In the Warner Bros 1957 cartoon short What's Opera, Doc?, Elmer Fudd sings the lines 'Kill the Wabbit! Kill the Wabbit!' to the tune of composer Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries while pursuing his nemesis, Bugs Bunny.
Gamers are put in charge of an orchestra and conduct the music to that piece and other classic Warner Bros cartoon scenes in Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor, developed by US-based Amaze Entertainment and published by British firm Eidos Interactive for the Nintendo DS hand-held gaming system. The game starts with Taz, the Tasmanian devil, entering the Warner Bros film vault and shredding the entire Looney Tunes library. Players are tasked with conducting the orchestra - using the DS stylus as a baton - on the lower screen while Bugs and company re-enact their musical scenes on the top screen.
Whenever a scene and its music is successfully recreated, players are able to unlock more stages and bonus content - including character biographies, voice clips and music for the jukebox. A series of numerically ordered notes are shown on the touch screen. Each note has a large ring around it that is shrinking towards the note. As soon as the ring touches the note's outer edge, the player must tap it with the stylus. Players can then slide the stylus from that note to the next as the next shrinking ring touches it. Number chains can be as short as two or as long as nine.
Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor covers a dozen famous classical tracks and six techno remixes. Graphics combine a 2D background - similar to classic cartoon shorts - with poorly rendered 3D characters. The music and sound is nothing deserving of a standing ovation.
In an oversaturated market of music games, Looney Tunes: Cartoon Conductor fails to impress. Taiko: Drum Master for Sony's PlayStation 2 console remains the benchmark in this genre.
Pros: Numerous voice clips in the extras section.