Format: Cartridge
Genre: 2d platformer
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Buster Bunny's design makes him one of the best platformer mascots ever, especially as how he's utilized for this game-- he crouches, runs Sonic-style with legs wheeling, and even ties his ears together to ride ziplines: adorable, all of it; this reviewer could stare at Buster's open-mouthed, giant-toothed "looking up" frame all day! The enemy designs look like they are plucked straight from the cartoon, although stylistically they are a bit at odds with the lusciously-detailed, parallax scrolling-loaded backgrounds.

The various Genesis sound chip variations, magical in expert hands, were a bit inaccessible to many third-party programmers and their "off the shelf" drivers, and Tiny Toon Adventures' soundtrack is predictably a bit "twiney" sounding at times. And yet, the renditions of the show's many songs are remarkably faithful, and their high notes can be hair-standing in all of the right ways. There is even a Yuzo Koshiro-esque track for the ghost ship stage! Sound effects take inspiration from a variety of sources, least of which are "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Super Mario World".

Buster's Hidden Treasure is a lengthy platforming escapade-- over thirty levels in total, with password resume. Buster's movement is nuanced, with a great deal of jump height and directional control, to compliment crawling and sliding. None of the ideas are as fleshed out as they could be though: Buster can run at Sonic-like speeds, but this is rarely used in the level design; there is also a "Super Mario Bros. 3"-style map joining the levels, but it's static and uninteresting.

Like any mainstream platform from the 80s and early 90s, the Mega Drive saw host to all manner of platformers-- a few "best of all time" candidates, a few real clunkers, and a smorgasbord of filler games in the middle. Buster's Hidden Treasure's "check your brain at the door" brand of platforming falls straight into that filler category-- but that's not a bad thing: many levels require great deals of precision, and the game's lovely aesthetic, fun theme, and the sheer fact that it's golden age Konami output, make it a title well worth playing.