A playthrough of Hi Tech Expressions' 1991 license-based platformer for the NES, Tom & Jerry: The Ultimate Game of Cat & Mouse.

Tom & Jerry came out at the very end of 1991, and though the SNES had just launched, this excellent platformer was a shining example of just how much life the old 8-bit hardware still had left in it.

Hi Tech Expressions did not have a reputation for releasing classics - they were known for educational games, along with trash like the Muppets game that's best left forgotten - but against all odds, with this Software Creations production they ended up finally publishing a real winner.

Tom has kidnapped Jerry's nephew, Tuffy, and it's Jerry's job to thoroughly search the house to save him. It makes you wonder why Tom even bothers when has no apparent plans to eat his prey.

The game has five "worlds," each with two substages and a boss encounter. You begin in the basement and navigate the pipes in order to reach the kitchen. From there, you escape out a window and run through the innards of a tree until you've reached the roof, where you make your way back in through the chimney, finally reaching the living room where you find your mouse hole. Following the channels in the wall, Jerry eventually finds himself in the bathroom, which finally provides access to the attic where Tom holds Tuffy captive.

I love how the levels flow logically from one to the next, and playing from the perspective of a tiny mouse allows for some really fun level design. Remember how cool it was in Super Mario Bros. 3 to see World 4 for the first time with its oversized enemies and objects? That same feeling holds here, except that the entire game is done like that.

You'll climb electrical cords and potted plants, search for cheese inside of a VCR, dodge kernels of popcorn as you leap across an unattended frying pan - all sorts of cool things. There's even a huge NES console sitting on the floor of the living room.

The graphics are among the best I've seen in an NES game. They don't bring the hardware to its knees pushing flashy effects (though there is some typical NES-style slowdown), but the game's presentation does its utmost to keep with the feeling of the cartoon. The backgrounds are loaded with detail and color, the enemies all have goofy little animation quirks to give them some personality, and Jerry's sprite animation is super fluid for an 8-bit game. There aren't many NES games that can match the charm of Tom & Jerry's graphics.

And the music! Geoff Follin was responsible for the soundtrack, and he killed it. The arrangements of the music from the cartoon sound amazing on the NES, and though there are only a couple of tracks, they're long enough that you won't likely get tired of hearing them. At least I didn't.

The gameplay is fairly standard but it's well executed. The controls are responsive, the jumping physics feel right, and the game puts up a solid challenge without ever becoming frustrating. There are lots of little hidden, bonus-filled nooks if you enjoy exploring, and though the levels are huge, they're designed in such a way that you'll rarely feel lost. (Well, except for stage 4-2. I really hate how that one always gets me going in circles!)

I got this as a Christmas gift the year it came out and I adored it. Even though I had a shiny new Super Nintendo, this was more than enough reason to keep the NES hooked up alongside it. Tom & Jerry might carry a low profile next to Konami and Capcom's licensed games, but it has no problem competing with the likes of Tiny Toons or Rescue Rangers.

If only the SNES or Game Boy games had fared so well!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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