Animaniacs was one of, if not the best and purest form of a cartoon, ever to hit the airwaves, on September 13th, 1993. I don't think anything has spread so wide in popularity that it still gets awards to this very day. But with the show canceled and a rebooted future looking bleaker by the year, it seems that we may not ever see the lovable trio of toons and their friends again. They keep doing reruns every so often then stop after a while, it's kind of a stupid pattern to say the least. The show had a very balanced mix of child and adult humor, where both kids and adults could get it and laugh without having to change the channel, and challenged the censors to try and rid them of their jokes. We've not only got Yakko the ladies' man leader, Wakko the hungry younger brother, and Dot the cute sister, there's loads of characters to enjoy in this show, like Pinky and the Brain(which got not one, but two spinoff shows), Slappy and Skippy Squirrel, Rita and Runt, the Hip Hippos, Randy Beaman, the Mime, the Good Idea/Bad Idea family, Minerva Mink, the Goodfeathers, and so forth in their multitude of skits as the show went on past its SIXTY-FIVE-episode first season. It went on to help Warner Bros. Animation win more Emmys than they ever had before as well, more than any other animation studio at the time, and is currently part of the top 100 animated shows of all time, at a very high and respectful number 17. Unfortunately, with the fanbase growing in adult size as well as kid size, despite 1 million plus kids watching it too, the advertisers put pressure on the WB network, making them dissatisfied in their most popular show. *COUGHFRIENDSHIPISMAGICCOUGH*

Relying on leftover scripts and storyboards by the time the 4th and 5th seasons rolled in, the show slowly faded, and thanks to Jamie Kellner, was cancelled at 99 episodes on November 14th, 1998, but managed to make one last movie, essentially the closest thing to its "episode 100", a direct-to-video movie called "Wakko's Wish" on December 21st, 1999. Surprisingly, it took them 15 years to get it on DVD, so WB knows the Animaniacs still exist at least, along with many conventions taking place honoring the Warners. With proof now that there can exist an adult fanbase on a kids show and still have the company roll with its popularity, you'd think that there'd be a kind of spark to make a reboot? All of the reasons are there, the fanbase and the marketing and everything. But with the years passing, it seems that unlike My Little Pony, we'll never get the chance for a reboot of a nostalgic classic.
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The fanbase remains strong however in many places and websites, with several voice actors still in the Animaniacs spirit and reprising their roles for fun, even including and especially the voice of Yakko and Pinky, Rob Paulsen. So, how do we celebrate that loyalty?

Well with playing their games of course! Now they released quite a few of them during their show's life-span, and some even way after it surprisingly. Do they hold up, are they bad, good or what? Let's take a look. This is gonna be a series of reviews for a good majority of the games for them, from this to Lights Camera Action, and close to everything in between.
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Up first is Animaniacs on the Sega Genesis, made by Konami on May 14th, 1994. With its massive popularity, you'd think some time and effort would be put into the games, and you'd be sorta right this time around. After the Konami logo, the Warner siblings, Yakko, Wakko and Dot; the older, middle and younger siblings respectively; pop out, greet you and explain a bit about the game you got. Pretty charming to say the least, and it does take a while but it's skippable. The title screen pops up and it does looks good and the logo's spot on, and animated no less with those blinks and other movements from the Warners. The Genesis's lack of color and resolution shows here though compared to the SNES's capabilities which we'll get to later, and the Animaniacs main theme does sound nicely done at the title screen and the end credits. You have a set of options like difficulty to determine the amount of lives you start with, the sound mode between stereo and mono, and to switch the controls.
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The plot here is that the Warner Brothers and Sister get the bright idea to open up a pop-culture shop that they have been talking about for a long while now. They figured getting a few movie props from some of the nearby studios would be a good idea to start out. Then the game begins, and it starts out on a tutorial level of sorts at the Water Tower, to show the Warners' special abilities. Yakko can push objects and stun enemies with his paddleball, Wakko uses a mallet to trigger environmental objects like fuses, buttons, destructible(cracked) objects, etc., and Dot can stun enemies that hinder their progress with kisses and make them move somewhere else, and has the longest range of the three. The time it takes to use most of them is a bit long though, you gotta jump and press the button if you want to use it right away to save time.
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The game looks pretty decent on 16 bits and the music's nice, both the songs remade from the show itself and the completely new ones. The cameos that they put in like Rita and Runt, the Hip Hippos and Buttons and Mindy are also a nice touch and help make the game feel more alive. However, some problems do start appearing right away. You move very slow because you're just walking, and there's no running function which can also hinder your jump distance, and your jump height isn't too great either. Being that this is a platforming game, this can be a big problem as sometimes you gotta stand at the edge pixel of some platforms in order to make it to another one far away. There are running animations however in the credits, so they could've done it, even though it's pretty humorous to see the other two Warners behind you running on air at times.
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You start out with four lives on easy mode, 2 on normal and no lives on hard, but you can get more through getting 100 stars and finding these golden Warner faces floating around, that actually change looks depending on which Warner you're controlling, so that's a neat touch too. You can also get more stars towards getting more lives by betting the ones you have in a spinning wheel minigame you can find in the first and third levels. So in short, there may not even be a need for a difficulty option cause if you're lucky, you can get a ton of lives from the mini-games if you're careful and time the wheel to stop at who you bet them on.
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One flaw here is that not many things is clear cut in this game, there's no hints given outside of boss fights, and you sometimes need to know ahead of time with what Warner's power to use. Pressing C switches out the siblings, always starting each level with Yakko, then to Wakko, then to Dot, and back again. But it takes a second to do so, you're not invincible during it, and you can't do anything else but walk and jump during that time.
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Each hit from a hazard or enemy takes a portion from your health... portrait in this case. No bar, no hearts, a health "portrait". You can take a fair bit of punishment, but you can't be careless as depending on the hit it does deal a random amount of damage, and the invincibility period isn't long at all. It's just not clear how much health you have left at times either. In some games that have this "health portrait" system, like Bubsy 2 on the SNES(yes, Bubsy of all games) and Tigger's Honey Hunt for the PlayStation 1, there's a clear pattern on how their health is shown as well as the portrait, whether if there's a number next to the picture while it changes or the damage is static, like each hit changes the picture once. Here, there's only around 4 to 5 indicators and portraits of health, including a "flashing" tired look after the normal tired look. Sometimes, the damage either isn't enough to change the portrait or you can even die when it doesn't look low, there's no clear pattern at all. A percentage value would've been a good idea at least, like from Earthworm Jim.
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The only way to heal is through getting sweets and fruits scattered around, but this game can get a bit stingy with them, and only heals one portrait's worth of health each. There's also plenty of pits, fire, spikes and deep water to jump into on accident and can either cut your full health in half or is an instant-death. The spikes and fire pits take two hits at full health however, and there's some water that's actually shallow enough to walk across in a few levels.
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The time limits are pretty lenient as well, but some of the boss fights can take a while, especially the final boss, and can wear that down a lot. Some attacks are difficult to dodge too, combine that with slow walking movement, low jump height, and actually being unable to duck, and you'll be losing lives fast. You do have an unlimited amount of continues, but you'll have to go through the stage all over again to get back to the boss or the area leading up to it. The Warners all have shared health as well so switching won't refill it, unlike say "Wizard of Oz" for the Super Nintendo, where each character had their own health bar at least.
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The bosses at the end of each stage is mostly Ralph the security guard where you'll see in several parts of each level anyway, other than the Horror stage where you fight the vampire, and the final level with Pinky and the Brain, on top of plenty of cameos from the other Animaniacs characters. Sometimes you don't even fight them, you either need to escape or go up to a certain point to get the item. When you do fight them though, it's a bit challenging to get their patterns down, but not quite enough to make you too angry to continue. Also, since when did Ralph get so desperate that he has to use bombs to subdue the Warners? The show thrives at being illogical and cartoony, so it's a possibility I guess.
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This game's fatal flaw that I can see is that there's only four levels in this game, 5 if you count the bonus lot and last fight with Pinky and the Brain right after. The levels are huge however, which can offset that slightly but that's still a big problem, especially for a 16-bit game. The password system is a bit weird as well, there's 9 slots in total, for the Warners and a blank spot to fill. It feels a bit confusing, but it's not a completely bad thing.
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Overall, despite the flaws and slow controls, this game plays okay, but it feels like it's toned down a lot from what the show is about. It's supposed to be colorful and energetic, yet even with the Genesis's "blast processing", it feels way slower than expected out of a console like this. I still recommend it though cause it's still lots of fun.

(Next: The port of the Genesis game to the Game Boy, hoo boy.)

1sam234 : I love how you go you offer input on how the platforming felt, and the haphazard decision for them to use the health portrait. You have a lot in here to make it unique and stand out, and you sound like a fan of the show (I was not, but I did like Tiny Toons).  Great job!