The Collection Chamber: TINY TOON ADVENTURES: BUSTER AND THE BEANSTALK

You're about to get whisked away in the wackiest adventure that ever tickled your funny bone! This totally out-of-control fairy tale plops you smack in the middle of fast-paced action. You and your pals - Buster and Plucky - face non-stop fun as you seek out treasures that have been snatched by the Giant. Babs' kooky clues help you navigate the zany twists and turns.

And just when you think you've discovered the key to this wild quest, the adorable Elmyra could trap the three of you in her dungeon! This irreverent, interactive odyssey will have the whole family in stitches with the original character voices from the Tiny Toon Adventures as seen on the hit television series. If you think you could stalk a more entertaining game, you don't know beans!
Buster Bunny:
One bunny seeking the ultimate extreme.
Plucky Duck:
Wealth, prosperity... thy name is Plucky.
Babs Bunny:
Three wishes from a mall-hopping fairy princess with a cellular phone.
Elmyra:
She will catch you, she will cage you, but... she loves you.
You:
What hangs between disaster and success.

~ from the back of the box

The Looney Tunes have never exactly been strangers to video games, but their younger, hipper cousins got a particularly good run during the 90s. Tiny Toon Adventures somehow managed to produce several genuinely entertaining console platformers. Konami's Buster Busts Loose! and Buster's Hidden Treasure are probably the games most people will remember, but there was one rather different attempt to bring the franchise to the family PC. Released in 1996 by TerraGlyph Interactive Studios, Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster and the Beanstalk swaps the jumping and punching for a point-and-click treasure hunt through a particularly wacky interpretation of Jack and the Beanstalk. It would later be reworked for the PlayStation, but this is very much a PC game through and through.

This is aimed squarely at children, and the closest comparison would probably be one of those animated storybooks that were all over CD-ROMs during the 90s. Buster and Plucky climb through nine wonderfully bizarre screens based on a number of fairy-tales, each packed with clickable hotspots. Nearly everything that looks remotely interesting can be poked, prodded or otherwise annoyed, usually resulting in a short animated gag. The hit-rate is surprisingly high, too. I found myself clicking on absolutely everything simply to see what stupid little skit would play next, and a few of them genuinely got a giggle out of me. The animation is particularly good, retaining the look and exaggerated movement of the television series rather than settling for a collection of cheap still images. All the familiar voices are here too, with John Kassir, Joe Alaskey, Tress MacNeille and Cree Summer all returning to their roles.

Lookie here, I found a piece of a key! (left).
Collect three pieces to head up the beanstalk and open the door to the giant's castle (right).

Unfortunately, the actual game hiding underneath all that animation is rather less impressive. Babs Bunny appears in suitably ridiculous fairy-princess attire and gives you clues about objects hidden throughout the various locations. Find the correct object and its little animation will play before rewarding you with a piece of a key. Three pieces make a complete key, allowing Buster and Plucky to enter the Giant's castle and recover one of the three stolen treasures: the Chicken that lays Golden Eggs, a Bag full of Gold and the Magical Flying Golden Harp. Once you've found all three, you've won the game. TerraGlyph even suggests replaying the adventure because the quest isn't necessarily the same twice - and to be fair, some of the little animations do get changed up each time - although the core concept remains. The basic structure is an extremely simple search-and-click exercise, and considering the rather wonderful setting, it feels like a missed opportunity.

Essentially, Buster and the Beanstalk is one enormous treasure hunt. Babs' hints can be amusingly specific, sending you off to find things such as a pair of alligators escaping a sewer, a stool reciting poetry, or some other absurd little scene buried among the hotspots. The fun comes from exploring each screen and discovering what the animators have hidden there rather than actually solving anything. There is at least a little pressure involved, as Elmyra takes on the role of a disturbingly enthusiastic witch who will eventually kidnap Buster and Plucky for her petting zoo if you dawdle for too long. Babs has thoughtfully supplied a magical mobile phone so you can call her for assistance, while the difficulty settings make her clues harder and give Elmyra less patience. On Hard, getting caught can even cost you a key piece. It sounds more threatening than it actually is, but at least it stops the whole thing becoming a completely consequence-free click-a-thon.

Stay idle too long, and Elmyra will take you to her witch's dungeon (left).

Use the mobile phone to call up fairy-princess Babs to take you back (right).

There was a PlayStation version. Released in 1998 as Tiny Toon Adventures: The Great Beanstalk in North America, it retains the basic treasure-hunting idea and the point-and-click sections, but adds entirely new platforming sequences in which you control Plucky as he attempts to make his way up the beanstalk while avoiding various obstacles. The console version also alters some of the dialogue and presentation and completely changes the ending completely. Unfortunately, from the little time I've spent with that version, the platforming is considerably less enjoyable than the lovely animation surrounding it.

Buster and the Beanstalk is therefore best approached as a short interactive cartoon rather than a proper adventure game. There simply isn't enough here to satisfy anyone looking for puzzles, exploration or anything resembling a challenge, and I would've liked to see a few mini-games or some actual brain-teasers scattered among the treasure hunts. Then again, judging by the rather ropey platforming introduced for the PlayStation version, perhaps we're better off without them. What remains is a colourful, beautifully animated curiosity that captures the spirit of Tiny Toon Adventures surprisingly well. It is short, it is easy and it is about as mechanically demanding as finding the big red button marked "CLICK ME", but the humour and presentation do enough to make the journey worthwhile. Play it for the gameplay and you'll probably be climbing down that beanstalk pretty quickly; play it for the jokes and animation, however, and it might just garner a few giggles along the way.

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox-X build of DOSBox to bring the game to modern systems. Spanish-language manual and English-language help file included. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 11.

File Size: 212 Mb. Install Size: 376 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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