Felix the Cat is an icon of classic cartoons, with a history dating to before Mickey Mouse was ever around. His popularity has waned over the decades, but he has made comebacks now and then, with periods of relative popularity. Felix was popular enough in 1992 after receiving a direct to video movie, to get a side scrolling platformer for the NES from Hudson Soft, alongside a Game Boy version. The game released late in the NES lifespan, but that also means the game took full advantage of how to max out the system’s potential and looks great as a result.
The cat with the magic bag must journey across nine worlds, with multiple stages included, to rescue Kitty Kat from the evil scientist the Professor. These were all characters who appeared in the classic animations, TV show and 1991 movie and the game highlights these characters well. The game is a platformer in the style of Super Mario Bros. 3 and while many feel the game is lacking compared to the last mainline Mario game on Nintendo’s 8-Bit System, I have always had a fondness for Felix’s adventure.
Felix can use his bag of tricks to attack enemies and undergo various transformations, but getting the hang of things can take some time. Felix can summon various vehicles such as cars, tanks, planes and more and there is a lot of creativity in the game. The issue is that Felix feels stiff at times, and this can throw you off when you need precision.
Fortunately, this new collection of Felix the Cat from Konami (who now owns Hudson Soft) and Limited Run Games has a number of features added to improve the experience. There are save states and rewind features here, so if you ever feel frustrated and want to stop, or mistimed a movement, then you can rewind as much as you need and stop your game when you want to take a break. It seems like a small addition, but it makes a big difference in the long run and has kept me playing as I figure things out.
Felix has many transformations and vehicles he can use, but many of these are limited, and your time will gradually drain away. That said, you can replenish your meter and even upgrade to further transformations, and taking damage only sends you back one transformation at a time. It takes some getting used to, but it does work well.
There is a certain charm in discovering the various transformations of Felix the Cat, and there are a number of levels that change things up, such as air-based levels and water based levels, each with its own transformations. These are a great change of pace and offer something different, including stages with Balloon Fight-style controls that are a complete joy to play. This was a game meant for kids, but as I have noticed over the years, many modern gamers struggle at older games if they are unfamiliar with the particular title and what was a simple game can be a challenge to some now.
I do feel that the levels do not have enough variety in their design and identity, and even with levels in the water and in the air, many levels end up feeling recycled. I can excuse this for the most part as the game is fun and collection the Felix faces gives something to do as well. There are also hidden areas accessed through the Magic Bag at various points, and it does provide inventive to play to see everything.
The visuals and music are excellent as per being a late era NES game, but now I need to mention that the Famicom version was included as well. It is mostly the same, but there are some differences in presentation that were changed for localization reasons, and it will interest some to see what was different. Of course there is also the Game Boy version and here is where the game feels like a bit of a let-down.
The Game Boy version is a scaled back version of the game with many levels cut and honestly does not feel as fun as the NES version. It is perfectly serviceable, but it raises the question of if two and a half games is worth the price being asked for this collection. A $24.99 MSRP may seem worthwhile for a collection of retro games, but the value may not be there for what is essentially two versions of the NES game and the Game Boy game that is lacking.
There is not a lot of bonus content, which is somewhat disappointing, considering that previous collections Konami has released have contained a lot of bonus material of various kinds. One thing I did feel was well done was how the rewind feature worked, where sending the gameplay into reverse would bring up a black-and-white overlay in all versions, that hearkened back to the early days of Felix the Cat in animation. It really stands out in the console versions, considering the excellent 8-but visuals that really pop out at you.
So is Felix the Cat worth getting? For someone like me, absolutely, because I am a fan of classic animation as well as this style of game. I enjoyed my time with Felix the Cat, but some may find it to be too easy or too simplistic for their liking. Couple this with the asking price and it will be off-putting to many. If you want to play a rare classic platformer based on a classic animated character though, this is indeed worth checking out and I myself will continue to enjoy my time with it.
