(The runner-up in the TADS Division of the very first IFComp.The hilarious toon-based game Toonesia - Details (ifdb.org))
[…no title…scrunchscronch…busy munching carrots…]
It’s impossible to translate the experience of watching a Looney Tunes-cartoon into text. Of course it is. All the visual slapstick, the funny voices, the wacky sound-effects, the physically impossible effects of the ‘toons’ actions on their surroundings…
Wait…
We just may have something there. One aspect that translates gloriously into the IF-medium is the twisted logic and the bending of physical laws that are so typical of cartoons from the Golden Age.
Toonesia takes the toon-logic from a typical Bugs Bunny & Elmer Fudd Cartoon. Then, first of all, it carefully changes just enough letters in the names to stay on the legal side of things (and berates you for breaking copyright law if you should dare to assume in typing your commands that this game is about Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd).
With copyright infringement now out of the way, the game charges ahead into a series of puzzles based on either full-blown cartoon logic, or on the typical behaviour of some of the protagonists of the Looney Tunes this game is most definitely not based on. (It is assumed that you have at least some passing familiarity with the cartoons this game is not based on…)
There’s only one path through the game, the puzzles must be solved in a predetermined order. The map is very small, and the locations are rather sparse so there’s not much room for in-depth exploration.
Actually, Toonesia does only one thing, and it does that thing very well: it takes one gimmick from the Looney Tunes-cartoons and squeezes it just to the point that it stays fresh and funny. It’s a small game, allthough your actual playing time may vary depending on how quickly your brain catches on.
For the hour it took me to solve it, I found it very funny (I mean actually laughing at the screen) and very satisfying to feel the click when the “logic” snaps into gear.
That’s All Folks!