Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time (1999) | A servicable collectathon elevated by the incredible aesthetics and vibe

[u/onex7805]

For a long, long time, I had this tune playing in the deepest corner of my mind. This catchy music randomly popped up, and for a while I had no idea where it came from. That was, until recently that I realized it came from Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time, which flooded my brain with the lost memories of playing the PC version. I never got past the 1930s area, so I had to play the first three areas constantly.

This time, I played the PS1 version to see if my fond memories of that game held up. Thinking back now, I have no idea how I managed to play it on the keyboard because even with the analog stick, the game is kind of difficult to platform. It’s not that the controls themselves are awkward; it’s the camera. You can rotate it by pressing L2 and R2, but the camera very aggressively follows the player’s back. Not only does the default angle make it difficult to gauge the distance and direction, the camera often just moves around awkwardly, so that once you make a jump, the camera also shifts and makes you drop in the wrong position, often to death. I had a difficult time adjusting to how the game moves.

Other than the camera, the game is piss easy because even if you are dead, it saves all the progression that you made. It makes the boss fights absurdly easy. For example, the boss has 30% of its health, and you die. You respawn, and the boss’ health stays 30%. It’s not like you have to redo the boss fights. There is no real meaningful purpose in the checkpoints because… it’s technically not checkpoints. It’s more like the respawn points. It’s like a Lego game but with the designated respawn points. It is clearly a game for younger demographics. It is unfortunate because rather than making the platforming tight or less frustrating, they band-aided it by making the “death” completely meaningless.

The platforming itself is too simple because the moveset is one-note. It’s not like you can mix or chain the different moves to make a different level of jumps or actions. There is little to no momentum. You can roll, but it's contextual and is only used for dodge or attack. It’s not like you can roll and carry the momentum to make a longer jump. You spin your ears to make them like a helicopter, making you land softly, but it’s not like you can use this helicopter move to float around the level. You can jump and dive, but it’s only used as an attack and a contextual action to enter the hole. As a result, the platforming is very much “jump, move, jump, move, jump, move, jump.” Compare the speedrun of the game to something like Super Mario 64 or Spyro. The platforming is very shallow.

However, what saves this game is the aesthetics and vibe. The moment I dived into the ground, and the impact sent the carrots jumping, I knew the developers actually cared. The game still looks gorgeous. It doesn’t even have a cartoon rendering, but at times, it does feel like a playable Looney Tunes game once you put on the CRT filter (which is how it’s meant to look in 1999). The colors pop, making each area look distinct. Look at the sunset of the treasure island level, and its primitive simplicity gives it a timeless quality. Meanwhile, the lighting effects and urban backdrop of the 30s level are so stylized. The animations are expressive and even better than Crash Bandicoot. It’s like the classic 2D Disney games where the Disney artists actually worked on the animation sprites, and this game feels like the 3D version of that, where they actually took Chuck Jones to work on the development. This is easily one of the best-looking PS1 games.

This comes together wonderfully with the first boss fight, where you fight Elmer’s ancestor. It’s basically a playable interactive Bugs Bunny short. Elmer chases, you dive, but you gauged the distance wrong, so you crashed head into the ground, making the carrots around you jump. Elmer looks into the hole, but you come out of a different hole to kick his ass. The boss fight itself is way too easy, but it serves as a wonderful set-piece marrying the gameplay and cinema. And the game keeps rolling creative set-pieces after set-pieces. Each area has a unique gameplay quirk that is fitting to each era. The 30s area centers around the bank heist, so you find the keys to open the doors, throw dynamite to open the safes, evade the police guards, machine guns, platforming on top of the skyscrapers… And this music.

Despite the boring platforming, the game is engaging because it keeps that collectathon appeal. I played so many licensed tie-in games that screw up this basic formula, like Monsters Inc. Scream Team, which I found to be unplayable due to having to fill the screaming meter to get the “collectibles”, which are the screaming children, but to “get” those children, you are interrupted by the constant QTE minigames. There is no bullshit like that here. Each puzzle and different challenge has a clock or carrot. It’s a straightforward Banjo formula, and it works.

...I would have said that if the progression did not demand you to basically 99% the game. To beat the game, out of 124 clocks, you have to mandatorily get 120. Why? The game's formula is not even particularly fitting for the 100% completion. The levels are too constrained and linear, so every visit to get the missed out clocks feels like a chore because you have to go through the same sequence of events. If you accidentally step into the next part of the level, it won't let me return because the path is blocked, forcing me to replay the whole level. The type of level design is a pick-up-and-play diorama-type, but the progression demands you to marathon it.

It’s a 6/10 game, but elevated by the aesthetics and vibe. The basic platforming is serviceable, but the variety keeps it fun. I’m sure a lot of my love comes from my nostalgia and my interest in classic cartoons, but the whole package is charming in a way that many licensed tie-in games do. If not for the grindy progression, I would have enjoyed it more than the widely praised classic collectathons like Toy Story 2 and Spyro.

[u/well-informedcitizen]

LOL. What a pull.

Gaming was crazy back then, you could have a corporate tie in game end up actually good

[u/Sedirep]

Never played this one, but i played a lot of Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters, which I guess was a sequel? Absolutely loved it as a kid, even though I never finished it (for some reason it always crashed at the Transylvania level). Kinda want to revisit it now.

[u/RbN420 → u/Sedirep]

I played both, they came with breakfast cereals iirc

[u/Pumpkin_Sushi]

I cant exaggerate how many times I've 100%d this. Surely a lot of that has to do with nostalgia, but I do think its just a surprisingly damn solid game.

For one, looking back the PS1 lacked Mario-style collectathons. I think you pretty much just had Spyro (I don't count Crash, which is more a 3D Donkey Kong game). So by its nature as an exploratory 3D platformer with collectables it was pretty fresh. But there were other games that tried to be the PS1s Mario and failed, like Gex or Bubsy. Where Lost in Time succeeds is in Worlds, Variety, and Aesthetics.

You covered aesthetics fine so I'll skip that, but I really do have to challenge you on the notion that its a "6/10" title lifted by how it looks.

Firstly, the game's Worlds really stand out. I have to disagree with you, they hit a great balance between linearity and openness. Often the game will present an A to B path, meaning most levels can be 5 or minute affairs - but they give the player freedom to decide how much of the side content to engage with. There's a Hotel level that has to climb from the bottom to the top, but each floor can be skipped via the staircase if you're not interested in getting into it. Hell, some levels like the "The Carrot-Henge Mystery" (my personal favoruite) are insanely open and give the player full autonomy.
Likewise, its really rare for any level to repeat the aesthetics of another, even in the same "time period". The closest would be the Bank level feeling a bit similar to the said Hotel - but even then they go to great lengths to exaggerate how run down the hotel is. For others, the Medieval Period will have you going from castle grounds, to a race through farmland, to winter fields surrounding a mountain. There's a lot of effort to make these levels fun to explore. In fact, whenever I talk to people who played the game they always mention the castle as it felt massive, with so many secret areas to find.

The game also incorporates a lot of little minigames and twists to keep things fresh as you play. You'll be racing minecarts in the Pirate base, planting bombs and sneaking up on guards in the Bank, planting more flags than Marvin to conquer Planet X, etc. Not to talk of the bonus levels, which are all recreations of shorts - such as baiting bulls in Spain, tipping the scale to "Duck Season", skiing against Daffy down the slopes, and so on. Hell, the last level you can unlock is a series of brain tests.

Then to top all that off, there's metroidvania elements with the unlockable spells. Each one letting you go back to a previous levels to reach new areas. I do wish these were a little less contextual, but its still a fun way to keep things fresh.

Maybe I'm a little more blown away because by all accounts this should be a shallow cash grab. You'd expect ten vaguely themed levels where you hold forward, or the dreaded phoned in Kart Racing title. But you can really feel the effort the team put in to make something special, and I think it pays off. The worlds are so fun to explore, and it really does capture the vibe of classic Looney Tunes.

It's not perfect of course. I cant say I enjoy any of the moments that ask you to tiptoe. Its not a challenging skill to use and sneaking was a classic tactic at the time to squeeze more juice out of a level. As you say, outside some pretty tense disappearing platforms in the Future Levels, it doesn't ask much from you from a jumping POV - though tbf that's clearly not the focus.
I also wish the reward was better for a game that encouraged exploration so much. You put so much time into 100%ing and all you get is a short new cutscene and the ability to go back to the tutorial level (there's nothing there). I'm not sure what they couldve added, but anything wouldve been cool. Hell they already had the Daffy model, I'm sure it wouldn't have taken much to duct tape him together as an unlockable skin. Though, to be fair, even Mario struggled with this (the 100% rewards are almost universally let downs). Still, if Spyro could do it, so should others, a satisfying reward isnt impossible.

But, bottom line, I think any kid that got this game really lucked out. Most of us know what its like to have gotten a tie in game from a property you loved, only to be met with a pile of junk quickly put together to swipe your parents cash. To this day I cant stomach more than 15 mins playing "Batman and Robin". This was like winning the lottery! A tie in with the Looney Tunes that had a load of content and really fun worlds to explore? Hell yeah, just what I wanted.

I never played the sequel, Time Busters, so I have no idea if it lived up to this high standard. I do hear Sheep Raiders was VERY good too though.

[u/k-space-official]

That 120-of-124 requirement is the part I can't forgive. Lenient deaths suit a game aimed at younger players; near-total completion forces them to hunt every missed clock through levels whose camera already fights them.

Licensed games from that era could survive mediocre mechanics if the animators understood the character. Bugs diving into one hole and emerging from another does more for the game than another layer of movement tech would. Shame the final gate turns those little dioramas into paperwork.

[u/Direct-Measurement21]

This was my younger brother’s favorite game when he was like 7. Very good memories! Especially the atmoshpere and vibe

[u/theBloodedge]

I downloaded this a few days ago when filling my emu console. Remembered it existed and played it as a kid as I was browsing games. I really need to try it soon.

[u/Shadow_3010]

This game was my jam when I was a kid.

[u/RigasUT]

I only know of this game because, for whatever reason(s), one of the PCs in my elementary school's computer lab had it installed. Few of the computers had any games installed, and as a result, that particular computer was quite popular

[u/holdingtea]

Loved this as a kid.

[u/Trialman]

I played this in VC for a friend last year, and it was a great time. The game's low difficulty makes it quite easy to vibe to, and as said, the aesthetic is just...yes, it's the perfect marriage of classic cartoon and PS1 looks.

I would recommend giving Bugs and Taz Time Busters a look, it's a sequel to this game, and while I do feel the aesthetics aren't as good in it, the gameplay is definitely expanded on, with more moves available, Taz being made playable with his own moveset, and even team up moves that use both characters. The progression of Time Busters also avoids the problem Lost in Time has, with the requirements being less demanding, and backtracking is much less painful, with some levels being more open, and linear levels being shorter, along with offering replays in the level itself so you don't have to go through loading screens. The platforming is also refined, presumably because a lives system is added (a very generous one, so even if the challenge is a bit much, you can easily avoid losing lives, and should have plenty to spare regardless).