Looney Tunes Wacky World of Sports Review (PlayStation 5)

Looney Tunes Wacky World of Sports offers a delightful visual experience with its excellent cartoon graphics and familiar classic soundtrack, making it a treat for fans of the franchise. The game features a manageable download size of 3.22GB and includes a platinum trophy for dedicated players. It is officially licensed and provides a variety of gameplay settings, including subtitles and units, enhancing accessibility. The game includes four sports: basketball, soccer, tennis, and golf, each with its own unique mechanics and challenges. The tutorial menu is comprehensive, covering both basic and advanced gameplay, which is beneficial for new and experienced players alike. Players can engage in three different modes: Ultimate Cup, sports mode, and challenges, offering a mix of sports gameplay. The records menu tracks stats by game mode and progression, adding a layer of depth for those who enjoy tracking their achievements.

The game boasts 12 locations and 80 challenges to unlock, along with 28 sporting goods, providing plenty of content to keep players engaged. It supports local multiplayer for 2 to 4 players and offers four difficulty levels: easy, medium, hard, and expert. There are ten playable characters, each with unique stats for speed, strength, and intelligence, adding variety to the gameplay. The fully voiced Tweety Bird announcer adds a charming touch, and players can choose their AI opponents and teammates when playing solo. Each character has an intro cutscene, and the game includes flyovers of courses or stadiums before events, enhancing the overall presentation. In golf, players can fast-forward their opponent’s turns, and special shots with unique intros can be used, adding strategic depth. However, the music can become grating and repetitive, especially in slower games like golf. The inability to remap controls and the lack of online modes or multiplayer are significant drawbacks. Additionally, the game does not feature the original voices of the characters, which might be a disappointment for some fans.

The controls are often sluggish and loose, particularly affecting games like tennis and football. Football, in particular, suffers from inconsistent goalkeepers and poor controls, making it one of the weaker games in the series. The AI can be frustratingly cheap, maintaining an advantage regardless of the difficulty level. The lack of camera choices and the small indicators for player identification can make it challenging to keep track of characters during gameplay. The game also misses an opportunity by not including references to “Space Jam” or the Monstars. In golf, the physics is not well implemented, with the ball not rolling down hills as expected. The two-pin method for setting power and precision in golf is straightforward, but the game could benefit from more realistic physics. Despite these issues, the game includes fun elements like finding shortcuts and hitting Acme signs for power-ups in golf, and each character has one-liners that add personality to the matches. Basketball features a quick-fire mini-game before each quarter and allows for various actions like scoring two and three-pointers, blocking, tackling, and using power-ups. Tennis includes pairs play with four shot types and environmental hazards, adding to the challenge.

In summary, Looney Tunes Wacky World of Sports is a visually appealing game with a variety of sports and modes to keep players entertained. While it has several strengths, such as its graphics, character variety, and local multiplayer support, it also has notable weaknesses, including repetitive music, sluggish controls, and a lack of online features. Despite these flaws, fans of the Looney Tunes franchise may still find enjoyment in the game’s nostalgic charm and diverse gameplay options. It is definitely a game that a group of kids will get a few hours of entertainment from it.