Mappy

Mappy is a 1983 video game. You are a mouse in a house of burglar-cats intent on recovering their stolen loot. You get from floor to floor by jumping on trampolines. Various doors are your only defense against the cats.

The game music appears to be based on ragtime. There are a total of 15 rounds in the game, after which it returns to the first round.

The player controls Mappy, the "Micro Police" officer, a police-mouse whose job is to collect valuables from a cat's house (one has to surmise that he is retrieving stolen goods). In hot pursuit of our hero is a gang of five pink cats called Meowky (Mewkies in the Japanese version) or "Naughty Folks" and a large red fat cat called Goro ("Nyamco" in the Japanese version) or "Boss the Big Bit".

Levels 3, 7, 11 and 15 are bonus rounds. Each red balloon you pop is worth 200 points later. The last balloon, with Goro behind it, is worth 2000 points later. Bouncing on trampolines here is still worth 10 points. If you get all the balloons, you'll get a total of 5000 points plus a bonus of 5000 points. To completely clear rounds 11 and 15 requires noting a difference between rounds 3 and 7. If you wait too long after the HURRY UP message, a green spinning disc with Goro's face on it will appear (it's been said that this is the spirit of Goro's ancestor).

This game was and still is more popular in Japan than it is in the USA, possibly due to cultural differences. There have been sequels to this game (e.g. Hopping Mappy), but these were released only in Japan. However, Americans probably do know about this through Microsoft's Revenge of Arcade collection and the "Plug-n-Play" games collections by Jakks Pacific.


 * Bonus Stage: The aforementioned balloon levels.
 * Cats Are Mean
 * The Eighties: The era the original Mappy was released in.
 * Everything Trying to Kill You: Two species of cats, a giant coin possessed by a deceased cat criminal, the tramples if you hop on one to many times, and the trap doors in the fourth mansion.
 * Kawaisa
 * No OSHA Compliance: The trampolines disintegrate after Mappy bounces on them three times in a row.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: Mappy himself.
 * Songs in the Key of Panic: Hurry Music type.
 * Stalked by the Bell