The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
System: NES
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Kemco
Publisher: Kemco*Seika
Genre: Action
Warner Brothers’ top mascot is turning 50 in The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout! You need to get Bugs to a huge party in his honor, but it’s not going to be easy, as the rest of the Looney Tunes players are upset that they aren’t getting the attention. Traverse 24 levels of running, jumping, and hammering action.
Bugs jumps with the A Button and swings his hammer with the B Button. The hammer is the only way that Bugs can defeat enemies or break blocks that get in his way. It’s also used to activate see-saw jumps for extra air. You need to get all over the air to collect carrots, and the occasional powerup. There’s something that seems to increase your speed and maybe the hammer increases your power?
Bugs has 12 hit points shown by the three hearts in the corner. These can be fully replenished by a heart block pickup, or one at a time when you kill a fireball. It’s rare that you should actually get in trouble, but it can happen if you’re not careful. Most of the issue you might have comes from breaking and disappearing platforms.
At the end of each level is either Daffy Duck waiting for you or a boss battle against another one of the Looney Tunes. You must avoid Daffy and jump some platforms to a giant carrot. I wanted to change the sign from Rabbit Season to Duck Season, but didn’t figure out how. Probably hitting him with the hammer. The other bosses range from Wile E. Coyote, a giant Tweety bird, Yosemite Sam, Pepe le Pew, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, and the final battle against Taz.
After grabbing the giant carrot, you’re sent to a bonus round where you will earn a crap ton of extra lives. One of the bonus rounds is a bingo card. You get a card for 10 carrots and get five numbers at random. Three in a row gets you one life, while four in a row gets you five lives (9:15). After every fourth round, you’re sent to a whack a mole stage where you earn an extra life after every few moles whacked. After getting through the final level, you make it to the party and celebrate the win!
Graphics: 2.0
Sprites and animations are standard, albeit a little jerky.
Sound: 1.5
It doesn’t sound horrible, but that doesn’t mean it’s pleasant.
Gameplay: 2.5
Bugs controls well. Breaking platforms are the worst part.
Difficulty: 2.5
There are only a few sections in the whole game that are challenging. Extra lives are practically thrown at you, meaning you just have to keep moving forward to win.
Fun Factor: 1.5
I’ve played worse platformers for longer spans of time without beating them. This one was fine.
Overall Rating: 2.0
The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout earns a C. This isn’t something you would ever go out of your way to play, but it’s not a bad game, just maybe for kids.