Recently we were given the opportunity to review the upcoming release of Southpeak Software's Cosmic Capers Animated Jigsaws game. Below you will find details of the game itself plus our thoughts on it. You will also find the others titles they have projected to come out and their release dates.

Features

Minimum System Requirements

Details About Cosmic Capers

This title features puzzles and animations from the following cartoons: The Hasty Hare, Operation: Rabbit, Duck Dodgers in the 24-1/2 Century, Robot Rabbit, One Froggy Evening, Rocket Squad, Stupor Duck, and Hare-Way to the Stars. These follow the title theme very well.

Installation & Registration:

Both of these went very smoothly. The game itself doesn't install on your system, it just keeps a small file there to track each players information. Registration can be through the internet or by mail. We tried it through the internet and had no problems. It started our default browser and took us straight to their registration page.

Gameplay:

Our system is on the lower end of their recommendations. The game was mostly smooth even with all the sound effects and music turned on(we had stuff running in the background too). Most buttons have Looney Tunes sound effects or animations in them and you can easily switch between the adult and kids interfaces. The player options are very well done. You can turn off exactly what you want to and you can set the game to your skill level very easily. The basic design is taken from their Virtual Jigsaw series and it is very well done.

Our Thoughts:

To test out the play of the puzzles Gwen and I played with it separately and we allowed our 7 year old grandson(who is admittedly a Looney Tunes fan) to play with it a bit. All of us came away liking the game. Both of us found the kids interface a little confusing but Michael had no problems with it(typical huh? :). We liked the animations in the interface and the comments that the characters made were entertaining. Overall we gave it 4.5 stars out of 5. Gwen and Michael both rated it at the top while I'm not the biggest Jigsaw puzzle fan, so I gave it lower. I can't wait to see the rest that this company puts out. They are doing a good job making up for the previous lack of Looney Tunes Titles.

Other Titles Coming Out:

(Please check South Peak's site for more information)

Other Animated Jigsaw Puzzles: All will have similar features to the Cosmic Capers title.

Assorted Nuts: September 1998
Merrie Masquerades: September 1998
Wuv & Marriage: September 1998
Assorted Nuts 2: January 1999
Everything's Daffy: March 1999
Show Pieces: March 1999
The Complete Bugs: 1999

Crazy Paint: A line of kids drawing programs featuring line art in 3D scenes.

Duckbumps: September 1998
Home Tweet Home: September 1998
Great Chases: January 1999
Around the World in 80 Shades: March 1999
Hare Goes the Neighborhood: 1999

For the animation fan in general they will also have the following non-Looney Tunes titles:

Pinky & The Brain-World Conquest: Fall 1998(Maze Game)
Animaniacs-A Gigantic Adventure: Fall 1998(Explore the WB Backlot)
Animaniacs-On Location: September 1998(Crazy Paint)
Pinky & The Brain-Back to the Drawing Board: September 1998(Crazy Paint)
Animaniacs-Hysterical: January 1999(Crazy Paint)

There are also 3 calendar titles scheduled to come out(1 Looney Tunes, 1 Animaniacs and 1 Pinky & The Brain) but there was no release data on them yet.