Overview – originally released by Hudson Soft, with a port published by Konami via the Carbon Engine, Felix the Cat is a platformer collection featuring the 8-bit adventures of the famous black cat. As Felix, take on the evil Mad Professor, who has kidnapped Kitty, Felix’s girlfriend, so he sets off with his magic bag to save his love. This title is available for Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation family of systems, a link to both versions of the game will be at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank Konami for providing the copy of Felix the Cat that was used for this piece, via the Keymailer service. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review. I will be skipping the story section for this release as there is little in terms of narrative, so I will be focusing on covering the gameplay for Felix the Cat.
Gameplay – Felix the Cat is a platform action title, where the objective is to reach the goal at the end of each stage. The NES/Famicom versions (called Console) have a total of 9 worlds for players to challenge, whereas the Game Boy release (called Portable) has a truncated length of only 6 worlds. Each of the worlds in the game are made up of individual stages, with most having 3 in the Console version and 2 in Portable version.
In both versions, Felix has two actions that they can perform, a jump and an attack with their magic bag, which can be upgraded during the adventure. As the player navigates the various worlds, jumping over hazards and avoiding obstacles, they will encounter Felix Markers throughout the stages. These icons also have the chance to drop hearts, which will upgrade the magic that Felix has for a limited time, alongside milk that will extend the magic.
The magic that Felix can use will vary by level, with some stages having 3 upgrades and some having as little as 1, which adds some variety to the gameplay. These magical powers are the only way that Felix is able to defeat enemies, as jumping on them will result in Felix taking damage. When damage is taken, Felix will revert to the previous magic power, or he will die immediately if he has no extra magic. If Felix is fully upgraded and collects a heart, a 1up will be earned.
Felix will also be able to gain extra lives by collecting 100 Felix icons, resetting to zero after collecting the 100TH icon. There is an abundance of these Icons throughout the stages, with treasure troves of Icons, magic upgrades and milk bottles hidden within magic bags. When a player encounters a magic bag, they can jump onto it and go inside, warping into a special area filled with icons to collect. These can also warp the player to further points, which cannot be entered when found.
At the end of a world, the player will usually encounter a boss that Felix must defeat before being able to continue. These bosses will take a set number of hits to be defeated, with a variety of attacks and patterns that players will encounter. If the player is defeated during a stage or a boss battle, they will be returned to a checkpoint. However, if the player loses all lives, they will be returned to the start of the stage or the start of the game if all continues are used.
Last to talk about is the additional features that have been added to this release, providing some quality of life additions to the games. Through the carbon engine, new features have been added to the game to help players who may struggle with the game. These include save states, which provide one save for players to be able to resume their game later. Then there is the rewind feature, that lets players take the game back to a previous point to correct mistakes.
Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to cover the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.
Controls – the controls for this release are very simple, with only 2 buttons being used for Felix’s actions. There is only the jump and attack buttons, with no way to change them, which doesn’t impact the way that the game plays. There are additional inputs that can be used, allowing players to rewind the game, bring the menu up to change settings and make save states. The game plays comfortably with the Dualshock 4 controller, allowing for D-Pad and thumbstick control.
Difficulty – these games aren’t the toughest experience for players, but there are some difficulty spikes that can occur. These include some jumps that require a lot of precision, enemies that appear out of nowhere and hazards that can be a little difficult to avoid. Thankfully, the game has a very good checkpoint system, which doesn’t punish the player for dying. The inclusion of save states and rewinds also helps with the more challenging segments.
Presentation – the console and portable games look good for 8-bit releases, with bold sprite work and the console version having vibrant colors in it. There is an odd monotone color scheme for the portable release, with a sepia filter that tries to emulate the original Game Boy, which is unusual but doesn’t take away from the game. As this is a retro release, filter and aspect ratio options have been also been added, giving a pseudo CRT and dot Matrix look for modern screens.
Final Thoughts – when I was a kid, I had a bootleg 32 in 1 cartridge for Game Boy which had this game on it, so I had a little nostalgia attached to this release. That being said, I went into this with no experience of the Console release and I had a lot of fun. It was a little rocky when I started, due to the instinct to jump on enemies to defeat them which didn’t work. However, after that hiccup, I was able to clear both games and get the platinum trophy for this release.
This is an easy recommendation for me to make. Both of these games are a lot of fun and work well as a time capsule of the era, when games had a portable and console release together. The carbon engine brings these games to modern platforms well, replicating the experience flawlessly, while adding additional features for newer players. If you enjoy classic 8-bit platformers then this package will have exactly what you are looking for, the only issue is the higher than expected price point.
In the end, I give Felix the Cat a final score of 4.5/5. This is a well done collection of games, offering the Console and Portable experience along with a previously unreleased Japanese title, giving players a glimpse of an oft forgotten era of gaming through the power of the Carbon Engine. If you want to check this release out for yourself, a link to the official game page will be below.
Link to Official game page (HERE)
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