"Ehhh, what's up Doc?"
Oh man, I'll never forget when I first popped in my copy of Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters for the Playstation 1 and heard that now-iconic Bugs Bunny one-liner. It felt like the good ol' days of the grainy, yet still timelessly entertaining, Looney Tunes TV show.
The plot of Time Busters centers around Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian "Taz" Devil teaming up to retrieve Granny's Time Gem, which Daffy Duck stole. As a result of the theft, the time stream destabilized in the process, propelling the Looney Tunes icons on a topsy-turvy time-travelling adventure.
Yes, it's old and often difficult to play through because of its complex puzzles and maze-like maps, but Time Busters was my go-to game, covering the bases of challenging, yet fun and entertaining, gameplay and engaging story.
Time Busters, in my opinion, had everything that modern games merely make "look nicer," such as a nearly open-world experience, as well as mini-games, such as repeating a sequence that gets more and more complex with each successful repetition played on the drums in the Aztec realm section of the game.
I loved the hilarious cutscenes and witty one-liners throughout Time Busters, often providing much-needed comedy to distract from the main goal of recapturing the Time Gem. I remember thoroughly enjoying the antics of Bugs Bunny and hunter Elmer Fudd in the animated series, making their reimagined, yet classic, interactions in Time Busters that much more nostalgic and entertaining. The quirky movements and animations of each character in the game, whether they be NPC, enemy, or Bugs and Taz, added to the fun and realism of Time Busters.
But above all of those things, I enjoyed the love-hate team dynamic of Bugs Bunny and Taz. The game allows you to switch control between the two characters, allowing you to utilize the unique skill sets of Bugs and Taz. Taz will eat just about anything, but if you feed him a bomb…well, you can answer that yourself. Apart from a few onomatopoeic grunts and growls, Taz can’t really speak any English, or any language for that matter, but for some odd inconsistent reason, he can easily understand when spoken to. Bugs, on the other hand, is the complete opposite, easily making up for what he lacks in brawn with brains and a smart mouth. Being the ideal cannonball for Taz to throw around doesn’t hurt either in Time Busters, just one of his many useful abilities you’ll pick up as you progress. Oftentimes, throughout the game you’ll have to combine the abilities of Bugs and Taz in order to solve certain puzzles. I remember having a tantrum over one of the more complex puzzles of Time Busters, in which you had to figure out how to move an elephant. It took me forever to figure out that you had to use the mouse to freak out, and thus move, the said elephant, pulling out a little metaphorical hair out of frustration in the process.
All in all, Time Busters is the first game in my collection that really connected with me in my childhood because of its roots in Looney Tunes. As a closing note, Elmer Fudd imparted a bit of himself in me, occasionally creeping into my conversations when I’m not suppressing it: I often pronounce my R’s as W’s. "Be vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits." 
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