Wakko's Adventure (video game)

Wakko's Adventure is a platform video game developed by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Interactive and published by Sony for the PlayStation in 1999. Based on the 1993 hit animated series Animaniacs, Wakko's Adventure follows Wakko Warner as he and Yakko attempt to save their sister Dot from the tyrannical robot monster, Death Bear VI. Time travel is a key aspect to both the story and gameplay, with nearly every stage containing four different variations (one for each time period) featuring alternate stage layouts, music, and graphics.

This game marks as one of the few Animaniacs media to be made after the series finale Wakko's Wish.

Original version
Development of Wakko's Adventure lasted two years.

Following the release, lead programmer Yuji Naka had grown dissatisfied with the rigid corporate policies at Sega and moved to the United States to work with the Sega Technical Institute, along with several members of Warner Bros. Interactive, to develop Animaniacs 2. Meanwhile, in Japan, a separate development team headed by creator Tom Ruegger handled development on Wakko's Adventure. While beginning development as an enhanced Sega CD port of Animaniacs 2, Wakko's Adventure was eventually split into a separate game, after lower-than expected sales of the Genesis game in Japan. During development, the concept of time travel was embraced; Ohshima cited Back to the Future as an influence on the mechanic in an interview with Gamasutra. The team developing Wakko's Adventure did not receive as much pressure from Sega as the team developing Animaniacs 2 did; Ohshima attributes this to the former not being "a numbered sequel". The game is also the first in the series to feature full motion video cutscenes, which were produced by Film Roman in-house with full traditional high-quality Disney-style animation, as well as voice acting; Wakko exclaims "Yes!" upon gaining an extra life and shouts "I'm outta here!" if the game is left alone for three minutes. Dot can be heard giggling and screaming in certain levels, and Death Bear VI can be heard laughing after the credits in the game's "bad" ending.

"R2" is a fan-given name to a level cut from the final version of Wakko's Adventure. Very little is known about the stage, although an official Sega YouTube video shows concept art for it, and the remaining sprites intended for use in the stage were shared by Christian Whitehead in 2013. According to Whitehead, the second segment of the final animated cutscene is actually of R2, hinting that it was scrapped very early in development.

Music
There are two different soundtracks for the game, one which was used for the Japanese, European, and Australian releases of the game, and another used for the North American version. The original Japanese soundtrack was composed by Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata, who had previously worked together on the 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The theme songs were entitled "Wakko - You Can Do Anything", composed by Ogata and originally written for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and "Cosmic Eternity - Believe in Yourself", composed by Hataya and sung by singer Keiko Utoku. The North American version was delayed a few months to have a new soundtrack written and produced by Spencer Nilsen, David Young, and Mark Crew. All the music, save for the "Past" songs, which were in sequenced PCM audio rather than Mixed Mode CD-DA, were replaced, and the theme tunes were replaced with "Warner Boom", composed by Nilsen and performed by Pastiche.

The 2011 re-release of Wakko's Adventure features the original soundtrack. Although the inclusion of the North American soundtrack was initially uncertain due to licensing issues, it was later revealed that the North American soundtrack was to be included, with the option to switch between the two soundtracks. However, the lyrics for "Wakko - You Can Do Anything" and "Cosmic Eternity - Believe in Yourself" were replaced with instrumental versions due to licensing issues. A 20th Anniversary soundtrack CD was released in Japan on November 23, 2011, featuring remastered versions of the original soundtrack, along with the inclusion of "Warner Boom", and exclusive arrangements by Cash Cash and Crush 40.

Trivia

 * After the game's success, Warner Bros. made a reboot of the original series in 2001.