PrinceWatercress plays Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics (GEN/MD) - Part 4 of 4

Here they are: the last two levels. We're finally done with this one.

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Carnival

Have some fun while you're here, but watch out for Captain Kiddie!

You're back to playing as Jerry one more time here. You'll need to avoid a lot of things here, such as the underwater enemies from the alley as well as the balls that the clown heads spit, the falling teddy bears, the go-karts and even the monkeys and their stars! Yep, they're back from the attic, and they're just as annoying as ever.

Milk cartons are the weapon for this level. Be ready to throw them, as the enemies are still annoying.

There are balloons above the pools, and there are a few points where you will have to jump from one balloon to take the high road. At least you're not required to take the balloons over the pools if you know how to do your running jumps.

You actually have to run into Captain Kiddie in order to exit this stage and move on to the very last one. You'd think he would be a boss, but nope.

The Cabin

Stop Aunt Figg on the roof before the whole building goes up in smoke!

Welcome to the final level! You're playing as Tom one last time here. Stay away from the fire. If you walk into a water cooler, you can drink from it, and you can then press C to spit the water. If it hits anything that is on fire, it will be extinguished.

You may have to jump straight up on some platforms in order to avoid being burned by falling fireballs and debris as you jump from one platform to another. It also helps to land on the edge of a platform rather than on the center of it, as you'll avoid taking damage from falling fire more often than not.

Lanterns will also come down when you're close enough, and they will cause fires that you will have to avoid.

If you see two fish on top of each other, don't go for them. You'll get hit by fire.

The flaming logs are the throwable weapons here, and you'll need to preserve them for the boss battle at the roof. When you see the gray ladder, don't go up it yet. Instead, go left to refill all your health. Once you do that, you can go up the ladder and face Aunt Figg.

Aunt Figg will run back and fort hand try to hit you with elbow drops. Throw the logs you have at her first, then hit her with rolling attacks. This will help you preserve health. Once you hit her enough times, she will fall off the roof, and that will reunite Robyn with her father and end the game. You just beat Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics for Sega Genesis!

PrinceWatercress plays Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics (Genesis) - Part 3 of 4

We're now halfway through the game, and the game is only going to get nastier from here.

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Basement

Find the control panel to set the dogs free!

You're back to playing as Tom here. Now that you've been kidnapped by Dr. Applecheek, it's time to get out of here and free all the other animals on the way there.

Watch out for electrifying wall outlets and grates, as they will shock you. There will also be part of the floors that are broken, and you might just end up where you don't want to be if you fall through some of them.

The stairs are the worst, as you have to clumsily jump up them if you have to go up. 

The crowbars are the weapons, and you'll need them against the human enemies that will swipe at you. Just remember to hit them in the back.

The dogs in the cages will swipe at you, so you'll need to stay away from them at all costs. This is especially true when you have to go through the cage maze to get to the control panel, which you have to walk into before the game will let you exit. Once you touch it and get the message that tells you that the dogs are free, press Start, then drop your way down and head to the right. You'll then need to make your way upwards, and if you see spouts of water coming out of the wall, you're heading in the right direction. Go upwards without getting wet, then jump over the broken parts of the floor and jump into the open window to exit the level.

The Attic

Find Robyn's backpack and help her escape!

You're back to playing as Jerry here. You'll need to collect the gold balls to throw them at enemies, especially the windmill stars that the monkeys send at you. These stars are the worst, as they will track you and you will need to get rid of them if you don't want them chasing after you.

You'll need to repeatedly jump on the toy train cars in order to avoid touching the wet part of the tracks and stay on the train. 

Beds are used as trampolines here, and you'll need to make a tough jump off a few just to get to Robyn. You'll know you're at that point when you see two beds facing each other. When you get to the top, head left to reach Robyn and end the level.

There is a set of crates that are acting as a wall, but if you jump into them, you'll find out that you can move through them. You'll need to go through these crates to find Robyn's backpack.

The crane platforms move up and down when you get on them.

PrinceWatercress plays Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics (Genesis) - Part 2 of 4

We finally meet Robyn...and the game gets tougher!

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The Alley

It's a tough world out there! You've got to stick with your friends.

This time around, you'll be playing as Jerry if you're on the one-player mode. Thankfully, the game keeps it even, with four stages having you play as Tom while the other four have you play as Jerry. The HUD has things in slightly different positions depending on who you're playing as, but it won't take long to get used to how everything is placed. Jerry collects cheese instead of fish, but the same rules regarding the cheese pick-ups - including the big cheese you can get for a full health refill - apply.

Speaking of the HUD, you only have six minutes and thirty seconds to get through the stage, and you need to be fast in order to get through it. Not only are there no checkpoints in the game, but there are no items in the game that add time to the timer. Even the manual doesn't mention one! You're expected to beat the stages with the amount of time that the game gives you, and if you can't? It's all the way back to the start.

The throwable object for this level are trash can lids, and they have a rather big hitbox. 

You can climb up and down ladders by holding Up while jumping to grab on and then using Up and Down on the ladder to climb up and down. Since you have to be fast, however, it is really easy to slip and slide while getting from one ladder to another, and since Jerry is pretty slippery while running 

There are a lot of enemies and hazards on both land and in the water, as you'll be spending a lot of time down in the sewers, where sewer plant life, fish, spikes and other things all get in your way and want you dead, such as falling debris and octopi that leap up when you're directly over them.. There is even water on the floors that act as conveyor belts that will push you back, forcing you to run.  Being on land isn't any better, as there will be falling flower pots and bottles as well as and cats popping out of trash cans to throw the lid at you.

Near the ladders leading back to street level at the end is a fake wall that leads to an extra life. Somehow, this is the easiest place to get all four cookie pieces, and due to how the game wants to do things, I go from seven to eight to ten extra lives after grabbing the last cookie piece and then grabbing the heart. I couldn't make this up if I tried. From this particular area, once you get back to street level, you'll then have to jump up the window sills, head to the left and jump over the wall to run into Robyn and end the stage. Now we're at the part where we have to help Robyn find her father, and this is where I started getting really frustrated with the game.

The Library

Find the telegram from Robyn's father.

Easier said than done, because the telegram is split into two halves and you need to find out where those two halves are through trial error! And if you lose a life, you have to start all over again, and that includes getting both halves of the telegram!

Some of the mouse enemies will be carrying books, ready to smack you with them. Other enemies and hazards include coals jumping out of fireplaces, jumping books, balls rolling back and forth on pool tables, shards of broken glass on floors, and falling chandeliers that return from the living room level.

The organs are used as trampolines here. Couches and footstools also serve this same 

There is a fake cookie shortly after the start that leads to a cookie.

The ink jars are the throwable objects for this level.

If you see any diagonal passages in the walls, they are one-way dumbwaiters. You can't go back through them once you slide down.

You'll have to go left down a dumbwaiter following the jump up all those stained glass windows to get to the right half of the telegram. As for the left half, you'll have to go to the right instead of the left, work your way down, and run left through a fake wall to find it. It's a short level, but it's easy to get lost in. Once you get both parts of the telegram, you'll find out that Robyn's father is still alive, and you're outta here.

PrinceWatercress plays Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics (Genesis) - Part 1 of 4

I've seen this game so often on TASVideos that I thought giving it a try and playing it for the Internet would be a swell idea.

Spoiler alert: NOPE!

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This game is based on Tom and Jerry: The Movie from 1993. The 8-bit Sega versions on Master System and Game Gear were actually called "The Movie," but they were not based on the movie, and were named such just to get more people to buy the game. After that, the movie tanked. The Game Boy and Sega Genesis versions were released after this happened. The movie was so bad that they had to change the subtitle from "The Movie" to "Frantic Antics" to - whaddya know - get more people to buy the game, this time without being reminded of the movie. 

One-player mode alternates between characters when necessary, while two-player mode allows Player 1 to be Tom and Player 2 to be Jerry on the same screen. Two-player mode is a lot more chaotic, but I sadly won't be able to play that, so one-player mode it is.

The Street

Get back home! But watch out for Spike!

Left and Right let you move left and right, while Down ducks. A lets you run when held, B lets you jump and C lets you throw certain objects that can be used as weapons. If you don't have any weapons, you have to press Down while moving to perform a rolling attack, as jumping on enemies does not work and also damages you. You're going to perform the rolling attack a lot, and I'm just going to get it out of the way now: the attack absolutely sucks, and I'm going to explain why later.

At the bottom is the HUD. You have your current amount of lives, followed by the current amount of time and energy, followed by the heart that indicates the current amount of lives you have. Tom picks up fish, while Jerry picks up cheese. The amount you have will be noted at the bottom of the screen. If you pick up 100, you'll get an extra life. Also, picking up the fish or the cheese will net you a slight amount of energy, but if you're getting hit a lot, it doesn't always help. If you pick up a big fish or big cheese, you'll get a lot more health, and you'll add to that collectibles total by ten. Don't expect to find those often, though.

You'll be seeing a lot of the rat enemies carrying shotguns, commandeering mopeds or riding tricycles. Other enemies include grandmothers who shoot their false teeth at you and fire hydrants that spray water at you.

Footballs can be thrown as weapon at enemies. Just remember that you only have a limited amount of them if you grab one.

If you lose a life, either by falling into a pit, running out of time or losing all your health, you'll get a nifty animation of Tom or Jerry becoming an angel and flying upwards. You also get sent back to the beginning of the level, since the game doesn't believe in checkpoints. This makes the later levels even tougher than they should be.

You'll see the dog near the end, and you can tell it is there just from the white picket fence. Make a running jump over Spike the Dog - who doesn't even look like Spike from the cartoons - to get to the end of the level.

Press Start to get past the end of level message.

Living Room

Find Jerry before the house falls down!

The owners of the house have moved and left Tom and Jerry behind, and now the house is strangely set for demolition for whatever reason. The wrecking balls will instantly kill you if they hit you, so you'll need to jump over them.

Interestingly, the falling debris does not damage you, and is just there for show.

Enemies include bowling balls, birds flying around, falling chandeliers, falling pots, TV sets that explode, angry vacuum cleaners. The falling debris actually does not hurt you.

The cookie pieces will give you an extra life if you collect four pieces in a level. The hearts will also give you extra lives. 

You can slide down the bannisters by jumping on them, but watch out for enemies. Couches can launch you into the air if you jump on them.

There are some walls that you can jump through to find hidden power-ups. 

Some of the shelves break when you land on them.

The light bulbs are the throwable objects for this level, although they can be hard to notice

Sometimes, when you pick things up, you might get two of that thing instead of one every so often. This happens completely at random, and there is no explanation as to why except for a lack of quality control. As a matter of fact, I end up getting two lives from collecting the heart in the same place part of the time, which is interesting, because I should not have been getting such a net gain while dying so many times in this stage.

Speaking of a lack of quality control, sometimes when you roll into an enemy or a hazard that can be destroyed, you can sometimes lose more energy from attacking an enemy with a rolling attack than just by running into them, and if you don't have enough energy, you die. The game has weird collision detection that is so bad that it causes you to get two of an item and also causes cheap deaths from out of nowhere. Because of that, the rolling attack is complete garbage and the game makes it so that doing it is a gamble for basically no reason, which makes it all the more surprising that I beat this game for the Internet. Jesus Christ.

Finally, you'll reach Jerry, and you'll head to The Alley.

PrinceWatercress plays American Gladiators (GEN/MD) - The Longplay

...and now, the entire game in one shot, minus commentary! Enjoy!

First | Previous

Assault

D-Pad moves. B mans the weapons station. Use the D-Pad to get to the weapon, and press C to use the weapon while aiming with the crosshairs in the upper-right corner. One point is scored for every weapon fired, five for hitting the red part of the target, and ten for hitting the white part of the target. If you don't fire all the weapons, you lose this game. If you get hit by the Gladiator, your turn is over, and that's dead easy to have happen since the computer is absolutely bloodthirsty.

Joust

D-Pad moves. If you're holding B, you'll be in offensive mode. If you're not holding B, you'll be in defensive mode, which allows you to block hits. While holding B, different directions on the D-Pad will allow for different kinds of strikes. Ten points are scored if you beat the Gladiator. Five points are awarded for lasting the full 60 seconds. If you lose or get knocked off the platform, you get no points. 

If I get half of my right foot off the platform, then hold B and Up-Right at the same time, the other guy goes down in seconds every single time. Easy ten points!

The Wall

Keep pressing B while moving with the D-Pad to climb the wall without getting grabbed by the Gladiator. If you get caught, you get no points. First place gets ten points, while second place gets five.

Be sure to roll your thumb when you reach the end of a row so you can easily climb upwards.

Atlasphere

D-Pad moves. If you can land cleanly on a landing pad, you'll score one point. Be sure to move around in a circle to maximize your scoring opportunities and get credit for landing on the pads cleanly. If you see the steam come off a pad, you've scored a point. The more points you score, the more points you get at the end of the event.

Sometimes, you'll have to be knocked off a pad by a Gladiator in either of the gray spheres in order to get off a pad, as the bump gives you enough momentum to get off the pad in the first place. Also, the game can be rather picky as to whether you score or not at times.

Powerball

Grab a ball with the D-Pad and the B button. You'll need to hold the D-Pad towards the bins where the balls are before pressing B to get one. You'll then need to do the same thing to put a ball in one of the bins in the playfield. If you can get it in the center bin, you'll get two points; the others just give you one. The more you score, the more points you get for your grand total at the end of this mini-game. If you get hit, you will lose your ball and you will have to get another one, so you'll have to be quick on the draw with this game. You'll have to alternate between both ends of the playfield in order to keep getting balls.

Eliminator

Keep mashing A and C alternately to run. This will allow you to get up the ramp. When you get on the handbike, stop pressing buttons, then start mashing A and C alternately again to get the handbike going.

At the platform with the blue bags that move back and forth, keep mashing A and C alternately, and make sure you don't run into the blue bags. If you get knocked down to the floor, keep mashing A and C so you can run to the end and climb up the wall.

Climb up the wall with A and C. When you get on the zip line, stop mashing buttons, and wait until you reach the red part of the line to press B and drop down. 

To jump over the hurdles, you'll need to press B. (I forget to mention this in the video, so I'm mentioning it here.) You'll need to be at the right distance so you can jump over them and not knock them down.

You'll soon see a number on the upper-left corner of your half of the split-screen. A and C cycles from 1 through 4, and press B to confirm. Three lanes are empty, while the fourth contains a Gladiator. If you run into the Gladiator, keep mashing A and C to push past him and reach the finish line.

The first person to reach the finish gets more points than the other person, so make sure you win with as much time left as possible. Make sure you do things correctly, as you will be docked points if you mess things up such as the red balance bar, the zipline or the hurdles.

Whoever has more points after the Eliminator event is the winner, and in the case of the Tournament mode, goes to the next round.

PrinceWatercress plays American Gladiators (GEN/MD) - Part 3 of 3

Yeah, that's a pretty lackluster ending.

First | Previous | End

Assault

D-Pad moves. B mans the weapons station. Use the D-Pad to get to the weapon, and press C to use the weapon while aiming with the crosshairs in the upper-right corner. One point is scored for every weapon fired, five for hitting the red part of the target, and ten for hitting the white part of the target. If you don't fire all the weapons, you lose this game. If you get hit by the Gladiator, your turn is over, and that's dead easy to have happen since the computer is absolutely bloodthirsty.

Joust

D-Pad moves. If you're holding B, you'll be in offensive mode. If you're not holding B, you'll be in defensive mode, which allows you to block hits. While holding B, different directions on the D-Pad will allow for different kinds of strikes. Ten points are scored if you beat the Gladiator. Five points are awarded for lasting the full 60 seconds. If you lose or get knocked off the platform, you get no points. 

If I get half of my right foot off the platform, then hold B and Up-Right at the same time, the other guy goes down in seconds every single time. Easy ten points!

The Wall

Keep pressing B while moving with the D-Pad to climb the wall without getting grabbed by the Gladiator. If you get caught, you get no points. First place gets ten points, while second place gets five.

Be sure to roll your thumb when you reach the end of a row so you can easily climb upwards.

Atlasphere

D-Pad moves. If you can land cleanly on a landing pad, you'll score one point. Be sure to move around in a circle to maximize your scoring opportunities and get credit for landing on the pads cleanly. If you see the steam come off a pad, you've scored a point. The more points you score, the more points you get at the end of the event.

Sometimes, you'll have to be knocked off a pad by a Gladiator in either of the gray spheres in order to get off a pad, as the bump gives you enough momentum to get off the pad in the first place. Also, the game can be rather picky as to whether you score or not at times.

Powerball

Grab a ball with the D-Pad and the B button. You'll need to hold the D-Pad towards the bins where the balls are before pressing B to get one. You'll then need to do the same thing to put a ball in one of the bins in the playfield. If you can get it in the center bin, you'll get two points; the others just give you one. The more you score, the more points you get for your grand total at the end of this mini-game. If you get hit, you will lose your ball and you will have to get another one, so you'll have to be quick on the draw with this game. You'll have to alternate between both ends of the playfield in order to keep getting balls.

Eliminator

Keep mashing A and C alternately to run. This will allow you to get up the ramp. When you get on the handbike, stop pressing buttons, then start mashing A and C alternately again to get the handbike going.

At the platform with the blue bags that move back and forth, keep mashing A and C alternately, and make sure you don't run into the blue bags. If you get knocked down to the floor, keep mashing A and C so you can run to the end and climb up the wall.

Climb up the wall with A and C. When you get on the zip line, stop mashing buttons, and wait until you reach the red part of the line to press B and drop down. 

To jump over the hurdles, you'll need to press B. (I forget to mention this in the video, so I'm mentioning it here.) You'll need to be at the right distance so you can jump over them and not knock them down.

You'll soon see a number on the upper-left corner of your half of the split-screen. A and C cycles from 1 through 4, and press B to confirm. Three lanes are empty, while the fourth contains a Gladiator. If you run into the Gladiator, keep mashing A and C to push past him and reach the finish line.

The first person to reach the finish gets more points than the other person, so make sure you win with as much time left as possible. Make sure you do things correctly, as you will be docked points if you mess things up such as the red balance bar, the zipline or the hurdles.

Whoever has more points after the Eliminator event is the winner, and in the case of the Tournament mode, goes to the next round.

PrinceWatercress plays American Gladiators (GEN/MD) - Part 2 of 3

...and again...

First | Next | End

There's not much else to say regarding the game, so I might as well repost the rules and controls for each game.

Assault

D-Pad moves. B mans the weapons station. Use the D-Pad to get to the weapon, and press C to use the weapon while aiming with the crosshairs in the upper-right corner. One point is scored for every weapon fired, five for hitting the red part of the target, and ten for hitting the white part of the target. If you don't fire all the weapons, you lose this game. If you get hit by the Gladiator, your turn is over, and that's dead easy to have happen since the computer is absolutely bloodthirsty.

Joust

D-Pad moves. If you're holding B, you'll be in offensive mode. If you're not holding B, you'll be in defensive mode, which allows you to block hits. While holding B, different directions on the D-Pad will allow for different kinds of strikes. Ten points are scored if you beat the Gladiator. Five points are awarded for lasting the full 60 seconds. If you lose or get knocked off the platform, you get no points. 

If I get half of my right foot off the platform, then hold B and Up-Right at the same time, the other guy goes down in seconds every single time. Easy ten points!

The Wall

Keep pressing B while moving with the D-Pad to climb the wall without getting grabbed by the Gladiator. If you get caught, you get no points. First place gets ten points, while second place gets five.

Be sure to roll your thumb when you reach the end of a row so you can easily climb upwards.

Atlasphere

D-Pad moves. If you can land cleanly on a landing pad, you'll score one point. Be sure to move around in a circle to maximize your scoring opportunities and get credit for landing on the pads cleanly. If you see the steam come off a pad, you've scored a point. The more points you score, the more points you get at the end of the event.

Sometimes, you'll have to be knocked off a pad by a Gladiator in either of the gray spheres in order to get off a pad, as the bump gives you enough momentum to get off the pad in the first place. Also, the game can be rather picky as to whether you score or not at times.

Powerball

Grab a ball with the D-Pad and the B button. You'll need to hold the D-Pad towards the bins where the balls are before pressing B to get one. You'll then need to do the same thing to put a ball in one of the bins in the playfield. If you can get it in the center bin, you'll get two points; the others just give you one. The more you score, the more points you get for your grand total at the end of this mini-game. If you get hit, you will lose your ball and you will have to get another one, so you'll have to be quick on the draw with this game. You'll have to alternate between both ends of the playfield in order to keep getting balls.

Eliminator

Keep mashing A and C alternately to run. This will allow you to get up the ramp. When you get on the handbike, stop pressing buttons, then start mashing A and C alternately again to get the handbike going.

At the platform with the blue bags that move back and forth, keep mashing A and C alternately, and make sure you don't run into the blue bags. If you get knocked down to the floor, keep mashing A and C so you can run to the end and climb up the wall.

Climb up the wall with A and C. When you get on the zip line, stop mashing buttons, and wait until you reach the red part of the line to press B and drop down. 

To jump over the hurdles, you'll need to press B. (I forget to mention this in the video, so I'm mentioning it here.) You'll need to be at the right distance so you can jump over them and not knock them down.

You'll soon see a number on the upper-left corner of your half of the split-screen. A and C cycles from 1 through 4, and press B to confirm. Three lanes are empty, while the fourth contains a Gladiator. If you run into the Gladiator, keep mashing A and C to push past him and reach the finish line.

The first person to reach the finish gets more points than the other person, so make sure you win with as much time left as possible. Make sure you do things correctly, as you will be docked points if you mess things up such as the red balance bar, the zipline or the hurdles.

Whoever has more points after the Eliminator event is the winner, and in the case of the Tournament mode, goes to the next round.

PrinceWatercress plays American Gladiators (GEN/MD) - Part 1 of 3

Here's yet another game that I didn't think I'd ever play for the channel. I didn't know about the games based on this show until years after they came out.

Next | End

Oh, look, it's American Gladiators! I caught this show during the tail end of its run, and it wasn't until years later that I learned there were video games based on the show. This one...could be better, due to the one music track that the game has and...Assault. I wish Assault was better, too.

Anyway, there are six games that you'll have to play three times each in order to get through all three rounds of the tournament to get a terrible one-screen ending. Here they are.

Player One is the blue player in the one-player mode, while Player Two will be red. 

Also, while you don't really see the Gladiators' actual likenesses in this game, their names are still there. For the men, it's Gemini, Nitro, Turbo, Thunder and Laser. For the women, it's Ice, Blaze, Lace, Gold and Zap.

Assault

D-Pad moves. B mans the weapons station. Use the D-Pad to get to the weapon, and press C to use the weapon while aiming with the crosshairs in the upper-right corner. One point is scored for every weapon fired, five for hitting the red part of the target, and ten for hitting the white part of the target. If you don't fire all the weapons, you lose this game. If you get hit by the Gladiator, your turn is over, and that's dead easy to have happen since the computer is absolutely bloodthirsty.

Joust

D-Pad moves. If you're holding B, you'll be in offensive mode. If you're not holding B, you'll be in defensive mode, which allows you to block hits. While holding B, different directions on the D-Pad will allow for different kinds of strikes. Ten points are scored if you beat the Gladiator. Five points are awarded for lasting the full 60 seconds. If you lose or get knocked off the platform, you get no points. 

If I get half of my right foot off the platform, then hold B and Up-Right at the same time, the other guy goes down in seconds every single time. Easy ten points!

The Wall

Keep pressing B while moving with the D-Pad to climb the wall without getting grabbed by the Gladiator. If you get caught, you get no points. First place gets ten points, while second place gets five.

Be sure to roll your thumb when you reach the end of a row so you can easily climb upwards.

Atlasphere

D-Pad moves. If you can land cleanly on a landing pad, you'll score one point. Be sure to move around in a circle to maximize your scoring opportunities and get credit for landing on the pads cleanly. If you see the steam come off a pad, you've scored a point. The more points you score, the more points you get at the end of the event.

Sometimes, you'll have to be knocked off a pad by a Gladiator in either of the gray spheres in order to get off a pad, as the bump gives you enough momentum to get off the pad in the first place. Also, the game can be rather picky as to whether you score or not at times.

Powerball

Grab a ball with the D-Pad and the B button. You'll need to hold the D-Pad towards the bins where the balls are before pressing B to get one. You'll then need to do the same thing to put a ball in one of the bins in the playfield. If you can get it in the center bin, you'll get two points; the others just give you one. The more you score, the more points you get for your grand total at the end of this mini-game. If you get hit, you will lose your ball and you will have to get another one, so you'll have to be quick on the draw with this game. You'll have to alternate between both ends of the playfield in order to keep getting balls.

Eliminator

Keep mashing A and C alternately to run. This will allow you to get up the ramp. When you get on the handbike, stop pressing buttons, then start mashing A and C alternately again to get the handbike going.

At the platform with the blue bags that move back and forth, keep mashing A and C alternately, and make sure you don't run into the blue bags. If you get knocked down to the floor, keep mashing A and C so you can run to the end and climb up the wall.

Climb up the wall with A and C. When you get on the zip line, stop mashing buttons, and wait until you reach the red part of the line to press B and drop down. 

To jump over the hurdles, you'll need to press B. (I forget to mention this in the video, so I'm mentioning it here.) You'll need to be at the right distance so you can jump over them and not knock them down.

You'll soon see a number on the upper-left corner of your half of the split-screen. A and C cycles from 1 through 4, and press B to confirm. Three lanes are empty, while the fourth contains a Gladiator. If you run into the Gladiator, keep mashing A and C to push past him and reach the finish line.

The first person to reach the finish gets more points than the other person, so make sure you win with as much time left as possible. Make sure you do things correctly, as you will be docked points if you mess things up such as the red balance bar, the zipline or the hurdles.

Whoever has more points after the Eliminator event is the winner, and in the case of the Tournament mode, goes to the next round.

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - The Longplay

Here's the game in one whole video, minus commentary! Enjoy!

First | Previous

The game begins with Garfield watching television when Odie scares him so much that he lands on the TV. Garfield fixes the TV, but an evil being known as Glitch comes out of the TV and drags him in, trapping Garfield in TV land.

When you start the game, you'll find out what everything does. Pizza and hamburgers will refill health. There are ammunition that you can find and throw at enemies. The coffee cup makes Garfield temporarily invincible. The Garfield head is an extra life. Pooky the stuffed teddy bear is a checkpoint. The mallet key unlocks a second bonus stage after finishing the level. The TV remote will teleport you to another area.

A throws ammunition forward, B attacks and C jumps. You can look up and down with Up and Down (which also ducks), and Left and Right move left and right. At the start of the game, jump from platform to platform and jump into the coil in the ceiling to grab it. You can then move left and right on it. Move to the right to get to the portal leading to the first level.

Your hit points are in the upper-left corner. The maximum is ten, and when you go to zero, you lose a life and you get an animation of a TV with teeth clamping down in front of Garfield when Garfield tries to press himself against the screen, which is pretty creepy and nightmare-inducing. When you get hit, you don't have a lot of invincibility frames, so you'll need to get yourself out of danger or else you're going to quickly get hit again.

Count Slobula's Castle

The ammunition in this level is a skull.

At the left, you can enter your first underground enemies. Jump onto the coffins to open them up and find power-ups - or enemies - and grab the Odie tongues on the ceiling to find a way out.

Enemies here include hands that grab at you, skeleton cats that throw bones at you, ghosts that fly out at you and bats that fly around haphazardly. The hands can respawn, and the skeleton cats can nail you from off-screen. The skeleton cats also take two hits to defeat, as they crumble after the first one. The ghosts make a "whoo" sound whenever they are nearby.

The fences that are in your way will hurt you if you land on them.

You can easily avoid the underground sections, but you'll need to explore them once in a while, to 

There is a long tunnel that you can go to for invincibility and a ton of health pick-ups, but you'll have to backtrack in order to go through a wall, enter another underground burial chamber and get back aboveground.

At the end, there is an underground chamber you'll need to drop to that has a TV remote. Get the remote to face Count Slobula, who is basically Odie in a vampiric robe flying around. Slobula will send three bats at you as he flies around, and after a while, he will dive at you. You'll need to stay away from him as he dives in order to try your best to avoid the attack, and after the dive, he will stand there for half a second. This is when you need to hit Count Slobula. Slobula will briefly hide in a coffin, and you'll need to leap on that coffin, then leap up into the blinds to raise them up and let sunlight in, which will damage Count Slobula. This also damages the coffin Slobula was in, making it unusable. Sometimes there will be food in the coffins, but more often than not, they will be empty. You'll need to do this three times, and you may lose a life or two just to beat Count Slobula, but when you do, you'll get a TV remote that takes you out of this Halloween special.

If you find the mallet key, you'll play the mallet mini-game. You'll be told not to hit a certain character. The holes in the circuit board correspond to the buttons on the six-button controller, but you can also use Up in conjunction with A, B and C to hit things. The longer you last in the game, the faster it gets, and the more letters you can find that spell the word "Garfield." If you can spell "Garfield," the game gives you a continue.

You'll always get the tube mini-game no matter what. Here, you'll move Garfield around with the D-Pad while picking up Pookys. If you get enough, you can earn an extra life, and if you can get a lot, you can get a continue. You start with three continues, which is enough to get through the game with if you know what you're doing. If you run out of continues or choose not to continue, you can get a password so you can start back where you left off. Touching a coffee cup will make you go faster, while the blue orbs will slow you down. For some reason, I keep touching the coffee cup when I don't want to.

To get to the next portal, just jump on the yellow platforms on the circuit board in the background (use the spring if you need to), then use the next spring to get on the coil and head to the right. Jump over the electric charge, then wrap around down and to the left to enter the next level.

Revenge of Orangebeard

Here, the ammunition is bombs. Also, you wear different things and even carry a different melee weapon for your B button attack. I like that it's a wooden sword here.

When you enter this level, you'll land on a boat. Stay on it at all times to get through the first half of the level, and be ready to attack tentacles that strike at you, bats that fly around, leeches that dive at you, vines that grab at you and skeleton pirates that throw their heads at you. If you fall off the boat into the water, the water will damage you, and the boat will wait for you to get back on. 

Eventually, you'll have to get off the boat and jump on platforms before getting onto another boat.

After a while, there will be platforms that move in and out of the background wall, and you'll have to leap from one to the next as they move in and out of the wall in order to get back on the boat and continue on.

When you get on dry land, you can get on the tree branches to get the mallet key. You'll have to fight monkeys that throw stuff at you while yellow birds that look like flying chickens show up every so often 

The turtles move back and forth on the water and act as platforms, but they also dive into the water when you jump onto them.

The second part of the stage takes place on an island. Watch out for the flame vents in the ground that you can barely see, as they shoot fire out of the ground. Also, if you attack the man-eating plants, you can jump on them and use them like trampolines. You'll need to move from one side of the area to the other with the tree branches and vines as you make your way to the top of the level, where you'll have to drop down to enter another section. As you do this, you'll also have to deal with the flying yellow birds that show up every so often. Amazingly, you don't even have to face them to defeat them with the melee attack, as the hitbox on it is so generous that you can attack the birds with it even when they are behind you. If you fall into the water, you won't die; instead, you'll be carried out to an earlier point.

In the third section, you'll have to jump on platforms that move in and out of the water to avoid falling into the water. You can push the rock into the water to get past the last gap before the remote.

The boss here is a large pirate skeleton. Use the platforms that move in and out of the water to get to the skeleton boss and throw ammo at it, and avoid the skulls that he throws. After one hit, the pirate's parrot will fly to the left. Jump on the parrot, then throw ammo at the boss. Be ready to jump on a platform and wait for the parrot to show up again, then get on the parrot and throw ammo at the pirate again, all while attacking and/or avoiding the flying skulls. After enough hits, the pirate boss will go down.

After this, you'll need to climb on ceilings and jump on platforms and springs to get to the next portal.

Cave Cat 3,000,000 B.C.

The ammunition here is a fish skeleton.

In the first section, you'll have to deal with crabs that snap at you and pterodactyls that drop egg bombs and dive bomb you. There are also geysers shooting out of craters with rocks at the top, and the rocks act as platforms.

At one point, you'll have to drop down a crater and leap onto a fish. You'll need to control the fish with Left and Right on the D-Pad as the water rises so you can avoid the walls and ceilings and get out of the crater. At least you can't drown here.

The bone platforms fall when you step on them, so hurry over the gap to the other side.

If you go right past the crater you have to push the rock into without going up and go all the way to the right, the water will carry you to an extra life.

In the second section of the level, you'll have to jump on rocks travelling down waterfalls of sludge while also dealing with Odie clouds that constantly fly in and zap you with lightning bolts. Aside from the flame vents from the second stage (which are easier to see this time), you'll also have to deal with hills containing fire-breathing mice (huh?) and cavemen who will throw bones at you. This is where your ammunition will really come into play.

There is one place off the beaten path you can go to where there is a pit of yellow sludge that will damage you if you touch it as well as an upside-down extra life icon. The icon will still give you an extra life if you grab it, but if you off-screen the location and come back, it re-spawns. Use this area to get the maximum nine lives if you need to. To leave the area, go all the way to the right and press Up below the hand pointing down to enter a doorway.

The tree branches act as trampolines. If you don't know where to go, you may have to take a leap of faith. You're forced to do this at least once in the second section.

If you see what looks like a rectangular stone slumped forward, you can stand on top of it and use it as a platform. There's not much of a reason to do so, but it's there.

The rock bridge has fallaway segments much like the bone bridges from the first sections, so hurry across the gap.

The boss is an Odiesaurus Rex. Watch for shadows so you don't get hit by falling rocks after the screen shakes, and push the sphere-shaped boulder to the see-saw on the lower-right corner. Jump on the see-saw so that the rock hits Odiesaurus Rex and brings him down, then hit him with your melee attack or your ammunition. After a couple of hits, Odiesaurus Rex is done. The hardest part is making sure that you avoid the rocks as you get those hits in, as they make this boss battle much harder. Make sure you grab the remote as quickly as possible in case of falling rocks, because if you die even the remote is visible, you're doing this whole battle over.

To get to the next stage, you'll need to avoid the electrical barriers as you go right, up and then left.

Catsablanca

The ammo here is tin cans.

You'll need to go through a maze. Be careful when hitting garbage cans for pick-ups, and keep striking after you've hit one in case a cat jumps out and attacks Garfield.

Start by going down the manhole that the orange hand is pointing at. Make your way to the right. You'll see three doors. Enter the one on the right. Go left, then jump up to the door at the end and press Up to enter it. You'll be back underground. Go right and enter the doorway in the other room. You'll be back outside. Head to the right, then jump on the awning while avoiding the things thrown by the old man in the window and use Odie's tongue to launch yourself to the roof. You'll need to head left from roof to roof, jumping off the edges of the awnings on the left sides of the building while avoiding and/or attacking birds that fly at you from the left. You'll soon see a wrecking ball. Keep jumping on it as it swings between the foreground and the background to stay on it. There will be a mallet key and an extra life nearby; grab those if you can before getting the remote.

There was supposed to be a second section after this where you are on a subway train, but it was removed from the final version of the game. It was shown on the back of the box for the game, and it was also shown in a Sega Channel exclusive called Garfield: The Lost Levels, which also contains some levels that were also cut out, probably due to memory constraints. Sadly, the ROM for The Lost Levels has yet to be dumped, and it is considered lost media.

You'll soon face the boss, and your ammo will be bombs. The dog dressed as a spy will move from one side of the area to the other, and will throw bombs. He will also toss a bomb up and down as he moves, and you'll need to jump over it, as well. You'll want to avoid the ones that are lit and grab that ones that are not, then throw them into the pipes so you can hit the dog spy below. After enough hits, the dog boss will leave, and you'll be able to exit the level.

To get to the fifth level, drop down and to the left, then make your way up and jump over the red lights so they don't damage you. From there, get on the spring on the ceiling and head left to the portal.

The Curse of Cleofatra

The ammo here is gold ankhs.

Cracked walls will break if you stand on them.

Duck in front of the Arlene statues so the wings do not hit you, then jump on the wings and get to where you need to go.

Hitting torches will activate things. The human statues have blocks that you can jump on and bounce off of.

Buttons on the floor will trigger traps such as spears that come out of the ceilings and floor as well as crusher traps.

The sand that spouts out of the walls act as platforms, but you will slide off if you stand on them for too long.

The blocks with the cat head and the two hands can be pushed, but a few of them have to be moved another way. The stone platforms that swing around will open doors, and you'll have to jump off and land on them at certain points in order to make them get a full rotation. From here, you'll need to keep moving the platform to raise the door up further so you can continue on. 

There are some hidden walls, and you can find some areas where you will have to deal with things such as a platform that slowly rises up to make it easier to get to another area or a place where you have to avoid raining spears.

Enemies here include mouse mummies as well as scarab beetles that fly around. 

The boss here is a giant pharaoh statue with Jon's face. Light the torches at the side to produce some hands you can ride up, then hit the torch at the top to open up another hand platform. Ride it up and hit a torch to open up the Odie statue's mouth, then hit the torch inside to extend the tongue. From here, you'll need to hit the eye on the Odie statue to shoot a laser at the blue jewel in the center. You'll need to do this with both sides, and you'll have to keep beating up the scarab beetles that are flying around as you do this. If you need health, there will be some near both of the torches at the bottom, as well as near the Odie statues' eyes.

After destroying both Odie statues, the pharaoh statue will lower. Jump up and hit the eyes with your melee weapon while avoiding the scarab beetles. Once the eyes are broken, you'll had to deal with the cobra head on the top of the statue. The blasts sweep back and forth, and knowing that makes it a little easier to avoid the blasts as you keep jumping up and hitting the cobra head. After enough hits - and smart use of the health pick-ups in this room, should you need them - you'll beat this boss.

To get to the last portal, you'll need to make a trek downwards, to the right, up some platforms and over a laser lights and some electric currents. This will lead to the final battle with Glitch.

Season Finale

Here, you'll face Glitch...at last.

To beat Glitch, you'll need to avoid the lasers that he zaps around the room while pushing the reflective plates on the sides by moving into them. One of the projectiles will bounce off and hit Glitch, and Glitch will go higher up into the room. The blue shots simply go downwards, while the red shots bounce around everywhere and are the ones you have to send back at Glitch with the mirror-like reflective plates on the sides of the room. As you go further and further into the battle, the shots will be faster and coming out more often, and it makes this battle more difficult than it should, especially when you are in the air. If you get hit at any time while in the air, you get knocked back down immediately, which makes jumping onto and off of platforms a real pain. This becomes very apparent after the third hit. You'll have to hit Glitch seven times in order to beat him for good, but once you do, Glitch is defeated and you can grab the remote at the top to beat the game!

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 6 of 6

It's time to face Glitch and end this...and he is annoying.

First | Previous | End

Season Finale

Here, you'll face Glitch...at last.

To beat Glitch, you'll need to avoid the lasers that he zaps around the room while pushing the reflective plates on the sides by moving into them. One of the projectiles will bounce off and hit Glitch, and Glitch will go higher up into the room. The blue shots simply go downwards, while the red shots bounce around everywhere and are the ones you have to send back at Glitch with the mirror-like reflective plates on the sides of the room. As you go further and further into the battle, the shots will be faster and coming out more often, and it makes this battle more difficult than it should, especially when you are in the air. If you get hit at any time while in the air, you get knocked back down immediately, which makes jumping onto and off of platforms a real pain. This becomes very apparent after the third hit. You'll have to hit Glitch seven times in order to beat him for good, but once you do, Glitch is defeated and you can grab the remote at the top to beat the game!

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 5 of 6

In this entry, we take on the final regular level on the game.

First | Previous | Next | End

The Curse of Cleofatra

The ammo here is gold ankhs.

Cracked floors will break if you stand on them.

Duck in front of the Arlene statues so the wings do not hit you, then jump on the wings and get to where you need to go.

Hitting torches will activate things. The human statues have blocks that you can jump on and bounce off of.

Buttons on the floor will trigger traps such as spears that come out of the ceilings and floor as well as crusher traps.

The sand that spouts out of the walls act as platforms, but you will slide off if you stand on them for too long.

The blocks with the cat head and the two hands can be pushed, but a few of them have to be moved another way. The stone platforms that swing around will open doors, and you'll have to jump off and land on them at certain points in order to make them get a full rotation. From here, you'll need to keep moving the platform to raise the door up further so you can continue on. 

There are some hidden walls, and you can find some areas where you will have to deal with things such as a platform that slowly rises up to make it easier to get to another area or a place where you have to avoid raining spears.

Enemies here include mouse mummies as well as scarab beetles that fly around. 

The boss here is a giant pharaoh statue with Jon's face. Light the torches at the side to produce some hands you can ride up, then hit the torch at the top to open up another hand platform. Ride it up and hit a torch to open up the Odie statue's mouth, then hit the torch inside to extend the tongue. From here, you'll need to hit the eye on the Odie statue to shoot a laser at the blue jewel in the center. You'll need to do this with both sides, and you'll have to keep beating up the scarab beetles that are flying around as you do this. If you need health, there will be some near both of the torches at the bottom, as well as near the Odie statues' eyes.

After destroying both Odie statues, the pharaoh statue will lower. Jump up and hit the eyes with your melee weapon while avoiding the scarab beetles. Once the eyes are broken, you'll had to deal with the cobra head on the top of the statue. The blasts sweep back and forth, and knowing that makes it a little easier to avoid the blasts as you keep jumping up and hitting the cobra head. After enough hits - and smart use of the health pick-ups in this room, should you need them - you'll beat this boss.

To get to the last portal, you'll need to make a trek downwards, to the right, up some platforms and over a laser lights and some electric currents. This will lead to the final battle with Glitch.

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 4 of 6

At this point, the stages start getting shorter. It makes sense here, since you're in a maze and it takes a while to get through it if you don't know where to go, but the next one...not so much.

First | Previous | Next | End

Catsablanca

The ammo here is tin cans.

You'll need to go through a maze. Be careful when hitting garbage cans for pick-ups, and keep striking after you've hit one in case a cat jumps out and attacks Garfield.

Start by going down the manhole that the orange hand is pointing at. Make your way to the right. You'll see three doors. Enter the one on the right. Go left, then jump up to the door at the end and press Up to enter it. You'll be back underground. Go right and enter the doorway in the other room. You'll be back outside. Head to the right, then jump on the awning while avoiding the things thrown by the old man in the window and use Odie's tongue to launch yourself to the roof. You'll need to head left from roof to roof, jumping off the edges of the awnings on the left sides of the building while avoiding and/or attacking birds that fly at you from the left. You'll soon see a wrecking ball. Keep jumping on it as it swings between the foreground and the background to stay on it. There will be a mallet key and an extra life nearby; grab those if you can before getting the remote.

There was supposed to be a second section after this where you are on a subway train, but it was removed from the final version of the game. It was shown on the back of the box for the game, and it was also shown in a Sega Channel exclusive called Garfield: The Lost Levels, which also contains some levels that were also cut out, probably due to memory constraints. Sadly, the ROM for The Lost Levels has yet to be dumped, and it is considered lost media.

You'll soon face the boss, and your ammo will be bombs. The dog dressed as a spy will move from one side of the area to the other, and will throw bombs. He will also toss a bomb up and down as he moves, and you'll need to jump over it, as well. You'll want to avoid the ones that are lit and grab that ones that are not, then throw them into the pipes so you can hit the dog spy below. After enough hits, the dog boss will leave, and you'll be able to exit the level.

To get to the fifth level, drop down and to the left, then make your way up and jump over the red lights so they don't damage you. From there, get on the spring on the ceiling and head left to the portal.

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 3 of 6

In this video, we go back to prehistoric times. This part has some of the best music in the game.

First | Previous | Next | End

Cave Cat 3,000,000 B.C.

The ammunition here is a fish skeleton.

In the first section, you'll have to deal with crabs that snap at you and pterodactyls that drop egg bombs and dive bomb you. There are also geysers shooting out of craters with rocks at the top, and the rocks act as platforms.

At one point, you'll have to drop down a crater and leap onto a fish. You'll need to control the fish with Left and Right on the D-Pad as the water rises so you can avoid the walls and ceilings and get out of the crater. At least you can't drown here.

The bone platforms fall when you step on them, so hurry over the gap to the other side.

If you go right past the crater you have to push the rock into without going up and go all the way to the right, the water will carry you to an extra life.

In the second section of the level, you'll have to jump on rocks travelling down waterfalls of sludge while also dealing with Odie clouds that constantly fly in and zap you with lightning bolts. Aside from the flame vents from the second stage (which are easier to see this time), you'll also have to deal with hills containing fire-breathing mice (huh?) and cavemen who will throw bones at you. This is where your ammunition will really come into play.

There is one place off the beaten path you can go to where there is a pit of yellow sludge that will damage you if you touch it as well as an upside-down extra life icon. The icon will still give you an extra life if you grab it, but if you off-screen the location and come back, it re-spawns. Use this area to get the maximum nine lives if you need to. To leave the area, go all the way to the right and press Up below the hand pointing down to enter a doorway.

The tree branches act as trampolines. If you don't know where to go, you may have to take a leap of faith. You're forced to do this at least once in the second section.

If you see what looks like a rectangular stone slumped forward, you can stand on top of it and use it as a platform. There's not much of a reason to do so, but it's there.

The rock bridge has fallaway segments much like the bone bridges from the first sections, so hurry across the gap.

The boss is an Odiesaurus Rex. Watch for shadows so you don't get hit by falling rocks after the screen shakes, and push the sphere-shaped boulder to the see-saw on the lower-right corner. Jump on the see-saw so that the rock hits Odiesaurus Rex and brings him down, then hit him with your melee attack or your ammunition. After a couple of hits, Odiesaurus Rex is done. The hardest part is making sure that you avoid the rocks as you get those hits in, as they make this boss battle much harder. Make sure you grab the remote as quickly as possible in case of falling rocks, because if you die even the remote is visible, you're doing this whole battle over.

To get to the next stage, you'll need to avoid the electrical barriers as you go right, up and then left.

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 2 of 6

In this entry, we take on the swashbuckling genre with Revenge of Orangebeard.

First | Next | End

Revenge of Orangebeard

Here, the ammunition is bombs. Also, you wear different things and even carry a different melee weapon for your B button attack. I like that it's a wooden sword here.

When you enter this level, you'll land on a boat. Stay on it at all times to get through the first half of the level, and be ready to attack tentacles that strike at you, bats that fly around, leeches that dive at you, vines that grab at you and skeleton pirates that throw their heads at you. If you fall off the boat into the water, the water will damage you, and the boat will wait for you to get back on. 

Eventually, you'll have to get off the boat and jump on platforms before getting onto another boat.

After a while, there will be platforms that move in and out of the background wall, and you'll have to leap from one to the next as they move in and out of the wall in order to get back on the boat and continue on.

When you get on dry land, you can get on the tree branches to get the mallet key. You'll have to fight monkeys that throw stuff at you while yellow birds that look like flying chickens show up every so often 

The turtles move back and forth on the water and act as platforms, but they also dive into the water when you jump onto them.

The second part of the stage takes place on an island. Watch out for the flame vents in the ground that you can barely see, as they shoot fire out of the ground. Also, if you attack the man-eating plants, you can jump on them and use them like trampolines. You'll need to move from one side of the area to the other with the tree branches and vines as you make your way to the top of the level, where you'll have to drop down to enter another section. As you do this, you'll also have to deal with the flying yellow birds that show up every so often. Amazingly, you don't even have to face them to defeat them with the melee attack, as the hitbox on it is so generous that you can attack the birds with it even when they are behind you. If you fall into the water, you won't die; instead, you'll be carried out to an earlier point.

In the third section, you'll have to jump on platforms that move in and out of the water to avoid falling into the water. You can push the rock into the water to get past the last gap before the remote.

The boss here is a large pirate skeleton. Use the platforms that move in and out of the water to get to the skeleton boss and throw ammo at it, and avoid the skulls that he throws. After one hit, the pirate's parrot will fly to the left. Jump on the parrot, then throw ammo at the boss. Be ready to jump on a platform and wait for the parrot to show up again, then get on the parrot and throw ammo at the pirate again, all while attacking and/or avoiding the flying skulls. After enough hits, the pirate boss will go down.

After this, you'll need to climb on ceilings and jump on platforms and springs to get to the next portal.

PrinceWatercress plays Garfield: Caught In The Act (GEN/MD) - Part 1 of 6

After not touching this game for 25 years, I finally played this one for the channel. Glad I did; it's a little better than I remembered.

Next | End

The game begins with Garfield watching television when Odie scares him so much that he lands on the TV. Garfield fixes the TV, but an evil being known as Glitch comes out of the TV and drags him in, trapping Garfield in TV land.

When you start the game, you'll find out what everything does. Pizza and hamburgers will refill health. There are ammunition that you can find and throw at enemies. The coffee cup makes Garfield temporarily invincible. The Garfield head is an extra life. Pooky the stuffed teddy bear is a checkpoint. The mallet key unlocks a second bonus stage after finishing the level. The TV remote will teleport you to another area.

A throws ammunition forward, B attacks and C jumps. You can look up and down with Up and Down (which also ducks), and Left and Right move left and right. At the start of the game, jump from platform to platform and jump into the coil in the ceiling to grab it. You can then move left and right on it. Move to the right to get to the portal leading to the first level.

Your hit points are in the upper-left corner. The maximum is ten, and when you go to zero, you lose a life and you get an animation of a TV with teeth clamping down in front of Garfield when Garfield tries to press himself against the screen, which is pretty creepy and nightmare-inducing. When you get hit, you don't have a lot of invincibility frames, so you'll need to get yourself out of danger or else you're going to quickly get hit again.

Count Slobula's Castle

The ammunition in this level is a skull.

At the left, you can enter your first underground enemies. Jump onto the coffins to open them up and find power-ups - or enemies - and grab the Odie tongues on the ceiling to find a way out.

Enemies here include hands that grab at you, skeleton cats that throw bones at you, ghosts that fly out at you and bats that fly around haphazardly. The hands can respawn, and the skeleton cats can nail you from off-screen. The skeleton cats also take two hits to defeat, as they crumble after the first one. The ghosts make a "whoo" sound whenever they are nearby.

The fences that are in your way will hurt you if you land on them.

You can easily avoid the underground sections, but you'll need to explore them once in a while, to 

There is a long tunnel that you can go to for invincibility and a ton of health pick-ups, but you'll have to backtrack in order to go through a wall, enter another underground burial chamber and get back aboveground.

At the end, there is an underground chamber you'll need to drop to that has a TV remote. Get the remote to face Count Slobula, who is basically Odie in a vampiric robe flying around. Slobula will send three bats at you as he flies around, and after a while, he will dive at you. You'll need to stay away from him as he dives in order to try your best to avoid the attack, and after the dive, he will stand there for half a second. This is when you need to hit Count Slobula. Slobula will briefly hide in a coffin, and you'll need to leap on that coffin, then leap up into the blinds to raise them up and let sunlight in, which will damage Count Slobula. This also damages the coffin Slobula was in, making it unusable. Sometimes there will be food in the coffins, but more often than not, they will be empty. You'll need to do this three times, and you may lose a life or two just to beat Count Slobula, but when you do, you'll get a TV remote that takes you out of this Halloween special.

If you find the mallet key, you'll play the mallet mini-game. You'll be told not to hit a certain character. The holes in the circuit board correspond to the buttons on the six-button controller, but you can also use Up in conjunction with A, B and C to hit things. The longer you last in the game, the faster it gets, and the more letters you can find that spell the word "Garfield." If you can spell "Garfield," the game gives you a continue.

You'll always get the tube mini-game no matter what. Here, you'll move Garfield around with the D-Pad while picking up Pookys. If you get enough, you can earn an extra life, and if you can get a lot, you can get a continue. You start with three continues, which is enough to get through the game with if you know what you're doing. If you run out of continues or choose not to continue, you can get a password so you can start back where you left off. Touching a coffee cup will make you go faster, while the blue orbs will slow you down. For some reason, I keep touching the coffee cup when I don't want to.

To get to the next portal, just jump on the yellow platforms on the circuit board in the background (use the spring if you need to), then use the next spring to get on the coil and head to the right. Jump over the electric charge, then wrap around down and to the left to enter the next level.

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 5 of 5

I thought there would be more to the game than what we got in this part, but here we are. We've made it to the end.

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The Base

If you see any tracks on the background walls, there are turrets moving across them. Be ready to shoot them down. Also, wait close to the barriers that phase in an out so you can easily pass through them when they are down. Robots will shoot at you. Hit them with your gun with A if they get too close.

You'll soon face a pterodactyl while riding an elevator platform. Stay on the move and keep shooting at it, and stay away from the bombs that it drops, as the explosions have a little bit of range as they spread across both sides of the floor. There is some food underneath the elevator afterwards; get it as soon as you see it, because it is too easy to go far enough to the left that the game does not allow you to go back to it.

You'll soon fight some sort of lizard creature. Shoot at the head, and avoid the flame shots that fire out of its mouth and the green acid projectiles that fire out of the tail end.

You'll then have to shoot down a door and ride on rotating platform while shooting down turrets. If you're at the lower half of the screen, shoot at the lower-left corner; if you're at the upper half of the screen, shoot at the upper-left corner. If your firepower is good enough, you'll be taking down these big, globe-shaped turrets, and some will go down before they can really show up.

You'll then fight another mechanical monstrosity. Avoid the claws as they come down, and shoot at the claws. Thankfully, they alternate, and you can shoot the claws down even when they're in the ceiling. You'll then face another robot that moves around the track in the top center of the screen. Shoot down the eyes to keep them from firing at you, and stay away from the lighting blasts when the center part opens up while you fire at it. Thankfully, the beam can't get you at the extreme sides of the platform, which you don't want to fall off of. After this, the center part (which looks much like an insect face) swings back and forth. Jump over it as it swings towards you while getting shots in on it. You'll eventually expose the face, which will then move on the track again. Attack it from an angle, and refrain from standing underneath it so the fireballs that spill out don't hit you. Fireballs will only spill out of it when you hit it, so keep your distance when that happens. After this, the battle is over; head right, take care of the robot enemies and get the food out of the crystal before going down the ladder, as you're probably needing it at this point. If a second player needs food, there will be another crystal with food to the left of the bottom of the ladder.

After jumping a gap and riding down on a platform while avoiding the laser turrets, jump to the left. You'll face one more boss. It will move around on the track in the background wall, and you'll want to take out the metal claws first, preferably the one on the right. Once the arms are down, the face will open and shoot two lightning beams as well as some fireballs out of the center. Go all the way to the left and shoot at it, then stay away from it as it moves towards you. Jump to avoid the fireballs. Keep doing this, and you should have enough health for the final battle coming up.

Final Boss

You'll need to avoid the green fireballs that jump in and out of the bottom of the screen as you take out the clone creators - the purple things with the red and yellow stuff on them on the bottom of the screen. When you take one out, columns of the green stuff from the bottom rush out at you while moving up and down, and you'll need to jump over them to avoid them. The green fireballs themselves will also cause more trouble, as they turn into evil versions of the main characters and rush at you. The Cygnus clones are the worst, as they split into two smaller clones when you shoot them down.

Once you shoot down all four clone creators, the room will spin around. A metal sphere will rise out from the bottom, and two claws made of the green lava will come out from the side. You'll need to jump over and avoid the claws while shooting at them to take them down. Once the arms are down, the top of the metal sphere will open up, and you'll need to shoot at it. There will be two attacks to avoid at this point: the laser beam that will shock you, and the small blue fireball that shoots upwards towards you after that. Never, ever be directly above this metal sphere if you want to avoid getting hit here.

Once you destroy this final boss, you'll beat the game! Congratulations!

PrinceWatercress plays Dinosaurs For Hire - Part 4 of 5

This was an interesting set of levels to play, as was the "a-ha" moments for what I needed to do to get through them.

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Toy Factory

The conveyor belts here will move you around, but they are the least of your worries here. The fire pits will instantly kill you if you fall into them, and the rotating platforms, as much as a help as they are of keeping you out of them, rotate fairly fast, so pay attention.

The openings in the background will produces boxes and enemies that will fire at you. Keep firing as you go and you won't have to deal with them for very long.

When the game provides you a ladder here, use it. It is possible to fall too far and die in this place.

After some fire jets, you'll need to drop down and to the left towards some crushers that you will have to avoid. After the crushers, fall down and to the right, and stay to the left as much as possible while fighting the claw so you don't get burned or grabbed. Once the claw is down, be ready to jump over the gap.

There is a yellow elevator platform that you will have to ride near the end. As you go down, there will be a crystal with an extra life inside. If you're going for it, you'd better be ready to jump off the edge to the left back onto the elevator, because if you do it before you reach the edge, you'll hit your head on the platform above and you won't make it.

Toy Factory Mid-Boss

Avoid the balls that the boss shoots at you as you shoot at the big red hand on the right side of the boss. When the boss' mouth opens, shoot at it to destroy the slug that jump out. Once the big red hand goes down, you'll be shooting at the cannon arm. After the cannon arm goes down, you'll go for the face. After that, the boss will be unable to move or do anything as you shoot at the panel in the center.

Japan

Jump over the tornadoes as you shoot down the small samurai. The big samurai will shoot projectiles at you, so take them down as soon as you see them. The further away and the more firepower you have, the better. 

You can ride on the turtles, but if you stay on them too long when they come to a complete stop, they will dive into the water and take you with them, and it will cost you a life.

If you see a gap in any of the wooden bridges that you cross, jump over them! Failure to do so will result in a plank falling down and you falling into the water with it to your death.

You'll face a few mini-bosses as you go through this level. The first is a cannon. Once you shoot the door down, the cannon will alternate between high shots and low shots. Duck the high shots, jump the low shots and keep shooting at the cannon no matter what. 

The samurai you'll face after the cannon has a mastery of fire. Start shooting at him, and when he gets in the air, get under him and shoot. If any of your shots bounce off of him, he is invulnerable at the current time. When you see the fireballs rotating around him, go all the way to the left side of the screen and duck to avoid getting hit. Once the mid-boss flies to your side and back again, get under him and fire at him again. When the shots start bouncing off, go all the way to the right and duck to avoid as many of the raining fireballs as possible. There is a third attack where the mid-boss shoots two fireballs that land at opposite ends. When that happens, avoid the fire spread when the fireballs hit the ground. The mid-boss will then cycle through the three attacks in the same order, but the mid-boss dies before we even see the third attack.

You'll soon face another samurai mid-boss that flies around and creates tornadoes. Get under him and shoot him at the start, and when he starts making tornadoes, get all the way to the left and jump over the tornadoes when they come at you. The mid-boss will then bounce around the screen at 45-degree angles; move around so you don't get hit by this guy. Once he is done, he will teleport to the top center, where you can get under him and shoot at him again. He'll do the same attacks again, but you'll need to be ready to jump over the tornadoes the instant they hit the ground. After more bouncing around, he will teleport to the left side, where it's easier to not get hit again. I destroy this mid-boss before he can do much there.

After jumping onto some rocks and small bridges while taking out large samurai, you'll get some food and one more samurai mid-boss. He will fly to the top center and start shooting thunderbolts down. There are gaps between the bolts, and whenever a bolt hits, walk to where it struck after the thunderbolt disappears. You'll be able to inch your way back and forth across the screen and get your shots in on the mid-boss from underneath as you do this. After this, the boss will teleport everywhere into random locations. Stay on the move to avoid him, and when he is at the top center of the screen again, get under him and start firing once again. This mid-boss has an attack where he fires down two thunderbolts - one on the left, one on the right - that move towards the center. If you've done enough damage by the time you reach this attack, you more than likely won't have to deal with it.

After this battle, you'll get more food, then you'll need to keep firing to shoot at the gears and raise up the wooden log platforms that you'll have to jump on to clear some gaps. After a few instances of this, it's time for one more mid-boss: an alien statue. Keep shooting at the head. The big pink projectiles that come out of the eyes will simply freeze you in place, and they will not damage you. The smaller pink projectiles that come out of his back, however, do hurt, and you want to stay away from those. If you know what you're doing, you can find a gap in the pattern in which the big projectiles fly so you can keep moving back and forth to shoot at the statue as much as possible and make this battle go faster.

Mega Lizard

There are three platforms to the left; you'll need to stay on the lowest one. The Mega Lizard will shoot its flame breath either high or low. Wait for the Mega Lizard to duck its head down and shoot low before jumping to the top platform and shooting at the red button in the upper-right corner of the screen. When you hit it, go back down to the lowest platform. The more you shoot the button, the more you will bust up the nearby liquid nitrogen tanks, and when the Mega Lizard is light blue, the battle is over.