The original Xbox had a surprising number of hidden gems. For selling as little as it did a bunch of smaller releases were made specifically for it. I was looking for something new when I stumbled upon Loons: The Fight for Fame. It’s basically a Power Stone clone which uses the Looney Tunes license. Sounds like a winner, right? I chased it down like a coyote to a roadrunner, but let me tell you it’s actually pretty disappointing. Loons: The Fight for Fame isn’t an awful game but it sure is mediocre.
For a licensed game the story is actually pretty decent. It’s mildly comical and stays true to the source material. Basically, Rocky and Mugsy (antagonists from the show) are attempting to run a film studio into the ground so that they can then purchase its stock at low prices. To accomplish their goal they hire the worst director they can find; Yosemite Sam, and set out to find a star awful enough to tank the company. This is where you come in to play. You select a character from the likes of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Tasmanian Devil, and Sylvester the cat. Your goal is to become more famous than the other guys. To do so you’ll need to fight them. It doesn’t make perfect sense, but somehow it’s a cohesive enough concept that I’ll give it a pass.
Loons: The Fight for Fame is a four player 3D arena fighting game. This means that you can freely move around three dimensional space as if this were a platformer. You can even jump, but you’re confined to specific battlefields which are functionally like boxes. They’re pretty small, but this is a fighting game so that’s to be expected. You can move in all directions and jump. Your basic attack uses a melee weapon specific to each character. That’s pretty much all you have too; at its core Loons is a very basic fighting game. It does have a few unique concepts under the hood though.
For example, you don’t have a traditional life bar. Instead you have star power. This depletes as you’re hit, but can be increased by collecting scripts and participating in various mini-games, oddly enough. When you run out you lose the match, but the same goes for your enemies. Speaking of which the action can get pretty crazy because four characters are battling it out at the same time in these small arenas. The environments are also constantly changing with items popping in, or various props coming in to play. No match plays the same because of these elements are random, and their effect on every match is huge. It’s safe to say that Loon: The Fight For Fame is completely based upon this idea.
The items you collect while playing are referred to as gizmos. These are almost entirely projectile attacks and fit the Looney Tunes motif perfectly. You’ll find weapons such as slime guns, pumpkin shooters, bombs, an oversized spring loaded boxing glove, etc. The key to success in Loons: The Fight for Fame is in collecting these and just hitting your foe over and over again. The problem is that the repetition from this takes its toll almost immediately. When you aren’t shooting your foes you’re striking them. Over and over again. There’s almost no reason to retreat, or to even use a shred of strategy while fighting in this game. You can win by mashing the attack button. What’s more is that you’re punished for doing anything other than this. It’s the game’s achilles heel.
The game does have it’s share of weird design choices. First of all you’ll find props in almost every stage that can be activated when Yosemite Sam announces they’re available. These give you short lived special attacks with various functions. For example, in the horror based stage you can fly around atop a table. In the Indiana Jones spoof arena you can swing from vines. It’s a pretty interesting concept but the execution is, again, a little boring. These sort of make the matches drag on longer than they otherwise would. Sometimes in the single player mode you’re required to use these in order to progress, but that’s more annoying than it is interesting or unique.
In a rather weird twist Loons even features mini-games. That in and of itself isn’t outrageous, but the fact that they interrupt the regular game certainly is. You can unlock these by filling up your fame meter and touching a star. At this point you’re whisked away to a separate screen to participate in activities completely unrelated to the main game. These are generally spoofs of classic games such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders. One of these is a rhythm game which clearly doesn’t make any sense in the vein of a fighter. I initially thought this was kind of neat but after a matches you’ll find it’s just out of place. It feels like the developers had some great ideas for Looney Tunes game, but they just don’t fit in well into a fighter. Even the button mashing would be more acceptable in a platformer than a fighting game.
If there’s one thing Loons: The Fight For Fame does better than anything else it’s the presentation. The cel shaded graphics are a fantastic choice, and this game is instantly recognizable as a Looney Tunes title start to finish. It’s colorful and vibrant, and the character models/backgrounds are nicely rendered. The only complaint I have is the fact that each screen is extremely busy. There’s so much going on with four characters running around, hazards in the environments, and items popping in and out that it can be hard to tell what’s going on sometimes. The soundtrack is okay, but the huge number of voice samples are what really carry this game audio-wise. Each character has so much to say and it adds a ton of personality to the experience.
Loons: The Fight for Fame looks amazing in screenshots. On paper it sounds like fantastic; you’ve got a Power Stone clone using the Looney Tunes license and has a great sense of humor. The gameplay just isn’t there unfortunately. Each fight quickly becomes a test of your patience. You’ll be rewarded by mashing buttons and little else is worthwhile thanks to the way this game is designed. Loons: The Fight for Fame is mildly entertaining with a few friends, but that’s short lived. There’s a reason no one remembers this one, but it’s somewhat entertaining in short bursts.
