Today we would like to unveil the storyline, features and first screens on Animaniacs for the Nintendo GameCube. This game is expected to be released somewhere in Q2 2003 in Europe.

Story:

It's Oscar time and all of Hollywood is excited. However, a dark cloud drifts over Tinsel Town when all the Oscars are stolen.

Warner CEO Thaddeus J. Plotz is at his wits end, the award show can't be cancelled, it would be unheard of.

All avenues are pursued but to no avail � the FBI, the CIA, Interpol and Scotland Yard are stumped, even Columbo admits he can't solve this one� then the ransom note arrives.

The thief was Cyril Coupe Deville, better known as C.C.Deville, a genius (yet quite plainly mad) film director whose films, although gritty and often ahead of their time, are low budget, consistently overlooked at Oscar time and constantly panned by critics.

Cyril threatens to melt the Oscars down unless Thaddeus J. Plotz agrees to sign a 10-picture deal with him, guaranteeing a minimum budget of $10 million per picture!

Reluctantly Thaddeus agrees but when Cyril arrives at the Warner film lot in his giant airship (quite, quite mad) there is an accident involving Cyril's bungling assistant Jinx and Cyril's pet warthog Felicity.

Suffice to say the giant dirigible crashes into the water tower scattering all the stolen Oscars across the film lot. "What luck!" Thaddeus thinks � then he remembers who was locked in the water tower�

The player's goal is to find 30 Oscars spread over 6 game worlds. Oscars can be found by solving problems, helping characters or defeating bosses. There are always 5 Oscars in every game world and 2 of them are collected in the same way every time � by finding all the themed pickups in that game world and by finding and unmasking Chicken Boo.

Controlling Wakko the player must first rescue Yakko and Dot before then going on to meet C.C.Deville in the final battle. Each character possesses different skills and all three characters must be utilised correctly to succeed.

Before we continue with the features list we would like to give you an opportunity to take a look at the game. These screens have been taken fro a very early version, so expect the graphics in the final version to be of some higher quality.

Features:

+ 6 huge game worlds full of sweeping cartoon action and exciting puzzle elements, plus 5 mini-games

+ Mind-blowing character animation, high quality 3D graphics and an overall beautiful cartoon style presentation

+ Packed with masses of Hollywood spoofs for hilariously funny gameplay and atmosphere

+ Accurate display of the true "antics" of Animaniacs With all your favorite Animaniacs and many other characters from the show Control Wakko, Yakko and Dot and make use of their individual skills to succeed

+ Masses of wacky enemies and numerous objects to collect and to use Addictive gameplay with depth and easy-to-use controls