Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time - IGN (2024)

Gameplay
Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time (called here on out as "Lost in Time") is Bugs Bunny's very first appearance in a 3D adventure for any system, so Behaviour had its work cut out for itself right off the bat. What the team did was break down the game into "shorts," much like the actual cartoons we all know and grew up with. In fact, many of the game's levels are based on true episodes, so you'll be saying to yourself many-a-time, "hey, this looks familiar."

If you've played Gex: Enter the Gecko or Deep Cover Gecko by Crystal Dynamics, you'll know what to expect. Here's what happened: Bugs Bunny has stumbled upon a machine that has thrown him into "nowhere." With the help of a magician named Merlin, Bugs will have to travel through time to get from Nowhere back to his own time. But that's not going to be easy, since he'll have to go through era after era collecting clocks to fuel the time machine, and only when he's earned enough clocks can he go on to the next time.

The start of the game is essentially Bugs' training world. Here, you'll learn all of the bunny's tricks to play the game. Bugs can run, jump, sneak, kick and bounce on enemies, carry and push objects, hover with his helicopter-like ears, and dive into rabbit holes. In the training world, you're given tasks to complete before you can move onto the first time era, prehistoric times ¿ but by that time you'll have figured out how to use all of Bugs Bunny's skills.

As you run through the game's 3D world, you'll have to find clocks and golden carrots. Golden carrots unlock levels in each time era (much like how remote controls unlocked worlds in Gex, or stars in Super Mario 64), and clocks let you advance to the next time era. You'll traverse through time, from Medieval times to the Roaring Twenties, all the while meeting up with familiar characters out to keep you from leaving. Yup, you guessed it, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck...they're all here to make your time as difficult as possible.

Lost in Time is a 3D platformer, but the developers have also inserted a whole slew of mini-games to mix up the action. In one level, it's you against Pirate Sam in a blow-off with TNT sailboats. In another, you'll have to kick "Wabbit Season/Duck Season signs against Daffy, trying to switch as many as you can before Elmer decides what season it really is. The game has variety, that's for sure.

The controls are tight, but because Bugs has so many abilities, it's sometimes hard to remember how to perform a certain function. For example, if you want to dive into a rabbit hole (which happens a lot) you have to jump, and then press a shoulder button to dive into it. It's somewhat clumsy and unintuitive up front until you get the hang of it later in the game.

Graphics
The 3D engine definitely looks like it was built from the Jersey Devil development, which is just fine and dandy since Lost in Time utilizes the same style as Behaviour's last game. It's fast, smooth and colorful, with a minimal of polygon clipping (there's always going to be a little...).

The camera that follows Bugs around the game levels isn't the best in the world, unfortunately. It normally follows behind him, but if he takes a quick U-turn, it doesn't whip around ¿ which means Bugs is now running towards the player. Bad idea. It's also a little difficult to judge distances between gaps. You'll find yourself falling to your "death" many times in the Prehistoric level since it's hard to make a landing on some of the giant dinosaurs' heads.

All cut scenes are performed through the game's 3D engine (cuts down on costs, since Infogrames didn't have to hire animators for the usual cel-style). But unfortunately, the 3D engine isn't put to any real use here ¿ I mean, you'd think they'd swing the camera around for some dynamic cinematography, but no...most of the animation sequences are straight-on, almost like a stage production.

Sound
It wouldn't be Looney Tunes without the speech, and Lost in Time has it in spades. Naturally, Mel Blanc ¿ the true voice of many WB characters ¿ has long passed, but the current voice of Bugs (I'm guessing it's Billy West) supplies a whole slew of dialogue and "yipes!" during the game. Other characters have been sampled as well, including some speech that was ripped out of the actual cartoon. (Yosemite Sam's "Oooooooooh!!!!" is definitely Mel Blanc. No question).

The music is a mixed bag, however. It's not orchestrated (like all of the shorts way back when). Most of the music sounds very "MIDI," but it's not terrible. Just don't expect to be blown away and you should be OK.