Animaniacs (SNES): Intro Stage: Warner Bros. Studios HQ
14Happy 30th Anniversary to Animaniacs!
To commemorate this milestone for one of the most beloved cartoons of the 1990s, I decided to playthrough a couple of its very first games!
This is of the Super Nintendo game. Both it and the Sega Genesis version were made by Konami, and that version happens to be the very first Konami game that I have EVER played from them. However, I had not looked too deeply into this Super Nintendo version until very recently. It plays completely different.
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In this game, the villainous lab mice, Pinky and the Brain, have stolen CEO Thaddeus Plotz' scripts for his latest movie in a plan to make their own, get rich off of it, and use their riches to finally take over the world!
To get those scripts back, Plotz had no other choice but to rely on the help of the zany and totally insaney Warner Brothers and Warner Sister: Yakko, Wakko, and Dot!
There are 24 scripts scattered throughout different studios within Warner Bros. Studios. These crazy kids have to find ALL of them for the CEO, even if it means they'll have to confront those mischievous mice!
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In this version of the game, all three Warners play exactly the same, but you can still nonetheless switch between them on the fly.
Moving left and right is normal, but moving up and down is more machine-like. As if you were moving between lanes with no leeway for precise adjustments. Reminds me of beat 'em up games but with more limited movement.
The Warners have a dash move that can work as an attack on certain enemies if jumping on them isn't enough. You can also stack the Warners together to form a tower to reach higher spots.
Occasionally, they will have a run-in with *HELLOOOOOOOOO NURSE!*
All three of them not in your direct use can get distracted by the nurse's sexy looks. Yakko and Wakko, *as usual*, but also Dot, too, because she's moreso pretty annoyed at her brothers drooling over that nurse. Besides that, Hello Nurse is not really someone I'd call an "enemy" in this game. It just wouldn't feel right to leave her out.
Dr. Scratchansniff is also here, but he was NOT trying to deal with those wacky Warners, today! No siree!
The scripts will be in different levels, but not in the one you first start out in with the CEO.
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The most important deal with this game and the bigger factor towards it its difficulty, however, is that each of the three Warners count as your "lives". They can each only take one hit before being knocked out of the trio. There's also the danger of falling into pits or water, but especially of that lousy security guard Ralph catching them in his arms. The less Warners you have, the less effective your Warner stack will be.
If all three Warners are captured or "dead", then it's an instant Game Over. If you have one or two Warners gone, you'll have to use your remaining one(s) to climb their WB water tower on the game's map screen to free them, not that Ralph and some birds will make that easy for you.
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Lastly, this game has a Slot Machine system that automatically starts a roll after getting 10 silver coins. Gold coins are also worth 10 silvers immediately.
Different bonus and penalties can occur when three heads of the same character are lined up
- Slappy Squirrel: You 50 coins.
- Skippy Squirrel: You get 20 coins.
- Chicken Boo: All the coins you currently have get doubled.
- Hello Nurse: You get 10-second invincibility, but this also stops the Slot Machine from being used during that time.
- Plotz: You get a Continue.
- Pinky: You lose 10 coins.
- The Brain: All the coins you currently have get halved.
- Ralph: YOU LOSE ALL OF YOUR COINS!
Yakko, Wakko, and Dot can also appear in the Slot Machine and can be lined up in any order. If they are lined up, any Warner you lost during gameplay will return for usage, meaning you won't have to take on the Water Tower stage to "revive" them.
If you have additional Holds from gathering more coins while the Slot Machine is already rolling, then this will automatically let it go for another roll. This keeps happening until your Hold count hits zero.
The Slot Machine will also run even while you're picking a stage on the map.