Football? T-T-That’s not all, folks!” – Segazoom
In 2024, Looney Tunes Wacky World Of Sports was released to limited fanfare and limited quality. Every time I see it in a digital storefront, I wistfully remember when the Warner Brothers cartoon properties were used to play sports with such joy. The year was 1994, the console was the Mega Drive, and while the Tiny Toons featured, not the Looney Tunes, the result was much larger than the recent effort.
As Buster and Babs Bunny, along with their good pals Hamton and Plucky Duck, look to win a multi-sports tournament set up by (and also rigged by) Montana Max, the rich boss baby version of Yosemite Sam. There’s a whole story mode here; naturally, it’s not particularly impactful, but it does give an onus for the player to try every discipline on offer. Let’s start, as I am wont to do, with Stage 1: 4-on-4 football.
Four A Side is certainly not a traditional football configuration, even for the indoor game, but it allows the rest of the game to function mechanically if it gives your story team four characters so let’s just go along with it. 3 outfield players and a dedicated goalkeeper go toe to toe in immediate arcade-style football. This isn’t a Sensible Soccer beater, don’t get me wrong, but it is fast, furious and mechanically sound. We are in a cartoon world, however, which can only mean one thing:ドライブシュ–ト!
Okay, okay, so it isn’t Captain Tsubasa, but we’re not far off. Each character has a special move that they can spend with their stamina bar under their icon. These range from a simple bumrush from the speedster bunnies and not-the-road-runner, to summoning a vehicle to trample all comers and, in Plucky Duck’s case, detaching your beak from the rest of your body, gliding across the pitch, dropping anvils in your wake, until one makes contact and propels the ball to the goal. They’re pretty much only usable once per character per half and don’t guarantee goals, but they are very handy in a pinch and inject personality into an otherwise fairly straightforward rendition of the beautiful game. A tip if you’re struggling; the best angle to take for a shot is near the dar left or right edge of the penalty box, shooting towards the opposite corner. When executed from the correct distance, the ball will sail over the goalie’s head and into the net 80% of the time.
Once this match is in the bag / net, it’s time for the other main sport of the collection: Basketball. This time we’re looking at a 3-on-3 format, with standard 3 pointers and dunking. The special moves remain – their accuracy is often weaker than their football counterparts, but they remain both work the risk and genuinely entertaining. There’s no shot blocking as such – instead, you eill manually jump ahead and press the steal button in the air to try and claim. You’ll press that steal button a lot, in fact, as turnovers are absolutely the name of the game here. Aggression is encouraged, fouls don’t particularly exist and feet rarely touch the ground. Again, we’re not competing with NBA Jam here, but we are getting a polished arcade basketball experience that is especially fun as a multiplayer experience.
After 2 hard-fought battles, our heroes take some time off to play the ‘sport’ of Whack-A-Max, the physical arcade classic. Everyone runs around the playfield, mallets in hand, whacking every max they see and making sure not to strike Dizzy or Elmyra else they’ll lose points. It’s a sideshow as much as a full-on game, but that’s fine.
After more football, we go on to the next minigame, G̶o̶u̶r̶m̶e̶t̶ R̶a̶c̶e̶ the obstacle course. Mash a button, run through a course, pick up the occasional power-up, win after 3 laps, wonder why you bothered. Another throwaway diversion.
There’s one last minigame to cover, but this one is actually a sport! Time for some Ten-Pin Bowling, albeit cut down to 5 frames in the interests of time and/or sanity. It’s your bread-and-butter choose your power, stop the path indicator in the direction you want, and add a little curve after the release style affair, but with one cartoony addition. If you choose full power and manage to stop the aimer dead straight, you’ll do one of 5 silly goofy special shots that almost always guarantee a strike. In this way, the game is fully solvable if you’re skilled at those ticket games in arcades that ask you to stop a light at a certain place and then you do that but it’s not time to win yet so it bounces to the next square which causes equal amounts doubt and sense of injustice that playing them is a psychological war of — uhh, what was I saying? Yeah, pure timing skill will guarantee a perfect game. Still fun though, especially competing with friends.
You may have noticed there’s been a surprising lack of overarching stage gimmicks so far. Well, the last stage of the story mode has a treat for you. This final stage, Montana Max’s own playroom, has roulette-style scoring. Each basket you make or goal you score makes a wheel spin. You may get 1 point, 2 points, 3 points, 5 points or zero points (denoted by Max’s face, obviously). It’s not clear whether the game manipulates these results or distributes them fairly, but it ratchets the tension up to 11 in the championship game. It’s not just enough to be better, you have to be so much better the luck element doesn’t touch you. Infuriating? Yes. A clever way to make a last boss harder without being unfair? Also yes.
With all said and done, the key to the success of this game is the fidelity and personality of the license being harnessed to its fullest by Konami. Reverance and passion for the source material are evident in the details of the special moves, the sport and activity selections and the overall tongue-in-cheek nature of the whole experience. Nothing groundbreaking is happening here, and nothing needs to. This is just a very solid arcade sports title bolstered by bright and wacky characters. A favourite in the Segazoom oeuvre.