NES #17: Felix the Cat

Developer: Shimada Kikau

Publisher: Hudson Soft

Release Date: October 1992

 

Felix the Cat is one of those cartoon characters that everyone has heard of but nobody is really sure where he came from. He’s not a Looney Tune or a Disney character, but people still remember seeing him in similar cartoon compilations. Felix actually predates both Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons by almost a decade. Felix was the first significantly popular cartoon star making his debut way back in 1919. That’s older than cel animation itself. This makes Felix one of the older IPs to be turned into an NES game. I suppose Tom Sawyer is older, and there are some based on the Bible and early folktales, but it’s still impressive that he has such staying power. This game is based on the late 80s movie which was one of his dozens of comeback attempts and was an infamous failure. You can’t necessarily judge a game by its source material however. So how it the game itself?

 

Felix the Cat is almost everything you would expect for a late era NES platform game. The graphics are stylish and colorful, the levels are well designed, and of course there is a bottom panel displaying at least a little important information. Also by the time 1992 rolled around cutscenes were much more the norm so this one has a few very pointless ones between a few of the levels. They basically have the bad guy calling Felix in a series of angrier phone calls. It’s a very appealing presentation which definitely makes the game fun to play. I love a game based on a cartoon that actually looks like a cartoon, and this one is full of fun little cartoony details. I wish there were clouds in the sky that look like me and also have my name beside them like in Felix the Cat. Video games really let us live out our fantasies.

 

There is, however, a glaring flaw in this game that knocks it down a few places. The power ups are almost universally bad. They check all the boxes of annoying NES weapons. You have your very short range magic wand, your car that makes an annoying beeping sound every time you use it, and the tank that arcs over everything. There are similar problem with the powerups in the air and water levels too. It almost makes me want to skip them altogether except that they also work as Felix’s health. Each time he gets hit he gets knocked back down to the weaker item in the chain. This can make boss fights difficult for all the wrong reasons because they can be almost impossible without projectile attacks which will be lost after a couple of hits. Luckily there are extra lives to be found just about everywhere so it never gets too hard, but I do which they would’ve refined the gameplay to make better attacks and a more fair difficult level.  

 

So it’s a bit of a borderline case, but I am still going to put it on the good side. It is a game saved by its great design, and the flaws don’t ruin it. I didn’t have much trouble beating the game because of the lousy weapons. It is going right behind Panic Restaurant which is a similar game with even better design and decent weapons. Still, it’s hard to go wrong with a well made platform game on NES. I can certainly see myself playing it again in the future on some dreary Saturday when I am feeling down.

 

NES Quality Percentage: 10/17 or 58.82%

 

1. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

2. Super Mario Odyssey

3. The Legend of Zelda

4. Galaga

5. Donkey Kong

6. Exodus: Ultima III

7. Pac-Mania

8. Wrecking Crew

9. Super Pac-Man

10. Pac-Man

11. Viva Pinata

12. Dragon View

13. Excitebike

14. Drakkhen

15. Arc the Lad

16. Clu Clu Land

17. Tails’ Adventures

18. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX

19. Mickey’s Racing Adventure

20. Metro-Cross

21. Double Dragon

22. Panic Restaurant

23. Felix the Cat

24. Ice Climber

25. Gaplus

26. Dragon Spirit

27. Pinball (NES)

28. Ninja Golf

29. Super Soccer

30. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)

31. Red Sea Crossing

32. Baraduke

33. Demon’s Crest

34. Evoland

35. Tennis

36. Renegade

37. Hogan’s Alley

38. Gamma-Attack

39. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

40. Galaxian

41. Dragon Crystal

42. Cosmic Commuter

43. Hot Pixel

44. PocketBike Racer

45. Wild Gunman

46. Defunct

47. Gyruss (2600)

48. Looney Tunes Racing

49. Squidlit

50. Baseball

51. Birthday Mania

52. Bad Street Brawler

53. Burly Men at Sea

54. WeakWood Throne

55. X-Men (HyperScan)

56. My Name is Mayo

57. Marvel Heroes

58. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

59. Ben 10