A cute little platformer that takes you to the moon and back – but lacks in challenge.

Story

The Professor has kidnapped Felix the Cat’s girlfriend Kitty in a scheme to claim Felix’ magic bag of tricks. Confident in that he can save Kitty, Felix sets out on a journey to track down The Professor and save his beloved Kitty.

The Game

Felix the Cat for the Game Boy is a platform game based on the famous American cartoon character Felix the Cat from 1919. The character Felix is still alive today in both comics and animations, but the video game franchise has seen some inactivity in recent years. The game Felix the Cat has been available on NES since 1992 and Game Boy version was released a year later, where as it serves as a portable version of the same game. All the content from the NES version didn’t make it into this Game Boy version though, so one might consider this version inferior to the NES original.

In Felix the Cat you play the jolly Felix in a 2D side-scrolling action platform game. The goal of the game is, of course, to save Kitty by maneuvering through different environments until you reach The Professor’s hide out. The game allows the screen to scroll in all directions, but the stages are limited in height and always start you off from the left prompting movement to the right.

Content

The game has twelve stages that take place across six different environments such as the moon, under water, pyramids, and mountains. For each new environment Felix uses different means to travel and collecting power-ups allows him to pull out new stuff from his magic box. The more power-ups you collect in forms of hearts, the better means of travel Felix gets. Some examples are; airplanes, riding dolphins, mini-submarines and tanks. The stages are also filled with enemies and dangers such as birds, octopuses, boulders, moving platforms and so on. To fight off these dangers Felix will use all kinds of weapons that are combined with whatever vehicle or animal he is currently mounting.

It’s worth noting that the game has no save feature, no passwords and no difficulty settings. There are no options to adjust in this game what so ever. The game is very easy and you can literally run through all the stages without much trouble in just a few minutes. There are only a few occasions where you would need to think carefully about your next jump in order to avoid falling down a chasm.

When the game starts you are walking and using a boxing glove as your only weapon. When you collect one of those heart-power-ups you’re upgraded to using magic spells as your weapon instead. If you manage to collect another power-up you will get a jeep of some sort, and the next one after that a tank.
As mentioned above, different stages calls for different vehicles and weapons, but generally they all work the same way. There are however stages where you must fly by tapping a button to remain in mid-air – your goal is then to reach the end of the stage while avoiding cannon turrets and crashing into platforms. The swimming stages are similar to the flying ones.

Normally you die from touching a single enemy just one time, but once you collect one of these heart-power-ups you won’t die from taking a hit. Instead you lose the latest power-up that you collected, downgrading your means of travel until you’re back on your feet and vulnerable again. Each power-up is also time limited, but this time limit never is a problem – as long as you keep playing the game you will find enough extra time. The stages themselves also have time limits, but since each stage can be cleared in just a minute or so that isn’t a problem neither.

Every now and then you will see huge, open magic bags floating in the game. You can jump into these bags to find bonus rooms that are filled with extra power-ups. As if the game wasn’t easy enough as it is, these bags will guarantee that you are kept well fed with power-ups through the whole game.

At the end of each game world there’s a boss that you must defeat in order to proceed in the game. If you manage to get there with the ability to shoot projectiles, which typically is the second upgrade, the bosses of this game are total pushovers. The Professor, who acts as the final boss of the game is perhaps the easiest boss in the whole game, which really is an anti climax. Judging from the low difficulty of this game, it’s safe to assume that this game is targeted at young kids. As such it could work as an easy-going introduction to platforming games.

Graphics

The graphics in Felix the Cat are really nothing out of the ordinary. The visuals can be abstract here and there, but you will be able to identify most of the hostile creatures and the environmental features easily for what they are. The game keeps running at a steady frame rate most of the time with only minor graphical stuttering when the action becomes intense. This is especially notable in the swimming and flying scenes.

Sound

The sound effects are very much your typical Game Boy bleep-bloop sound effects but without the charm. The music is better, and is actually kind of catchy. It has a distinct rock ‘n roll music style and suits the game well, but I’m not convinced that it is true to the original music that can be heard in the cartoons. The game basically only has two short songs and despite their qualities they repeat numerous times and can thus become an annoyance.

Summary

Felix the Cat is an easy-going platformer game, geared towards less experienced gamers. The game really doesn’t stand out among better similar games, and the short time it takes to beat it will probably disappoint you. Perhaps we should cherish this game for not being yet another impossible or near-impossible game, because there are so many of those already. At the end of the day, this one will always have an earned place in any game collection, especially for fans of Hudson Soft.

Developed By: Hudson Soft
Published By: Hudson Soft
Version Reviewed: Game Boy
Genre: Platform / Cartoon
Players: 1
Also Available On: Nintendo Entertainment System
Released: 1993