story | gameplay | thoughts |
level structure | controls |
BASIC INFO:
Title ....... Bug's Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 (North America, Europe, Japan); Soreike! Kid: Go! Go! Kid (Japan)
Players ..... 1
Genre ....... platform
Sub-genre ... puzzle platformer
Platform .... Game Boy (1999, Japan), Game Boy Color (1999)
STORY:Bugs Bunny is searching through Old Castle for a great treasure he read about in a book. His friends are under a spell and are trying to stop him.
GAMEPLAY:
Your goal in Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 is to clear all 61 stages of the Old Castle. To clear a stage, you must collect the 8 keys scattered about, then proceed to the locked door which leads to the next stage.Simple enough, but there are other characters from the Looney Tunes universe wandering around on screen, and a touch from them is fatal. Furthermore, many will actively attempt to stop your quest...with varying degrees of effectiveness. It is easy enough to avoid the ones who walk very slowly back and forth across a platform. On the other hand, others will chase you throughout the stage, unless you disable them.
You can disable your enemies/friends. Or, more accurately, you can blow up, crush, and shoot them with the various items you find laying about (bombs, anvils, and very lethal cork pop guns). Use these items well, and your pursuers will be destroyed with a comic puff of air, leaving you to explore the area at a slightly more leisurely pace.As levels become progressively more complex, you can often simply outrun your enemies, using the many stairs, ladders, pipes, vines, ropes, trampolines, and other such whatnot to get around the level. But where's the fun in that?
The game doesn't save your progress, but it does give you passwords. A password saves not just the level you are on, but it also seems to save the number of lives you've earned. Continues in the game are infinite. Additionally, you earn a life every time you complete a stage successfully, find 1ups in stages, and earn 1ups by collecting carrot icons.THOUGHTS:
I've heard a lot of praise for the Crazy Castle series, and I have fond memories of Kemco's Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout for the NES -- a straightforward and simple action-based platformer that I played with my brothers. This game seemed like a winner: I'm a fan of puzzle platformers, I'd had a good experience with the developer making a similar game, and retro gamers agreed it was a good game from a good series. I was happy to get a copy.I was incredibly disappointed the first time I played it. I played the first 2 levels and was, well, bored. I set the game aside down and didn't come back to it again for months.
I did come back to the game, fortunately. I'm not going to lie, the first 5 stages are terrible -- perhaps less so if you are inexperienced with the genre. But after slogging through those first 5 dull stages, the game starts to get interesting. The levels expand in size and scope, giving you room to decide how you want to solve them. New puzzle elements are often brought into play, and a new set of enemies are introduced in each world (although they differ only in appearance).The last levels are huge, sprawling affairs that seem downright overwhelming in scope. However, as you play, a solution falls into place little by little. Finally solving one of these gigantic puzzles gives an intense feeling of satisfaction.
LEVEL STRUCTURE:[world NAME] [stage #]
There are 4 worlds (the Garden, the Hall, the Basement, and the Treasury) that have 15 stages each. Upon completing the 60th stage, you proceed to the final, 61st stage.
CONTROLS:
D-pad .... move left or right (left or right); use doors, stairs, vines, pipes, ladders, and so on (up or down)
select ... nothing
start .... pause, unpause
A ........ use items, use switches
B ........ use items
OPTIONS:
None.
EXTRA NOTES:
Based on the Looney Tunes cartoon show.
There are 7 Crazy Castle titles and 1 compilation (to my knowledge, the FDS/NES, Game Boy, and Mobile games under the title "Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle" are not ports but actually different games). Two of the Crazy Castle titles are, in Japan, Mickey Mouse titles, which has its own series (5 releases total).
The Crazy Castle titles are as follows:
- The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (Roger Rabbit in JP): released in 1989 for the FDS/NES. Not released in Europe.
- The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (Mickey Mouse in JP): released in 1989-90 for Game Boy.
- Crazy Castle released in 2004 for "Mobile". North America only.
- The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 (Mickey Mouse II in JP; Mickey Mouse in EU; Hugo in EU): released in 1991 for Game Boy. There are 2 EU releases, on called Mickey Mouse and one called Hugo.
- The Bugs Bunny Collection: released in 1997 for Game Boy in 1997. Japan only. This is a compilation of the Game Boy BBCC and BBCC2.
- Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3: released in 1999 for Game Boy Color. Released in the 3 major territories, but it's a reskin of the Japan only Soreike!! Kid: Go! Go! Kid that was published in 1997 for Game Boy.
- Bugs Bunny in Crazy Castle 4: released in 2000 for the Game Boy Color.
- Woody Woodpecker in Crazy Castle 5 (Woody Woodpecker: Crazy Castle 5 in JP) released in 2000-2 for the Game Boy Advance in 2000-2.
- Mickey Mouse (The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle in EU and NA): released in 1989-90 for Game Boy.
- Mickey Mouse II (The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 in NA; Mickey Mouse in EU; Hugo in EU): released in 1991 for Game Boy.
- Mickey Mouse III: Yume Fuusen (Kid Klown in Night Mayor World in NA): released in 1992-3 for FDS/NES.
- Mickey Mouse IV: Mahou no Labyrinth (The Real Ghostbusters in NA; Garfield Labyrinth in EU): released in 1992-3 for Game Boy.
- Mickey Mouse V: Mahou no Stick (Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands! in NA; Mickey Mouse V: Magic Wands! in EU): released in 1993-8 for Game Boy.
Wikipedia thinks that The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (1990 FDS/NES) and Mickey's Dangerous Chase (1991-3 GB) are also part of the Crazy Castle series.
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