Felix the Cat Evaluation – Evaluation

Felix the Cat is a group of two video games of the identical title initially launched on the NES and Sport Boy in 1992 and 1993, respectively. The compilation features a few quality-of-life enhancements that we’ve change into accustomed to seeing in retro re-releases, together with a single save state, a rewind function, and a CRT filter. There’s additionally an unreleased Famicom model right here (for some purpose). Whereas Felix could have been round for 100 years, there’s a purpose these two titles haven’t: they provide little in the best way of distinctive or above-average gameplay. They’re nearly as barebones as a platformer will be.

The NES sport consists of about 10 worlds, and most of those have 3 separate levels to finish. The degrees are usually fairly brief; those that do have a bit extra size are largely simply repetitive. You’ll come throughout the identical primary enemies for a lot of the sport’s abbreviated runtime, and even the boss fights really feel extra like palette swaps than handcrafted challenges. One feather in Felix’s fur-covered cap is the totally different transformations that he undergoes in sure levels, like these the place he takes to the sky or goes underwater. Amassing Felix tokens, like cash, award hearts that imbue you with new magic units and autos, nearly like power-ups in a Mario sport. They usually offer you projectiles to launch or added maneuverability, but additionally let you take harm at the price of dropping right down to the earlier power-up stage. All in all, although, the playthrough continues to be a quick and largely forgettable one, and for some purpose, my excessive rating didn’t even save after ending the sport.

Felix the Cat on Sport Boy is actually the identical expertise however with fewer worlds and levels and fewer of the interstitial content material from the NES unique. All the transformations are current right here, however what does sadly get added to this transportable iteration is a hearty dose of slowdown, making a few of the jumps and different obstacles extra irritating to navigate. That mentioned, it is nonetheless sort of spectacular how devoted the sport is when shrunk right down to Sport Boy proportions.

Whereas neither a part of the package deal is all that eye-catching, the upbeat soundtrack from the NES sport specifically is kind of nice and enhances the playthrough properly. The sound results, although–just like the one for Felix’s bounce–could be a little on the grating aspect, so I used to be comfortable to succeed in segments of the sport the place much less leaping was required. There’s a neat visible aptitude to the rewind operate that I did recognize, however that is one of many few attention-grabbing presentation parts.

Felix the Cat could have been a bit extra of a novelty on the ‘90s platforms it arrived on, however time hasn’t been form to this comedian feline’s pixel-based adventures. Regardless of starring a cat with a magical bag, these two video games have nearly no methods up their sleeves. The addition of the Famicom model yields little or no by way of noticeable gameplay variations, so its inclusion is a little bit of a thriller. I do know the reply, however why couldn’t these two video games have simply been added to NSO as a substitute? What’s extra, the general problem will probably be markedly mild for anybody with platforming expertise, and there’s no scarcity of additional lives to earn and power-ups to maintain you from hazard and propel you thru the largely pedestrian stage design. If this 2024 assortment had just a few extra attention-grabbing extras thrown in, it could be price a choose up, however because it stands, that is simply one other black cat you don’t need crossing your path.