Games from the leftovers: Bugs Bunny for the Atari 2600

Well its Easter, a day filled with candy, eggs and bunnies. Now, they're haven't been many Easter themed games over the years, so its difficult to make an easter special blog, However I do have a game that features a bunny to celebrate, It may not be the Easter Bunny but it is certainly a bunny nonetheless. In fact, it features a quite famous bunny indeed, that game is Bugs Bunny for the Atari 2600. 

Developed in 1983, this game was originally supposed to be part of Atari's Children's series, but was shelved in favor of Snoopy and the Red Baron. as a result, the game was never released, However, a prototype has been dumped so we can have a look at it today.

As the title suggests, you control Bugs Bunny who has been awakened from a nap by Elmer Fudd and his rabbit sniffing hound.  Each level the hound will dig up a carrot and cause Bugs to appear, thus starting the game. The goal of the game is to jump in the rabbit holes on each level before Bugs gets shot by Elmer. 

 

The screen is split up into three levels with a carrot on each.  you can move the joystick up and down to select which level you want to start on. The bottom is the bottom level is only worth 50 points, the middle is worth 60 points, and the top is worth 70 points. So the higher you go the more points you get for jumping into the hole, However its also dangerous because the higher you go, the closer you are to Elmer. After selecting a level and pressing the fire button, the hound will come and dig you up, and Elmer will immediately start shooting at you.  Underneath Elmers house on the top level there are several white dots representing Elmers current ammo supply.  If Bugs stands directly underneath the bullets he can steal them and render Elmer harmless temporarily.  After stealing a bullet the carrots on the screen will start glowing for a few seconds and grabbing them will award you with 250 point bonus.

 

A level is completed either after you jump into the hole or you shot by Elmer.  After completing all three levels the action moves on to the next board where Elmer moves and shoots faster.  Each board looks the same as the previous board with a minor change in color.  After 8 levels you're treated to a short cutscene of Bugs chasing after a running carrot with Elmer and the hound in close pursuit.  After that it loops back to the beginning, and you just keep repeating the process over and over again until you lose all your lives and the game is over.

The graphics are quite nicely detailed, You can tell what the characters are supposed to be, and the animations are quite good. It also plays the Loony Tunes Theme, as you would expect, both when you start the game up, and durring the game over screen. The only downsides to the game is that its very basic, theres not much variety to it, and lining Bugs with the holes is a little difficult. Thankfully you do have some options to fix that, the left difficulty switch can be used to make the hole wider or smaller and the right difficulty switch controls how fast Elmer shoots. 

Acording to programmer Bob Polaro, the animation really didn't have a purpose, it was just put in the game as eye candy because there was room left over.  Bob also had room to hide his initials, to trigger them play the game up to the 11th level and then get shot while jumping to the right.  If you do this correctly Bugs will hit the ground and BP AM will appear above him (Bob Polaro & Allen Murphy).

Overall the game isn't great and it's understandable why it was scrapped, but it can be fun in short bursts and it is a neat little peice of history. Happy Easter, and as always, Thanks for reading! See you next time!