wow, Buster Busts Loose? I remember this game! The easy mode cut out all the bosses, the fifth stage, and the ending, and I never beat it on one of the other settings because the fourth and fifth stages ate all my lives and continues. It's been ages since I've played it.

Also, I love any Tiny Toons game that gives poor ol' punching bag Furrball a chance to shine, even if it's just in a minigame. And the football stage.

Noish one DemoWeasel!

Furrball's cute, but can anything really top Soccer Jesus?

That was just disturbing.

NORMAL!

I told him Toonsylvania was a funny cartoon.

Sucker.

Man, I used to rent this all the time as a kid.

I'm excited!

I just watched that video now. Why is this game the lovechild of an uninspired 2D platformer and a sidescrolling beat-em up? Why is Buster killing snakes and panthers with nothing but boxing gloves? Why can Babs materialize as an assist in air when her sprites only have on ground animations? Why did early GBA developers think blowing up sprites by 200% where they looked all pixelly and like crap was a good idea? D=

But we got Astro Boy out of it so it can't be all that bad.

Aw, I loved this game when I was a kid!

I defer to the expert on the technical faults - just the PLAY itself is baffling. Enemies charging at you from the front AND THE REAR (which you are ill-equipped to effectively dispatch, as pointed out). Random friend is random - popping up to "help," although most of the time looking like she's in the way - and then disappearing inexplicably. And then you die. Ignominiously.

It's way too much like real life.

Anyway, not to threadjack - back to your regularly scheduled mayhem.

Did anyone here play around with the Cartoon Workshop as a kid? I made a whole VHS of those once.
I feel bad for the kid who got that for Christmas and tried to use it with Street Fighter.

Hey now, I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't want it to bring up some discussion!

That GBA game is just... yikes. We would've been better off just getting a crappy port of the SNES game for the GBA, but I think much like the Capcom NES Disney games those rights were long gone. Sad, really, I'd download the Capcom Disney titles and the Konami Warner Bros titles on the Virtual Console in a heartbeat.

Anyway, this game, Batman and Robin, and Animaniacs were must-plays back in the day. They were licensed games done right, which everyone seems to have forgotten how to do nowadays.

And I'm pretty sure those three titles shared the same music composer (it's pretty obvious the same guy with Tiny Toons and Animaniacs, but even Batman and Robin has at least one track that sounds like it could fit in either game if not for the parts that sound like the Batman and Robin theme), and he did the music for the SNES Goemon games as well.

I think the point I'm failing to get at here is that I miss SNES-era Konami. I'll relive the memories by enjoying this LP!

You know, I was kinda surprised that Tiny Toons and Animaniacs still got a few new games long after the shows stopped producing new episodes. I remember seeing some PS1 title with Plucky, though I never played it because it's not by Konami and I assumed it was crap.

I really wish there was a way to play the Capcom Disney and Konami WB/TMNT* stuff without emulation or hunting down old carts on Amazon. Rassa frassin' licensing issues mumble grumble...I also wish there were fan translations of the SFC Goemons we didn't get. =(

* We did get the first TMNT on VC, but it's the first TMNT on VC. The beat-em-ups are way more fondly remembered and wanted than that clunky platformer. =/

Hell yeah! I love this damn game. It's a pretty fantastic, if not completely underrated SNES platformer. Even as a kid I thought the football stage was pure genius. I did think box art was pretty lame, with a couple of pieces of cheap clip art.

LOVE THIS GAME.

No relation...
Come on, game. You can't leave that out, otherwise the pseudo love intrest is incestual! EWWW...

I had a Tiny Toons game for NES that featured various characters, but I don't think I was very good at it... Also, I had a yearly tradition with my brother to watch Tiny Toon's How I Spent My Summer Vacation every summer when school let out.

Happy Saturday, pal-o friendos! The weekend's arrival can mean one thing and one thing only: another rip-roarin' episode of DEMO'S INCREDIBLE KARTOON SHOW!

Though, really, it's more like it's time for another Tiny Toons episode since we're just kind of a middleman operation and all that jazz, but history's taught me that rehashin' makes for mad cash so who cares?

Let's just cross our fingers and hope that this week's episode wasn't outsourced to a different production company!



Yowza!



Following in the tradition of the last episode's pre-good-stuff filler nonsense, Buster decides that now is the best time for words.

That's... certainly something we already knew, though it was nice of you to introduce us to your chums Plucky Duck and Montana Max.



Man, Montana Max wasn't lying; this place has got the Old West all up-ins! Really, what more takes us back to those rough-n-ready times than vicious Dogs roaming the streets and Scoundrels tossing tomatoes at you from their windows? What a bunch of maroons! Don't they know that tomatoes are for munching and not for mauling? Not-Wile-E.-Coyote adds a bit to the trappings with his dashing cowboy getup, though he should have taken cues from the scoundrels that tomato-based crimes rarely, if ever, work.



It's not long before Buster encounters some curiously-attired mice playing jump-rope with the air. The sight of these poor, pathetic souls sparks up a long dormant light in the rabbit's heart, thus driving him to partake in their sad little game for precisely ten jumps. With the deed done, Buster leaves the delusional mice children and finds himself among some oddly-colored equines. The red ones just kind of sit there being useless like most other horses are, while the blue ones act as springboards that launch Buster into the sky and deadly swooping Condors.



Ah, a saloon! Now that's what I call Old Westy! Even the tunes are getting me pumped up for some rollicking bar brawls that will never happen. All Buster has to do to get through this short bit is avoid/exterminate any enemies who cross his path and skillfully dodge the barrels of hooch tumbling down the stairs. If he's feeling extra cheeky, he can goad some rickety chandeliers into crashing onto the floor, though I doubt he'll get extension to his health from doing so.



Oh no! It's that dastardly Montana Max being all up to no good! What ever could he have to say for himself?

Thank you, Mr. Exposition!

WHEN SUDDENLY train action begins! I hope you like auto-scrolling, folks, because that's the sort of mess that Buster's gotten us into. The baddies here aren't much of a problem; just more Not-Wile-E.-Coyotes and the occasional Yale thug; no, the real threat here is the environment itself! Tiny Nets plague the countryside and work in tandem with the creeping Edge of the Screen in hopes of having rabbit stew for dinner.



Yes, dash through that tiny net! You'll need to work those legs up for the dreaded hill run. Don't even think about slowing down, either; if you do, the Edge will swallow you whole, so just keep on running into those Gogo Dodo trophies to keep your speed up and everything'll be peachy-keen.



Leap, Buster! Leap like you've never leapt before! We promise to not just leave you lying there if you don't make it!



Ah, see? Your leap of faith paid off very wel-



OH NOOO! This is the most unlucky train ride ever. I'm not too worried about Buster, though; he can put his dash jump to good use here to move from platform to platform as each one falls into the abyss below. Following Calamity Coyote's lead, he then takes another blind dive into the unknown. Here's hopin' that whatever he lands on is more stable than the old train!



...Well, darkness aside, at least it's a stable train. This particular car seems to be the property of those Yale Jerks, whom Buster believes deserve to be knocked down a peg. Unfortunately, he finds out the hard way that the Edge is not susceptible to the same attacktics that he used on the rotund thugs and promptly loses a life. Don't you cry! He's still got plenty of chances to get through this before Mr. Grim comes to reap his soul.

A mini-boss approaches, though like all other mini-bosses Buster will encounter, Dapper Dan here is easily disposed of with a few kicks to the face.



That's not how bricks work at all. They don't hurt our rabbity friend, but they can occasionally get in the way of his jumps and indirectly cause him to fall to his death! Sorry, Buster. I guess you should've started running really quickly when you hit the ground. At least Arnold seems fairly pleased with the results!



The crooked canine's chipper mood doesn't last, as the third incarnation of Buster Bunny appears to bust his head in. You'd think that seeing a g-g-g-GHOST would be enough to make Arnold flee in terror, but he must be wearing some of those fancy anti-spectral sunglasses.

DEMO'S INCREDIBLE KARTOON SHOW WILL RETURN AFTER THIS MESSAGE.





I knew it! The train itself was behind our hero's misfortune this whole time! It's just a matter of getting Buster to destroy those crazy flame-shooting smokestacks. Oddly enough, it doesn't seem like he can be harmed in the middle of a flip, so the only logical course of action would be for him to exploit this as much as possible.



As he makes his way to the very front of the train, Buster spots the most adorable 1-UP ever and promptly snatches it up. The train decides to give Buster one last middle finger by blowing its engine right as he passes it, no doubt causing some kind of burn damage to that red shirt of his. Oh! It's Montana Max again, only this time he seems thoroughly freaked out.

Well sure, why not?

They see some serious sh- er, guff and speed off into the distance, bringing our Old West adventure to an end. So long, train! You had some pretty good music.



Man, I almost forgot about WHEELS 'O' GAME! What zany event will the wheel lead us to in this episode?



Boo-urns.



This is Mystery Weight Challenge, the dumbest event ever. As the rules put it, the name of the game is to outweigh your opponent. To start off, the game shows us a bunch of the Tiny Toons gang listed top-to-bottom in order from lightest to heaviest.

Let's take a look at the lineup:

For every character we outweigh, Buster gets a FREE MAN. Let's just jam them into a random order and see what comes of it.



Not doing too badly so far! One free man and one draw.



A draw, a loss, and another free man. Not bad! Things usually end up a lot worse here than they just did, but I still don't like this event at all. Maybe next time we'll get a fun one!

But yeah, next time. Don't watch next week's episode too late at night, 'cause we're getting all kinds of spooky! Try to contain your enthusiasm; we wouldn't want any lawsuits from the parents of recently-exploded kids!

SO LONG.

You fight an actual, honest-to-goodness, train-riding hobo as a miniboss?

This is indeed the best game I have never played!

Demoweasel also seems to be stealing your bit, Octo.

...Just kidding, Dem. And where on earth did you get that horrible intermission picture?

Click on it.

...Uh-huh. Okay then.