Felix the Cat (2024) [Switch]

“Felix the Cat,
The wonderful, wonderful cat!
Whenever he gets in a fix
He reaches into his bag of tricks!”
-theme song

The character Felix the Cat is over 100 years old. Let that sink in for a moment. Felix may not be as popular as he once was or as recognizable as he was in the 20’s, or 50’s after his revision, but… well there isn’t much of a but here. We’re dealing with a largely forgotten icon of animation from the silent era. Felix is older than Disney. On the gaming age spectrum, he’s a fossil, and so is his NES game, which recently got an HD upgrade thanks to Limited Run and Konami. This release bundles the North American and Japanese versions of the platformer, as well as the Game Boy port.

A prototypical Felix in “Feline Follies” (1919)

The anthropomorphic anachronism’s first video game, cleverly christened Felix the Cat, originally launched for Famicom and NES courtesy of Hudson Soft in 1992 (and later for the Game Boy). It came late, only three years before the official closing of the NES library.  Felix the Cat plays like a standard side-scrolling action-platformer. There are few things to say about the game’s mechanics thanks to its simplicity. Traversing through the game’s worlds and stages, and fighting bosses may seem familiar… because it is. It’s virtually the same format from Super Mario Bros.

But while Super Mario had his Fire Flowers and Super Mushrooms, Felix had his magic. Specifically, his magic bag.

That marvelous magic bag transforms into cool weapons depending on Felix’s environment: on land, the bag turns from a punch-glove into a top hat and cane which shoot stars into a car which blasts soundwaves into a tank that fires bouncing ammunition; air stages begin with the punch-glove again, then it turns into a hot air balloon which allows you to throw frisbees and then an airplane which lobs cannonballs; ocean stages begin with the punch-glove then a dolphin who spits fireballs; underwater stages begin with the glove then the bag becomes a turtle who blows bubbles and then a submersible shaped like Felix’s head which launches torpedoes. One of the final stages takes place in space, where Felix’s bag of tricks transforms into a UFO.

The transformations of the magic bag seem exciting at first until the realization sets in that there are only a handful of different forms. The game could’ve stood to have a few other options in this regard, especially on the oceanic levels where there is only one transformation into the dolphin. The different magical forms merely serve as an extra hit for Felix without introducing too much variation to his attack patterns.

Felix can upgrade his magic and transform his bag by gathering items. The game doesn’t say what these items are. They simply look like Felix’s head in purple orbs. Collect enough and milk can be obtained for extra points, which also extends the time period his magic bag upgrade can stay active. Collect even more and a heart item pops out, which upgrades your magic to the next level, respective to your environs.

If Felix gets hit, his magic goes back down a level until you upgrade it again. If Felix takes another hit when at his lowest form of magic, then he loses a life.

The game’s objective is to rescue Felix’s girlfriend, presumably. Between most worlds, the titular cat receives a phone call from the Professor, who has Felix’s GF tied up. The Professor taunts Felix, but never mentions that he kidnapped Felix’s main squeeze, nor are we even told that’s who she is, other than a portrait of her hanging up in Felix’s house. Maybe the Professor just has some random female kitty tied up in his lab to get his kicks. Why does Felix return home between each world to answer his phone? How does he know she’s kidnapped if the villain never tells him? Why doesn’t Felix just get a cell phone and cancel his landline? Why not just turn your magic bag of tricks into a giant frickin’ robot, march straight up to the Professor’s door, blow him half to Hades, and take back your woman?

Ladies and gentlemen: Felix the Cat.

Since this was one of the latter games developed for the NES, and it was released post-SNES, so it looks pretty good. Gone are the pitch-black backgrounds of several other contemporaries, replaced with animated bubbles, stars, clouds, ocean waves, and so forth. The enemies aren’t particularly intricate but Felix wears his trademark laughing face throughout the game. The objects are well-defined though they suffer from stutter on occasion. Still, there were already far prettier games being released in the 16-bit generation. Cinematic visionaries like Another World had already been on the market for years and Felix the Cat looked dated by comparison. It paled in comparison with other contemporaries for the next-gen consoles of the time.

One more thing that keeps Felix the Cat from standing out is its relative ease. Remember “Nintendo Hard”? This ain’t it. That means younger players exploring the NES library for the first time will find a smoother experience here, but veterans of the gaming scene won’t find any analogy for Ninja Gaiden or Contra here.

It took me around an hour to casually walk through Felix the Cat. You can Kirby your way through most flying stages, avoiding enemies and obstacles at the top or bottom of the stage. The bosses, though fairly numerous, are extremely easy with simple patterns and slow attacks. Plus, collecting the plentiful Felix-head items earns you several extra lives, since you get a 1up where you would normally upgrade your magic if it is already at max level. Giant magic bag warps in each stage (think pipe warps from Mario) contain dozens of such items, so it’s easy to rack up those 1ups and you’ll finish the game with far more than nine lives.

For possessing a bag of tricks, Felix’s game is a reminder that even if there’s not too much technically wrong about an average game, not having enough special and unique about it can still make it a little blah and forgettable. Additionally, there’s not much that’s been added to the trio of games on display in this HD re-release. There’s a save feature and you can rewind if you miss a jump, triggering a cool VHS effect, but this is essentially just preservation.

Y’know what Felix needs to pull out of that magic bag? Something that will make him relevant again. I always remember Felix the Cat from the NES days, but I’m not sure why I do. There isn’t anything remarkable about it and playing it for the first time feels like you’ve done it all before, sans the iconic character of silent cartoons. His ship has sailed but at least he left with a grin. Too bad they never made a game about his transdimensional adventure to Oriana where he stopped the Duke of Zill…

Special thanks to https://www.keymailer.co for providing us with a copy of this game for review.

BROKEN PIXEL

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Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage or Mage Cast.