Like many children of the Eighties, I grew up on a staple diet of (some) quality (and many forgettable) cartoons. However, none of these came close to the gems that Warner Brothers provided with their Looney Tunes shorts. There must be a massive market of twenty-somethings who grew up with such similar nostalgia-tinged memories as mine and it seems a shame that the licence has never been successfully transferred to gaming. Cynics won't be surprised to hear that, like the packages that Wile E. Coyote orders from ACME, Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal merely fizzles and never delivers the explosive joy the license should be capable of providing.

The game itself is a standard third person action adventure. With some forgettable plot involving time travel and some robot enemies who are devoid of personality, you have to steer various Looney Tunes characters across themed maps, attacking swarms of samey enemies, occasionally jumping gaps and flicking switches. This is punctuated by the occasional boss battle and some racing sections that feel ever so slightly out of place, though the effort to break up the monotony of the main game is appreciated.

Sufferin' Succatash!

The game's format should come as no surprise to cynics, this being the genre that money spinning cash-ins usually plump for (The Simpsons, Futurama and every Pixar movie tie-in have taken this route), but for once this actually seems a legitimate approach. The cartoons, while never exactly Manhunt, weren't shy of a bit of over-the-top violence. Indeed, the idea of arming Looney Tunes characters and controlling them in a 3D environment should at least provide a passable experience - and that's exactly what the game delivers. On a third person action staples tick-sheet, the game does rather well at hitting the usual features - so well in fact, that the back of the box chooses to list them, which makes my job that little bit easier:

- Play as Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Marvin and more
- Over fifteen pick-up-and-play ACME weapons
- Two Player Co-op mode, 4 Player Battle Mode
- Awkward filler-race sections

I'm paraphrasing the last one, but I feel it provides a more accurate impression of the experience!

Curiously, the packaging neglects to mention that, to the developers' credit, the co-op mode is also available over Xbox Live. This should be applauded in a cross-format game - even the pinnacle of kids-licensed-action games, LEGO Star Wars, didn't manage this until the re-released Complete Saga. The trouble is that while the latter has genuine charm and replayability value, ACME Arsenal's fairly average game mechanics mean that you'll struggle to find anyone on the service to play it with - and that limited number are only going to dwindle yet further when they realise that the game doesn't hold much incentive to play through it again.

What ACME Arsenal offers are various themed stages with fairly similar gameplay throughout. Each level has the same quotient of enemies attacking in waves, timed jumping antics and switch flicking that has been the staple of the genre for at least the past decade. There's nothing wrong with this formula if it's done well, but unfortunately the game can only perform averagely in this area. Although some of the zany weapons included are entertaining (the boxing glove on a spring is a delightful novelty), the melee combat that makes up the majority of your playing time is not terribly inspiring. These attacks, despite the efforts made to reward special combos, feel like relentless button mashing, while the jumping sections of the game fare little better, often made difficult by the infuriating camera angles. I thought at first that ACME Arsenal had got around this age old problem by mapping camera controls to the right analogue stick, but it appears that Warner have adopted the philosophy that the camera should work only when it damn well wants to. A noble idea, but not one that's exactly conducive to precision jumping - and a regular source of restarting and cursing for this reviewer.

When you do respawn as your second character (if playing on your own you essentially get two lives before being sent back to the last checkpoint), the game has taken the foolish step of making you appear in exactly the same spot you were last beaten to a pulp, meaning you have no time to take stock of the situation and will already have taken a fair few hits before you can get your bearings. Still, despite all this, it's almost engaging in small doses and quite satisfying to take out swarms of enemies with clever usage of jump and attack combos. It's almost enough to allow you to ignore the fact that the level design is paint-by-numbers at best and insultingly generic at worst.

The graphics are a peculiar hotchpotch of excellent character models and lifeless scenery. It's lovely to see the unique animation of the characters they have made an effort with (namely the traditional Warner Brothers cast); Marvin, the perpetually 'very very angry' but polite Martian has his charming fast-paced walk, while Taz has the kind of ungainly stoop you would expect. This attention to detail is in stark contrast to the dull backdrops and character models of the enemies, which often have the same muddy textures and quality typical of games two generations back. I have it on reasonable authority that no noticeable effort has been made to improve the looks of the title for the Xbox 360, so visually there's nothing to choose between this version and that of the Wii and PlayStation 2, which frankly just isn't on now we're into the third year of the Xbox 360's lifespan.

You're Deshpicable!

It's true to say that cartoon games can get away with this lack of graphical panache to a degree and the third person genre style means you can almost overlook it. Or at least I could if this graphically underpowered title didn't run at a noticeably low frame rate. I'm no expert and have no way of measuring this, but I gather it's around 25 frames per second that the human eye can begin to detect a lack of smoothness, and here it is very noticeable, so I'd guess it's at very most 20fps. To its credit, this remained stable throughout, but somehow that doesn't feel like a very generous compliment.

Sound is an area where things pick up a little, with some solid voice acting throughout. I'm not sure whether the original cast were used (Marvin sounds very off to me) but the majority of the lines are well delivered and fit the mood, although characters do have a tendency to repeat themselves, as is the expectation for the film/TV tie-in. The sound effects too are suitably zany, if nothing to write home about, though unfortunately this muted praise cannot be extended to the game's music, which is non-existent for the most part and forgettable when present, a far cry from the cartoons the game is based upon.

A redeeming point to all this is the multiplayer that's been thrown in. Co-operative play can make any gaming experience more enjoyable, and that is the case here, as you team up to play through the single player story mode. This is also the only area the Xbox version is superior to its Wii and PS2 counterparts, as it allows co-operative play over Live (if you can to find anyone willing to join you - they were pretty thin on the ground when I tried.) The game also includes a 'battle' competitive mode for four players via split screen, but this is plagued by the same problems with the single player (repetitive gameplay and iffy camerawork). While it proves an enjoyable diversion for a short while, it can't really compete with other Xbox split screen multiplayer titles and the option is inexplicably absent over live.

The-th-the-th-the-th-that's All Folks!

Looney Tunes: ACME Arsenal is just a slightly below average platformer hiding behind a powerful licence. For every area of the game that's done well (like co-operative play both online and off), it loses points for doing something plain stupid (poor frame rates, unforgiving respawn points, poor level design), leaving a below average score as the only real option. LEGO Star Wars has proven that grown ups can have a blast on games aimed squarely at children, but regrettably, like Elmer Fudd opening a ticking gift from Bugs Bunny for the umpteenth time, ACME Arsenal's developers have learned nothing and the results are predictably dull.

Reviewed by Alan Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).