I'm not the oldest gamer around, so I didn't grow up around all the adventure games of old like Sam and Max or Harvester. However, anyone of any age has probably heard horror stories about the annoying difficulty those old games could bring. Pixel hunting, inane solutions, and unhelpful characters terrorized some of these games. However, Toonstruck isn't one of those games. In this game you control Drew (Christopher Lloyd) as you traverse a cartoon land with 4 distinct areas littered with fun and interesting characters. At your side is your friend Flux (Dan Castellaneta) who, despite seemingly only being around to make fun of you and your efforts, helps you solve the problems in his world time and time again. The little guy really does grow on you, and the banter between Drew and Flux is both sarcastic and heartwarming at the same time. Really, all of the characters are done brilliantly. They all feel distinct and alive thanks to the wonderful performances of equally famous individuals such as Jim Cummings, Tress MacNeille, and Tim Curry. The only iffy one would potentially be a certain character you meet early in the game, but I'll let you decide if you want to be offended or not (you'll know which one, trust me). Outside of the characters, everything else is very good as well. The art still looks good thanks to it's unique style, the music being both not overbearing and giving a great charm to each area, and the puzzles actually making sense for the most part in relation to the world the game is set in. I admit that I did have to use a walkthrough a few times, as the game gets more challenging later on, but I say 90-95% of the puzzles can be done without one. That's a big plus to me, as I hate games that make themselves too cryptic just to draw out game time. I'm running out of words, so I'll just end with this. This game is a champion of it's genre, and obviously had a lot of heart put into it. Try it out and I don't think you'll be disappointed.
