Where do I start? To get things going you are treated to some
nice title screens and music. The game starts out well: you play as Jerry (of course) and
are on a mission to rescue his nephew Tuffy from Tom. Jerry starts out in the basement and
has to work his way up to the attic, which is no easy task or course. On his travels he
will encounter some rather bland enemies such as toy soldiers, lady bugs, flies, walking
teeth, and others.He has to travel through five areas and defeat Tom at the end of each one. Jerry is incredibly well animated and there was obviously a lot of time put into his sprite. The problem with the graphics though is that about half of the enemies are well animated and the others are bland. The same goes with the level design. You start out in the basement and it looks like a basement should with lots of detail. You then go down a drain pipe that has little detail then fight Tom, but his stage is quite drab and the same goes for the rest of the levels. One cool addition that I haven't seen in another NES game is in stage 4-1. There is a NES and a controller that Jerry has to climb on to pass the stage and it adds a unique touch to the game.
Gameplay is barely above average, mostly due to the lackluster control. The game shows variety as Jerry attacks by throwing marbles, but also can pick up a hammer, float bubble gum, and spit water to douse flames. The problems come in the way of slippery control. It all works fine until you try to stop and Jerry slips a little. You also cannot walk and throw marbles. You have to stop and this severely hurts the gameplay. The battles with Tom make up for some of the tedious gameplay.
Sound and music is where this game falls way short of the mark. The tunes in the game are decent. They are taken straight from the cartoon and fit well the problems is there are only two tunes and they alternate stage after stage. By the time I was done, I felt like I had been on a merry-go-round for an hour. I wanted to scream because they are too high pitched and I had a headache shortly after. Sound effects are fitting but the wrong one is used in the wrong places. Each one sounds like an aluminum screen door thwapping closed while it's under water. Even when you hit Tom with marbles it sounds like he's kicking an aluminum screen door.
This isn't a horrible game and I want to like it more but it's just above average. This would have been great with just a little more TLC. It's worth a look with the music turned down of course but I wouldn't recommend investing a ton of time playing it. Save yourself the headache with the tedious music.
