Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports Review

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Fast Facts

Rally the Troops

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a party sports game featuring the Looney Tunes characters. The sports featured are soccer, tennis, basketball, and golf. Did these two concepts blend to create an engaging experience? Find out in this Rapid Review.

As a party game, little was done in terms of story. In one game mode, I competed against friends or computer-controlled players for a trophy. The trophy was described, but very briefly, and little emphasis is placed on the meaning here. In the other game modes, there is little story content whatsoever. The challenges often have nothing to do with the lore of the Looney Tunes which was not overly disappointing, but it did not excite me. In terms of the story content, Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports does not provide anything substantial. 

However, this was somewhat counteracted by some excellent fan service. Introductory cutscenes at the beginning of each match excellently reflect key characteristics of these characters, featuring homages from different episodes of the show. These typically were nothing special, but considering that there was no story or significant implementation of the intellectual property, I appreciated these touches.

Similar things can be said about the surrounding areas. I played in arenas filled with many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes universe. Seeing these familiar faces brought a smile to my face. As a fan of the franchise, I enjoyed these nice touches.

What To Do?

Since the only thing of note in terms of storytelling was related to visual design, I was hoping that the gameplay components of Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports would impress me. Initially, when looking at the available options, I was excited. There is a tournament mode, where I face off against opponents while playing randomized sports as well as individual sport modes and even a challenge mode. In terms of variety here, I was happy. 

Unfortunately, however, my eagerness did not last. After playing through the tutorials, I was sent into the real games. Each felt quite drawn out. In basketball, every time a point was scored, I had to wait for the losing team to walk back to their side manually. This significantly slowed the pacing of the game, took control away from me, and failed even to include attributes from the Looney Tunes series. It simply took time. A similar thing happened in golf. Even when facing off against computers, I had to painstakingly watch them align their shots and patiently wait my turn. I could fast-forward this, but it was still very slow. Though this is to be expected with multiplayer matches, I was disappointed that it was featured in single-player. It felt that Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports had little respect for my time. 

Despite my issues with some of the timing, I will recognize that each game played as expected. Scoring was straightforward, the computers knew what they were doing, and while there were silly items and super moves, for the most part, it was easy to hop into any game with only a brief overview of the controls. Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports is easy to pick up and play for a simple session.

Expected Playtime

Despite seeming like a simple game to pick up and play, each of the individual segments in the game is quite lengthy. Not only are there the slow segments I mentioned before, but soccer and basketball have quarters, and golf must be played best of three games with three sets each. Having such long games with slowdowns did decrease my enjoyment, as each game often got fairly repetitive. 

To counteract this, the developers introduced a challenge mode. This featured brief events which related to the sports but were not full games. In these, I would do timed basketball shots, attempt to steal balls a certain number of times, and even aim for targets. It was simple, and the challenges often had little to do with Looney Tunes, but it could be engaging for a little while. As for me, however, I found these challenges a bit mundane.

At the same time, despite the slow state of play, the games have decent mechanical depth. In soccer and basketball, I could use high and low passes and I got to leverage a whole bunch of other tools during games. The golf courses often featured different traps and bonuses that made stages stand out. Even in tennis, I could toggle between a multitude of different shots. The game even features a bunch of different characters with different stats to further differentiate the play experience. I did not notice drastic changes between the characters, but the stats did provide some sort of balancing component to the game. However, I do not see this game exciting players looking for deep mechanical depth since there is so much waiting and the game is generally slow. These features improved the game but did not resolve all the issues I had with it.

The Look and the Feel

Despite the somewhat lacking gameplay, I enjoyed the way the game looked a lot. The Looney Tunes characters are vibrant and colourful, and the arenas are nice too. Each of the characters is animated nicely too, especially when looking at super moves or dramatic finishes. The game also features some customizable equipment, which is a nice touch for finishing challenges and cups. 

The music was also catchy, taking clear inspiration from the Looney Tunes series. However, the Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports soundtrack did get a bit repetitive. Especially considering how sometimes I spent a decent bit of time waiting, I noticed the soundtrack more than usual, and that somewhat diminished its appeal. It is by no means bad, but I did not necessarily enjoy it. I did like the sound effects though. Roadrunner’s iconic voice lines as well as plenty of recognizable sounds make Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports very nostalgic.

As a whole, Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports did not impress me. The game has a lot of excellent components, and each of the games is serviceable. However, the minute-to-minute gameplay is not exciting. There are so many segments that are slow and tedious. I enjoy the characters and the charm of being in the Looney Tunes world and I appreciate how the game features decent mechanical depth and multiple sports, but at the end of the day, I do not see myself dedicating a lot of time to the game unless they speed it up.

3 out of 5

3

You can purchase Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports on the Microsoft Store here.