Mappy-Land

The Good
Until a couple of years ago, I had never heard of Mappy-Land (or Mappy anything, for that matter). I was in my local video game store with a set amount of cash I was looking to blow with nothing in particular I was planning to blow it on. I asked the woman who owns the store for her opinion on a few good NES games I may have never heard of. Among her suggestions was Mappy-Land which I purchased with a “sure, whatever, I’ll try anything,” attitude. I can’t say the game surprised me in anyway, nor did it leave any lasting impression on me, but it is still an enjoyable game nonetheless.

Since I never heard of Mappy-Land before, I decided to do some research. Apparently it’s a Famicom/NES exclusive sequel to Mappy, a Namco arcade game. You play as Mappy, a mouse who is also apparently a police officer. The goal of the game is to collect six gifts on each level to give to your demanding girlfriend (and later your son). Some levels also complicate things by requiring you to collect a specific item before you can exit. All the while you must run from a group of (what else?) cats who want to eat you, or perhaps are merely trying to touch you to death. The concept will probably sound familiar to you if you’ve ever played Pac-Man.

Mappy-Land has an interesting progression of levels. There are only eight unique stages, but once you complete them you’re brought back to the beginning. Each level is remixed and given a different set of goals. After the first round, it becomes slightly less straightforward to advance to new levels. Sometimes, a level will challenge you to find a doorway to an interior area in order to find a key. It’s a very cunning way to reuse old resources, while still providing a new experience. The difficulty curve is very gradual. You may find the first levels a breeze, but later in the game your skills will be tested. Mappy-Land is far from impossible, but the levels late in the game are quite challenging.

For a game with arcade roots, Mappy-Land is quite laid back and accessible. You’re provided with an unlimited supply of continues, with the loss of your score being the only real penalty for using one. There isn’t a high score table, however, nor are scores saved, so it’s a really trivial penalty at best. Not only that, but there’s even a level select available, in case you need to stop playing and continue later.

The Bad
I must say, in terms of goals for the player, there sure as shootin’ are a lot of better ones than having to find dozens of cheese wedges for your fat wife. For that matter, why the heck do I have to collect yellow Christmas trees for a Christmas party? And what kid wants four dozen baseballs for their birthday? What the hell is a police mouse doing picking these up from off the ground (or floating in the air, rather) in cat infested towns?

Petty quibbles with the game’s non-existent story aside, there are a few problems with the gameplay mechanics. The cats in this game seem to have the AI of the Pac-Man ghosts. Yes, every so often they do show surprising aptitude when it comes to team tactics, but most of the time they seem to have difficulty navigating the levels. The control is also a minor annoyance, especially in the air. You’re invincible whenever you jump on a trampoline, which can be a bit confusing. There’s no real air control, and you can only choose when to move slightly to the side to catch a ledge. This works okay in most levels, but when they throw in the moving trampoline platforms, things get complicated. It’s really difficult to judge whether your speed is going to land you on the trampoline, or whether you’re just going to fall into a pit of bottomless death.

The graphics are not only pretty bad, but they’re also very cluttered. Sometimes a pick-up will be camouflaged in with the background, or it blends with the colours to the point where you can’t tell what it is. The characters are poorly detailed and it’s hard to tell exactly what they’re supposed to be. Had it not been for the cover art, I would never have guessed Mappy is a police mouse. It looks more like he’s wearing blue pajamas. There’s no real depth to anything either, it all seems flat. Altogether it looks quite poor, even when compared to other games released around the same period.

Mappy-Land has the same problem that a lot of arcade ports have, and that is: it’s very shallow. Your goal is so straightforward that no instructions are necessary to play. As a result, the game becomes somewhat repetitive and overall it’s a bit on the dull side. I still had a lot of fun with it, but it didn’t really suck me in. I finished the game because I committed myself to it. Otherwise, I probably would have stopped playing around half-way through.

The Bottom Line
After my playthrough, I decided that Mappy Land is what I would define as a “snack” game. Chances are it won’t suck you in, nor will it impact your view on the video game medium, but it is fun in a sit-down and play sort of way. If you try to push yourself to finish the game, you’ll likely grow bored before it’s over. However, snack games are a good thing to have around. I like to have a game to burn a few minutes or an hour on while I’m waiting for a friend to show up or the kettle to boil. I personally prefer Space Invaders or Burgertime, but Mappy-Land still entertains. Overall I’d rate it as, enh, about AVERAGE. I recommend you give it a try, you might like it.