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Hey, users of vizzed! Welcome to another in-depth game review by Pac. This time I’m reviewing the NES version of Mappy, released in 1984 by Namco, one of the games I grew up with for a long time. I started out with the arcade version but grew to like this one better.

I’ll make my review simpler this time since lately I rambled too much about the graphics and sound for other games.
Enjoy my take on how great this classic is!

GRAPHICS

10/10

I’m starting this off with a perfect 10 right off the bat! The graphics are simple, clean, and they aren’t weirdly colored. In fact, there’s great attention to detail here. I’ll give a breakdown on what each item is in this game and what their point values are.

100 points: a red radio. I’ve seen black radios but never red ones so that’s cool.
200 points: a light blue and white TV. I’d want a TV with those colors for sure.
300 points: a red and light blue computer. Again, how great would it be to have a computer colored like that?
400 points: a blue and green painting of a woman with long black hair.
500 points: a blue safe.

Wow, those cats are such thieves! See, cats are not innocent!

This game takes place in houses with platforms and dangerous doors. There are regular, plain-looking doors that you can use to whack some cats down with the doors’ forceful opening. I’ll talk more about this with the animations. There’s also a walk-through roof on top of each level. And finally, WE HAVE TRAMPOLINES! This game taught me that the best way to navigate a house and running away from cats is to bounce on trampolines.

The coolest levels in terms of graphics are the bonus rounds. They have red balloons and then a blue balloon with Goro’s face on it. And his face looks hilarious.

ANIMATIONS

8.5/10

Good animations are plentiful in Mappy. It’s an action-packed game so it makes sense that it contains an abundance of animations. They all add enjoyment to whatever you’re doing. One example is when you slam a door into a cat (don’t ever do this in real life please, I love cats but this is just a game). The pink cat will either fall off the platform or be knocked down onto its back for a few quick seconds. Then when it’s ready to stand up again, it blinks. It reminds me of Pac-Man when the ghosts blink when they’re ready to return to normal.

Be careful with that though. If there are too many cats behind Mappy, slamming the door will make him get mousetrap’d. He will slam into a cat and lose a life.

My favorite animation is when you blast waves from a blinking red door into the cats. The wave carries them away to the left or right and all they can do is stay still and let it happen.

Mappy the mouse cop’s tiny arms are flailing like crazy whenever he’s in the air. The cats’ little legs run so fast when they’re in pursuit and their legs and arms both flail like crazy when they’re in the air. They also have the :o expression on their faces when they aren’t on the ground. Otherwise, they’re more like :|

Those are only a few examples of the funny animations that make Mappy a relaxing, fun game all the time. If it wasn’t for these animations, I might find this a little boring to look at after a few minutes!

One reason this isn’t a 10 is that in the arcade version, the special doors blink different colors. In this game, they only blink red. Also, Mappy’s dying animation happens very quickly unlike the original. Especially when he breaks a trampoline. The cats getting a bell dropped on them wasn’t animated correctly either.

The biggest reason, though, is that the “Welcome to the story” beginning cutscene from the arcade version was entirely left out. In fact, the arcade version is the only version I have seen that has it. :/

MUSIC

10/10

If I knew how to dance, I would be dancing in my seat as I listen to Mappy’s music. It largely resembles the original’s music and the pitches of each song fit well.

The main theme that plays in each non-bonus level is fast-paced just like the game and it sounds catchy. I don’t mind the exact same theme playing for 3 levels in a row, just like I don’t for Super Mario Bros. for the same reasons!

All of the quick songs like Mappy losing a life and the level victory music are songs I look forward to hearing when I know they’re going to play. The notes of Mappy’s dying theme match along with his animation which had to be difficult to do.

The bonus round music is cheery and easy to remember. I don’t have to think to know when the song ends and the round is over.

Finally, the game over music isn’t dramatic and the music itself doesn’t make me sad when I screwed up and made Mappy lose his job. It’s another thing that allows me not to take the game too seriously and just have fun with it.

SOUND EFFECTS

9/10

The sound effects are as funny as the animations and the music! Excluding the wave from the special door’s sound, every sound is quick and satisfying. The boing of the trampolines and the collecting of items and balloons are sounds I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing even if I play Mappy every single day. Which lately, I have been with the arcade version in my basement. XD

ADDICTIVENESS

10/10

As I mentioned previously, now that I have taught myself new strategies to succeed, I play the arcade version almost daily. Well, I very often want to play this version too but I’ve been busy doing other things. If I had less to do, I would play both versions every day and I don’t have doubts about it.
The graphics, music, sound, and trying to get a high score combine to cause me to play this game so much and become an expert at it.

STORY

N0nexistent/10

Mappy has no story, but he has an objective. This game is about a mouse cop named Mappy who has to collect various items and avoid getting killed by the pink cats called Meowkies and their red boss, Goro. Goro should be called Gordo, which is Spanish for fat. Just kidding!

I also made up a part of the story earlier in the review where I said that once Mappy loses all his lives, he loses his job as a cop. If only I could tell you that’s true.

DEPTH

10/10

All classic games like this one that were originally arcade games are long. There are too many levels so you will likely never beat the game without savestates. I don’t suggest using savestates because it takes away some of the fun and a lot of the replay value.

The highest I have reached is level 16 and I have played the NES version of this game for a few years.

DIFFICULTY

8/10

For me, this isn’t very difficult until level 8. But for someone who is beginning this game, they might take hours to pass the first 2 rounds. There’s so much to keep track of and so many cats to avoid. Also, once you earn a solid high score, it’ll take you a while of effort to beat it.

The best way to get a good score is to go in order for the items by their point value. There are 2 of each item so after you grab the first one, the 2nd one will blink and it’s worth more points. Here’s how it works:

First time grabbing 2 of the same item: # of points x 2
2nd time: # of points x 3

And it keeps going this way until the last item, which is 6 times its original point value. If you do what I recommended above, the last item will be worth 3,000 points. And you could earn an extra life before reaching stage 4!

The thing that adds the most to the difficulty is the amount of cats. And if you take too long on a level, you get a HURRY message. The cats speed up quite a bit and even more drop down to join the chase! That’s why I only use the strategy I described above for the first 2 rounds. After that, I’m just focused on survival.

OVERALL (not counting story)

9.4/10

What a fun addition to the great number of classic video games out there! It’s fun, funny, hard to learn but worth the time, and addicting! I recommend this game to anyone who likes a simple challenge and to anyone who thinks it would be cool to be a mouse cop. If you think that, you’re going places.

Thank you to all who clicked on this review, whether you meant to or not! I’m highly accepting of criticism so feel free to tell me what you liked/didn’t like about the way I review.