In January of 1976,with a comic strip called
“Jon,” cartoonist Jim Davis introduced Garfield to the world. Or, to the readers of the Pendleton
Times in Indiana at least. Things looked a bit...rough, but most of the pieces were in place
from the start. The second-ever strip established Garfield’s love of lasagna, Odie showed up a few
strips later, Jon started stalking Liz...the gang was already up to their beloved antics!
The strip gained enough popularity that a revamped version, now named “Garfield,” got wider
distribution in June of 1978. Since then, the world has been drowning in Garfield merchandise,
TV shows, t-shirts, movies, and, of course, video games. Today, we’re going to rank them all from
worst to best! The video games, I mean. Somebody else is going to need to rank the t-shirts.
Before we get to the rankings, though, we’ve got some rules. You won’t
listen to them, but we’ve got them! Things are rather standard this time around.
As usual, we won’t be counting ports, remakes, or collections. We also won’t be counting
phone games, mainly because most of them have been lost to time and also I don’t want
to learn about whatever Garfield’s Spider Parade is. If a phone game was also released
on PC, however, we will count the PC version. We won’t be counting LCD games, though
this one was made by Konami and, therefore, we assume that it is as good as Symphony of
the Night. We also won’t be counting the many browser-based Flash games released over the years.
No cancelled games here either, though Garfield does seem to have a lot of those. Most
notably, there’s the Atari 2600 game, which I would have humorously called, “Atarfield.”
There. That’s the only joke I would have made, so you aren’t missing out on anything.
Finally, we will not be including Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl. We thought about it, but
it would probably fit better on a list of Nickelodeon games. Should we rank those at some
point? Could anything other than Drake and Josh: Talent Showdown rank #1? Let
us know in the comments below. Also, just one final pat on the back for us:
We only say “lasagna” 24 times in this entire script. That’s fewer than once per page, which
demonstrates better restraint than Jim Davis. Let’s rank ‘em. I’m Ben...
...and I hate Mondays. Hahah, Garfield’s so funny though guys. He really is.
Sorry, I’m Peter from TripleJump... ...and this is every Garfield video
game ranked from worst to best. #28: Garfield: Winter’s Tail (1989)
Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Choosing the worst Garfield game is a surprisingly difficult task, as just
about any of the next few entries could fit the bottom spot just as well. Is there a Garfield
game that you hate more than this one? If so, then I am genuinely sorry, I wish I could help.
We’re giving the dishonor to Winter’s Tail, as it really is a miserable
experience from front to back. The game involves Garfield falling asleep in
front of the refrigerator and dreaming that he’s...doing...vaguely wintery things. In one
of the dreams, you are in a factory, changing the directions of pipes so that they lead to a
chicken who lays chocolate eggs. Maybe it works the same way as brown cows and chocolate milk?
In another dream, you and Odie go skiing, just to establish how wrong the developers got
the source material. Seriously, who thought that Garfield would happily dream of participating
in athletic activities? He’s smiling, so I don’t think that we’re meant to infer that
it’s a nightmare. At least, not for Garfield; it certainly felt like one to us. It’s like any
other retro skiing game, but it controls worse and makes you cry. When you finish it, Garfield
ends up in a ski lodge, where this happens and I really wish that it would not. In the third
dream, you go ice skating. It’s dreadful too. The major differences between the versions
come down to presentation, with the Amiga iteration looking and sounding the best, though
the Atari ST version is a close second. Being as presentation is about all you can hope for in a
collection of winter-themed Garfield minigames, those are the ones to seek out. It’s worth noting
however that the Amiga version has a glitch that makes the game impossible to complete. Instead
of...well...whatever is meant to be happening here, you end up with a load of glitchy
tiles that cannot be crossed. Fortunately, fans of Winter’s Tail have worked out how to
reverse engineer the code and patch the game into a fully functional state. Unfortunately,
there are fans of Winter’s Tail. We are so sorry. #27: Garfield Trivia Game (1989)
Apple II Many people enjoy general-knowledge trivia. Some
people enjoy trivia on specific topics, such as, say, “comic strips” or “cartoons.” A smaller
number of people enjoy trivia focused on only one franchise. Even fewer people enjoy trivia
focused entirely on Garfield. And, of those, how many of them love Garfield trivia so much
that they would want to own a game based on it as opposed to just play it once and immediately
choose a very different direction in life? Even if this game appeals to you, the questions
are all more than 30 years out of date. Granted, that wasn’t a problem upon release, when “Cat
Nightmare #426” was—I’m sure—firmly fixed in the cultural consciousness and questions like
this seemed like something other than feverish nonsense. Still, though, was this ever any
fun? Who’s to say? Me. It was not any fun. Get a question correct, and Garfield will
dance menacingly at you. Get a question wrong, and Garfield will faint. I’d love
to pretend that there were anything more to the game—not least because that
would give me something to talk about—but there’s really not. I can at least say
that my favorite part is this question, which doesn’t even bother covering up
the answer on the bottom of the screen. Garfield Trivia Game will barely have had an
audience in 1989, and today it’s completely without purpose, though I suppose you could boot
it up as a way of expressing to your friends that you’d rather not spend time with them anymore. I
can imagine that certain major franchises would be able to offer a dedicated trivia experience
that is fun for a few hours. Garfield Trivia Game, though, doesn’t even manage to offer enough
fun for...let me just check here...300 words. #26: Garfield Double Dares (1985)
Apple II Let me say up front that many sources claim that
Garfield Double Dares was also released for the Commodore 64. Perhaps it was, but we were unable
to find evidence of that version existing. Please correct us if you’ve managed to find it, but our
best guess is that people confused this Garfield game for one of the others on the Commodore
64. Such a mistake could easily be made, as “Garfield Double Dares” as a title doesn’t
really say much about what the game is. Then again, I’m not sure what title
could describe what the game is. It’s essentially a word game...in the loosest
possible sense. It’s split into two parts, which then repeat several times until you
get your final score. In the first part, Garfield gives you a word and asks you to type
words that rhyme with it. This sounds easy, and it is, but you’ll learn quickly that
the word bank in Garfield Double Dares is extremely small, with many common words missing.
That goes double for the second part, in which Garfield gives you letters and asks you to create
as many words as you can with them. You can tell Garfield to raise the number of words he’s looking
for in exchange for more points and...that’s about it. You type some words, realize that the
word bank also lacks obvious plurals and verb tenses, and then you wait patiently for
the timer to tick down while Garfield stares dead-eyed and open-mouthed into the abyss.
Then...well...you do it again a few times. If you want. It’s not necessary. I abandoned
a game partway through and the police didn’t show up at my house, so I don’t think you really
have to do anything at all. You can replay it, if you want. You can delete it from your
hard drive, like I did. You can never dig up a copy in the first place, if you’re
smarter than I am. The choice is yours. #25: Garfield’s A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
DS Oh, is Garfield a Tail of Two Kitties?? I’d
call Garfield a lot of things, but I’d never have thought of calling him that! Weird title
aside, Garfield’s A Tail of Two Kitties is based on the film of a similar name. Saying that
it’s “based on” the film might be a bit generous, however. They both star... Garfield, but
any similarities beyond that are purely coincidental. Instead of following the film’s
plot, this game just has the prince cat invite Garfield over for some grub. It’s basically
Super Mario 64, then, if Mario significantly reduced the standards of the games he appeared in
and had forelegs. Or...four legs. Either works. Garfield’s A Tail of Two Kitties is nothing.
It is a completely hollow experience. We’ve had worse – just today we’ve had worse – but this is
the video-game equivalent of an empty calorie. The levels are presented in 3D, but you’re actually
stuck on a 2D plane, leaving you to do little more than hop over gaps now and then. Obviously,
2D platformers can be great, but most of these levels don’t even have enemies to break up the
tedium. They just have...nothing. It’s as though someone built the world of a 3D platformer,
then didn’t have time to finish it, so they only coded 2D movement, slapped Garfield into it,
pretended it had something to do with a film, and moved on with their lives. It’s not offensively
buggy or anything, but it’s clearly unfinished. Gameplay variety is essentially nil, unless you
count the periodic “Garf-o-vision” sections, which provide a first-person perspective
while sickeningly allowing you to see from inside Garfield’s skull. Your job in these
sections is to drag the stylus around until Garfield’s eyes zoom in on something. You
know, I’m getting the impression that the developers don’t know how cats or eyes work.
Your big challenge at the end of the game is to look at some lasagna. That’s it. That’s the
end of the game. The only way it could be more embarrassing is if you played it naked
and closed the DS on your own genitals. #24: Garfield Gets Real (2009)
DS Garfield Gets Real, the motion picture,
had a modest budget of $10 million dollars, and it still managed to lose around 83% of that.
In fairness, it was only released to theaters in Turkey, while the rest of the world got it on DVD.
Was it good? I’m proud to report that I can’t say. Maybe it was. We’ve been too busy playing
flippin’ Garfield games to watch anything, so you tell me about the movie. In exchange,
I’ll tell you about the game: It’s pants. Alright, I can go on, because it’s also quite
weird. It’s broken into a few gameplay styles, such as catching books that fly of their own
accord, having a dance party, and even snapping photos to use as promotional material for the
film. You know, all of the stuff that Garfield famously does all of the time, we promise.
The game relies heavily on the touchscreen, including during the more-standard platforming
sections. And, yes, calling these “platforming sections” is an almost comical exaggeration,
but it’s the best description we’ve got. Touchscreen controls are always tricky to get
right, but it is possible. We’re glad that other games have shown us that it’s possible, because
that proves how little forgiveness we should have for Garfield Gets Real. Everything
in the game feels awkward and unrefined, which is especially puzzling as this was clearly
made for children. We aren’t saying that it’s difficult – it’s certainly not – but we are saying
that it’s needlessly frustrating. It’s also unfair that certain sequences demand perfect execution
when we can’t even count on the touchscreen to work reliably. At best, Garfield Gets
Real feels generic. Most of the time, though, we can’t even be that positive about it.
The game was meant to come to the Wii as well, and you can still find listings
for it dotted around the internet, but it was cancelled at some point in development.
Why? We’ll never know. I’m joking, of course; it’s because the film was a financial
vampire, sucking funds out of everyone who released related products until there was
nothing left. Rather good reason, I’d say. #23: Garfield: The Search for Pooky (2004)
Game Boy Advance Garfield: The Search for Pooky is a game about
our small furry friend rescuing his smaller, furrier friend. It seems that Pooky,
Garfield’s teddy bear, has been kidnapped by—and I quote—“Little Joe,” “Gerry Ratface,”
and “Scary Pete with a Big Sack.” Good for you, Pete, but you don’t need to brag about it.
As the adventure begins, Garfield needs Jon to open the front door, but the man refuses to do
so unless Garfield first rids the house of mice. This is appalling pet ownership, Mr. Arbuckle.
If your animal needs to go outside, don’t make it perform housework first. Just let it outside!
This is where the game’s problems rear their heads. You need to scour an enormous room, pick
up a mouse, walk over to a cage, drop it off, and then go and find/pick up another one, before
returning all the way back to the cage to drop it off again. This would be fine if you could find
all of the mice and then return to the cage but, no, you need to keep walking back and forth
across an unnecessarily long level just so the game can make clear exactly how
terrible it intends to make your life. Complete it, though, and you’ll...end up in
another room, where you have to do the same thing again. Also, Jon, you yelled at Garfield
for not doing chores when you can’t even keep your house clean. Look at the state of this place.
It’s full of hot dogs and bees. Clean your house, Jon! When you complete this task at last,
you’ll...end up in yet another room, where you have to do the same thing again. This game
gives new meaning to the word “tedium.” Actually, no it doesn’t. It fits the existing
definition of “tedium” very well. Sorry. The point is, Garfield has to drag
himself through one overlong, mindless, grating stage after another, frustrating
both of you in the process. Why? Well, he did it all for the pooky. Thank you, ladies and
gentlemen, you’ve been wonderful, goodnight. YEEH. #22: Garfield, Eat Your Words (1985)
Apple II Developed and released by book publisher Random
House for the Apple II personal computer, Garfield, Eat Your Words is basically an
extremely elaborate game of hangman. It is also an extremely simplified game of hangman.
Garfield gives you a clue and it’s your job to guess the word that he’s thinking of. Get it
wrong, and Garfield will scarf down his beloved lasagna. Get it right, however, and he will
be forced to eat the healthy contents of a bowl next to him. The universe doesn’t quite
hang in the balance, here; a cat’s BMI does, and Garfield is weighed between rounds to
measure your performance. It’s possibly the strangest method of keeping score
in any game. Please, if you can think of stranger ones, let me know in the comments.
It’s a weird game in general, really. How many games based on cartoon mascots see you competing
directly against that cartoon mascot with the goal of making it miserable? You don’t control Garfield
here, and you’re not on his side. He’s basically the antagonist, and it’s your job to defeat
him. Typically, in Garfield games, you help him succeed. Here, you must browbeat him into failure.
Is it good, though? Yes, of course; it’s a very good game and I like it a lot. Sorry, I read that
incorrectly. No, it’s not good by any stretch of the imagination, and I hate looking at it.
Since Garfield, Eat Your Words is a game about typing things on a keyboard, it controls
perfectly well. It also looks fine for an Apple II game. But it’s been a long time since
games like this were, y’know, sold for money, rather than being included as some between-level
activity for the sake of some variety. As the main attraction, there’s really not much to this
one. I’d say it’s disappointingly slight, but I’m actually far from disappointed
that I get to move on from it so quickly. #21: The Garfield Show: Threat
of the Space Lasagna (2010) Wii
You know that old saying, “Some days you’re the pigeon, and some days
you’re the statue?” Well, how about, “Some days you’re the cat, and some days you’re the
anthropomorphic space lasagna looking to destroy said cat”? No? Look, we played something called
The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna for you. The very least you can do is indulge me.
I don’t know what you might have expected from a game by this title, but a minigame
collection was the absolute last one that we expected. We thought it might be,
maybe, a 3D platformer? A space shooter? Literally anything other than Garfield Party.
Regardless, the game’s plot is based on “Pasta Wars,” the very first episode of The Garfield
Show. It even uses some footage from that episode for its cutscenes. The plot is that space
lasagna creatures have observed Garfield on Earth, eating actual lasagna, and they mistook it for
him eating...them. Right, space lasagna creatures probably aren’t very bright, so let’s move on.
The game does have multiplayer, which shouldn’t be worth pointing out in a genre like
this one, but with Garfield games, you really never know. You and a friend can choose
to play as either Garfield or as the space lasagna that is trying to take over the world. Frankly,
the world being conquered by space lasagna is practically humanity’s only hope at this point
but, still, take whichever side you like. There are technically 16 minigames, but some of
them are repeated multiple times, with different backgrounds. The backgrounds are repeated as well,
making the paltry amount of content here feel even more barren. Strangely, you can’t repeat minigames
during the story, and when you finish the game, your data is automatically reset. Rare is the
game that actively prevents you from replaying it. The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space
Lasagna got a PC port at the end of 2011, though it seems to only have been in Russia.
We suppose that that must have been a treat for Garfield fans who didn’t own a Wii. Oh, what
am I saying? Every Garfield fan owned a Wii. #20: Create with Garfield (1986)
Apple II, Commodore 64, PC It’s going to be very difficult to come up with
a full entry about comic-creation software, isn’t it? It’s going to be even more difficult to
do it again a few entries from now. Nevertheless, this is the path that I chose to walk,
and I must deal with the consequences. Actually, so must you, so strap in!
Create with Garfield suffers from problems that aren’t really its fault. There was only so
much that one could do with computer interfaces in 1986, and though it’s true that Create with
Garfield is clunky and irritating to navigate, it’s also just about as good as it could
have been. We are accustomed today to simpler interfaces and easier tools, but pressing numbers
on our keyboards to access isolated, text-only menus was par for the course back then. Computers
were rubbish, therefore you can’t entirely blame the software for also being rubbish. Nor
can you blame it for the extremely long time that it takes to load simple art assets. It’s
frustrating, but it’s also not something that the program could have worked around.
Basically, you choose a background, you choose your sprites, and you type some text
into the word balloons. You could then save your creation to a disk or send it to a dot-matrix
printer, if you weren’t doing anything with the rest of your evening and enjoyed the
sound of mechanical screeching. Weirdly, Create with Garfield is sometimes described as
an edutainment game. I don’t know what’s meant to be educational about making a cat complain
about Mondays, personally. Then again, you do get to be really good at spelling “lasagna” after
a few hours, so maybe that’s what they meant. Create with Garfield was rereleased in a Deluxe
Edition the following year with additional art and a few quality-of-life changes. Also, a
companion disc was apparently released in 1989, though we can’t find much information
about that. Unless that disc contained a different game entirely, I can’t imagine
that it represented much of an improvement. #19: Garfield’s Typing Pal (2003)
PC You. Yes, you! Do you need help learning to type?
I’ve seen your comments on these videos, so I know that you do. Well, allow Garfield to help, and
allow him to do so in the tried-and-tested format of bizarre minigames. As you learn to master your
extremely complicated keyboard, you will surf, mistreat an animal, eat food that somebody else
is throwing away, and dunk a spider in your own coffee for what I’m sure is a very good reason.
In addition to the minigames, Garfield’s Typing Pal offers general advice, which often made
me feel uncomfortable. In at least one case, it openly threatened me. Garfield’s methods
are certainly extreme but, in all honesty, they seem to get results. Garfield’s Typing Pal
was surprisingly well received as an educational tool, and you’ll find plenty of positive reviews
online. Not here in this video, of course, but on sites that focus on edutainment and family games.
All joking aside, that’s great, and if you absolutely need a cat whose blood is 60%
pasta sauce to teach you how to type, Garfield’s Typing Pal seems to come quite
strongly recommended. I really can’t say, because I already know how to type perfectly
well, and whenever I do type poorly, I pretend that I did so intentionally, as a
joke. That’s a typing tip for you and, I promise, it will serve you well. Maybe I should release my
own typing game. Everyone else seems to get one. Even Mavis Beacon, and she didn’t even exist!
Garfield’s Typing Pal was also released in a “deluxe” edition, but I haven’t been
able to find any real information about the differences. It seems to just be
compatible with more recent operating systems, but I admit that my typing game palate is not
particularly refined, and I could be overlooking obvious and important improvements. We’ll never
know, and on marches the Garfield game parade. #18: A Week of Garfield (1989)
Famicom A Week of Garfield is a strange case.
Garfield is an American property, but it got this Japan-only game. It didn’t even
release in other English-speaking territories, despite the fact that the game was already fully
translated. Why? Was Garfield especially popular in Japan? Looking into it, the only thing I
could find was a claim from The Independent that Garfield was, emphatically, not popular in
Japan, so I’m even more baffled. A few sources claim that developer Towa Chiki was unable to
secure the rights to Garfield in the West. In that case, though, why make the game at all?
A Week of Garfield is about as uninspired as 8-bit platformers can get, and the design is
atrocious. You start with only one life and an extremely tiny life bar, meaning that you can
only get hit a few times before you need to start from the beginning. I never thought I’d wish for
Garfield to die less quickly, but here we are. If you make it to another stage, you’ll continue
from there upon death, but that’s no easy task; enemies are poorly placed and difficult to avoid,
and unless you find consumable projectile weapons, you have to rely on a kick which has no range
whatsoever; Garfield simply raises his foot where he stands, all but ensuring that you will take
damage as well. At the end of each level you’ll need to leap around the screen at random until you
uncover a hidden key. Why? Flip you, that’s why. Each time you finish a level, Jon will babble
a single text box worth of nonsense at you, and then you platform through another stage
that you will hate. A Week of Garfield is the kind of game that wears you down through
tedium and sloppiness rather than difficulty, and it’s not even nice to look at. Garfield
appears to have flippers rather than arms, and his jumping sprite might be the
most unnerving thing I’ve ever seen. Finish the game and you’ll be rewarded
with Jon saying “CONGRATULATION BOYS,” which qualified as an ending for a video
game in 1989. Times certainly do change. #17: Scholastic’s Comic Book
Maker Featuring Garfield (1998) PC
Scholastic is a U.S.-based children’s book publisher, best known for introducing young
audiences to series such as Goosebumps, Animorphs, and The Baby-Sitters Club. They also host Book
Fairs in schools, and many people watching this video probably remember seeing a lot of Garfield
collections on sale there when they were children. Those collections were just products carried
by Scholastic, however; so far as we can tell, Scholastic’s Comic Book Maker Featuring
Garfield was the only official collaboration between the company and the tubby tabby.
It’s essentially Create with Garfield again, but better. It’s more intuitive, it runs on
better hardware, and the finished comics look better. You’ll still get assaulted by bullies for
writing and printing your own Garfield fan comics, but they do look better. Mine do, at least. I’ve
been printing out my own custom Garfield comics and hanging them all over the office for weeks.
I haven’t heard any laughter yet, but that just means that everybody is laughing on the inside.
There’s not all that much to the experience. In fact, the list of features on the back of the box
is actually just a list of characters in the game. What is here, though, works perfectly well.
The simple style of the Garfield comics lends itself nicely to a mix-and-match art program
like this. It’s not especially versatile, but actual Garfield strips are not especially
versatile, either, so that actually lends things an air of authenticity. I’m not even
certain if I just insulted Jim Davis or made a perfectly benign observation but there we are.
It would be nice if the program had some music to listen to, or at least unique sound
effects. It’s a bit disorientating to hear the default Windows sounds whenever you
do something, as it keeps making me think an error message has popped up somewhere that I
can’t see. Ultimately, though, it’s fine. It’s easy to place characters and objects, it’s
easy to insert your own dialogue, and it’s easy to close the program 12 seconds later, when
you’re bored, which is the most important thing. #16: Garfield Labyrinth (1993)
Game Boy Oh...it’s this game again. Yeah, see, sometimes
we end up having to talk about the same game twice for these ranked lists. That makes sense
in a lot of cases. We ranked all of the Nintendo franchises and then ranked all of the Mario games,
for instance, so we expected some overlap. A bit less predictable is the fact that ranking all of
the Ghostbusters games would lead to overlap with the Garfield games. Even so, that game starred
Peter Venkman. Here, the same game stars Garfield. We went into the history a bit in our
Ghostbusters video. It’s a story of both cashing in and stealing IPs, and the reason we
covered the history in that entry is...well, there’s not much else to say about this game.
Garfield Labyrinth is rubbish. If you’d like me to be more specific, allow me to elaborate.
The game requires you to navigate various rooms while avoiding traps and enemies. You
need to find keys and other objects and make your way to the exit. The problem is that it
simply isn’t fun. The levels are far too big, making it difficult to remember where you’ve
tried looking and where you haven’t. The controls also feel stiff, which is not a problem when
solving puzzles but is a problem when engaging with enemies or platforming. Even the simple
act of moving Garfield around feels heavy and sluggish...then again, maybe that’s just the
game trying to be as accurate as possible. Some of the rooms are easy to the point of
boredom and others are difficult to the point of frustration. Also, the rooms are arranged
without any regard for a difficulty curve, so that the difficulty feels more
like an abrupt punch in the nose. There is a story, at least: Garfield falls
down a hole. There. That’s the story. Also, Odie shouts his name, despite being a
character who does not talk. At the end, the two reunite and come...let
me...just...count...six pixels away from kissing. It’s certainly the most
romantic sequence in any of these games, and if you’d rank it higher on your personal list
as a result, then who are we to yuck your yum. #15: Garfield’s Wild Ride (2013)
PC Serving as a sort of combination between
Flappy Bird, Canabalt, and Turbo Tunnel, Garfield’s Wild Ride is a bit of a strange
game. It works, certainly, but that’s about all that I can say for certain. Well, I can
also say that it was available for smartphones, but it doesn’t seem to be available on the phone
that we use, so we’ll have to take the internet’s word that the two versions are identical.
Your job is to delay Garfield’s inevitable death as long as possible. That sounds morbid, but
really this is just one of those endless-runner obstacle-course games. It’s nice and colorful,
and it adds a few powerups and other gimmicks to keep things interesting, but, really,
you’re just moving Garfield vertically in order to avoid hazards and collect coins.
Was it strange to hear that we move him vertically? Yes, for some reason, Garfield
flies in this game. You know that big, orange cat who doesn’t even want to get out of
bed? Well, he flies here. The reason? Because that’s the formula, and this lazy, cash-in, mobile
game company didn’t even care enough to make it fit the character. Who made this hunk of junk
anyway? Wait, Bandai-Namco? Is this officially the Dark Souls of Garfield games? If I didn’t have
any idea what Dark Souls is, I’d have to say yes! There’s no real objective. You just flap around
until, at some point, the game moves too quickly for you to keep up and Garfield crashes and dies.
Sort of like the past 20 years of his career, am I right? Everyone? Am I right? I don’t keep
up with Garfield, so I don’t know if I am right. You can gather coins to unlock cosmetics in the
shop, and pick up lasagna to unlock trophies. If you like score attack games along these
lines—and you already know whether or not you do, because you’ve already played at least
a dozen—then Garfield’s Wild Ride is perfectly fine. There. That’s the nicest
thing that anybody will ever say about it. #14: Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal (1987)
Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal is actually a game that we hoped would be quite good
when we started working on this list. Garfield debuted in comic strips. Graphical adventure
games are sort of like interactive comic strips. Right? I’m reaching here, I know, but my point
is that something like this could actually work better for the character than, say, a first-person
shooter in which Garfield finds a lasagna cannon. Although now that I say it that sounds quite fun…
The story involves rescuing Arlene, G.F.’s gf, from the pound. As this is a graphical adventure
game, however, that’s far from a straightforward task, and you’ll spend much of your time
wandering from screen to screen, picking up items, and being utterly confused about how, where, and
why to use them. Gamers of a certain age will be well familiar with that game-design philosophy.
Younger gamers will, understandably, see that as more of a game-design travesty. It’s never clear
about what to do, but that was deliberate on the part of the designers, as the game was short. How
short? Well, the walkthrough is about the same length as this entry. Keeping players confused was
the only way to get them to stick around at all. The different versions of the game aren’t
identical, but the main differences are cosmetic, sometimes amusingly so, such as in the Amstrad
CPC version, in which Garfield shuffles around as though he’s soiled his non-existent pants.
The game does a good job of capturing the overall feel of Garfield. For instance, you can only
carry one item at a time, but Odie can carry another. If you need what Odie is carrying, you
can kick him to make him drop it. You can also drink Jon’s coffee to make your tiredness level
decrease. It’s a cute little experience, but it doesn’t have much to offer beyond its charm.
I wish I could tell you that Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal was a big, fat, hairy deal-ight!
Sadly, it’s not. It’s also not big or fat. And I’m certainly not sure how a computer game is meant to
be in any way hairy. False advertising all around! #13: Garfield Kart (2013)
PC “an unforgettable gaming experience.” “God
came down from the heavens himself and guided my hand to the ‘add to cart’ button.” “Me
and my ancestors have waited centuries for this moment.” “this game gave me a organism.”
“Garfield Kart™ saved my life.” “Garfield sex.” Those are just a few of the many glowing
user reviews for Garfield Kart. They’re also the only ones we can repeat on
YouTube without getting demonetized. Nobody actually enjoys Garfield Kart – not
this version, anyway – and the mere suggestion that anyone would enjoy it is inherently
absurd. That’s not because the game is bad; it’s because it’s thoroughly mediocre. There
is so little to Garfield Kart that there isn’t much that can be enjoyed. There’s even less
of it at first; you have to unlock most of the drivers and accessories. By no means
is this a bad thing for many racing games, but with so little reason to play
Garfield Kart in the first place, it seems almost insulting to ask people to replay
it repeatedly just to unlock Harry the Cat. It’s a very basic kart racer, with very basic
tracks, items, and hazards. The controls feel stiff at first, but you do get used to them. The
problem is that...well, there’s nothing to do. Garfield Kart is single-player only.
You can’t compete with anybody, ever, which is sort of like releasing an FPS that
doesn’t have any weapons in it. Multiplayer is an integral part of the kart-racing experience,
making Garfield Kart feel more like a demo or a beta build than an actual, finished game.
It’s not terrible, but it’s completely hollow. Also, I didn’t just read out some of the Steam
reviews for the sake of killing time; I did it because they seem to be the reason that the game
got a port to the 3DS two years later. At least, I assume that that port was the result of the
developers not realizing that the positive reviews were actually people making fun of the
game; no other explanation for such a delayed, bare-bones port makes sense to me.
Fortunately, we’ll see Garfield Kart again. Christ, I must be the first person in
history to have spoken that sentence. #12: Garfield’s Fun Fest (2008)
DS Did you know that the film Garfield Gets Real
was the first part of a trilogy? Probably not, because Garfield Gets Real was a bomb, and it
never should have gotten two sequels in a universe that has any sense of justice. The second film
was Garfield’s Fun Fest, which, like Garfield Gets Real, got a video game adaptation. The third film
was Garfield’s Pet Force, which I’ve never seen, but it looks so much like the worst thing
ever made that I must conclude that it is, in fact, the worst thing ever made. It didn’t
get a game, however, so...let’s appreciate small mercies wherever we may find them.
Garfield’s Fun Fest sounds like it would be a minigame collection, but it’s not that. It
does have some gimmicky touch controls, but much of it is a fairly straight – if simplistic –
platformer. Your goal varies in each of the stages, but the formula is basic: run, jump,
climb, swat at enemies, find the goal. Repeat. It’s...fine, actually. I’d cast a look of
extreme suspicion upon anyone who claimed that it was good, but it’s certainly not bad.
Things get a bit more varied when you play the other level types. The riding stages are
actually quite fun, and even though the touch controls rear their heads here, they
function well enough. As quick diversions between the main stages, they’re not bad.
Then there are the performance levels, which...well, it was a Nintendo DS game,
and I’m fairly sure levels exactly like this were legally required at some point,
but surely by 2008 we all agreed that these were terrible and we wouldn’t make them anymore.
Garfield does a little dance on the top screen, which you can’t watch because you’re busy
tapping stars on the bottom screen. These get trickier as the game progresses, but they
never get more fun. That’s a shame, because the platforming is competent and the auto-running is
decent. This, though? This is just... depressing. Still, it’s but one gameplay style, and the
other two are fine, so maybe Garfield’s Fun Fest builds to a great final level that
justifies the entire experience! Oh. Oh, no, it doesn’t do that at all. It does
precisely the opposite. What a surprise. 11. Garfield Lasagna Party (2022)
PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, PC Let’s take a quick moment, shall we, to think
about the key components of a lasagna. Obviously, there’s sheets of perfectly cooked pasta,
some kind of creamy white sauce, golden, bubbling cheese, and, of course, the meat. If
you were throwing a dinner party during which you planned to serve this delicious Italian delicacy,
but you left out the rich, flavourful, meat (or meat substitute if you’re a veggie), then it’s
safe to say that your guests would be, for want of a better word, somewhat pissed. Don’t get us
wrong, your dish would probably taste fine, but it would lack substance, and that, dear viewers, is
exactly the problem with Garfield Lasagna Party. The game itself is a Mario Party clone without
shame, though in fairness, it’s not the worst one ever made. In the main gameplay mode, up to
four players can compete against one another (or against the AI if they’re lacking in the friend
department), and the aim is to roll dice, navigate the board, win minigames, and ultimately, collect
as much of the saucy, starchy treat as possible. It also comes with two other modes; one
in which players can freely select any of the 32 minigames to play, and one
where the computer picks for them. Speaking of the minigames, the vast majority are
surprisingly competent and easy to understand. One minute, players will be tidying up
toys and placing them in the right spot, and the next, they’ll be hurling pizzas
into ovens with reckless abandon. On the technical front, the game is just
fine. Jim Davis’ iconic designs make a fairly unscathed leap into 3D, the controls
function as they should, and the game seems to suffer from minimal bugs and glitches.
Alas, a serious lack of content holds the game back from greatness. Unlike its moustachioed,
pipe-loving counterpart, the game comes with just one board, boasts only four playable characters,
and doesn’t even have any unlockables. In a world where Mario Party didn’t exist, Garfield Lasagna
Party might be worth a look, but thankfully, we don’t live in such a hell, and as such,
Garfield’s most recent outing just doesn’t cut it. #10: Garfield: Lasagna World Tour (2007)
PlayStation 2, PC Essentially a worse version of Garfield:
Saving Arlene – which we’ll get to – Garfield: Lasagna World Tour pales in comparison in just
about every way...and it’s not as though Saving Arlene was a great game to begin with. First,
the good: It has a wider scope than that game, taking Garfield and Odie out of their neighborhood
and sending them on something closer to an actual adventure, with varied locations.
You’ll visit Egypt, Italy, and Mexico on your world tour...then again, that hardly makes it
a tour of the world. That would be like me saying I took a tour of England because I visited work,
home, and a public toilet. Look, we’re trying desperately to be positive, okay? It’s just that
these Garfield games are making it so very hard. Otherwise, it’s a similar game, and it even reuses
Saving Arlene’s assets and mechanics. Sometimes they’re tweaked, at least. For instance, that
game allowed you to eat meals that would give you special abilities. This one allows you
to collect costumes, ultimately for the same purpose. There’s even one that is... probably
not okay, to be honest, but, still, nice idea. The plot revolves around a treasure hunt, with
the winner receiving a lifetime’s supply of lasagna. It’s basically the Willy Wonka film,
but instead of great songs and Gene Wilder, it’s full of crap. Garfield’s participation
lands him on the radar of “unnamed antagonist,” because the developers couldn’t be arsed to
name this grey cat Larry or something. Also, they don’t seem to realize that there already is
a famous grey cat in Garfield’s social circles, and they’ve basically just given us Evil Nermal.
At one point, Garfield and Odie switch bodies, so...that’s something new, at least.
Lasagna World Tour is, basically, harmless. It’s the sort of game that a lot of people will
have no doubt enjoyed when they were children, and that’s okay, especially if they
grew up, developed better taste, and sold it for pocket change on eBay. It’s
very paint-by-numbers, with no particular reason to seek it out. Even if you just want a
3D Garfield platformer, there are better ones. #9: Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006)
PlayStation 2, PC Oh, yes, it’s back-to-back Worst Games Ever
favorites. Well, “favorites” in inverted commas. This one is better than Garfield: Lasagna World
Tour in precisely the same way that having a door close on your finger is better than having
it close on your head. Neither is pleasant, neither will bring you fond memories,
but there will always be a clear winner. The game is a bit more in line with the
plot of the film than the DS version, and it actually feels like a video game rather
than a waking nightmare, so kudos for that. We’re less enamored with the presentation, though.
Granted, this game is attempting to ape the visual style of the film, and that’s understandable. But
it still feels a bit...mismatched. Garfield looks like a CGI monstrosity, the other animals
look realistic (by 2006 PS2 standards), and the environments look lifeless.
It plays decently, however. Garfield controls smoothly enough, and he’s got more
options for how to get around than he has in almost any other game. Also, the music is...
kind of good? Yeah, I’ll go with “kind of good.” Our real complaints with it come down to two
things. First, Garfield simply doesn’t look good in this style. I understand that some
folks might like it, but I think that he consistently looks better with his comic-strip
design. Second, the game stinks like a gigantic poo. There is nothing to this game. You walk
around one area, trigger a few simple missions, unlock a new move, and start the cycle over
again. It culminates with you butt-stomping a model city while an elderly man throws bottles
at you. I’m certainly glad that it ends at all, don’t get me wrong, but it would have been nice
if anything interesting happened along the way. Also, the missions are extremely basic. Smashing
vases, collecting clocks, chasing birds, and having dance parties. What is it with these
dance parties? Why do game developers keep looking at Garfield and thinking that this
is a creature who likes to dance? Garfield does not like to dance, I do not like watching
Garfield dance, and I am moving on right now. #8: Garfield (2004)
PlayStation 2, PC Garfield for the PlayStation 2 and PC begins
the way all Garfield media should begin: Jon threatening his cat with euthanasia. ...alright,
he’s actually being threatened with a diet, but almost the same thing, eh fellas?
Actually, Garfield is deeply unhealthy, and a diet should be something that Jon does in
order to help Garfield, rather than punish him. Garfield is basically a sphere, and while I am
no veterinarian I don’t think that that’s good. After a quick nap, Garfield finds that Odie has
destroyed the house, and it’s up to our hero to clean everything up. You have around eight and a
half hours to accomplish this task – presumably the length of Jon’s workday, or the amount
of time that the man spends crying in his own wardrobe – and you do so with a vacuum strapped
to your back. It’s like a cross between Chibi-Robo and Luigi’s Mansion. Actually, since you’re a
cat, maybe it’s more like Blinx: The Time Sweeper. This game isn’t terrible. It’s bad, yes, let me
be crystal clear about that, but it’s bad in ways that still make it enjoyable. You spend the game
exploring stately Arbuckle Manor and cleaning up the mess. A task like this is so mundane that it’s
actually kind of charming. It’s also perfectly in line with what the plot of an actual Garfield &
Friends episode might be, or an animated special. It isn’t the best-looking game, it
has too many long loading screens, and Odie keeps running around, bothering you
constantly until you kick him into submission. But it’s shockingly okay for what it is, and the
simple suck/blow mechanic suits the concept well. Again, it is not good, but this isn’t a tier list, where we can stick everything in the F row
and tell it to F off. This is a ranking, which means that mediocre games can end up
with high placements simply because so many other games were worse. That’s the case with this
one. It ranks this high not because it’s great, but because it did not actively make me
wish that my home would collapse on me. #7: Garfield: Caught in the Act (1995)
Mega Drive It’s a tale as old as time: A cat is watching
television. The cat breaks the television. The cat attempts to repair the television
and is teleported to other worlds based on the programs he’s been watching. Actually,
that just sounds like another game developer trying desperately to shoehorn Garfield
into a platformer! You can’t fool me. Garfield: Caught in the Act may have a title that
sounds like Jon walked in on his cat doing what cats should only ever do alone, but it looks and
sounds good. The presentation is the only real highlight, however. The game controls rather
poorly. It’s both slippery and unresponsive, with quick movements sometimes failing to
register. I can only assume that Garfield is so hungry, he’s eating my inputs! Wakka wakka.
The animations take a very long time to complete, leaving you unable to throw a projectile, for
instance, because Garfield is taking his sweet time turning around. Additionally, we admire
the game’s willingness to shake up the visual style and gameplay between levels, but it often
feels like it’s trying too many different things rather than focusing on any one thing long enough
to do it well. The levels are rarely any fun, and they’ll wear you down easily as you’re
trying to work out whatever it is that you need to do in order to progress. It’s not particularly
difficult, but it does manage to be very annoying. On the bright side, you’ll get to play a
minigame in which you shatter the skulls of your partner, best friend, and owner.
Garfield, there’s humorous misbehavior, and then there’s whatever you call this.
Interestingly, Garfield: Caught in the Act was actually developed and published by Sega.
Yes, Sega made games featuring both the Blue Blur and the Orange...Object. This is what
eventually allowed the game’s PC port to be included in the legendary Sonic and Garfield
Pack. Maybe we could create our own TripleJump Sonic and Garfield pack by editing this list
together with the Every Sonic Game list! Honestly, this game gets stranger the
more you learn about it...and we are not finished learning about it, because
it’s Peter’s turn to lead the class. #6: Garfield: Caught in the Act (1995)
Game Gear Garfield: Caught in the Act for the Game
Gear is a better game. It is not a good game, but it is a better game. It certainly doesn’t
look or sound as nice, but the controls are much tighter and the animations less intrusive, leading
to a game that...actually lets you play it. I’ve always seen that as a plus, personally. It also
has more levels than the Mega Drive version, and the levels that were carried over have been
completely reworked, making for a whole new game. That’s the good news. The bad news is that
the levels still aren’t great, and it’s a matter of picking your poison. If you prefer to
be poisoned by control issues and enemy swarms, go with the Mega Drive version. If
you prefer to get lost in endless, maze-like levels, with blind jumps that are
made worse by the Game Gear’s tiny screen, then this is the one for you. In either case, you
end up with a game that has its charms, but unless it also has a nostalgic pull for you, it’s going
to be very difficult to overlook the problems. Additionally, as with the Mega Drive version,
prepare for jokey level titles that run the entire gamut of quality, from the “bad” all the way up
to the “still quite bad.” There’s Catsablanca, Slobbin Hood, and The Curse of Cleofatra, among
others, and I think you’ll agree that those all deserved to stay buried in the litter tray.
We might as well cover some additional Caught in the Act trivia. For instance, the PC port has
the Mega Drive version’s levels, but presents them in the same sequence as the Game Gear version.
It also adds an Alien Landscape stage, which was cut from the Mega Drive game. A 32X version
was considered, at least briefly. And, finally, something called Garfield: The Lost Levels was
released through the Sega Channel in 1996. It’s considered “lost media” now, but it seems to have
been an expanded and reworked version of Caught in the Act. Maybe one day it will surface. If
it does, I’m not going to make eye contact. #5: Garfield’s Mad About Cats (1999)
PC After being yelled at by Jon yet again for being,
essentially, a ball of lard with googly eyes, Garfield sets out to create the perfect
animal by combining aspects of various other cats. I did something similar
when my parents once criticized me, and to this very day I’m not allowed near
cemeteries. The game is —and I cannot believe I am about to say this—an edutainment game that
is actually kind of okay. It’s far from great, let’s not go crazy, but it’s well enough
made, it teaches kids about animals, and the presentation is solid. It has a genuine
sense of humor and actually seems to care about offering some degree of fun. That really
shouldn’t be a novel concept, but here we are! As Garfield conducts his experiments, you get
to learn about different attributes of cats and different regions of the world. Along the
way, you can participate in other activities, such as playing Space Invaders, hitting targets
with chickens, and helping Jon get dressed...when it works. The minigames are certainly not created
equally, and I’d be lying if I said that any of them were great, but they’re better than you will
find in most edutainment games. Trust us, we know The game also looks rather good overall,
with animated sequences pulling inspiration from Garfield & Friends. In fact, the main
appeal of Garfield’s Mad About Cats is that it features that show’s voice cast. This
basically means that we get to listen to the excellent Lorenzo Music deliver Garfield’s
lines, which is a nice treat both for longtime fans and for...y’know...anyone who likes
good voice acting. Thom Huge reprises his role as Jon Arbuckle to similarly welcome effect.
Hey, did you know that when Lorenzo Music passed away in 2001, Thom Huge retired from performing
Jon, out of respect for his deceased costar? We didn’t until we researched this entry, and now
we’re all very sad. Their performances are by far the highlights here, and it’s a bit disappointing
that an edutainment title is the closest that we ever got to a Garfield & Friends game. Still,
as we’ve seen, it could have been much worse. #4: Garfield and His Nine Lives (2006)
Game Boy Advance Let’s not mince words: We did not expect a
ranking of Garfield games to be packed with brilliant experiences. We didn’t even
expect most of them to be fun. We did, however, hope that we would come away
impressed by at least one game. After all, Garfield is a cuddly cartoon mascot, and there’s
no shortage of great games built around that kind of character exactly. Surely Garfield could
give us at least one competent platformer. The good news, I suppose, is that he
did. The bad news is that it’s taken us this much of the list to find it. Even
then, it doesn’t go beyond competence. It’s worth celebrating what the game does right.
It looks nice. Each of the levels takes place in a different setting. Everything controls well,
and you can do more than just jump and attack. Oh, and the music is good. That’s about it,
though. The absolute core experience is fine, but the game works very hard to make sure that it
doesn’t accidentally attempt anything interesting. If you’re just looking to move Garfield around
a few levels that aren’t appallingly designed in a game that is not massively frustrating, then
Garfield and His Nine Lives is what you’re after. Also, if you’re curious, this game is not related
in any way to the similarly named book Garfield: His 9 Lives, or to the animated special
that followed. Which is probably good, because that special just involved
watching Garfield die over and over again, and it traumatized an entire generation.
Speaking of the title, though, this game doesn’t do the joke of actually giving Garfield
nine lives. Some of his other games do, but not the one built around the “nine lives” concept.
If you’re curious which titles do the joke, there’s The Search for Pooky, Saving Arlene,
Lasagna World Tour, and the DS version of A Tail of Two Kitties. Yeah, the joke is far too
obvious to be clever, but it makes me disappointed when a game doesn’t think to do it. There’s no
winning, really. I suppose the only solution is to not make Garfield games at all. Actually,
let’s all agree to that solution right now. #3: Garfield’s Nightmare (2007)
DS Garfield’s Nightmare is a strange game, but its
name might be even stranger. If you look it up, you will find many references to Kennywood, an
amusement park in Pennsylvania, which had a ride of the same name. Sadly, Garfield’s Nightmare
seems to have been a nightmare for Kennywood; in 2004, they repurposed a ride called
The Old Mill, which had been built back in 1901. Garfield’s Nightmare wasn’t the first
time that the ride was repurposed, but it was a controversial decision, and the Garfield
branding and imagery were removed in 2020. Why are we talking about the ride? Well, because
it’s more interesting than the game. Quite fun though, right? Anyway, the game begins with a
little comic strip that outlines the premise: Garfield eats too much and goes to sleep. I
mean, that’s the premise of most of my evenings, as well, but nobody seems interested
in making a game based on those. It’s an extremely basic platformer, but it
works fine and the soundtrack is quite good. You mainly navigate Garfield’s nightmares by
jumping, bouncing, and crawling, none of which is particularly groundbreaking, but it controls
well enough. Ultimately, Garfield’s Nightmare is capable of achieving what it sets out to do, which
alone means that this game places worryingly high. You play through four distinct nightmares,
and you complete some minigames along the way, as well. That’s about it, though. You do lots
of things that seem as though they should qualify as variety, but very little of it feels
varied. We’re also not fans of the visual style, though calling it a “style” might be too
polite. It doesn’t look bad, but it does look bland and at least a little unpolished.
The most interesting thing about the game is that the bosses are all puns based on the names
of famous people: Warren Batty, Patrick Sweaty, Jean Cloud, and...Franz Coughka. Couldn’t think
of a fourth actor to name your snowman boss after, could you, Garfield’s Nightmare?
As a breezy timewaster, Garfield’s Nightmare is perfectly fine. We just wish
that it had a little more passion behind it. #2: Garfield: Saving Arlene (2005)
PlayStation 2 Garfield: Saving Arlene is a game about Garfield
saving Arlene. Who is Arlene? She’s the pink one. Well, I think she’s the pink one. It’s
possible that she’s hairless and that’s her flesh. You’re welcome. Sometimes she’s portrayed
as Garfield’s girlfriend, sometimes just a friend, and sometimes the distant object of his
affections, depending upon the particular piece of media. Here, she is scooped up by
the Animal Annihilation Facility, and it’s up to Garfield to break her out. That seems to
be one of the fallback plots of Garfield games, with the others being “Garfield is dreaming” and
“Jon Arbuckle is completely sick of his housecat.” The chief gimmick – or maybe “chef gimmick” – of
this game is Garfield’s ability to prepare food with ingredients he finds on the ground.
Make lasagna, and you’ll have your health restored. Make cheesecake, and you can float.
Make chili and you’ll breathe fire. Make a burger, and you’ll punt Odie across the
screen. I don’t really understand this, personally. I had a burger for lunch and, yes,
I’ve kicked many of my beloved colleagues across the room in the time since, but I did it by
choice. The burger had nothing to do with it. The game isn’t awful, the visuals are nice, and
I like the way the screen will sometimes divide itself into multiple comic panels to give you
a clearer view of what’s happening or where you need to go. It really does seem to be trying, and
it more or less succeeds at what it sets out to do. It doesn’t set out to do much, but it’s not
as though most of these other games did, either. The only things that I know I hate are
the level titles. Sinuous Sewers might now be my least favorite pairing of words in
the English language. There’s also Naughty Night and [shudder] Hound Pound, making the
whole experience seem unnecessarily...filthy. Actually, I hate one more thing: In addition
to a “saving Arlene” game, we learn at the end that it was also a “Garfield dreaming” game.
If they’d spent another 30 minutes to design a Jon Arbuckle model, we could have had all three
Garfield game types at once. Missed opportunity. #1: Garfield Kart: Furious Racing (2019)
PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, PC Somehow, Garfield Kart returned. Ominous
words, yes, but we’re glad that it did, because this is Garfield’s best game. Yes. This.
Is Garfield’s best game. Does that sound like a backhanded compliment? Well, good; you’ve seen
the rest of this list; we have every right to vent our frustration. It also goes to show,
however, how significantly a game can change based on the presence or absence of one feature.
This time, it’s multiplayer, which is even online in this case. Multiplayer, frankly, is something
that no kart racer should be without. The entire appeal of the genre comes from tormenting
your friends by using obnoxious characters to chuck obnoxious items at them. Doing that
alone just feels...empty. A truly great kart racer might hold somebody’s interest
in single player for a little while, but they need multiplayer in order to fully shine.
Garfield Kart: Furious Racing has multiplayer. Does it fully shine? Well, it shines more;
we’ll give it that. In fact, it’s fun. There’s nothing particularly special about it, but the
framework is addictive enough that you and a few friends – or some strangers around the world – can
end up playing it far longer than you intended to. What’s more, the game didn’t just add multiplayer;
it tidied up the experience in other respects as well. You can select many more options from
the start without having to unlock them, which is very welcome, and everything looks and
sounds much better. The tracks are essentially the same ones from the previous game, but in a
few cases they have been tweaked and improved. Are we breaking our own rules by including
a port? We don’t think so. Garfield Kart: Furious Racing offers just enough for us
to count it as a successor rather than a rerelease. The addition of multiplayer changes
the fundamental experience of the game, just as playing chess against a computer is always going
to be different from playing against a human. Only this is a kart racer, which means that you’re
pelting each other with the pawns and periodically spilling lasagna all over the board. The metaphor
isn’t water-tight but you get the idea, okay? Is Garfield Kart: Furious Racing great?
It is most certainly not great. But if you and your friends are kart racing fans and
you’ve played the better games to death, you could do much worse than this. It’s
bland, yes, and not all that memorable, but it’s actually fun. And, in the end,
that’s all we ever wanted. Kart on, Garfield.
