About 1989, I got a Spectrum 128k for a Christmas present... a couple of months early because I found where it was hidden as I was a little dick back then. A few years later, as the console was on it's way out, I got a few Hanna-Barbera themed games for cheap in a local store. Atom Ant, Hong Kong Phooey, Ruff and Reddy and the game I am going to talk about here, Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats. Based, kind of, on an animated TV movie from 1988, the game from Hi-Tec software was also available on Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and Atari ST.
The movie has Benny the Ball wrongly inherit a fortune and become embroiled in a scheme by people wanting his money. The game features Top Cat working his way through a serious of mini mazes, avoiding things that can kill him (including flying birds) in order to find his lost friends. Not exactly the same but the final level does have you search for Benny in a mansion so there's that. Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats has the distinction of being one of the few games young me actually completed (along with Yogi and Friends in The Greed Monster from the same publisher) . While I never was (and still am not) a particularly great gamer, I seemed to take to this one easier than, say, Atom Ant. While I threw high pitched Scottish accented obscenities at that (and Scooby Bastarding Doo from Gargoyle Games) I enjoyed the simpleness of TC's adventure. I am hesitant to say it was "easy", it was an early console game after all, they didn't like to hold your hand through games back then. If you died, it was back to the start for you, buddy boy or girl. However, I will say once you got into the rhythm of the game, it became quite fun. Repetitive, but fun. And this is coming from someone who, while a Hanna-Barbera fan, didn't quite click with the antics of TC and his band of merry felines.
As mentioned, the object is to guide TC around various maze like screens, avoiding obstacles in order to get from one side to another. Skateboarders, fires, bees, bombs, birds and for some reason, in the final level, ghosts try to block your path. Your health is represented by a milk bottle, the contents of which drain away if you are touched by or touch any dangerous object (a moving part of the fence can mess you up if you don't time it right). Along the way, you can find milk bottles to top your health up but, somewhat pointlessly, there is also fruit but don't eat the rotten apples, they drain your health. The first level is simple, once you get into it, rescuing the first 4 members of your crew isn't all that taxing but level two is a tad more frustrating.
Moving from the alleys of New York, the second level takes it to the streets of Beverly Hills where you complete a series of puzzles to get to the (seemingly haunted) mansion to find Benny. When you do find your weirdly coloured sidekick, the game ends rather unceremoniously, which was par for the course with older console games.Sure, it was disappointing, I wanted to see how TC and Benny got back home, but at least I finished it. As it stands, the game lasts barely half an hour if you can master getting through without dying. Overall, it's not a bad game exactly just a very repetitive one but one t I always looked forward to playing. If only because I was actually good at it. If only I could get past the first level of that bloody obnoxious Atom Ant game...
Next Time: Nothing to do with Hanna-Barbera, I swear...
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