Toonstruck
| Toonstruck | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio | Burst | ||
| Publisher | Virgin Interactive | ||
| Senior Developer | Richard Hare | ||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
1996 | ||
| platform | MS-DOS | ||
| genre | Point-and-click adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | mouse | ||
| medium | CD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
Toonstruck is a point-and-click adventure game published by Virgin Interactive in 1996 . The main character, Mal Block, is played by Christopher Lloyd .
action
The cartoonist Mal Block falls asleep while working on a new cartoon and appears to wake up in a cartoon world. There he is asked by the King of Niedlingen to prevent Count Widerlus from turning Niedlingen into a dark place. Block accepts the task and receives help from Flux W. Wild, a cartoon character he created . Together they manage to create a device that transforms Niedlingen into a happy place again. But then Block is captured by Count Widerlus' henchmen and taken to his castle. There, Count Widerlus injects him with a liquid that is supposed to transform him into a cartoon character. Eventually he manages to break free and return home to the real world. The game ends with a video sequence, at the end of which Block receives a cry for help from Flux W. Wild, because of which he ends up in the comic world again.
Game principle and technology
Toonstruck is a point-and-click adventure . From Sprites composite characters act before hand-drawn, some animated scenes. The player can use the mouse to move his character through the locations and use the mouse buttons to initiate actions that allow the character to interact with his environment. Mal Block can find objects and apply them to the environment or other objects and communicate with NPCs . As the story progresses, more locations will be unlocked. All characters shown are comic characters. The protagonist Mal Block, played by Christopher Lloyd, whose real figure moves in the drawn images, is an exception. In two of the interposed video sequences , Block's employer Sam Schmaltz, played by Ben Stein , appears as a real person.
Production notes
Toonstruck was one of the earliest development works by Burst, an in-house development studio of Virgin Interactive Entertainment based in Irvine, California, later better known as Westwood Pacific. Since February 2011 the game has been supported by the interpreter software ScummVM .
Voice actor
| role | Original speaker | German speakers |
|---|---|---|
| Drew Blanc (Mal Block) | Christopher Lloyd | Helmut Krauss |
| Count Nefarious (Count Widerlus) | Tim Curry | Joachim Kerzel |
| Flux Wildly (Flux W. Wild) | Dan Castellaneta | Robert Missler |
| King Hugh (King Nick) | David Ogden Stiers | Martin Heckmann |
| Sam Schmaltz | Ben stone | Joachim Kerzel |
reception
Toonstruck was largely well received by the press.
For example, Coming Soon Magazine praised the humor and plot, but also technical elements such as the soundtrack or graphics, and finally declared Toonstruck to be the model for other games. The German game magazine PC Games rated dialogues and animation scenes as successful. Quandary magazine, on the other hand, particularly emphasized what it believed to be a successful performance by Christopher Lloyd and the English synchronizers. The German magazine PC Player also found the German synchronization excellent. Critical voices, such as that of the magazine Just Adventure , which classified both dialogues and plot as deficient, were, however, rather rare.
“Toonstruck is such a well-crafted game it's hard not to enjoy yourself. The voice work is excellent and the story is amusing enough to get you through the slow parts. In the end, though, it's the puzzles that make the game so great, and finishing Toonstruck only made me wish there was a sequel looming on the horizon. "
“Toonstruck is such a well-made game that it is difficult not to enjoy it. The voice acting is excellent and the plot amusing enough to get you through the slower sections. In the end, though, it's the puzzles that make the game so great, and the end of Toonstruck just made me want a successor to appear on the horizon. "
Petra Schlunk from Computer Gaming World gave the game the top rating of five points and described the game as “probably the funniest adventure game since Day of the Tentacle ”. In 2011, the specialist magazine Adventure Gamers ranked Toonstruck 93rd in its list of Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games .
continuation
A much longer plot was originally planned. Because of the high costs of the storage media at the time and because of the deadline pressure, it was decided to split the plot into two different publications. For the first part, which was finally published, a new end sequence was created. Due to the lack of commercial success of the first part, the sequel was not completed, although many graphics as well as the game engine had already been completed and the framework was also set.
A project by fans of the game has existed since autumn 2009 with the aim of collecting and joining the remaining fragments and filling in the gaps with their own ideas in order to finish the second part. On August 3, 2010, an online petition was launched and a support group started on Facebook . Keith Arem, who holds the rights to Toonstruck, responded immediately. He stated that he wanted to port Toonstruck for modern operating systems as well as complete Toonstruck 2. However, this requires substantial support from the fan base. On February 5, 2014, Arem announced that, having recently dealt with Call of Duty and Titanfall , he now thinks the time has come to bring Toonstruck back to life. He referred to the difficulties of financing the project, which were also due to the poor success of the first part, and said that the project could only be implemented with a huge fan base. He paid his respects to the initiators and supporters of the campaign and at the same time urged them to ensure further dissemination in order to get Flux and Drew back home safely.
Web links
- Toonstruck in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Toonstruck at MobyGames (English)
- Official homepage ( Memento from June 15, 1997 in the Internet Archive )
- Screenshots and video sequences , etc. a. also from the sequel planned at the time, on the website of Laura Janczewska who was involved in the character animation ,
- Toonstruck Two Petition on Facebook
Individual evidence
- ↑ Presentation on the official website ( Memento from June 15, 1997 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Michael Graf: The decline of C&C . In: IDG (Ed.): GameStar . March 2014, pp. 94-109.
- ↑ Feb. 3, 2011: A Burst of Fun With Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun?
- ↑ collected reviews on mobygames.com (English)
- ↑ Toonstruck Review (English)
- ↑ Petra Schlunk: A Perfect Toon . (Article scan) In: Computer Gaming World . 01/1997, No. 150, January 1997, pp. 162-164.
- ↑ AdventureGamers.com: Top 100 All-Time Adventure Games. Retrieved January 4, 2016 .
- ↑ Matthias Mangelsdorf: Interview with chief designer Richard Hare at adventurecorner.de from April 20, 2003, accessed on April 18, 2014
- ↑ Matthias Holz: Toonstruck 2 . Article at adventurecorner.de from July 23, 2003, accessed on April 18, 2014
- ↑ Tobias Maack: Petition for Toonstruck 2 . Article at adventurecorner.de from August 8, 2010, accessed on April 18, 2014
- ↑ John Walker: Show Tremendous Interest In Toonstruck 2 . Rockpapershotgun.com, August 6, 2010, accessed April 18, 2014
- ↑ Contribution by Keith Aram from February 5, 2014 in the Facebook group of the Toonstruck Two Petition, accessed on April 18, 2014 (English)
- ↑ The rope and western sequence here ( memento of the original from April 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
