Animaniacs (アニマニアクス, Animaniakusu) is a series of platform video games developed by Konami, based on the animated series of the same name. Two games were developed featuring significantly different gameplay and storylines; one for Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and one for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Game Boy. The SNES and Genesis versions were released in 1994, and the Game Boy version in 1995.

The Game Boy version has a unique soundtrack if played on the Super Game Boy accessory, and is one of the few games to take full advantage of the accessory.

Premise

The Warner siblings live in the Warner Bros. Water Tower on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California.^[4] However, characters from the series had episodes in various places and periods of time. The Animaniacs characters interacted with famous people and creators of the past and present, as well as mythological characters and characters from contemporary pop culture and television. Andrea Romano, the casting and recording director of Animaniacs, said that the Warner siblings functioned to “tie the show together,” by appearing in and introducing other characters’ segments.^[5]

Each Animaniacs episode usually consisted of two or three cartoon shorts.^[6] Animaniacs segments ranged in time, from bridging segments less than a minute long to episodes spanning the entire show’s length; writer Peter Hastings said that the varying episode lengths gave the show a “sketch comedy” atmosphere.^[7]

Characters

Animaniacs had a wide cast of characters; shown here are the majority of the characters from the series, among them, Ralph T. Guard, Otto Von Scratchansniff, and Chicken Boo.

See also: List of Animaniacs characters

Animaniacs had a large cast of characters, separated into individual segments, with each pair or set of characters acting in its own plot. The Warner siblings, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, are three 1930s cartoon stars of an unknown species (one Tom Ruegger named “Cartoonus characterus”) that were locked away in the WB Tower until the 1990s, when they escaped.^[4] After their escape, they often interacted with other Warner Bros. studio workers, including Ralph the Security Guard; Dr. Otto Scratchansniff, the studio psychiatrist; and his assistant, Hello Nurse. Pinky and the Brain are two genetically altered anthropomorphic laboratory mice who continuously plot and attempt to take over the world.^[8] Slappy Squirrel is an octogenarian anthropomorphic cartoon star who can easily outwit antagonists and uses her wiles to educate her nephew, Skippy Squirrel, about cartoon techniques.^[9] Additional principal characters included three anthropomorphic Italian-American pigeons known as The Goodfeathers, Buttons and Mindy, Chicken Boo, Flavio and Marita (The Hip Hippos) and Katie Ka-Boom. Exclusive to the first season, Rita and Runt, two strays that get into massive trouble and adventures, and Minerva Mink, a young attractive anthropomorphic mink, starred in their own segments.^[10] The Pinky and the Brain segment was the only segment, aside from the Warners themselves, to get in the reboot, excluding the episode “Good Warner Hunting”, in which all the original characters appeared at the end of the episode, excluding Pinky and the Brain.