Out of all of the books that
I read as a child, I always enjoyed the weird and entertaining world of Dr.
Seuss. Wuzzles, Whos, and Zizzer Zazzer Zuzzes are just a few of the creations
that amuse and entertain many around the world, both then and now. Recently,
Brian
Grazer made Dr. Seuss’ classic Grinch story into a live action movie, and a
little later on many of us will also be amused by one of my all time favorite
Seuss book characters … The Cat in the Hat … as he is brought to life in the
movies. Well, wherever there is a popular or “possibly popular” movie … a game
is almost sure to follow somewhere. Sure enough, The Cat in the Hat is now
gracing the PS2 console.
The story for the game
follows the movie and story to an extent with Conrad and Sally as they are
forced to stay in the house while their mother has gone out. The Cat in the Hat
shows up, much to the dismay of the goldfish who keeps reminding the kids “he
should not be here when your mother is out”. Well, the Cat brings his box of
magic with him, and all is fun and games until Mr. Quinn … the evil next door
neighbor … tricks Conrad into opening the box which not only lets out the magic,
but also winds up transforming the house into a magical Seuss world. Now … it’s
up to the Cat in the Hat to chase Quinn through the magical worlds and get the
Crablock back to the box, get the house cleaned up, and do all of this before
Mom gets home.
The Cat in the Hat’s
gameplay is a linear, 3-D world, side scrolling style platformer, which closely
reminded me of games like Pandemonium for the PSX system. The Cat primarily runs
left and right only jumping ledges, finding secret entrances, and using his
umbrella to hook ziplines, smash boxes, float, shoot bubbles to trap enemies and
use them as fired weapons, and collect magic swirlies throughout the various
stages as he pursues Quinn throughout the various transformed objects in the
house. Each stage that Quinn enters requires a certain amount of magic to
unlock, which is obtained throughout the prior stage. In addition, each stage
also contains a secret area that is unlocked by finding the four keys from Thing
1 and Thing 2, wherever in the stage they may be.
While many games can
shamelessly plug a movie and don’t seem to have a whole lot of creativity thrown
in, Cat in the Hat was surprisingly well thought out in my opinion. The stages
that he enters are loaded with tons of Seuss like weird objects and hazards on
the paths and in the backgrounds, and there is a pretty good variety of “find
this first before progressing to this part” kind of puzzles. For example, some
blocks can only be blasted out of the way by using a ball of explosive goo. In
order to do this, you may have to backtrack a tad to catch an enemy, go a
completely opposite direction, and find a goo machine which transforms captured
enemies into the slimy substance you need, then head back to the box and blast
it out of the way.
Another thing that I thought
was pretty neat was the game play idea. While I was a little confused on how
they were going to make a game using the magic cat as a main character, my
questions were answered as the goldfish explained all of the umbrella uses
during the first couple of stages. The developers made sure that the drifting,
hooking, slamming, and shooting possibilities were all wrapped up in his
umbrella, and the stage designs allow you to use almost all of these things
pretty consistently in order to keep moving forwards and reach the end of the
stage.
On a downside, while the
idea was neat and turned out to be pretty well executed, the linear gameplay may
not appeal to all platformer fans nowadays. Gamers who are spoiled by the 3-D
versions of platforming titles may not like the lack of overall free roaming
exploration, and the entire game runs on left – right rails the whole way
through. Old school 2-D platforming fans will probably have a lot more fun with
it through, and this may not wind up being much of a concern for them. Secondly,
the game probably won’t take platforming fans more than a couple of days to run
through, even though the challenge gets more difficult as you progress.
Graphically, the Cat in the
Hat turned out to be pretty decent. As I stated before, the levels were pretty
well thought out and contained loads of hazards and a colorful, wacky appearance
and the backgrounds, characters and creatures were all good representations of
the Dr. Seuss style of artwork, many complete with curly antennae and the hairy,
oversized pointy feet.
Overall, The Cat in the Hat
is not going to be for everyone, and while many who are fans of the stories from
their past or current childhood will get some enjoyment out of it, 2-D side
scrolling fans or gamers who enjoyed titles like Pandemonium on PS2 will
probably have the most fun with it. If this is not you, you may want to rent it
next time your mother is out and not invite the Cat to hang around
permanently.
Gameplay: 7.4
The Cat in the Hat is basically a 2-D platformer in
a 3-D world. All of the movement is left – right rails only even with a lot of
depth variation and some spiral tracks without much variation, and the majority
of the gameplay is the typical platform hopping, secret searching, box smashing
style that we’ve seen before. The levels were decent in both size and
creativity, but it does tend to get a bit repetitive since every stage
regardless of background or hazards is the same thing from start to finish. Even
with things to unlock like bonus stages and character / movie shots from the
film, there may not be much of a need to go back and replay stages or the game
over again a second time.
Graphics: 7.1
The graphics are
pretty colorful and fun looking, and the backgrounds, characters, and enemies
are good representation of the kind of weird things that we’ve seen in the Dr.
Seuss books. While the main characters like Quinn, the Cat, and the kids are all
actual computer converted footage, many of the objects are made up of only a few
colors and don’t have too much lighting or any other kinds of effects to try and
add to them.
Sound: 7.4
The voiceovers
are sound-alikes of the actual players from the film. The music has a bubbly, Beetlejuice kind of feel to it in the
comical, Cat in the Hat fashion you’d probably expect.
Difficulty: Easy
While the stages
can be somewhat challenging as you progress, a lot of gamers (especially
platforming fans) will probably be able to run through this a matter of a couple
of days. It’s fun, but isn’t going to provide too much of a challenge for
players overall.
Concept: 7.6
I am definitely a
big fan of giving credit where credit is due, and Vivendi did a good job in
bringing a game to life that personally I would have never thought of. Some
variation in the game like some 3-D worlds or something would have added to the
fun and taken some repetition out of it though.
Overall: 7.2
Fans of Dr Seuss,
the Cat in the Hat, and 2-D side scrolling platform titles will ultimate get the
most enjoyment out of this. If you happen to be a big platform gaming fan
looking to try the Cat out, you may want to check this one out at your local
game rental store prior to purchasing.
