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Yakko, Wakko, and Dot are three rambunctious adolescent cartoon characters; stars of their very own television series which ran for approximately five years. The series revolved around the siblings breaking out of their Warner Brothers water tower and causing havoc among the many movie sets around Warner Brothers Studios. Their chaotic adventures have jumped to a new medium, video games.

The story behind Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt is quite simple. While Yakko, Wakko, and Dot are all tucked safely within their water tower prison, a sinister mastermind has stolen the Edgar Awards, flown them off in a Zeppelin, and crashed into their cozy, water tower home. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot have to find and return all of the Edgar Awards. Unfortunately they have all been hidden among the Warner Brothers Studio sets.

Players begin by controlling only Yakko, although, before long, Wakko and Dot join up with him to provide brotherly and sisterly support. Players control one character at a time and each character has a unique ability which helps out in a few portions of the game. Unfortunately the game developers did not capitolize on this aspect of the game by adding more situations where the unique abilities were needed. Most of Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt may be played through by one character without assistance from the others.

The control system for Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt is pretty straightforward which is what I would expect for a game designed largely for pre-pubescent children. What I found a little unnerving was the ability for the game to actually leave me confused about where to go next. I’m sure that if I was stumped once for five to ten minutes, children would have similar situations more often, possibly causing them to drop the game altogether out of frustration. Another aspect which was quite bothersome was waiting for the enemies to become confused before they were able to be dispatched. Often times confusing the enemies involved getting close to them which sometimes led to getting hit by them without being able to hurt them in return. It was reminiscent of a deadly game of “keep-away” or “chicken” where you have to allow the enemy to get close before you run away.

The graphics in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt are what you would expect from a children’s cartoon video game. Bright colors and silly sights abound. Unfortunately I felt the graphic design team didn’t spend quite as much time on the graphic detail as they should or could have. Overall the effect was there but the detail was not.

The audio was definitely something I was pleasantly surprised with. The developers actually retained the original voice actors for Yakko, Wakko, and Dot to perform the voice acting in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt. This leant the game a large portion of authenticity for someone who actually used to watch the cartoons. The sound effects were also quite authentic including the smacks and clanks of combat and the step-by-step, note-by-note music played when sneaking around.

Overall I felt Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt was wonderfully put together for children if one overlooks the tendency to get lost. Puzzles, adventure, and plenty of hilarity allow me to suggest this game to all children of game-playing age and some adults who just want some easy, humorous adventure.