play it. Sorry, did I say, “gets to?” I meant “has to.”

I’m the one who has to play it.

Suffice to say, Looney Tunes: Back In Action for the PlayStation 2 is a lot less “Duck

Amuck” than “See Ya Later, Gladiator.” Which is a cartoon nerd’s way of saying...this

game is not good.

So this thing was released to coincide with the 2003 movie, Looney Tunes: Back In Action.

Since Brendan Fraser is only tolerable when Rachel Weisz is there to distract everyone

from Brendan Fraser, I can’t speak to the quality of the film. But hey, I can speak

to the quality of this game. Or the, uh...the lack thereof.

Back In Action is a 3D platformer that at least starts with the right idea. The classic

Looney Tunes shorts almost always paired two characters together to play off each other.

And the best of all those combinations is, of course, Bugs and Daffy. They’re Laurel

and Hardy on paper, Abbott and Costello in pencil. Alone, they’re brilliant. Together,

they’re freaking Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.

And so, at least the game uses that to its advantage. You play as both characters simultaneously,

swapping back and forth between them as necessary. So they’re always together, which is a good

thing...but the writing is never funny.

Which is such a bummer.

And actually, what’s worse is that the concept never goes beyond, “Okay, here’s the Daffy

part, here’s the Bugs part.” So it just feels restrictive. The game never uses the

character pairing for gameplay that’s interesting or creative.

Or funny.

So Back In Action is sort of creatively void, right? It’s, like, as standard and paint

by numbers as it gets in terms of design—run around, collect coins, beat up tourists. That

would be one thing, but the execution is even worse. The controls are clunky and meh, the

camera is terrible...and combined, that makes good platforming and judging your jumps next

to impossible.

It’s not like this is trying to be some definitive Looney Tunes game or anything,

you know? It’s a licensed video game. You see Looney Tunes and you get excited, but

in reality, this is just another generic movie game that’s forgettable in its best moments,

clunky during its worst. And generally despicable.