Who cartoon
character that have bitter relation besides the famous Tom & Jerry or
Sylvester & Tweety? Wil. E Coyote and Roadrunner? Perhaps, but they don't
have natural predator-prey relation in real life. But maybe i'm wrong. I know nothing about dessert ecosystem or what have
you. Anyway, Tom & Jerry is adopted into many games ranging from bad to
good and to day i review one of the bad ones: Hi Tech Expressions's CAT-astrophe
(1990). I mean bad in graphic. But in term of gameplay? We will find out!
The
hand-drawn of Tom & Jerry here looks okay enough. But on next part, you
most likely see worse hand-drawn of the famous cat-rat pair than here. Let's
see something else. Colourful words on "Tom & Jerry" may imply
that the game is for children. Even though we know that the violent nature of
the series makes everyone in censorship department turns pale. Yes, back there
violent censorship's standard is lower than recently. So you can guess that
cartoonish violent is involved in this game. But that doesn't make our friends here worry or something. They look happy as always (before they start to war).
They're
jolly fellows here as well. Before the game begins, i have to choose the
difficulty level...
...and the
game's duration, from 1 minute to 10 minutes. Not often you play a game that
only last for a minute, right?
The game
begin with sensible duel starter in which the 2 contestant facing away from
other and walk run few steps and then gruesome antique between the mouse
and the cat begin.
Most of
games from Tom & Jerry franchise, make you control the cunning git Jerry
and CAT-astrophe is no exception. The control for now: 'arrow' keys to move and
'enter' key to jump but only when Jerry is standing still in one spot. Usually
in almost games, you can make your character moves diagonally by holding
corresponding direction buttons, right? You can't do that here hence Jerry's
movement feels really janky as he can
only move horizontal and vertical but no diagonal. It's baffling. As you expect
that Tom will try to chase Jerry. My reasonable course of action will be enter
the mouse hole there that's definitely Jerry's homebase.
Here's the
inside of the mouse hole (sorry for bad editing). There's a mouse trap, a
staircase, a barrel, and a ladder. There's a tomato on the mouse trap but i
launched it and it didn't hit Tom. Shameful, i know. To execute an action
(including activate mouse trap that act as makeshift catapult), press 'insert'
key. I'm safe in here but not for long. Soon or later Tom will insert a
dynamite here. So the game discourage turtling.
I took the
ladder and next i'm on egg-throwing duel. The control here: 'up' key to jump
over low egg throw, 'down' key to duck under high egg throw, 'insert' key to
pick egg and press it again to throw it. You can't control whether your aim is
high or low but Tom can avoid it in whatever altitude so it's kind of moot.
Thus you have to rely on correct timing to both picking the egg and throw it.
Tom can't avoid it when he's picking his ammo or attack. It's fair duel...
...until he
shoots plunger at me with toy kid. So much for good sportsmanship. I should
retreat (with 'left' key) while i can. The game discourages you to rake score in same course for too long. But you can come
back to same "course" after you retreat. By the way, you score can goes down everytime
you get hit by the damned feline. No more Mr. Nice mouse!
I'm going to ascend into that staircase and move to right a bit...
...and i'm coming for you with this soapbox car! Heavy_battlecry02.wav
Haha! Take
that. The car keep moving forward so you have to change its direction with
arrows keys. While in the car i can move diagonally...or drifting. The steer
control almost like in The Lost World but without reverse move. I remember back
when i was very young i get the highest score only with this "course".
Yes, elementary-schooler me kept hitting Tom's butt only for top score. The
sick freak.
Of course,
you can hit your car to pillar or wall and this scene plays. I think both of
them have the wrong expression. It looks like Jerry is accusing something bad
to Tom and he's just confused on what's wrong with him or why Jerry looks so
accusatory. By the way, you can
retreat safely by traveling straight to the mouse hole.
Once the
timer is up, you sign for hi-score and either play again or exit. For the sake
of you reader, i choose to re-play, obviously.
That's not Tom scratching pillar and totally ignore me. It's the
way he lunge at me (and miss). Everytime you dodge Tom's pounce, you get 1
point. Jump may be used to avoid it. But the most reliable method to do that:
run like hell and occasionally change direction.
If you press
action key on sewing kit, you will initiate honorable duel of fencing with
long sewing needle. The control is -i'll be honest- abstract or at least
inaccurate yet fuzzy. Up and down key to block high and low attack respectively
while left and right to move, that's for sure. Also 'enter'
key to "exit" the duel. I manage to make Jerry stab only
once or twice. 'Insert' key is involved, i know. But i don't
know the exact procedure. That's shame as this course could be intense
yet engaging fencing duel if not for the control. Also pretty often Jerry moves repeatedly without me pressing any key. Scout_jeers11.wav
I keep
struggling with the control but soon Tom pull his kid toy and shoot my face
with plunger, again! Even though he has successfully punctured me so many time.
The cheeky bastard.
Time to use
the old fashioned dynamite! Picking a dynamite doesn't makes the game into a
"course". You have to put the dynamite at the right time and place to
score.
Demoman_specialcompeted11.wav. You may
insert 'Wa Wa Wa' cartoon sound effect here because the game
doesn't provide you any.
Naturally,
you can get blown by the dynamite if you're doing it wrong. This scene is also
play when Tom throws dynamite inside the mouse hole where you're dwell for too
long. Looking at the color of the smokes/explosion, that's clearly not the one
that come out from TNT. If i tell you that Jerry is in the middle of magical
dimension's travel or he's under high dose of hallucinogens, you probably believe
me.
If you go
inside the barrel, you will ride this plane made of carton box. I have no idea,
how it can fly even though it doesn't have any engine on it but i can hear its noise. Moving the plane
is marginally harder than the car because you can't tell the exact position of
it. There's no shadow to indicate that or whatsoever. So i often collide with
pillar, the sewing kit basket, the box of dynamite or even Tom himself even
though i believe i keep safe distance from them. The moving control also
different: 'up' and 'down' keys to sway left or right, 'left' key to turn
counter clockwise, and 'right' key to turn clockwise. You press 'insert' key to
release bulb that hopefully hit Tom. Imagine a bomber plane that have to
bombard a tall moving target, it can't fly higher than the target's height and
without colliding itself with the target! Nigh impossible, right? Maybe you
have to put sherds on Tom's way to score. The bulb leaves a trail of shrapnel for
nanoseconds, you know.
Here's the scene should Jerry crash his plane. Watch out for sherd
near your foot and groin, Jerry! NB: carrying anything that include glass in
mini airplane is ludicrously dangerous. Don't do that! I think thats all of them.
Hi Tech
Expressions's CAT-astrophe (1990) definitely not win in graphic department and
the gameplay is quite in same level of quality. But you can have fun playing it.
The musics and The sound effect consist of "blip-blip" so don't
expect something good. Although the explosion's sound is quite proper. The
graphic is as i already pointed out: not good and crude. Tom and Jerry are
badly hand-drawn most of the time but still identifiable as the iconic duo. Not the smug looking on Jerry when facing left or right, can't help it. The
goal of the gameplay is simple: net as many score as you can within designated
time. But the process is either good or bad. Avoid the plane and the fencing
course! The others are fine.
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