I am working on getting a scan of it soon, but I’ve had a “thing” for this game ever since it was in the 1990 Warner Brothers catalog, a rare little magazine-sized wares-list containing all sorts of overpriced stuff…modeled by Warners stars, including THE CHARACTERS FROM FULL HOUSE! Nary a vacation went by between 1990 and 1993 that I did not bring that dog-eared catalog on car rides. To this day I have no clue as to why I cared about that thing so much.
There was, however, one item contained within that endlessly intrigued me. New at the time, selling for a monumental $50, and full of characters I had known my whole life, it was The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. Many a Nintendo game had I…yet covet this I did. It was not until years later that providence smiled upon me - for, thanks to the graces of the used video game market and owing to the backup potential of emulated roms, I had finally scored a copy. Nothing could prepare me for the utter delirium, the foul, negative asylum that was the CRAZY CASTLE.
The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle is like the bitter depths described by de Sade…cold, cavernous and KA-RAZY. The game amounts to some simplified visuals of familiar WB characters, 2-D labyrinths and various bizarre objects that promise to aide. The premise is simple: dodge shit, get items, avoid lamewads. Like other games in the “dodge shit” genre, points are awarded for getting the good things and lives are lost for hitting the bad.
Perhaps the most appealing aspect of the game are the psychedelic Sylvester characters that populate the majority of the levels. Like a whack pack of Skittles they come in black, green and pink - my own theory is that a bizarre toxic waste spillage has caused Mamma Sylvester’s brood of baby Sylvesters to morph into a 28 Days Later-esque mob army. Of course, the mob mentality infected the other denizens of the previously not-as-crazy castle. “Noah” Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite “The Park” Sam and “Laughy Taffy” Daffy Duck are all pretty nutzoid as well. Luckily, Bugs’ quest to rescue his better half (Honey Bunny) isn’t too bad at first because of HUMAN INGUINUITY. That’s right, folks, these dupes can be duped with a little juking and grooving. Doubling back, walking in circles, seldom stopping to catch one’s breath: these are the things that make Bugs more than just a fragile bunny in a cruel, cruel world.
When compared to other platform-puzzlers, TBBCC leaves a lot to be desired. Gone are the quest elements that make The Goonies II fun, the true puzzles that make Milon’s Secret Castle tricky and addictive, and far away is the complexity of the Lode Runner series. Instead, much to my slight dismay, all that remains are licensed characters, repetitive action and a lot of heartache in the later levels.
The game developers had the foresight to include a password feature. Praise them! For some reason the level design (color schemes, block art, etc) kept me playing, as did the hip music. Though at times sounding like a broken juke box, I think it fit the “fast-paced but not offensive” nature of the game.
Much like Marcel Proust, I feel that we all have these weird, tangential experiences in childhood that cause us to remember and constantly revisit the most nuanced things in our lives, sometimes amounting to huge piles of déjà vu, sometimes to disappointment. TBBCC spells disappointment for me. Despite its fun and cuteness, it could never live up to that object I star-gazingly yearned for 12 years ago. A word to the wise: save your money unless you can get it for cheap!
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