Received: April 20th, 2020 | Written: August 3rd-6th, 2020
Alternate Titles: Yogi Bear's Cartoon Capers [ ◯ ] / Yogi Bear [ ⬤ ]
Year: 1994 | Developed by: Blue Turtle | Published by: Cybersoft
On September 29th, 1958 aired William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's second animated television series following The Ruff and Ready Show, the Kellog's sponsored The Huckleberry Hound Show. It was the first TV animated show to receive an Emmy Award, it contributed in making Hanna-Barbera a household name, it's often cited and credited "with legitimizing the concept of animation produced specifically for television", and
Image from Wikipedia
it marked the first appearance of everyone's favorite kleptomaniac Jellystone Park resident Yogi Bear (voiced by Daws Butler doing an Ed Norton's Honeymooners impression) as well as his sidekick Boo Boo Bear and Ranger Smith (both voiced by Don Messick). His segments in The Huckleberry Hound Show were so popular that he became TV's first breakout animated character and eventually got a show of his own from January 30th, 1961 to January 6th, 1962 at two seasons and thirty-three episodes (with his spot in the former show filled in by Hokey Wolf). He also had a collar which enabled Hanna-Barbera to just animate his head during his speaking lines while his body remained static, one of the cost-saving measures that ensured that the number of drawings required for the seven-minute segments got reduced from 14,000 to 2,000.
Images from GameFAQs
One of those video games was Blue Turtle's Nintendo 16-bit based Adventures of Yogi Bear which got released for the American SNES console in October 1994, followed by a November 24th, 1994 PAL SNES conversion as Yogi Bear's Cartoon Capers,
Image from GameFAQs
until finally on January 3rd, 1995 it saw a release in Japanese shores for the Super Famicom as simply Yogi Bear; programmed by Nick Pavis (who would go on to do the programming for the Sega Saturn version of Cunning Developments' Pro Pinball: The Web and LucasArts' Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine) and designed by Martin Wakeley (who would go on to provide the design for Nintendo 64 Rare fare Blast Dozer/Blast Corps, Diddy Kong Racing, and Jet Force Gemini/Star Twins). Each version was published by a different company, so let's sift through these real quick.
Image from GiantBomb
And finally we have the Japanese publisher Magifact which only acted as publisher for a handful of other titles aside from Yogi Bear which comprised of Wiz's Bishin Densetsu Zoku: The Legend of Bishin Zoku, Team Mental Care's sole title GanGan GanChan, and they published the Game Boy-based Pachi-Slot HisshΕ Guide GB.
Left: Yogi Bear thanks you for playing his game | Right: Dashing past a collapsible platform bridge
In the sidescrolling platformer Adventures of Yogi Bear you take control of Jellystone Park's resident anthropomorphic talking kleptomaniac bear Yogi Bear whom you can move left and right (gingerly or full speed ahead), duck down, and jump in the air with the B button (with your jumps being controlled in midair), and during the Water Palaver stages when you're in the water you can repeatedly tap the B button to have him swim upward.
Left: π΅ Do you want to pounce a snowman? π΅ | Right: Floating picnic baskets galore
The goal of each stage is to reach the "Do Not Feed the Bears" sign at the end, for along the way you'll be gathering time watches, pieces of cake to replenish lost health, picnic baskets floating in midair which can act as makeshift platforms to get to higher places, and occasionally turn on lights by moving in front of them. During these twenty stages you'll of course also deal with enemies which generally are disposed of by hopping and bopping on them (well, I say "dispose of", more like they gesture for a brief second after being jumped on that they'll zip ahead towards the left of the screen before doing exactly that; it is based on a classic Hanna-Barbera property after all, gotta keep it family friendly).
Left: Snowy platforms | Right: Dream Time
Adventures of Yogi Bear also falls under the category of a map-based platformer where once you complete the present stage the subsequent one will be available to play, though in this case it is possible to backtrack and replay a prior stage you've already completed if you wanted to (though personally, going forward is the better option). Yogi's health is represented by cake, where each hit he sustains results in a slice taken off, and if the cake is fully depleted or if you fall offscreen you'll lose a life and be forced to start the stage over from the beginning (with nothing on hand, er, paw).
Left: Brown tummied skunk to zip thataway | Right: Blackbird singing in the dead of night, but somewhere else
For those wondering what purpose the time watches serve, if you look thoroughly in each stage you will find a vacant bed which will take you deep inside Yogi Bear's subconscious after jumping on it and sleeping, and depending on how many time watches you collected up to that point you will be given that amount of time in order to reach the end and collect a piece of an alarm clock (each area comprises of four stages, one piece per each). If you fell offscreen or didn't reach the end on time you'll be brought back to the real world at the spot the bed was previously in, but you won't lose a life.
Left: Lots o' time watches | Right: Perusing through a cave
The visuals were done by Leigh Christian, who had previously done visual work for various iterations of The Oliver Twins' Dizzy franchise, Codemasters Software Company's Captain Dynamo, Blue Turtle's Magic Boy, and NMS Software's NES version of Tiertex's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Action Game, and are really the best thing about Yogi Bear's 16-bit excursion. On top of being very colorful there is a good amount of detail not just in terms of backgrounds and foregrounds but the level of animation as well.
Left: That human miner is about half Yogi's size | Right: Dreaming of French fries π
The Snow Business stages have got snow all around with a beautiful moon lingering in the backdrop, the Dream Time sequences have got an appropriately hazy pink filter encompassing the entire screen, the Cave Capers stages are atmospheric in that there's a dark and rocky structure with stalactites and stalagmites, the Redwood Rendezvous stages has got a nice sense of atmospheric depth with the parallax trees in the backdrop,
Left: Found a piece of an alarm clock ⏰ | Right: "Mmmm, fresh bear meat!"
the Water Palaver stages have got an effective color layering effect as you're submerged in the water which has got a darker gradient the deeper down you go, and the Construction Yard Shenanigans stages at the end are replete with construction beams, elevators, conveyor belts, and ill-advised obstructive foregrounds (they're well-drawn and designed, but they obfuscate your view in a partial sense). But regardless, it is visually impressive to look at.
Left: Cave pounce | Right: Burgers π
Yogi Bear looks pretty solid in-game, he retains the look and charm from his Hanna-Barbera series and animates real smoothly (two-frame ducking animation as he's looking at us notwithstanding), and when he loses his last portion of health he turns his head at us frowning. Along the way he'll contend with a variety of enemies (sometimes palette swapped); of which they include porcupines, birds, mischievous bunny rabbits, hardhat moles, bats, ghosts, fish, turtles, and out of control jackhammers, et al, and they all animate smoothly as they move and turn around. They have a brief sense of malleability as they're jumped on, and there is a quick cartoon zip effect afterwards.
Left: Redwood Rendezvous | Right: Fish π
The music for Adventures of Yogi Bear was composed by George Villiers whose only other audio credits comprise of the Nintendo 16-bit Oxford Digital Enterprises and Blue Turtles collaboration Space Ace, Blue Turtle's Magic Boy, and Dagger Interactive Technologies' MS-DOS title The Civil War. The soundtrack definitely evokes a sense of appropriate atmosphere in all the given areas, but if I have any reservations it's that pretty much every theme played in the game altogether has got a tinge of sadness in them with lots of somber notes and compositions that permeate throughout the entire endeavor (even some of the happier themes get affected by this); it just feels out of place for a game based on a lighthearted property like The Yogi Bear Show.
Left: Zip away rabbit | Right: If you keep your eyes closed the ghosts won't hurt you
The title theme has got a highly pensive instrumentation and really sets the tone for the rest of the soundtrack in the game (the game over cue being the worst offender of them all), the Snow Business theme begins with a calming melody until it segues into an upsetting deluge of sad notes, the Cave Capers theme has got a fittingly intimidating touch until the instrumentation veers towards low note xylophone instrumentation (the xylophone gets utilized again during the briefly heard mine cart theme), the Redwood Rendezvous theme has got ambient jazz action going on which also incorporates depressing notes later on, the Water Palaver theme actually works rather well when swimming in the body of water but its harp melody is relentlessly somber, and finally the Construction Yard Shenanigans theme is overbearingly pessimistic-sounding.
Left: More Dream Time | Right: Red robin π¦
I just don't understand the composer's thought process here: there are no bouncy, catchy themes at all (not really, even ones that may seem to start off as such don't remain that way for long) and is staggeringly devoid of wholesomely upbeat music for a Hanna-Barbera license. George Villiers realized this game was squarely aimed at children (even the most sensitive ones), right? I wouldn't even mind it so much if there was some sort of middle ground or if he found the right balance, but that is not the case here. And in case one didn't find the themes sad enough to listen to on their own, well you get to hear them all over again in the compiled ending credits staff music suite (albeit sped up slightly to accommodate the theme's three and a half minute length).
Left: Porcu-pounce | Right: Dreamy platforming
On the upside, the sound effects are aptly cartoony given Yogi Bear's origins with the whip crack sound effect after the picnic basket vanishes after being jumped on, the grandfather clock-like four note jingle (and the occasional reverse) upon gathering four time watches in quick succession, the cartoony zip sound upon the enemy dashing out after being jumped on, the ticking of the clock during the Dream Time segments, and the digitized soundbytes of the late Daws Butler sound crystal clear (the "Here comes Yogi!" from the Mode 7 Yogi head for one, and whenever he sustains damage he exclaims "Hey! Hey!" in that classic Yogi Bear manner of speech).
Image from GameFAQs
The European version Yogi Bear's Cartoon Capers also saw a PAL-exclusive Sega MegaDrive conversion in 1994 which was distributed by GameTek with the graphics converted by Chris Wood, Joby Wood, and Graftgold while George Villiers' music was converted to Sega format by Ashley Hogg; this particular version, from what I learned from The Cutting Room Floor, has also got a hidden Snake game which can be accessed by entering a code sequence.
Left: Beaver riding | Right: Submerged picnic baskets
I remember liking The Yogi Bear Show and his segments in The Huckleberry Hound Show enough whenever I caught them on Cartoon Network and Boomerang when I was younger, though as far as Hanna-Barbera characters go I've always been more fond of the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and the Mystery Gang. I recall first learning of Adventures of Yogi Bear on the SNES several years ago as I watched a tiny sample of footage of it on YouTube, and I thought aesthetically that it looked gorgeous, but in the years since I had forgotten about it.
Left: Polluted waters | Right: Good thing Yogi can seemingly breathe underwater forever otherwise... you get the idea
It was only about three and a half months ago that I decided to personally look into this platformer, so I ordered a copy of it on eBay alongside Square Enix and Brownie Brown's Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu on the Game Boy Advance (the latter after having personally been wowed over by SquareSoft's PlayStation One venue Legend of Mana after getting it for my birthday on April 5th this year). Once I got to play this game, I couldn't help but find the overall experience to be occasionally upsetting and a bit strange. π Visually it is a very beautiful game to look at, the sense of detail is astonishing (I liked the breathing bubble effect during the water segments of Water Palaver), I appreciated the simplicity of its controls, and how it kept the family appropriate Hanna-Barbera charm intact with the enemies not really being hurt (slushing snowmen, vanishing ghosts, and falling jackhammers notwithstanding).
Left: Jump off | Right: Holding down B with the rocks above you results in swimming indefinitely, but with room above you that's not the case--logic
It's the kind of platformer where you can move at a gingerly or at a full speed whether you are running or jumping which helps with specific moments of platforming, and aside from enemies there are other obstacles to worry about like collapsible platforms, criss-cross floating platforms, conveyor belts, crushers, and during the mine cart sequences there are moments you'll have to duck. For the most part Adventures of Yogi Bear is a relatively manageable platformer, though you'll have to moderate your speed at points so you won't run into an enemy and lose a bit of health quickly.
Left: Bunny hop | Right: Pizza slices π
I did say it was mostly manageable because there are elements that contradict with that facile difficulty, most pressingly the obstructive foregrounds in the final four Construction Yard Shenanigans stages because unless you have a very discerning eye it'll be hard to tell what's a platform and what's a backdrop. While I appreciative the simplistic nature of the controls, there are no camera controls which poses an issue since the stages are pretty big; you can see to the left and right of Yogi just fine, but there's no way to see far below you or far above you like in Accolade's Bubsy platformers or Iguana Entertainment's Aero the Acro-Bat games or even Konami's TwinBee: Rainbow Bell Adventure (not even holding up or down will do the trick),
Left: Seashells | Right: More picnic baskets
as such unless you see an enemy walking or collectable time watches it's hard to determine whether there's a safe place to fall to or not unless you get down (occasionally you might have to lean on blind faith). There are also certain floating platforms that have a tendency to not come towards you unless you stand right at the very edge which is a bit risky, and this game utilizes my least two favorite tropes from a platformer: forceful knockback which would be a complete inconvenience if it should happen near the edge of a platform standing at the bottom of the screen (though in this case you regain control again after a second) and lack of invincibility time upon taking damage.
Left: Splash | Right: Enter those bothersome obstructive foregrounds
What makes playing this game upsetting is the lack of a proper continue system (unless you got all four alarm clock pieces in each respective area), the aforementioned knockback and lack of invincibility time, and George Villiers' music is just unabashedly downbeat for what should be a lighthearted affair (if I played this game as a child I'd be left scarred or depressed because of this, and there's no bypassing the game over screen once your last life is spent until it runs its course which makes things worse, and what kid wants that?). And once you beat the final stage proper you're given a congratulatory message stating that "You have saved Jellystone Park"... WHAT?? π²
Left: Barrel smash | Right: Idle skunk π¦¨
As I said earlier, this was a bizarre experience: generally when playing a new game I wait in the title screen in case there's an introduction story, an attract mode or a demo, but none of that happened. In the title screen the only option is "Press Start" as there's no password, no options screen, no alternate difficulty settings, no sound mode, no enabling or disabling of music, no nothing. The only other thing you can do in the title screen is input a code (up, right, down, left, Y, B, up, right, down, left, B, Y, up, right, down, left, Start) that makes all twenty stages available to play from the get go, which is not entirely unreasonable as you can still technically begin from the very first stage (unless you got far, lost your last life, and have no patience to go through it all again just to get to that point).
Left: JCW | Right: Steep incline
Here's the thing though: the gameplay itself is fine, it doesn't play bad, and most stage layouts have a low or high road which gives it a tiny sample of replay value. Tiny. There really isn't much incentive to come back to it right away after playing through it, especially with the lack of an alternate difficulty and largely is not very challenging and takes roughly fifty minutes to finish.
Left: Flattened bird | Right: Hmmm, a bed in the middle of a construction site, that seems normal π
If George Villiers' soundtrack didn't hit so many dour notes throughout the proceedings then I probably would've warmed up to it and would not have minded as much given the lighthearted nature and tone of the license. I mean, yes, technically I could just mute the TV while playing it, but then there'd literally be nothing; it's a lose-lose scenario as music plays a big part when it comes to video games. As it is, the game is simply okay.
Though if anyone asks what my favorite go-to Argonaut Software title of all time is: it is, always has been, and always will be Croc: Legend of the Gobbos π I π that game!
As Nintendo 16-bit fare based on characters and shows by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera go, Argonaut Software's Scooby-Doo Mystery is always my go-to choice. It might not be great and suffer substantially from being too short for its own good, but it's fun while it lasts as it captures the charm and spirit of the show and playing it always brings me joy (no matter how much I wanted it to have a greater sense of longevity).
Left: About to jump on an unsuspecting construction worker | Right: Running on a conveyor
If you're just looking for a simple platformer to play then Blue Turtle's Yogi Bear license will work just fine, but if you're craving something more fulfilling and/or of higher quality I'm sorry to say you won't find it here. There are worse licensed platformers in the Nintendo 16-bit library than this, and as polished as it might look it doesn't make up for its flaws. I know there are those who ate up Adventures of Yogi Bear, and I respect that, but personally speaking while it may have been passable enough it did not fully satisfy.
My Personal Score: 6.0/10
d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b
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, keep yourself safe and protected during this pandemic, and take care!
