This Week on Retronauts, We're All a Little Looney

Our latest episode looks at the many, many games inspired by Steven Spielberg's first foray into TV animation: Tiny Toon Adventures.

Article by Bob Mackey Contributor

Updated on March 2, 2015

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

It's no secret that Retronauts often acts as a way for us to incorporate our other passions, however tangential. And, as a lifelong animation nerd, it was due time for me to use this little podcast of ours for ulterior motives.

Now, even though I'm on a podcast dedicated to the past, I try not to romanticize things too much—bad games always existed, after all. Still, I feel somewhat fortunate to have been born during the early '80s, since one of the best periods for television animation began during the most cartoon-focused period of my life. The late-'80s/early-'90s marked the beginning of a TV animation Renaissance of sorts, as children's entertainment slowly removed itself from being so shamefully toyetic. Disney brought dignity to kids' TV with DuckTales, and soon, Nickelodeon and Warner Brothers followed suit, concocting their own original animated series that didn't speak down to their pint-sized audiences.

Tiny Toon Adventures served as Warner Brothers' return to glory as a producer of animation, and even if the show wasn't perfect, at the very least, it paved the way for improved productions with snappy writing, lush animation, and fully orchestrated soundtracks. And, since Tiny Toons hit the airwaves just as mascot-centric platformers were at their most viable, it shouldn't be surprising that this series managed to inspire quite a few licensed video games—pretty impressive for a cartoon that went out with only 100 episodes under its belt. Thankfully, since Konami produced most of these, a good chunk of them are actually worth talking about!

Don't miss Laser Time's video on the Top 5 Tiny Toons games—it helped inspire this episode!

Joining us for this episode is Laser Time's Chris Antista, who helped inspire this episode with a YouTube video he put together about the best Tiny Toons games, as well as GamesRadar's Henry Gilbert, who also knows his cartoons. As always, you can keep up with the latest Retronauts news via our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and check out some of our video content over on our YouTube page (where you can also watch me play through many of the games discussed in this episode). And, in case you forgot, Retronauts is fully funded by our Patreon campaign, so if you can afford to donate even a dollar a month, please consider it! Every little bit really helps our cause.