Garfield is a lazy fat cat, and it would seem that he would be entirely too lazy to indulge in the antics commonly associated with a platform game. However that may be, though, he is the star of Garfield and His Nine Lives on the GBA. Can he summon up enough energy to finish the levels and get to the end? For those players who can hang with the game until the end, it would appear so.

In Garfield and His Nine Lives, Garfield is asleep after eating a huge meal.  He begins to have strange dreams one after the other, one for each of his nine lives. So much for the background story.

There are nine levels to correspond to Garfield’s nine lives. They include a visit to the Arbuckle family farm, a circus, a haunted house and a sewer filled with spiders. During each of these levels, he must make it to the end without dying while avoiding enemies.  In some of the levels, he must collect items like eggs and cats, or find a key to unlock a door. Other collectibles include health point items, plus special things like Pooky and food items.

This is a very basic platformer designed for young children. Garfield can jump and kick, but that’s about it. There aren’t any power-ups or special weapons that I could see, and each level is much like the other. While I applaud the designers for making the game truly playable by kids (a claim that is made often, but not realized in actuality), the gameplay is not very exciting and could have been varied a bit without sacrificing ease of play. A few of the levels offer some differences like a trampoline in one that Garfield can jump on, but most of the time Garfield just moves along the screen, kicking enemies, jumping over obstacles and climbing ladders. Interesting power-ups, like maybe some type of shield in the food-fight level or special shooting items would have been fun. Mini-games would also have been a nice feature.

While this game is very easy, some of the enemies are difficult to attack. For instance, the ghosts in the haunted house are almost impossible to kill by jumping and kicking them and Garfield’s best bet is to just avoid them. Also, for being an easy game, it’s a little harsh with Garfield’s health points.  After four hits, he has to return to the beginning of the level, and after five lives on the easy level are used up, he must begin the game again. This is a bit hard on the younger set.

This is a decent game for the small fry, but one that may bore fairly soon.

Gameplay: 6.0
The gameplay is very simplistic and somewhat boring, due to the sameness of it all.

Graphics: 7.0
The graphics are fairly good for the GBA and all the characters look like they should.

Sound: 6.0
The sound is decent and not annoying.

Difficulty: Easy
The difficulty level ranges from  easy to difficult, but the only difference really is in the number of lives Garfield has.

Concept: 6.0
Nothing new is shown.

Overall: 6.0
This is a wholly average game for small children, and just doesn’t have anything to raise it above other similar games. I like the fact that the designers kept it simple for ease of play, but variety shouldn’t have been sacrificed in the process.