| When video game developer Sunsoft acquired the license to create Super NES games featuring the popular Looney Toons characters in 1992, they chose to base the Porky Pig game on the classic cartoon Scaredy Cat in which Porky and Sylvester the cat stay the night at a haunted motor lodge where the mice and other beasites who live in the walls try to murder the both of them. The game expands on this theme and sends Porky through six side-scrolling platformer levels of haunted action, discards Sylvester entirely, and sets the whole adventure in a dream. This is the final Sunsoft Looney Toons game and was rushed to meet the license reversion deadline. The game just barely made it to release before the license expired in 1994, and when developer Acclaim picked it up they acquired the finished game from Sunsoft. Therefore you'll find two different versions of the game pak out there - one bearing the Sunsoft name and the other with the Acclaim logo - but the two games themselves are identical. The Acclaim version outnumbers the Sunsoft ones, but both editions are extremely hard to find as neither version was produced in large quanities. The short development time is evident in the final game as it lacks the personality that past Sunsoft Looney Toons titles exude.
The main objective of each level is simply to reach the end where a boss awaits. The levels are fairly unimaginative - there's a forest level, a mansion level, a water level, and so forth - and like the levels in Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions passages and paths frequently dead end. Unlike Marvin, however, there is no popup map to show the way. It's quite easy to become lost in an endlessly circling maze. There are a number of enemies around trying to take a bite out of the pig, but poor Porky only has two moves with which to defend himself: a stomp and a slide. Stomping on an enemy defeats the majority of baddies and bosses, while on certain slanted areas Porky can slide down the surface and crash into enemies that are in his path. Our hero has four slots on his life meter and when it empties he disappears in a puff of smoke. There are a few collectable items around, such as life meter refills and cupcakes, but there is nothing to be collected that can actively aid Porky. Collecting one hundred cupcakes rewards a 1-up, while collecting cake slices only awards points. Item placement seems to be unbalanced, as in the beginning and middle of the game life meter refills and 1-ups are rare, but in the final level they are scattered about everywhere. This would be fine except that the hardest and most frustrating part of the game comes in Level 3 where such aids would be greatly appreciated. The enemies that Porky faces are rather generic, unlike the baddies from other Sunsoft Looney Toons games. Other games in the series are populated with familiar enemies (such as the instant Martians), but this one features stock characters like biting fish, stinging jellyfish, and walking pots. There are a few known characters who make cameos, however, so watch for appearances by Yosemite Sam, Tweety Bird, the Abominable Snowman, and Daffy Duck (incidentially, this is the only game in the series to not feature Marvin the Martian).
So when all is said and done, what do we have here? An uncomplex tedious journey through six stereotypical worlds where our hero halfheartedly faces off against generic enemies as a part of an adventure with no actual plot. Even the graphics and audio are less refined than the other games in the series; poor Porky himself looks just slightly "wrong" somehow. Had the development team spent longer on the game to give Porky some interesting moves, items, or even something meaningful to do I think the game could have been as enjoyable as its cousins. The finished product, however, is not something you'll want to spend much time with. Mercifully, that's all folks.
References:
Nintendo Power
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