The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, known in Japan as Roger Rabbit (ロジャーラビット) for the Family Computer Disk System, is a 1989 puzzle video game developed by Kemco for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was also released for the Game Boy in Japan as Mickey Mouse (ミッキーマウス) and in North America as the same name as the North American NES release. It is the first game in Kemco's Crazy Castle series and the only one that was released for a home console; the four subsequent games in the series were released on handheld devices. (This only includes games with the Crazy Castle title; a game in the Japanese Mickey Mouse series was reworked into Kid Klown in Night Mayor World, which saw an NES release and a sequel on Super NES but was not otherwise connected with the North American Crazy Castle games.)

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle/Roger Rabbit/Mickey Mouse
NES Cover art
Developer(s)Kemco
Publisher(s)Kemco
Platform(s)NES, Famicom Disk System, Game Boy
ReleaseFamicom Disk System
  • JP: February 16, 1989
NES
  • NA: September 1989
[1]
Game Boy
  • JP: September 5, 1989
  • US: March 1990
  • EU: 1990
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player

Three different versions starred three different cartoon characters: Bugs Bunny, and Disney's Roger Rabbit and Mickey Mouse, and were first released in 1989. The object of the game is to guide Bugs through a series of rooms collecting carrots. However, four rascals are guarding the castle: Sylvester, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, and Wile E. Coyote.

Gameplay

While presented in a side-scroller format, Crazy Castle differed from standard side-scrollers such as Super Mario Bros. in that Bugs Bunny did not have the ability to jump; therefore, only by taking different routes could Bugs avoid enemies. Some of the levels had boxing gloves, invincibility potions, safes, crates, flower pots, or ten-pound weights that could be used against the enemies in the game. As a result, the game had a "puzzle-solving" atmosphere.

Players score 100 points for every carrot with the last one in each floor giving the player an extra life, 100 points for every enemy defeated using invincibility bottles, 500 points per enemy using boxing glove and 1000 points per enemy that gets hit with heavy objects. Because most NES game cartridges lacked the ability to save, passwords can be used to start at a certain level in this game.

Plot

Honey Bunny has been kidnapped by Wile E. Coyote, Yosemite Sam, Daffy Duck, and Sylvester, and Bugs must travel through 60 levels (80 in the Game Boy version) in order to save her. To get past each level, Bugs must collect all 8 carrots in each level.

Characters

There are four enemy characters - Sylvester, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and Yosemite Sam. However, the Sylvester character has three variations - two gray, one green and one pink, Daffy has two variations, one being dark gray and one brown, and Yosemite Sam being either in blue or brown.

  • Gray Sylvester - can only travel up a floor or a tube; cannot bypass a door or tube without going through it; cannot go under staircases; cannot stop moving; two of this kind can be used in a single level.
  • Green Sylvester - can travel both up and down a floor or tube; can bypass a door or tube without going through it; can go under staircases; cannot stop moving.
  • Pink Sylvester - can only travel up a floor or a tube; cannot bypass a door or tube without going through it; cannot go under staircases; able to stop moving after a short distance travelled.
  • Yosemite Sam / Wile E. Coyote - cannot go through doors or tubes; once they've traveled down a staircase, they can't go back up; cannot stop moving.
  • Daffy Duck - cannot go through doors or tubes; once he has traveled down a staircase, he can't go back up; able to stop moving after a short distance travelled.

Development

The North American NES game is a modified version of the Japan-exclusive Family Computer Disk System title, Roger Rabbit. Roger Rabbit is the game's playable character, all the villains are Who Framed Roger Rabbit-related, and hearts are collected. Due to Capcom owning the rights to develop and publish Disney film-based video games, as well as LJN already having published Rare's own video game adaptation of the film, Kemco decided to use Bugs Bunny, due to he and Roger both being rabbits, making it easier for Kemco to modify the Roger Rabbit game and release it outside Japan as The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle. For the Game Boy version, Kemco's license to develop and/or publish video games based on Who Framed Roger Rabbit became outdated; however, they still had the license to create Disney-based video games, which they used to create Mickey Mouse for Game Boy. An early beta version of the game shows the working title as Bugs Bunny Fun House. In 1997, Kemco released the Game Boy version along with The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 in one cartridge under the name Bugs Bunny Collection GB.

Reception

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle had mostly positive reception. The Game Boy version was the most popular and received critical praise. The NES version was also a commercial success.

References
  1. "Video Games 1989 Index". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8 no. 10. January 1990. p. 8.
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