A sports package starring the charismatic Looney Tunes isn’t much of a stretch of the imagination. I’m not referring to Space Jam here, but rather the lineage of Looney Tunes sports games for consoles of yore. The last wasn’t even all that long ago, with Sony themselves picking up the rights to publish the PS Vita’s Looney Tunes Galactic Sports. Developer Bamtang definitely had a few sources of inspiration to draw from. This compendium also makes a change from the developer’s usual line of licensed kart racers.
Despite the game’s title, the sports here are reasonably grounded with a couple even having rules in play. There’s a choice of characters (ten in total, each with different stats for speed and intelligence) and four sports are included: golf, tennis, soccer, and basketball. The wackiness mostly comes from the use of power-ups. These appear surprisingly infrequently and vary from dropping stacks of TNT and Acme anvils out of the sky to throwing cream pies. Golf is perhaps the wackiest sport here (no, really) as a few courses have electric grids, bumpers, portals, and bottomless voids – courtesy of those set within Marvin the Martian’s Command Centre.
It’s presented in a nice enough fashion, although it never goes beyond exceeding expectations. Each character is voice acted and the soundalikes are more than passable. Character models are a little oddly proportioned in places though, and regardless of the sport, the same animated opening is used for each character. Aspects of their personalities are present within the celebrational scenes, cheering when winning and raging when losing, so it isn’t as if they’re mere shadows of their former selves. The unique animations that appear when slam-dunking in basketball may please younger gamers – and perhaps long time NBA Jam fans. Bamtag has sneaked in a few recognisable faces within crowds too, while Tweety ferries golf balls around.
The sports themselves are, sadly, a mixed bag. Golf is by far the most competent, being surprisingly comprehensive. There’s a choice of clubs, camera angles to follow shots, a power gauge with timing to master, and wind speed to consider. Other players’ turns can be sped up, while putting has a ‘tap to putt’ option when the ball nears a hole. Power-ups feature here too, including the chance to obscure the other player’s power gauge. Tennis isn’t too bad either, supporting doubles. The ball can be lobbed and sliced, and shots charged. Bombs can be dropped onto the opposition’s side, and a slow-mo effect is implemented to help secure a victory. If it wasn’t for player movement being a little stiff and the AI occasionally missing easy shots, it would be comparable to Mario Tennis, albeit one of the earlier iterations.
Basketball and soccer both suffer from stilted animation, with basketball also having the issue of a lot of screen clutter due to the camera being more zoomed in, along with characters seemingly sliding along the court while transitioning. In both sports, you’re paired with an AI while playing solo, with soccer also placing CPU controlled characters in goal. Specifically, Granny and Witch Hazel. In soccer, almost every action feels delayed whether it’s tackling, passing, shooting, or switching players. Characters move so slowly that it often appears as if they’re running on the spot, and it also doesn’t help that AI players are slow to react to the ball heading in their direction. Matches can be close though, and it isn’t entirely unengaging – the opposition is keen to snatch the ball away. Basketball has a few rules in play such as goaltending and it’s a better experience than soccer as the team AI is more dependable. You can even ask for an alley-oop. Who knew Porky Pig could fly?
A few different modes have been included. The main mode is Ultimate Tournament, which sees each sport played in random order and in random locations – with matches set in Porky’s Barn, Dr. Frankenbeans Lab, Whispering Woods, and Foghorn’s Farm – and it takes around 25-30 minutes to finish a tourney. The scoring system is unique, tallying shots on goal, ball possession time, etc. Sports Mode lets you choose custom settings and play a single sport on its own, even removing power-ups if you choose. Then there’s the surprisingly meaty Challenge Mode, featuring over 80 bite-sized quests lasting around a minute each. Rewards can be unlocked, such as novelty clubs, soccer balls, and rackets, and the game does a good job of charting progress across the board.
And, well, that’s all folks. Golf and tennis are reasonably entertaining, basketball is merely adequate, while the shoddiness of soccer prevents this collection from being worthwhile, dragging the experience down as a whole. Those who play fully-fledged sports sims will definitely notice the delayed controls and slow-to-react AI.
The developers have clearly tried to capture the personality traits of each Looney Tune, and effort has also gone into the texture work with the Whispering Woods having a hand-painted look, yet there are telling signs throughout of a limited budget. Had WB published this themselves, the instantly recognisable cast would probably look a bit more on point, and I don’t doubt there would be more than four events. Perhaps the wackiest thing about Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is that golf, of all things, is the best sport here – and by a country mile.
GameMill’s Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is out 27th September on all formats, available digitally and at retail.