This is an ongoing list, where I play every video game ever made and rank it on a list to finally determine what is the best game of all time. For previous entries see earlier blogs, or check the Google Sheet link at the bottom to see the list as it stands now.

There has never been a more perfect time to release a blog that will almost immediately be eaten by game of the year discussions and lists. Which is why I am here to release a new entry onto the list, for Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout. I was super young when the NES came out and most of the games my family owned were games that my brother wanted. Games like Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy, River City Ransom, those games all belonged to my brother before he moved onto the Super Nintendo. My parents, for obvious reasons wanted me to have my own slew of games, however I feel those choices, in retrospect, weren't the best the system had to offer. One of those games was Bugs Bunny's birthday blowout.

In Bugs Bunny, you play as our titular hero as they attempt to make it to their 50th birthday party. Armed with a giant mallet, you go through regular platform levels collecting carrots and beating bosses every other level until the end. Collect enough carrots and at the end of every level/world you can cash them in for a chance to win extra lives.

Not to get into story spoilers here, because I know everyone has been waiting to finish this gem for ages, but the start of the game has a cutscene that sets up the whole story. Essentially Bugs gets invited to a birthday party, and the other toons make it their mission to prevent him from getting to the party. However, when you beat the game, you learned that it was a surprise party organized by the other toons to tell Bugs "happy Birthday." If lets say Elmer Fudd was successful in murdering Bugs so that he doesn't make the party, all the hard work they would have put into the planning, the ordering of cake, streamers, balloons, etc. would all be a waste. So, needless to say I am very confused as to the motivations of our other toon friends.

While I understood even growing up that the bosses would be the other named characters, you fight Daffy multiple times, Sylvester, Tweety, etc. The regular level enemies don't seem to make a lot of sense to me, and without doing the research seem like they belong in a different game. You fight soap and their bubbles, alarm clocks, frogs, and jackhammers throughout multiple worlds and levels, and as far as I could remember these don't really play a prominent role in the warner bros cartoon world. As I said, I knew you couldn't make a world where its non-stop Daffy ducks and Porky pigs running at you, but they could have gone with generic dogs, cats, or hunters coming to take Bugs out. While you would obviously buy a Taz game if he was your favorite character, it is a bummer to see some characters relegated to just being a single boss fight, and ones that don't make sense.

While none of the boss fights are particularly tough, they are confusing in terms of how they were designed. For instance despite most bosses needing to be killed by hammer hits, Daffy Duck just needs to be avoided. Even more curious, Taz does not use his spin attack, but instead throws footballs at you, that you have to hit back to him. The list goes on, and really only Elmur Fudd behaves how you would expect him to, by shooting a net at Bugs and hoping to capture him. However, it really doesnt matter as it shouldn't take anyone more than 2 attempts at a particular boss to figure out the "secret" or what you need to do.

This game has a lot of weird mechanics that it introduces, and even looking through the instruction manual really doesn't paint the full picture that you need. Carrots that you collect, will then turn into solid platforms, but you can't jump on them without collecting them. This forces you in some instance to jump through the same area multiple times, as you might initially need to "collect" all the carrots, so that you can now use them as ledges to reach higher areas. There are even multiple powerups littered throughout levels, but without looking it up online, I couldn't tell you what most did. There was an obvious heart upgrade, which is a rarity, but then one that supposedly makes you run faster and jump higher, but I certainly didn't notice a difference when I picked it up. Besides the heart, all the powerups go away on your next hit or at level end, so enjoy whatever use it says it does in small doses.

Ultimately this is a game meant for kids as it is incredibly easy to make it through with minimum loss of life. If you are playing this through in a non-speed fashion, you will probably end up beating the game with 30 or more lives remaining. It is the first NES game I ever remember completing, but that is not really a feat that anyone is envious of.

Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout is a pretty average game, there isn't much to be excited about, but there isn't much to hate either. Bugs seems to have the correct speed at which he runs, and his jump is gracious enough that you never really find yourself struggling with the platform sections. All in all, I think its a pretty decent game to introduce kids to (4-6 ages), but that is roughly the purpose I think it serves. Nothing really gained, and nothing lost while playing this game.

Is this game the Greatest game of all time: Nah

Where does it rank: I think this is the 17th greatest game of all time out of 25. Its certainly not terrible and one I would re-visit again, it also doesn't do anything that would rise it up the rankings. It is right below "Adam's Venture," and above "When Vikings Attack." For those playing at home, that means the past 5 games added to the list were 16, 17, 19, 22, & 24.. it has been a far cry from Yakuza 0 being #1.

Up Next: Hard West

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion). Here

Thanks for listening