Crazy Castle (series)

Crazy Castle
Cover artworks of Roger Rabbit (left) and The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (right), the first games in the series.
Genres Action, puzzle
Developers Kemco
Tantalus Interactive (Woody Woodpecker in Crazy Castle 5)
Mitsui Comtek (mobile)
Publishers Kemco
Activision (The Real Ghostbusters)
Mitsui Comtek (Mobile)
Nintendo (Crazy Castle 3 non-Japan release and Crazy Castle and Crazy Castle 2 Players Choice U.S. release)

The Crazy Castle series is an action-puzzle game series created by Kemco and released on the Famicom Disk System, NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. It stars different popular cartoon characters, most notably the Warner Bros. cartoon character, Bugs Bunny, and the Walt Disney cartoon character, Mickey Mouse.

History

Kemco started the franchise after they bought the rights to produce a Famicom Disk System game based on the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit to make the first game's plot loosely based on the film. When Kemco was planning to release it outside Japan, there was already an NES game based on the same film developed by Rare and published by LJN. In order to release it outside Japan, Kemco bought the rights to Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes franchise to produce Looney Tunes-based video games, while the looks of some other Looney Tunes characters featured in the game as enemies have similarities to the Toon Patrol.

When the promotion of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit in Japan ended, Kemco lost the rights in producing video games based on the film there, but gained the rights to produce Disney-based ones, due to the Who Framed Roger Rabbit film being produced by Touchstone Pictures, a studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Kemco later produced their Mickey Mouse versions in the Crazy Castle series and released most of these versions exclusively in Japan, while continuing their Looney Tunes versions outside Japan; however, some were based on other licenses such as Jim Davis's Garfield comic strip and The Real Ghostbusters animated television series.

Shortly before the release of Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 worldwide with Nintendo publishing it outside Japan, Kemco released the compilation Bugs Bunny Collection exclusively in Japan, which was a re-release of Mickey Mouse I and II, but with the Bugs Bunny sprite set and other minor updates (such as the Super Game Boy support). The rest of the Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle series were released as original titles throughout all territories from this point forward.

The fifth entry of the Crazy Castle series starred Walter Lantz' Woody Woodpecker in the role, rather than Bugs Bunny, due to Kemco losing their license to release Warner Bros. properties, while switching to the exclusive rights for releasing Universal Studios properties, because of their release of the Nintendo GameCube title, Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure, in which Woody was also one of the main characters.

Gameplay

Level 1 of The Real Ghostbusters

While presented in a side-scroller format, The Crazy Castle games differed from standard side-scrollers such as Super Mario Bros. in that the playable character did not have a jump function; therefore, only by taking different routes could the character avoid enemies and collect certain items. Some of the levels have weapons or invincibility items that could be used against the enemies in the game. There are also objects that the player must collect in order to complete a level, like keys. Passwords can be used to start at a certain level.

List of games in the series

Japanese title North American title PAL region title System Year
ロジャーラビット
Roger Rabbit		 The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle FDS/NES 1989
ミッキーマウス
Mickey Mouse		 The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle Game Boy 1989 & 1990
ミッキーマウスII
Mickey Mouse II		 The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 Hugo/Mickey Mouse Game Boy 1991-1993
ミッキーマウスIII 夢ふうせん
Mickey Mouse III: Yume Fūsen
(lit. "Mickey Mouse III: Balloon Dreams")		 Kid Klown in Night Mayor World NES 1992 & 1993
ミッキーマウスIV 魔法のラビリンス
Mickey Mouse IV: Mahō no Labyrinth
(lit. "Mickey Mouse IV: The Magical Labyrinth")		 The Real Ghostbusters Garfield Labyrinth Game Boy 1992 & 1993
ミッキーマウスV 魔法のステッキ
Mickey Mouse V: Mahō no Stick
(lit. "Mickey Mouse V: The Magical Stick")		 Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands! Game Boy 1993 & 1998
それゆけ！！ キッド Go! Go! Kid!
Soreyuke!! Kid: Go! Go! Kid
(lit. "Let's Go!! Kid: Go! Go! Kid")
バックス・バニー クレイジーキャッスル3
Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3		 Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 3 Game Boy/Game Boy Color 1997 & 1999
バックス・バニー クレイジーキャッスル4
Bugs Bunny: Crazy Castle 4		 Bugs Bunny in Crazy Castle 4[1] Game Boy Color 2000
ウッディー・ウッドペッカー クレイジーキャッスル5
Woody Woodpecker: Crazy Castle 5		 Woody Woodpecker in Crazy Castle 5[2] Woody Woodpecker: Crazy Castle 5 Game Boy Advance 2002 & 2003
Crazy Castle Mobile Phone 2004

Reception

GamePro gave Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 a fairly positive review, opining that "with smooth animation, good fun, and lively action, Bugs Bunny on the Game Boy is actually better than the NES version."[3]

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave The Real Ghostbusters a 6 out of 10, describing it as decent but "routine".[4] German video gaming magazine Power Play gave The Real Ghostbusters a score of 70% (the equivalent to a letter grade of C) in their November 1993 issue.

References

  1. ↑ http://news.softpedia.com/news/Bugs-Bunny-In-Crazy-Castle-4-Passwords-GameBoy-Color-74894.shtml
  2. ↑ http://beta.gamespot.com/gba/action/woodywoodpeckercrazycastle5/index.html
  3. ↑ GamePro issue 23 (June 1991), page 52.
  4. ↑ "Review Crew: Real Ghostbusters". Electronic Gaming Monthly (51). EGM Media, LLC. October 1993. p. 44.
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