Felix the Cat (NES) Playthrough
0A playthrough of Hudson Soft's 1992 license-based platformer for the NES, Felix the Cat.
Originally appearing in 1919, Felix rose to fame during the reign of silent films, though Hudson’s game concentrates on the particulars of the franchise’s 1953 reboot which, amongst several other things, introduced Felix’s famous bag of tricks.
In his NES outing, Felix must save his girlfriend Kitty Cat who has been kidnapped by the evil professor. When the professor demands Felix’s magical bag in exchange for the safe return of his true love, Felix takes off in pursuit.
Felix the Cat is a nicely refined take on the typical NES platformer with twenty-three stages spanning land, sea, and air, each brimming with enemy blasting, MacGuffin collecting action.
Felix's upgradable arsenal of tricks is nothing if not versatile: in land-based stages, Felix starts with an extending mechanical boxing glove that can be traded in for a magician costume that sprays stars, a car with a loud horn, and a tank that can lob cannonballs. In aerial stages, Felix begins with a Mary Poppins-style umbrella that can be upgraded to a hot air balloon and an airplane. Underwater stages begin Felix rocking a snorkel mask that can be replaced by a speedy turtle or a submarine that somewhat creepily resembles Felix's face. Finally, in the land-to-sea transition stages, Felix starts out in a leaping canoe that can be turned into an attack dolphin if enough hearts are collected.
While tooling around in any upgraded vehicle, a heart meter will start counting down. When the hearts run out the vehicle will disappear, though they can be replenished by collecting milk bottles.
The graphics in Felix the Cat are some of the best you'll find in an NES platformer. Felix’s sprite looks just like the real deal, and each of his several forms are loaded with personality thanks to the exceptional attention paid to small details like the way his face animates. The backgrounds are colorful, and there is a good bit of variety in the enemies. The music is good, too. It's not particularly memorable, but it stays appropriately uptempo and cheery throughout.
The controls perform exactly as you'd expected, regardless of the type of stage or vehicle being used, and the jumping controls are tight enough to ensure that Felix always lands exactly where you intend. There are occasions, however, when the screen doesn't scroll up when jumping, so you have to be careful to not launch Felix into hazards that often lie hidden just beyond the top edge of the screen.
While the game does feature several stages, most of which contain secret areas, the overall lack of challenge makes Felix the Cat feel like a much shorter game than it really is. It's geared toward those that want an enjoyable experience without being punished for not having level layouts memorized, making it perfect for the casual crowd and for kids. If you want to boost your old-school gamer ego, this is a fun way to do that.
Felix the Cat‘s fantastic art direction and the sheer amount of character expressed in the spritework is a testament to the respect that the design team held for the source material. Further bolstered by the pitch perfect controls and the variety that the vehicles bring to the gameplay, Felix the Cat compares favorably to the best of Capcom's NES Disney titles.
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