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.