Preservationists discover a 'nearly complete' build of a lost Animaniacs game 22 years after it was cancelled, and you can play it right now

Brain from Pinky and the Brain glares toward the camera on a backdrop of yellow and blue concentric circles.

(Image credit: Full Fat Studios)

Gaming preservation group Hidden Palace has discovered a "nearly complete" prototype of a cancelled game based on Animaniacs, the beloved 90s animated show created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Steven Spielberg.

Animaniacs: Hollywood Hypnotics was being developed by UK studio Full Fat Productions, which was also a frequent collaborator with Maxis on series like The Sims and Spore, and now mainly develops mobile games. Intended for the Game Boy Advance, Hollywood Hypnotics was in development between 2000 and 2003.

Hidden Palace revealed the prototype's release on X (via Kotaku). The build was acquired by frequent Hidden Palace collaborator MrPinball64, who has supplied the group with more than 100 game prototypes in the last few years.

Hello again! Presenting: A nearly complete build of Animaniacs: Hollywood Hypnotics for the Game Boy Advance, a game that was thought to have been lost until now! pic.twitter.com/5x4gHghzWUJune 29, 2025

The group provided further details about the game and its development on the website. Despite being unfinished, the game is playable end-to-end. Structurally, Hidden Path describes it as similar to the Dizzy series of adventure games, with players solving puzzles and interacting with NPCs across six studio lots, culminating in a showdown with Pinky and the Brain.

While apparently feature-complete, Hollywood Hypnotics does lack polish, with unrefined puzzle design and hazy signposting. Moreover, the player character graphics are directly based off another Animaniacs game designed for the Sega Genesis in 1994, though whether these are placeholder sprites or a way to cut costs on the part of Full Fat is unclear.

Animaniacs: Hollywood Hypnotics gameplay - YouTube

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Hollywood Hypnotics was ultimately cancelled after a rough development that involved several iterations. It was originally handed to Full Fat by publisher Conspiracy Entertainment, but Full Fat seemingly abandoned the project in favour of gigs with other publishers. The spinoff was then revived by German publisher Swing Entertainment, with Full Fat starting the game over. But Swing closed its doors in 2003, with Hollywood Hypnotics being canned as a consequence.

You can download the Hollywood Hypnotics' prototype via Hidden Palace's website. The build is playable with any GBA emulator.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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