As a child I used to "borrow" the comics from my dad's newspaper to see the Garfield comic and I also used to watch the cartoon every Saturday, so I am a big fan. At 24 years old, I am still a huge fan of Garfield. When I saw that there was a video game, I skeptical that it would make a good gaming experience, because, really, all he did was eat, sleep and insult Odie and Jon. However I decided to give it a try and it paid off since the game was very entertaining and fun to play with several good points and a few minor points that annoyed me.
The story starts off as a comic strip that shows you Garfield pigging out before going to bed and at the end which is cool that a comic strip was incorporated instead of it being a 3D camera pan like most games. Throughout the game, any speech or info is given via talking bubbles like in a comic strip. I think this touch made the game that much better because Garfield did originally come from a comic strip. But other than that the game is in 3D graphics which are excellently detailed and very colorful.
Playing the game is done using the top screen which means the touch screen is not used much, only for the three mini-games tap a pet, midnight morsel and spider phobia. In the bottom screen there are four boxes with a picture and numbers. The Garfield box is the number of overall lives. The pizza box is the three sublevel lives (you can regain lives when you find a pizza but if you already have three you get ten donuts). The donut box is used to collect 100 donuts that will give you one overall life. The paw coin box is the coins that are used to open bonus life doors in the levels. It is just a little disappointing that the touch screen is not integrated into the game play at all. I mean, the technology is there, do something with it besides adding a few mini-games!
Garfield's skills are kept in line with his character. He does not move very fast or have super power double jumps. He can jump, jump pound and crawl. When he gets hurts he howls like a cat which is always funny. When he gets hit by water or lands in water, he reacts like a cat. However, he was the only character in the game. Odie and Jon were not in the game at all which is disappointing. They could have been great characters to slow Garfield down or annoy him during the levels.
There are not that many levels, only five with four sublevels and one boss each. Each level was fun and challenging as they progressed down towards the boss. I am disappointed that there were only a total of 25 play levels. I think there should have been more levels with a major boss like in the old Super Mario World and Donkey Kong County games for the Super Nintendo which had around forty playable levels. Each sublevel has three safe points that are a red and white barber shop pole with balloons. I had to use these a number of times because I kept dying from unexpected obstacles. If you kill an enemy you get a coin. I collected enough coins that after going into each door I still had over three hundred unused coins. To defeat the boss, you just had to jump on them three times. The challenge is staying alive to get to do that. I died seventeen times fighting the fourth level boss until I finally beat him, but he is beatable, it just might take time. The music was okay, but it was too generic so it faded into the background. It did not really add to the game.
Mini Games: uses the touch screen
Tap A Pet: Like whack-a-mole, slightly challenging, fun and excellent to play.
Midnight Morsel: catch food, avoid the bombs, and okay to play.
Spider Phobia: catch coins, avoid the spiders, challenging, and good to play.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and it was a good buy. It was fun to play even if it was short. I would definitely play it over and over again because there is such depth to the game that there are all kinds of hidey holes I had not noticed the first time through. I have already played it three times and I'll play it again. I give this a 9.7 out of 10, because of how great the game was and for the few disappointments. I think that this will be a good game for new gamers and for younger children who are just starting out and for those gamers with experience that just want a fun game.
- Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now
- Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account
