Toonstruck

Okay for those who like to watch cartoons, a challenge of patience for those who want to play a game.

A truely amazing gem that I can't believe I'd never heard of until it was a special on GOG. Toonstruck is part point-and-click adventure and part Saturday morning cartoon, mixing traditional animation with FMV, and it's crammed full of voice actors you'll recognize from '90s-era Warner Bros and syndicated cartoons. You play as a live-action working stiff played by Christopher Lloyd (of Back to the Future and Roger Rabbit fame) trapped in a cartoon world split into good and evil portions (plus a sorta ambiguous manic island). Tim Curry voices the main villain, who looks like something straight out of He-Man, while the other characters, scenery, and the classical soundtrack are clearly inspired by Warner and Disney. But don't be fooled into thinking this is kid's stuff... There's some adult humor and situations included, most notably a dominatrix farmyard animal. And there are plenty of pop culture references, from a bodybuilding dog that sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger to a Dalek-knockoff imitating the voice of Christopher Walken. Also... Ben Stein cameos in FMV. Why? Because it's the '90s! And it's a wonder this game exists at all. With a prolonged and over-budget development, a botched release (go find the original box art), and lots of cut material to be included in a sequel that never materialized, the game was a financial failure; the first of several for Burst Studios, a sister company of Westwood Studios (Command & Conquer), that later became Westwood Pacific under EA's ownership. The division ended up taking Westwood's flagship C&C series in a cartoony direction with Red Alert 2, often considered one of the high points in the series. But I digress... Toonstruck is a well-designed and under-appreciated classic that holds up surprisingly well (minus some occasional cringeworthy dialogue). It is a bit easier and shorter than the kind of point-and-click adventures LucasArts and Sierra were putting out around that time, but well worth a play-through.

Never played this when it first came out. Really enjoyed it as it had some clever ideas. I have to admit that I had to resort to the walkthru several times as I just couldn't figure out some activities. Played approximately 12 hours to finish so that was worthwhile. Good game. Would recommend if you like inventory based puzzles that tax your brain!!

Wacky and hilarious adventure game. I admire developers for all the ideas they had. The game doesn't take itself seriously. You will like it if you enjoy wacky cartoony humour. Then throw in decent voice acting (and acting in case of Christopher Lloyd) and you're in for a treat.

I wasn't aware of Toonstruck until GOG offered it for FREE. I was a little skeptical, usually free products mean poor/bad quality... but thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. Toonstruck is an underrated Adventure Game experience. It feels like Roger Rabbit which is awesome. And it has this 1990's vibe to it which just makes me smile. The characters, story, art style, and humor are all really nice. I love that creepy clown Spike. What an awesome character. Overall, this one really is a gem.