Well, if you know me, you can probably guess how I feel about Tom and Jerry.
Their original run—especially during the 1940s—had some of my favorite cartoons.
Animation royalty, especially in terms of the execution.
And so when our good friend Anthony from New Jersey set this in, it obviously fell into
my lap.
Being that it’s Tom and Jerry, I expected a fairly dull style but great jokes and stellar
technique.
Then I remembered that...wait, this is the video game, not the cartoon.
And then I wanted to smash Tom and Jerry with a mallet.
So this is a Game Boy Color game released way back in 1999.
Obviously, it’s based on the Hanna-Barbera classic Tom and Jerry.
The game puts you in control of the adorable and surprisingly violent mouse Jerry, who’s
on a quest to find his cousin.
Along the way, you’ll have to deal with spikes, pits and mouse-eating flowers.
And Tom, who jumps out from nowhere to attack.
Now, Tom and Jerry is obviously a platformer of the most standard variety.
The game has ten very brief levels and never really gives you much in the way of story
or set up.
Usually not a big deal, but when you have a license like Tom and Jerry, I would think
you’d want to use Tom and Jerry as much as possible.
I don’t know, maybe not.
Maybe that would’ve taken time away from the hungry flowers.
So the license isn’t exactly taken advantage of, but that’s actually the least of the
game’s problems.
More important is the fact that Tom and Jerry is needlessly difficult.
There are no checkpoints, very sparse passwords...not to mention level designs that are next to
impossible thanks to the clunky gameplay.
I mean, basically, Jerry’s gonna die.
And Jerry never dies in the show.
I guess the game looks...okay, for a Game Boy Color title.
That said, there’s actually a good bit of slowdown in this game, so...what are you gonna
do?
The game never gives you any directions or objectives, either.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
And if you’re ever thinking about playing Tom and Jerry for the Game Boy Color...I’m
begging you.
Choose something else.
This thing isn’t even from the 40s.