Way back in '94, I was a huge fan of the Animaniacs; I was young enough to like the cutesy cartoon aesthetic, and old enough to start appreciating the double entendres. And when I heard there was a video game coming out, it knew I had to have it. Didn't matter if the entire game was just the characters taking a shit, I had to play it.
Like many licensed games from that period, Animaniacs was made in order to sell lots of copies to fans of the source material. Unlike many licensed games from that period (sideways stare at LJN) this was a competent game that fans will definitely be able to appreciate.
Now, it has its share of flaws. Wakko and Dot's abilities have an extremely long wind-up time for no reason (this can be circumvented by doing them in the air). It's sometimes trial and error to see what abilities will work in what situation - you can't scare a pigeon away with your paddle ball but you can blow a kiss at it and it flies away, and Ralph is stunned by Yakko's paddle ball but no-sells Wakko's huge-ass mallet. The puzzles are never difficult, but some solutions are pretty obtuse - for one crate-moving puzzle in particular, you seem to need one more crate to reach your destination, and the solution is to walk through a wall to find the missing one.
In the end, I would say that most of these flaws are not quite relevant to the game. The difficulty is very manageable even with the slow controls, and there is a password system in place if you happen to lose all your lives, which alleviates any frustration. More relevantly, the game feels like it was designed by people who understood the source material. If they weren't fans, they definitely understood the fans. They didn't give us brain-melting logic puzzles or blazingly-fast gameplay because that wouldn't have worked for a game about the Animaniacs; they gave us a simple and fun romp with our favorite characters loaded with charm and personality.
Like many licensed games from that period, Animaniacs was made in order to sell lots of copies to fans of the source material. Unlike many licensed games from that period (sideways stare at LJN) this was a competent game that fans will definitely be able to appreciate.
Now, it has its share of flaws. Wakko and Dot's abilities have an extremely long wind-up time for no reason (this can be circumvented by doing them in the air). It's sometimes trial and error to see what abilities will work in what situation - you can't scare a pigeon away with your paddle ball but you can blow a kiss at it and it flies away, and Ralph is stunned by Yakko's paddle ball but no-sells Wakko's huge-ass mallet. The puzzles are never difficult, but some solutions are pretty obtuse - for one crate-moving puzzle in particular, you seem to need one more crate to reach your destination, and the solution is to walk through a wall to find the missing one.
In the end, I would say that most of these flaws are not quite relevant to the game. The difficulty is very manageable even with the slow controls, and there is a password system in place if you happen to lose all your lives, which alleviates any frustration. More relevantly, the game feels like it was designed by people who understood the source material. If they weren't fans, they definitely understood the fans. They didn't give us brain-melting logic puzzles or blazingly-fast gameplay because that wouldn't have worked for a game about the Animaniacs; they gave us a simple and fun romp with our favorite characters loaded with charm and personality.