System: Sega Genesis
Title: Garfield: Caught in the Act
Publisher: Sega/Paws Inc.
Circa: 1995
Overall Rating:

Intro

 Most everyone is familiar with the number one Fat Cat Garfield. Renowned star of the daily comic strip running for 30 years now! This is one of the few games that Garfield has been featured in. It was the first game I personally knew Garfield to be featured in and one that I've enjoyed for many years.

Story

Garfield broke the TV! (I know, hard to believe, but blame Odie) He takes it on himself to repair the thing and somewhat succeeds. In typical fashion, this results in something bad emerging from the TV, Glitch, who then grabs Garfield who must navigate through several late-night movies to face Glitch and escape from the TV.

 
Gameplay

The game was made to appeal to a younger audience and it shows in its design and execution. Even without the manual its pretty easy to learn what to do and how the game works. I remember buying this game from EB games, it was actually the first game I ever reserved, and just saving my allowance for weeks to get it. I had to convince my parents to get me there on the day it came out (unfortunately, it was a short drive and I had no idea at all how to get there using the Public Transit System and biking there was right out of the question). Odie features as well in the game, mostly as the Level Boss, like in the first level where he appears as Count Slobula. I had someone else play the game to see just how much was intuitive and how much you needed to learn. It turned out to be a bit trickier than initially expected. I do maintain it is a children’s game, but definitely it calls on a bit of patience to figure out the patterns and how to beat the boss. My friend didn’t have trouble with the level until the boss and once I told him what to do, he got it.

Multiplayer

None, unfortunately.

 
Controls

A – Throw projectal, B – Swing weapon, C – Jump. Pretty basic to handle but to modern standards they seemed a little sluggish. The Genesis controller though worked very well for what the game called for. Anyone can quickly figure out how to play and enjoy it a fair bit.

 
Graphics

It honestly looks a lot like the comic did at the time. Incidentally, the game opens with traditional style Garfield comics. Well colored, and vibrant is the only way to describe the levels and Garfield’s appearance in the game. Garfield honestly fits into the game’s world pretty well. It’s good to see that Paws Inc. had a lot to do with the design in this regard.

 
Sound Effects & Music

Obviously time was put into this department. They took their time and watched the movies they were planning to use. The music fits well to the stage and doesn’t get tiresome or dull over the course of the stage. None of the sound effects completely overcame the music and threw that balance off. It fit to the style they were aiming for at least.
 

Obscurity

It’s not incredibly well-known, but it definitely would be much more obscure outside of the Garfield-fans arena. It was one of the earlier games for him to star in.

Summary/Author’s Take

Playing this game again brought a lot of nostalgia back. It didn’t take me very long to beat the game back in Elementary School, but I kept coming back to play it again and again. Still, eventually I set the game down and was fulfilled. But picking it up again reminded me a lot of playing it back in the days of the Genesis.