A long time before Tom and Jerry (not really, they came out all the way back in the 1940's!) There was a little NES game made by Namco, by the name of Mappy that was a pretty good success on the NES, but I don't think it ever really took off too much! But I personally kinda love this game, its a fun little game that is a cute little distractions for a bit, be it by yourself or with a friend. Mappy is another one of those games that we don't have the for sure release date, but I can say for sure that the NES version of the game came out in 1983. So while I may really like this game, there has to be some reason for the game to have not had a remake or something all these years later right? Well put on your tiny police hats and jump on the color changing tightwire as we run our way around Mappy!

{Story/Difficulty}
So I didn't put a rating for the story buuuuuuuuut I suppose there is a tiny bit of a story, I suppose its on par with a Mario game, I dunno but you can tell me. The 'story' is that you play as 'Mappy' OK that's not your name but you are a tiny policeman........ mouse thingies. You can kinda say its name is 'Mappy' as 'Mappy' is a slang Japanese word of Mappo which means policeman (or I guess you can say its the PoPo!) Anyways, the cop mouse is sneaking through the house full of thieving cats that stole a bunch of items......... and ya! So there is a tiny story, but at least when Mario gets the princess back he gets some cake! If there is any cake in this game its probably going to someone else and not mouse cop man! But that's all I can really stretch out of this mouse of a plot. There is not a rating for the story so don't expect one! As for the difficulty of Mappy, its one of those games that gets harder as you go on. And once you beat the game you can continue on with your high score until you get a game over. Just like most games of the time you cant get run into an enemy or anything as you will die and be onto your next life, or the other players turn. One of the biggest things that makes it a bit of a challenge to play sometimes is the lack of a jump button in the game, there is no way to jump over an enemy if you get caught in a situation that you cant get out of. Not being able to directly take out the enemies (most of the time) makes it hard to get around to, along with how random their movements feel by the end of the game. But at the same time maybe its a good thing Mappy cant jump as if he falls from to high of a height he will die! And I cant stand that sometimes honestly. Thankfully the doors are on your side, and can take out the baddies, and will never be in a situation where they can only be opened on one side and your own the wrong side, nope never happened to me! But that's all I gotta say about the difficulty of Mappy, I say starting out its about a 5 out of 10, by endgame it might almost be 9 out of 10 sometimes for me! Some of those cats movements can be frisky (I sound like I'm back in the 80's again!) but I'll just say that on average its about a 6 out of 10 difficulty game. And what about the story rating? Did you forget already?

{Graphics/Sound}
Now how does this cute little game look? Well honestly its probably in my top 15 favorite looking NES game, and really i feel the sound has a bit to do with it, but theres something about this Poppy meets Home Alone meets Loony Toons-esqe game that I just find so charming looking (and sounding) with this being a NES game there are a far bit of limitation to this game, and the biggest is that....... everything kinda looks like Level 1 in my opinion. OK its not the most repataive looking NES game I know, but its enough that sometimes I forget what Level is which and then I panic when I forget where what is what and where is where that I gotta pick up. Another thing on the list is the terrifying looking enemies that are supposed to be cats! I mean if that's what those homeowners want for protection, then they got it! But when I was younger and first played it I though that some of them looked like bears or something wild like that. And I kinda always knew that Mappy was well....... a map, but once I actually read that title screen info then I figured it out! And the level design never get anything to crazy but you can tell that some thought did go into them, if you compare the first level to the last level. And I think that the Minigames look OK as well, I just wish that some level in the game had some kind of background that wasn't some kind of dark void where only the scary looking cats and police mice go! But imma put an end to the graphics section and onto the sounds now. There is just something super classic about the sounds of this game. I get super excited every time I load up a new game and get ready to start up to the first level. If its not just the sounds of the game starting then the sounds of you completing a level its super exhilarating! But sadly I feel there isn't a whole lot of other beeps and boops to really point out. Next to the sound of the weird sound wave thingies that comes off the doors, i like it a lot and it makes me want to follow it to the ends of the earth! But like I said not much else to say about the sounds of Mappy. Even with a little to say I still really enjoy it. Ill give the sound a 7 out of 10, as well as a 7 out of 10 for the graphics, like I said they both help each other to come make this fairly cute game.

{Addictive/Depth}
So to combine the addictiveness and the depth together I'll talk a bit about how to actually play Mappy. The concept like I said in the 'story' is to get back a bunch of stolen stuff from a house full of crazy felines. To do that, one must run around the level dodging the cats, or occasionally taking them out with flashy colored doors that shoot out guitar riffed sound waves of doom! Once you grab all the items in the level and reach the end then its over and onto the next one. There is multiple layers to the levels to look for the different stolen goods, to get to those you must bounce on trampolines to get to them. It's what I said was tightropes, but they aren't. Once you bounce on them a few times they turn red and break once you bounce again and hopefully you make it to your destination with that last jump, or its to the next life with you! In between every few levels you'll get to do a random mini game where you have to bounce between trampolines and try to grab as many balloons as you can until you run out of time, or get them all and get a nice bonus at the end. And you continue this cycle until you run out of lives and then its all about whatever your high score is. If that's not what your all about then you can always just be in it for the multiplayer thing. Which is the same thing as solo play but you both get to take turns losing lives until who gets the highest score in the end! And that's honestly all that I have to say for both the addictiveness and the depth. The addictive factor I'll give a 7 out 10 and the depth I'll give a 5 out of 10. It's a fun game alone or with friends, just hope those friends aren't cats!

And that's the tale of the map and the cat, neither of them blind and neither of them looking for a rat! But to stop being Dr. Seuss for a minute, I really like the classic game of Mappy. There was a sequel to it called Hopping Mappy, maybe he can finally jump now! I dunno honestly! But to get back to Mappy, I always want to sit down and play this game, this awesome 7.5 out of 10 game. And if you haven't played it, then you better before all these crazy looking cats come steal your couch and 360's!