Saturday, October 31, 2020

Take Two Reviews: Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday (SNES)

๐Ÿท Written: October 6th-31st, 2020 ๐Ÿท

How about another round of Take Two Reviews for this October?
And given the Halloween season we're in what more appropriate game to cover the second time than one I last talked about in full eight years ago?  Only this time I plan on doing it properly.  ๐ŸŽƒ

Received: November 3rd, 2009
Year: 1995 | Developed by: Dark Technologies and Phoenix Interactive Entertainment | Published: Sunsoft | Distributed by: Acclaim | Licensed by: Warner Bros. Consumer Products

This is a platformer I've been wanting to give a more comprehensive take for a long time now, and even though it's my most popular review that I've ever posted on my blog... I feel I can do a better job this time around as originally I overlooked a company I wasn't very familiar with, I said it wasn't released in Europe which is not true, only uploaded screenshots from one playthrough (and not enough, I might add) and not multiple given the visual differences that augment replay value, I wish to articulate my thoughts even further in a fully comprehensive fashion, plus I've learned new things since then, et al.

But I am getting ahead of myself--it's incredible that Porky Pig has been around for eighty-five years now, having first been introduced in Warner Bros.'s Merrie Melodies short I Haven't Got a Hat on March 2nd, 1935 (albeit in a minor role, he quickly gained popularity), named after character creator Friz Freleng's two childhood classmate brothers nicknamed "Porky" and "Piggy".

The stuttery little pig was among the first major Looney Tunes characters ever created (as well as the oldest continuing Looney Tunes character), Warner Bros.'s first animated character to "draw audiences in with his star power" (originally voiced by Joe Dougherty, who actually had a stutter, before being replaced by the versatile Mel Blanc two years later and was the permanent voice of Porky until his death in 1989), has appeared in 153 cartoons during the Golden Age of American animation, and at the end of many shorts (whether he starred in it or not) he gave his iconic signature line "Th-th-th-that's all folks!"
Images from GameFAQs; a very charming and well-designed cover, effectively atmospheric with a great angle lit succinctly, I love that it makes me think of the 1937 short "The Case of the Stuttering Pig"
Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday, while technically not the only video game to feature Porky Pig, it was the only Looney Tunes video game to star him as a main character (which is surprising since he's got a lot of material to work with).  Written and directed by Joe Booth of Yorkshire, England and designed by Darren Melbourne, Booth, Alan MacFarlane, Paul J. McKee, and Chris Edwards, this game was released for the SNES in North America on October 1995 and came out for the PAL SNES format that November and was the last Looney Tunes license to come out on the console.  Lots of companies behind it so let's go through them real quick.
Left image from MobyGames; according to this game's prototype page on The Cutting Room Floor website, given the similarity of the logos, there's a chance that Dark Technologies and Phoenix Interactive Entertainment are one and the same
Dark Technologies was its original developer, whose only other credits were Alien Olympics/Alien Olympics 2044 AD as well as the NES and Game Boy video game adaptations of Disney's The Lion King, whereas the finalized game gave credit to Phoenix Interactive Entertainment in their first title for they would go on to develop Tiny Troops and contributed in making a few entries to the virtual pet Petz franchise in the previous decade.  Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday was dedicated to the memory of Charles Lawrence, a Dark Technologies employee who passed away in 1993 at the age of twenty-eight as he had done additional design for Alien Olympics (which was was also dedicated to him) but sadly didn't live to see the final product.
Acclaim would act as distributor to help publisher Sunsoft (produced by Dan MacArthur, consumer products managed by Steve Gehrke, with Al Artus acting as technical manager) out, whose American firm could not stand on their own legs anymore due to struggling from financial problems at the time, and was among the last Nintendo 16-bit Sunsoft/Acclaim publisher/distributor collaborations
alongside Argonaut Software's North American-exclusive Scooby-Doo Mystery based on the classic Hanna-Barbera franchise.
Unlike Iguana Entertainment's Aero the Acro-Bat games and Funcom's Daze Before Christmas, Aero creator David Siller had zero involvement with today's title
This would also be among the final appearances of Sunsoft's former mascot Aero the Acro-Bat on the SNES as he glides down to the logo to immediately jump and perform the midair drill attack for the last time offscreen as the Sunsoft logo slowly comes apart.  A pleasant sendoff to the publisher during the mid '90s.
Apparently there are versions of the game where Acclaim was the publisher and Sunsoft was the distributor as opposed to the other way around, but regardless of which company did what this platformer was made under the license of Warner Bros. Consumer Products.

Click left screenshot to see full size of .gif file if you have a hard time noticing it as it is

Left: Spooky place | Right: Snow, and there's something peering out from inside Porky's mailbox
In the platformer Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday you take control of the eponymous stuttering pig as you can walk left and right, duck down, enter doors or open spots by pressing up beside them, with the default controls being B to jump with your gained altitude dependent on how lightly or how hard you pressed the button, press Y or A to throw bouncy projectiles at your enemies once you procure them, and finally by holding down the X button and pressing any direction you'll be able to look around and ahead of Porky in any of the eight directions.
Left: And now it's grassy | Right: Walking in the haunted woods
Throughout the course of each stage you'll come across a variety of items to collect: cupcakes (for which getting a hundred will earn you another life), pieces of cake for points, a heart to replenish lost health, a 1 Up icon to get a free life, unlimited vegetables to throw at your foes (only applies to the first two stages, until you either lose a life or clear the stage), and exclusively in the first stage a mysterious brew which will momentarily enable Porky Pig to float around in the air.
Left: Jumping on a bat in the middle of the rain | Right: Splitting a leprechaun in two by sliding through
Generally you'll take out your foes by hopping and bopping on them, but with the projectiles in the first two stages (except boss fights) you are at least given a sense of range, occasionally there are ropes to swing on to cross a gap or to reach another rope, and in certain portions of the game there are ladders you can climb.  You can even slide down inclines by holding the down button which is another way of disposing of enemies.

Left: "Mwahahaha!" | Right: Winter trees
Each stage is divided into separate rooms and if the present room is large there are X marks on the ground which upon being stepped on will allow Porky to leave a flag in its place to restart from that point should you lose a life after the fact.  At the end of each stage is a boss fight which requires five hits in order to clear the current stage and move on to the subsequent one.
Left: Sliding on a giant spiderweb ๐Ÿ•ธ | Right: Scaling up a tree a la Nebulus
The design for Porky Pig is good and his sets of animations done by Paul J. McKee are remarkably fluid (from walking to climbing to jumping to falling to sliding), he really captured the character's charm and persona from the Looney Tunes shorts, despite being a larger size than one usually sees in a playable character sprite in a Nintendo 16-bit platformer.  I like how when he remains idle long enough he has a stutter-based animation and when he loses his last bit of health he turns into a dream-like puff of smoke (played in reverse whenever you begin a stage and when you start from the nearest point after losing a life), plus he's incredibly expressive.
Left: Swinging across | Right: Magically floating towards the upper level
If there's one thing I find very odd it's that any time you remain still, any time at all, Porky will instantly turn around and face the opposite direction (but when he's ducking it's correct).  Always.  ๐Ÿ˜•  So whenever he visually faces the left he's actually positioned to the right direction and vice versa; I don't know what causes it or what purpose it serves, I cannot think of any other platformer that does this.  Always found it bizarre, and the way he swings his visible arm while walking makes it look like he's swinging both arms in tandem as opposed to swinging them alternatively.  But other than that, I think Porky and his detailed sense of animation looks really good in this game.
Left: Bopping Sid's head while his top hat is off | Right: Dry Gulch in the dead of night
While navigating through Porky's nightmares he will contend with a variety of enemies, all decently designed with a sufficiently solid sense of animation and fit right in with the Looney Tunes mold: small bats, cauldrons that walk on their own two green feet, leprechauns who divide themselves in two upon being jumped on, two-headed vultures, moose-heads on wheels,
Left: For comparisons' sake, Dry Gulch during the day | Right: Dispose of that trumpet-mouthed monstrosity with a ball
mischievous turkey vultures that will attempt to swoop down towards you, sharp-toothed piranhas with big red lips, pufferfish devoid of any spikes on their body, blue rats, bouncing pink snowmen, flying ostriches, and sentient missiles, et al.  I especially love Porky's frightened animation at the literal jump scare he's about to receive when standing on a peculiarly deigned platform by either a fanged Daffy Duck or a horsehead protruding their heads from the side of the screen, it's hilarious.  ๐Ÿ˜†
Left: Well, if that ain't a curiously proportioned steam locomotive if I saw one ๐Ÿš‚ | Right: What, the hell happened with Porky's head with that in-between throwing animation frame? ๐Ÿคจ  
Most of the bosses are huge and tower over you, making them imposing in design while retaining their Looney Tunes likeness in spite of their limited frames of animation compared to Porky's smooth fluidity.  Classic antagonist Yosemite Sam looks good as a giant (presumably because of the "enlarging juice" behind him), Tweety turns into a monster who flails his arms,
Left: Platforming under the sun | Right: Ball toss parte deux 
and Hugo the Abonimable Snowman (credited in Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday as "Monster Max", not to be confused with the titular character from Rare's isometric Game Boy adventure game) is just as funny to watch in the game as he was in the shorts he admires himself in the mirror and is completely oblivious to the fact that he'll open himself up for damage any time he attempts to toss a snowball (going to sleep upon his last bit of health being depleted), et al.
Left: Inside a large empty barrel | Right: All's well that ends well
The music and sound effects were done by Kevin Bateson (credited as "Kev B", who also provided music for Dark Technologies' The Lion King and Alien Olympics) and Jeremy Taylor (credited as "Jez", who would go on to do music for Phoenix Interactive Entertainment's Tiny Troops, David A. Palmer Productions' Game Boy Color version of Gex: Enter the Gecko, Krisalis Software's Airport Tycoon, and Runecraft's Monopoly Party and Scrabble: 2003 Edition, et al),
Left: Dodging literal bullets | Right: Gun toting Yosemite Sam
which I very recently learned in preparation for this review that duo composed over two hours of music total (included what actually ended up being used) for today's game which is a lot for a licensed platformer like this one at the time.  But I should specify that the originally intended music is a very interesting listen compared to what was actually used in the final product, including some themes that remained in the cutting room floor,
Left: Something fishy is about to go down | Right: Discolored Atlantis
one of the reasons being that the prototype music had a richer sense of instrumentation and composition (several songs having extended sessions, even) which would've done a more than sufficient job at lending the locations within Porky's nightmares a greater sense of atmosphere.  And with the different variations of "Strange Theme" and "Haunting in Japan", that suggests that this was originally to incorporate a couple of more areas (unless the composers were just dabbling around and experimenting).
Left: Atlantis during rainy days | Right: Leaping piranha
VintaGamers Paradise's playlist (for which I'll provide the links to the individual tracks) is formed of eighty-eight tracks, with tracks 1 through 57 serving as the protothemes with tracks 58 to 88 being the themes that actually ended up being used in the game proper--and what was used in the final product I find to be pretty adequate at best and repetitious at worst, plus they sound very plain compared to the initial version of the theme.  The good news, however, is that the music still continues instead of starting over after losing a life and the boss themes are all different which is always a plus (for what it's worth in this case).
Left: Turkey vulture, oh no! | Right: Mushrooms instead of trees ๐Ÿ„
Now the themes I find to be more compelling are ones that I look forward to listening to the most: the sunken ship and the Altantis ruins themes in the third stage are engrossingly atmospheric and soothing as you're submerged underwater, the abandoned mines theme in the following stage is atmospherically neat and playful take on a classical public domain theme with the drums and xylophone which name escapes me, and in the final stage the theme that takes place in the creepy courtyard sounds quietly creepy but the best song for me transpires during the castle interior as it does a fantastic job at creating a forebodingly dark tone as it gradually becomes more and more intimidating the longer you listen.
Left: In dreams it's okay for a character to perpetually breathe underwater without ever worrying about running low on oxygen | Right: The cake is not a lie, but it sure is soggy
And the "The Merry Go-Round Broke Down" theme (originally written in 1937 by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin) is decently done at the end with a digitized sound byte of the late Mel Blanc's signature Porky Pig catchphrase that soon follows suit.  The rest of the themes unfortunately suffer from either coming across as incomplete, sounding very rambunctious, or a combination of the two--for certain songs it might somewhat work within context given the surreal and deliberately nightmarish imagery (for Looney Tunes standards), but when you hear it without the visual accompaniment it falls apart real fast.  ๐Ÿ˜
Left: Walking on the rope | Right: Pouncing on a fish whilst climbing a ladder
The haunted forest theme sounds atmospherically brooding (which works up to a point) and the spiraling tree theme has got a nauseatingly distorted instrumentation, but they both play the same notes over and over which gives them a highly repetitious aura, the Dry Gulch Town theme sounds like it comes straight out of a very old film reel (with actual film reel sounds) with a low-energy barely existent tune playing, but the absolute worst offender is the Wackyland theme--it is so obnoxiously composed with constantly banging drums and blaring brass instruments with a nonsensical composition that is so overbearingly grating to hear (made worse by the fact that it plays during the end credits; noooooo!  ๐Ÿ˜ซ).
Left: Jumping up on rotting pipes | Right: Deep in the Heart of Altantis (hopefully not near their life force... Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a good, underrated movie, I'm sad it underperformed theatrically  ๐Ÿ˜”)
Each boss has their own theme, which for the most part is a brief and slightly sped up leitmotif of the central theme that played during the stage proper, except for Daffy "The Count" Duck at the end where it's just stereotypically robotic mechanism sounds ad infinitum (which might perhaps be the most nonexistent final boss theme, if it can be called that, I've ever heard in a video game).  I have no idea whether Acclaim and/or Sunsoft commissioned the composers to redo the music or if the composers themselves simply second-guessed themselves, but the music used in the final music does not a hold a candle to their initial attempt and if you were curious (and have the time, of course) I'd recommend playing the two different takes on the same song back to back for comparisons' sake.
Left: Look out, spikes! | Right: Daffy Duck statue
Now the sound effects, on the other hand, are pretty decent (with the sound engine provided by Bitmasters, whose other sound engine credits consisted of Iguana Entertainment's Aero the Acro-Bat, Iguana UK's port of Midway Manufacturing Company's coin-op NBA Jam, Westwood Studios' The Lion King based on the Disney animated film, Adrenalin Entertainment's Doom Troopers: Mutant Chronicles, and LucasArts' Big Sky Trooper, et al); they perfectly complement the Looney Tunes aesthetic of this license as they mostly comprise of cartoon sound effects.  I like the funny sound effect for when Porky places a flag in the checkpoint, the bouncing sound of the tossed projectile is apt, there's the whip sound as Porky swings on the rope, the cartoony "bwoom" sound as Porky dispatches of his enemies is humorous, et al.  I especially like Porky's stutters and loudly audible gasps when he remains idle and the way he utters "D-Dear!" upon losing his last bit of health.
Left: Sylvester and Tweety as statues | Right: "N-n-not a b-bad l-likene-ne-ne-ne-ne-ne... it's like I'm lo-looking at a m-mi-mi-mirror!"
Occasionally during certain stage portions you'll come across a chance to receive plenty of lives after successfully following a sequence of blinking cupcakes after acquiring each one (in the proper order) which sometimes requires looking thoroughly especially when you hear the blinking sound cue.  There are three difficulty settings, each with a different variation in terms of challenge value and how many enemies and/or enemy activity happens: on Easy Porky begins with nine lives, on Normal five lives, and Hard also begins with five lives with the difference being that your health capacity has been reduced down to three instead of four like in the prior two difficulty settings.
Left: In the secret compartment of Atlantis | Right: Star-spewing underwater creature
I learned of Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday sometime back in 2008, if I recall correctly, on a random website, with the first thing catching my eye was how big Porky's character sprite was (especially compared to other playable characters in different Nintendo 16-bit platformers), but as I read the review I was pretty intrigued based on one major element which I'll cover shortly; plus, I rather like Porky Pig as he's one of my favorite Looney Tunes characters, and the fact that he starred in his one and only platformer was a big selling point for me.
Left: Leaping crustacean crabs | Right: "Blegh!  ๐Ÿ‘…  I was hoping I was the only animal here wearing a red bowtie!  Ooooh, I'm so mildly annoyed by this, I am!"
Today's game would be the seventh game I ordered on eBay as well as the seventh physical NTSC SNES cartridge I bought from the online retail shop in 2009--Ocean Software's adorably colorful and endearingly challenging Mr. Nutz holds a very special place in my heart (๐Ÿค—๐Ÿ’–) as the first game I ordered/SNES game I bought, not to mention it's a very fun platformer and it still impresses me to this day that only two (three including the composer?) people worked on it (thereby giving it an indie quality long before indie gaming became a thing); Tonkin House's port of Nihon Falcom's Ys III: Wanderers from Ys, short and not all that challenging as it was and a slight step below its two predecessors, was an enjoyably engaging adventure while it lasted with a rockin' soundtrack; Konami's Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose! was a flawed yet endearingly solid licensed platforming romp in my book;
Left: Blue | Right: Red
HAL Laboratory's Arcana is a game I have a soft spot for, messily rushed translation and occasionally repetitive brick wall patterns notwithstanding, with its Tarot card theme and chapter-driven system combined with a perfectly atmospheric soundtrack and swift battle system culminating in an epic do or die battle (plus it was the first game Kirby ever appeared in) thereby making it the only first-person turn-based RPG I'm comfortable playing; Quintet's SoulBlazer quickly became one of my top favorites as I find it to be a pitch-perfect action-adventure game with spiritual, meaningful, and purely soulful themes that are delicately and tactfully handled (I was happy upon importing the original Japanese version SoulBlader nearly five years later to find that both versions are about on par in terms of quality); and Ukiyotei's Hook is a bizarre and awkward case of initially really liking it a ton back when I first played it but suffers a lot the more platformers in the system I played (and eventually watching the movie it's based on in full, which I like) and not agreeing with its questionable design choices to the point that it's passably okay.
Left: Swinging inside the mines | Right: Dead end
It was late October 2009 when I decided to order today's game on eBay, which I figured would be an ideal time of year to catch up with it given its Halloween-appropriate tone and aesthetic and was hoping to play it by that day--it ended up arriving that early November, but regardless of that I found Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday to be a special treat all the same, and having not played it for nearly half a decade I still feel the same way.  It's not a great game by any means, but it's pleasurable to play all the same.  ๐Ÿ™‚
Left: Chained ladder | Right: Roped rung ladder
The premise of Porky Pig navigating his nightmares, which in turn makes up his haunted holiday after reading brochures for vacation planning, is a decent one (albeit unoriginal); sure, we know it's a dream from the get go, but it makes the "it was all a dream... or was it?" ending all the more satisfying (not to mention this game took full advantage of the ambiguity of whether it was real or if it only took place in the subconscious, unlike a certain licensed Capcom Disney platformer I could name which had a ending that felt more like an afterthought than anything else, but never mind).  The gameplay itself isn't really anything to write home about as the actions are pretty basic all around, but the play control is decent as Porky's walking pace is acceptably moderate and the areas are well designed and laid out.
Left: Tweety as Mr. Hyde | Right: "Hey, you've almo-mo-mo-most ste-step-step-stepped--you ne-nearly squished me!"
The visuals really capture the Looney Tunes look and feel with its expressive characters and enemies and is designed in a way that really makes the atmosphere work.  The haunted forest has got an unfriendly vibe with the spooky trees; Dry Gulch Town has got a neat Old West aesthetic with the old buildings, cacti, and canyon in the backdrop that also incorporates a smooth amount of parallax scrolling, the underwater segments of Atlantis are very engrossing to look at with the perpetually wavy color layering soft filter and bubbles floating around that makes it relaxing to look at;
Left: That snowball is pink like the snowman, does that mean it's hurting itself as a means to attack you? | Right: About to be swooped by a turkey vulture
the bulk of the penultimate stage transpires in the realm of the surreal of the brown sky with giant eight balls, dice stacks, and invisible doors leading to either a blue sky or a sea of eyeballs; and lastly the castle has got a creepy courtyard with a star-studded sky should you be shot upward with a looming hedge of a random Looney Tunes character head, and inside you occasionally venture inside a pool room with checkered floor patterns.  What I like about each stage is that it's preceded by an introductory screen, like poofing into existence by the gates of Dry Gulch Town, watching a bigfoot stomp into existence in front of the alps sign after waiting awhile, and the castle in the distance having magic shoot out and ricochet off a roof into the window it emanated from, et al.
Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday also falls under the category of games that utilize a scaling sequence like in Hewson Consultants' Nebulus, for there are a couple isolated sequences in the first stage, as the character remains in the center regardless of which direction you're going.  What's fascinating in this case is that happens by a wooden tree instead of a tower.
Personally speaking, I find it very refreshing that it doesn't happen by a tower for once as that's the usual hotspot for Nebulus sequences; then again there aren't many tall and vertical architectural structure choices that you could scale upward in this manner anyway, so give Dark Technologies/Phoenix Interactive Entertainment credit for thinking outside the box.  Major props.  ๐Ÿ‘
Left: Fork bolts | Right: It's raining cats and dogs
One thing that's fascinating is that during the indoor door maze at the end of Dry Gulch Town and the bulk of the final stage inside the castle (right down to the pool rooms) is that the sidelines perspective is slightly skewed at an isometric angle, like something akin to the Jordan Mechner classic and Brรธderbund property Prince of Persia to name one notable example.
Left: Now it's raining dead fish | Right: Scared of pothole fires
The greatest aspect of this game, and the main source of replay value, is its built-in random weather generator which always creates a different visual variation regardless how many times you play it or what difficulty setting you choose to play; not just in terms of weather but background props as well.
Left: Turkey legs | Right: Ocean of eyeballs
Several examples that spring to mind are the haunted woods where it'll either rain or be shrouded in mist or snow or be clear while taking place in the snow (with snowmen) or summer (with the scarecrow) or fall (with crosses); Dry Gulch Town will either take place during the day or in the night and inside if you pay close attention sometimes the grandfather clock will be whole while another time you might play it the face might be sprung out from its frame; the surface portions of Atlantis might have trees in one moment or have tall mushrooms in place of trees while underwater you might either be greeted by statues of Daffy and Porky or Sylvester and Tweety depending on the playthrough;
Left: Oh, that Hugo Monster Max, he's a real Narcissus, he is! | Right: Pounce upon him tossing his snowball
the abandoned mines might have a different designs for the ladders (chained, have roped rungs, or be rungless, which I'm not sure how that last one works) or props (like signs, dynamite, and skull and bones); whenever you reach the Wackyland portion in the alps there is threshold you'll be crossing for if it snows by that point it'll turn from that to raining cats and dogs or dead fish the moment you cross; and while indoors in the castle the wall and floor might have a different color palette.
Left: Castle in the distance | Right: Navigating through the mist
What causes this random weather?  What's the determinant factor behind it?  No one knows, which is the beauty of it as there's a sense of excitement in terms of visual variety.
Left: Misty clouds | Right: Rainy hedge courtyard
One other bit that I like that adds replay value, albeit of the optional variety, is how each stage is laid out in a way that you can discover secret compartments and rooms, as sometimes if you think you've found them all you might stumble across new rooms by accident (especially if you haven't played it for awhile).  If you jump on a bat at just the right moment you might gain enough altitude to reach a door that leads to a giant spiderweb, the abandoned mines is designed like an elaborate maze, jumping inside one of the fountains will lead to a secret basement, and the final pool room inside the castle has got an upper and lower layer, et al.  You could decide to take the straight route or take awhile by doing a little thorough exploring.
Left: Gazing at a hedge of Sylvester's head | Right: Deep in a secret basement
Regardless of what difficulty setting you play, however, Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday is a very easy game to play through once you've got the proper area layout figured out; maybe not during your initial playthrough as you're doing a little trial and error with figuring out the correct path and selecting the right door to go through (especially with the door maze in Dry Gulch Town, the aforementioned labyrinthine maze in the abandoned mines where you have to watch out for certain spots where boulders will drop down from, and the door maze in Wackyland) but barring that the enemies are easy to maneuver around and dispatch of, plus the game feels littered to the brim with helpful powerups.
Left: "Geez, you're just like that Pitfall guy stepping on my snout like that, no respect for us gators at all!  ๐Ÿ˜ฃ  That's it, I'm calling my lawyer!" | Right: Jumping on a blue entrance rat
The bosses also don't really pose much of a challenge (despite the added ricocheting bullets from Yosemite Sam's pistols in the normal and hard difficulties) as they have very simple patterns even when they try to throw a curveball at you sometimes (the crabs in the fight against the shark Willie and a waterdrop from the fight against Tweety turned Mr. Hyde, to name a couple examples).  Also, Daffy makes himself a literal sitting duck as he never get up from his chair leaving him very vulnerable to get pounced on (to the point that you could do it forever) thereby making the ACME-supplied robot slow down so you can damage it (and because of this I tend to find myself remaining at the same level he is until I see the robot attempt to whizz by from offscreen in which case I jump on him again).  I do like how each boss has their own personal health icon when you combat against them, however.
Left: Swinging over spiked spheres | Right: Swinging across the pool
Though there is something to appreciate about the different events it makes you go through: such as navigating the depths of Atlantis and alternating between rising bubbles after jumping on a bubble-creating creature, sometimes feeling through walls meaning there's a secret passageway or shortcut, riding a tram as you not only deal with the current but turkey vultures (and in later difficulties clouds that shoot down fork-shaped lightning bolts) as well, and riding a lone carrot platform all the way to the end, et al.
Left: Carefully walking past a rotating chained tether ball | Right: Lifesaving platforms
I feel like this, as well as the different difficulty variations and decent play control and randomized weather generator, more than make up for this platformer's shortcomings in regards to its easy nature and adequate music (again, some of it works to the present area's advantage, but most of it is either passable or just annoying or repetitive).  And as easy as Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday can be, it's still fun to play even if it never truly reaches the levels of greatness that it aspires to be; the atmosphere perfectly complements Porky's nightmares however, and the Looney Tunes charm is kept in tact, and it's always a decent fifty or so minutes to play through once in awhile.
As Sunsoft-based Nintendo 16-bit holiday platforming goes, though, I personally consider Funcom's Daze Before Christmas to be a superior experience as it's jolly feel-good fun which I still attest to be my favorite Nintendo 16-bit experience with Sunsoft's name attached (that I've played).  ๐Ÿ˜ƒ
And besides, how many chances do you get to play as Santa Claus on the Nintendo 16-bit console?  ๐ŸŽ…
Left: Fancy checkered floor patterns | Right: Yeah, I'd say the Count deserves whatever's coming to him for subjecting us to ICOM Simulations' Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions
As Nintendo 16-bit fare that bears the Sunsoft name go, it's superior and more entertaining than ICOM Simulations' Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions, Iguana Entertainment's original Aero the Acro-Bat, and Argonaut Software's Scooby-Doo Mystery (the last one by a margin), and if you've ever wanted to play a video game that featured Porky Pig as the main character then you need look no further than this game.  Decent nightmare-based fun made very special thanks to the random weather generator, and if you like a little visual and atmospheric sense of replay value, then I recommend you check it out.

My Personal Score: 6.5/10
d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b
● I swore in my review of Planet Interactive's Game Boy Color version of Ocean Software's Mr. Nutz back in January that I would cover this game this year, and by golly, I've done it!  ๐Ÿ˜ค

● Wanna know what'd make a very interesting triple billing of Halloween-appropriate copyrighted 1995 Acclaim-distributed titles (U.S.-wise)?  This game, Argonaut Software's Scooby-Doo Mystery, and the non-Nintendo 16-bit based WARP's D (RIP Kenji Eno)--quite the tone shift with the last one after two licenses based on considerably lighthearted properties, but it's thrilling all the same (and technologically impressive for what it could accomplish in 1995).

Happy 25th Anniversary,
Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday!!!  ๐Ÿฅณ๐ŸŽ‰

Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW allowed); hope you have a great day, be a nice human, keep yourself protected during this pandemic, take care, and Happy Halloween!  ๐ŸŽƒ