Vooks have been following the development of this Red Tribe studios game for a long time, from even before it was actually announced what the project was. Later we learnt that the Melbourne developer had picked up quite a coup and were working on a Lo...
Vooks have been following the development of this Red Tribe studios game for a long time, from even before it was actually announced what the project was. Later we learnt that the Melbourne developer had picked up quite a coup and were working on a Looney Tunes game for the newly formed Warner Bros. Interactive. Now, nearly two years later, we’ve got our hands on the final game and it’s time to see how it holds up.
The premise for Acme Arsenal is a simple one: The Evil Dr. Frankenbean is fed up with the Looney Tunes and to get rid of them he decides to travel back in time and wipe out their ancestors. Naturally, Bugs and the gang catch on to his plan and build their own time machine, using weapons from the ACME arsenal to take out Dr. Frankenbean’s goons and save themselves.
Acme Arsenal is essentially a third person action game with platforming sections thrown in. Players take control of various Looney Tunes characters – Daffy, Bugs and Marvin the Martian are all there and I say boy, I say that Foghorn Leghorn is included as well! You can attack this game all by your lonesome or get a mate to join in the fight, tackling the main game in split screen. You’ll be playing over 20 levels with over half a dozen different themes, some of which are better than others but the Egyptian one catched my eye the most. Each playable character is basically the same except for one move, and although aesthetically different from each other, they all have the same effect.
Ah! The controls, such a pivotal issue in games, even more so with the Wii’s unique control method. Unfortunately, while the Wii Remote controls sounded good on paper, they fail to make the grade when in action. Movement is simple – you move with the nunchuck and centre the camera behind your favourite protagonist using the Z button. In the other hand you have the Wii Remote with the D-Pad for manual camera control where it is available. Combat is assigned to the motion controls on the Wii Remote and the C button on the nunchuck. While nothing is wrong with this layout, it’s in the execution that it fails. The button mashing of yesteryear is out, replaced by constant swinging of the controller around and around.
The game does implement a combo system though, and one that even works when you have two players, however you will find that these attacks are woefully inefficient – some characters taking up to 10 separate moves to take out. Doing this continually, room after room, physically tires you and after continued play starts to become a drag. Sometimes you will face streams of enemies and while you can sometimes avoid the fighting, you often have to kill everyone to progress. Apart from your health, you also have a supply of Illudium, a secondary power that allows for a higher melee power, losing some strength every time you take a hit on top of the drops in health. This makes battles longer and more troublesome because as time goes on your attack weakens, and the available weapons are of little use, being just as weak as the melee attacks.
While ACME Arsenal is primarily an action game, it contains a considerable amount of platforming, and it is here that the controls become harder. Firstly, the character animations often continue to move after coming to a complete stop. This would be OK if it occured on an ice level but it seems to occur everywhere, making the platform sections difficult. Weapons do work but the lock-on system is poorly constructed, locking onto anything that moves, not necessarily the biggest enemy threat. This is made worse because the game also doesn’t implement any IR pointing system using the Wii Remote either. The camera for Acme Arsenal is decent but falls short in a couple of areas. It does many things right, like having a simple manual control for when you can’t see or need to look around, operated by simpe taps on the D-Pad. However, in some tricky situations and for no apparent reason the camera is fixed which can often cause you to fall to death mid-jump. In fact, the game is full of places where a camera movement or dodgy animation will cause you to fall to your death, but the unlimited continues and abundant health supplies do soften the impact of these annoyances.
Graphically, the game is very colourful, lively and cartoony – as it should. The world of Looney Tunes is replicated well, but the cartoons were never that detailed and while the game pulls the look off, technically it is very simple. Perhaps it’s an ironic trade off? There are some nice lighting effects though. with some levels having multiple light sources, adding an extra layer to the game’s atmosphere. Character models are also impressive with Daffy, Bugs and Co. making the transition into 3D quite well. Most of the levels have been put together well, with different themes for each. Sadly, some levels contain out-of-bound glitches and I found myself stuck in the wall on various occasions, usually leading out of the level, falling to death. Glitches of this magnitude shouldn’t be found in a retail version of a game.
One thing this game does well is its sound. From the music and voice samples to the sound effects, everything is fitting. All the characters are voiced excellently and it really lifts the game. Red Tribe have taken the easy (and possibly cheaper) route of only offering a few catch phrases per character but having the entire game voiced adds another dimension that brings the game closer to the Looney Tunes world.
The game’s presentation is a sign of its multi-platform development with all menus navigated using the D-pad, taking no advantage of the Wii Remote’s IR pointer. It also doesn’t use the console’s auto-save capabilities, but the loading times are no problem. In addition to the single player and drop-in/drop-out co-op mode there is also a multiplayer battle mode. Simply, it runs and controls the same as the main game except for the fact that you are beating the crap out of a mate. Up to four players can battle at once (although we were only able to test with two) with weapons from the game and in levels based on the main game’s levels. No slowdown was found but because of the Wii’s inability to display in high resolution, the screen becomes slightly muddy – as with any SD multiplayer game. The added tutorial is helpful and there is the option to unlock cheats, There is also a nice touch in the credits where they have outtakes of the characters recording their voices and fluffing the lines. Amusing!
Looney Tunes ACME Arsenal no doubt has many flaws that stop you having serious amounts of fun, despite the game’s decent presentation and aural quality. The controls, like with many other Wii games, suffer from an over-dependancy on motion controls when there is really no need. The glitches and un-Wii-like presentation also detract from the overall feel of the game. If you’re a Looney Tunes fan you may get some joy from the game but everyone else will see an action/platormer that has deep flaws from both genres.
Magnets, always with the magnets.
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