Mappy - nes rom: Gameplay
6Mappy is a port of the classic arcade game from Namco, starring the titular policemouse Mappy (whose name is a play on “mappo,” a slightly derogatory Japanese slang word for “police officer”), the troublesome crime boss cat, Nyamco, and his slightly smaller henchkittens, the Mewkies. It just goes to show: you can't trust cats. Even in video games, they're always stealing stuff.
A stage is cleared once Mappy has managed to recover all of the stolen objects (paintings, televisions, computers, etc.) that adorn one of Nyamco's mansions, which must be done while also avoiding enemies who chase him around the playfield. Collectibles will sometimes also flash, indicating that they offer a multiplier bonus once retrieved. The size of the bonus increases each time you collect such an object in the stage, meaning you'll have to decide between finding everything as quickly and as safely as possible, or trying to maximize your score. Stages have multiple floors that can be accessed by bouncing on the many trampolines scattered about, and those devices break if they are used too many times in succession. After every few successfully completed stages, you’ll soon gain entry to a bonus stage. These special areas feature no solid floors, just trampolines, balloons, walls, and a time limit. The balloons, naturally, are worth bonus points. It's possible to collect all of the available balloons before the timer expires to receive an even bigger bonus, but there's no room for error; a single bad bounce is usually impossible to recover from in such bonus stages.
Mappy can't jump without assistance, and he has no way to attack enemies directly (despite running around with his billy club drawn the whole time). He can, however, use the environment against the cat gang. There are several doors in every stage that Mappy can open as long as he's facing them, even when he's not positioned directly next to them. A cat that is hit by a door as it opens or closes will be knocked onto its back and can safely be ignored for several seconds. If Mappy is close to a door while it's opening or closing, that action will push him in whatever direction it's moving. Waiting too long to open a door can be a costly mistake if it knocks Mappy back into a chasing Mewkie, but shutting a door at just the right moment can helpfully force any pursuer to have to move back a bit to open the door himself. Clever use of doors is the key to mastering the game.