Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider

Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider
Also known as: Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf (EU), Une faim de loup (FR), Looney Tunes: Perro & Lobo (ES), Ralph il lupo all’attacco (IT) Developer: Infogrames Lyon House Publishers: Infogrames Platforms: PlayStation, Windows Released in US: September 27, 2001 (PS1 only) Released in EU: September 14, 2001 This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

In Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider, Daffy Duck presents a reality show in which the contestant attempts to steal an entire flock of sheep using nothing but wits and the sponsor’s amazing products. Sponsored by Acme, of course.

In plain words, it’s a stealth puzzle platformer, and it has a level skip cheat code for a reason.

To do: Look at objects and 3D assets.

Unused Text

The US version includes all text and sound assets of the entire Italian, German and Dutch dubs, accessible only in the European version. Interestingly, Brazilian Portuguese is the only available language across both versions that isn’t dubbed - its sound data is an exact copy of the English dub. The Windows version of the game, released a bit later, did include full voicing for the Brazilian Portuguese version, probably meaning that it wasn’t finished in time to make it into the PlayStation release. This is corroborated by the fact that the wording in the dub differs slightly from the subtitles present here.

Leftover Demo Text

LEV02.MLT includes the text of the two demo-only signs in French and in English. In the other languages, the first sign remains untranslated in English, while the second one is missing entirely.

French	English
La zone de Sam: Il serait préférable d'essayer de la traverser d'abord, puis d'explorer le décor pour ramasser quelques objets utiles avant de tenter de voler un mouton. Un spectateur admiratif...	Sam's area. It would be wise to try and cross it first, then explore the scenery to collect some objects before trying to steal a sheep. An admiring spectator.
Bonne nouvelle! tu as trouvé un passage secret... Mauvaise nouvelle, il n'y a pas de secret dans la demo.	Good news! You just found a secret entrance... Bad news, There is no secret in the demo...

Cheat Code

To do: There are two Easter egg cheat codes floating around the Internet since the game's release that would let you play as Sam or get a "squidboard" (whatever that is); those seem to be hoaxes, but are they?

Press Up, Square, Triangle, Square, Triangle, Circle, Up in any level to skip it.

Regional Differences

Quite a few! First, the copyright line under the Warner Bros logo is slightly different:

European	US

Who grew up with the US version most certainly remembers the odd intro of Black Sheep Productions: crudely-drawn white sheep happily skip a fence one after another while a bird flies back and forth and someone hums a tune. A black sheep then appears, stops, looks at the viewer and… the film is ripped right off the projector with a grinding noise. One may be surprised to learn that was, indeed, a censorship measure: the projector gone awry cuts the film just short of the black sheep pulling a gun and shooting the bird dead.

European	US

The game logo is also obviously different to accommodate the title variation on both sides of the Atlantic – but oddly enough, the EU version always displays the British title, even though different game covers with localised titles were used in Spain, Italy and France. Besides that, the picture that accompanies the title was completely redone for the American release.

European	US

Despite including all data for the Italian, German and Dutch localisations, the US version allows only for majority languages of the Americas, using the United States flag for English and the Québec flag for French. The Brazilian Portuguese localisation is the only one exclusive to the US version, and it is not present in the European release’s game data.

European	US

The loading screens for the levels are completely different across both regions: while the PAL release has a closeup on the inventory map being held by Ralph’s greasy mitts with an illustration of the level’s environment visible on the background, the NTSC version opted for the same shot of Ralph’s workshop for every level with the level-specific illustration relegated to a blurry polaroid on the background, but with an illustration that sometimes hints at how to solve the level in place of the map. The font has also been changed from the ever-present Comic Sans to a more sober grotesque. Finally, the cutscene loading screen of the European release shows blueprints of the cannon elbow, robot, fishing rod and catapult taken from the game’s concept art bonus files (oddly without compensating for the squishing discussed below), while the American release has a hodge-podge of elements of some of its other loading screens.

Place	European	US
Cutscene
Overworld
Level 0
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level B1
Level 5
Level 6
Level 7
Level 8
Level B2
Level 9
Level 10
Level 11
Level 12
Level 13
Level 14
Level 15

While in the European version of the game the player is forced to complete the tutorial before being kicked into the overworld, the American release goes straight into the overworld after the intro cinematic is done, adding a small studio-set-thing to the left of the entrance of the levels’ hall, allowing you to play the tutorial under the guise of “Level 0”. The cutscenes that take place in the studio set are identical to the European version, with the entrance to the tutorial absent. There is no way to replay the tutorial in the European version without starting a new save.

European	US

On Level 2, the fan and Lady Sheep items are inexplicably swapped in the inventory of the NTSC release. The demo predictably uses the same order as the PAL release.

European	US

In all but two levels of the game, there is a secret time clock that awards the player a point if activated. These points can be traded for prizes in the overworld, either in the form of tips for finding the two secret levels or in the form of image galleries that include concept art and pictures of the developers posing for Infogrames Police Dept. mugshots for humorous faux criminal charges. One of them is Yohann dos Santos Monteiro (credited with object coding), charged for being a “FLYING ASS”. Since winged equines are taboo in America, someone drew a crude X on top of the offending word (and also removed the letter G from “FLYING” for good measure). In the censoring process, the image also lost a bit of dithering for reasons unknown.

It may also be worth noting that, despite this instance of censorship, there was no intervention on Nadège de Bergevin’s charge of “F★?@✱¶G PRODUCER”.

European	US

(Sidenote: all developer mugshots appear squished on the raw TIM files, but they were made like that because the higher resolution areas of the game, which includes the picture galleries, are internally rendered at 560 × 576 px PAL or 560 × 480 px NTSC and then stretched horizontally to fit the respective standard. The slight difference in aspect ratio between PAL and NTSC is compensated by letterboxing.)

Finally, the American release’s credits have one additional screen for the US version personnel, accompanied by animations of Ralph and an instant Martian running in place.