Ahh, the classic cat-and-mouse cartoon everyone knows and loves to this very day - it aged like fine-wine, rightfully so. The crazy adventures of Tom & Jerry had a great influence on many of today's cartoons as well as establishing several tropes and trends before the modern era, not to mention cartoons were a lot more liberal back then, allowing the characters to stab, shoot, blow up, or even kill each other with only mild euphemism. Ahh, good old times with much less taboos. The franchise has sprung tons of merchandise, comic-books, spinoffs, and of course, video games as well. This particular one is a 2D side-scroller developed by Hi-Tech Expressions. It has a NES and a DOS version, wit' significant differences.
The premise is simple and fits right in with the cartoon's shenanigans. Evil Tom has kidnapped poor Tuffy (the little grey mouse also known as Nibbles) and locked him up at the attic. Navigating the house and fighting off Tom from time to time, Jerry has to save him. The levels take place inside and around the house, starting from the cellar, finishing at the attic. Allocation is 5 worlds, each with 3 levels, that makes 15 levels alltogether, every third level is a Tom bossfight. Jerry has 3 hearts (2 hits before death), 4 lives and one continue, that makes 8 lives altogether, his basic weapon are blue marbles he can hurl, and they never run out, but he can grab addítional weapons and items later. Other collectibles include invisible ink (10 seconds of invulnerability), and cheese chunks which give score and/or a heart back. Basic stuff, nothing fancy, but hell, not every game needs a BFG9000 to be enjoyable.
Interestingly, no other cartoon characters appear in the game - we can't meet Tom's owner(s), Spike, the canary or the duckling either. Too bad, I'd have enjoyed a bossfight against Clint Clobber, he is a five-star asshole. Enemies are also generic an' apart from maybe the bees and the ants, they don't appear in any of the cartoon episodes. Almost every level has its own set of enemies, there are recurring ones tho. Some characters have interactive purposes, like can be used as a trampoline. Hit and health system is kinda interesting: small chunks of cheese don't give any hearts back, only points, but in return, certain enemies don't harm Jerry (water, flies, dry leaves). Watch out for heights - falling can hurt Jerry! One-hit deaths are very sparse, but falling into water is instant death. Tom bossfights are usually very straightforward - hit him in the face until he sees stars, but there is one instance when y'have to be smart an' use bees to harm him.
Now, the differences - ye, there are some. The NES version offers awesome Tom & Jerry music, a very good rendítion of the original music score, the DOS version has none. The NES version gives an extra life after 100000 points (since enemies respawn, and y'have unlimited ammo, you can cheat the system), the DOS version does not give extra lives, 8 deaths and it's game over for ya. The NES version has hidden bonus sections where y'can stack up on cheese, the DOS version doesn't. The NES version's bubble-gum bubble has a maximum height, the DOS counterpart (the balloon) allows flight until y'hit sumthin. The NES version's pickaxe and cleaver are melee weapons, the DOS version lets you fling them like projectiles. The NES version takes away your inventory at a new world, the DOS version lets y'keep your stuff until y'lose all your lives. So as y'can see, there is no clear distinction which one is harder.
Thankfully, the game is completely devoid of glitches and bugs, which is a big relief, since it IS difficult - especially the first Tom bossfight above water. Incredibly enough, subsequent bossfights are considerably easier. Invisible ink is only found at level 2, an' never again, an' there are a few instances where y'run into unavoidable, unkillable enemies, an' y'cannot attack while y're floating. Undeniably, it takes lots of practice to complete the game, but all in all, I'd say this is the best retro Tom & Jerry game in the roster.
