Preliminary: Wow is that Sound annoying as hell, but ooooo, a platformer that has the ability to fight back!!!, for 2 platforms I enjoy and find readily playable (SG-1000 and MSX, not sure which one I wanna play it on ah!), and seems to have tight controls. Only complains are, like I said, the sound but also the single-screen/DonkeyKong-derivative format, rather than the Manic Miner-derivative format I prefer. I'm also not sure if there's a set ending, which I usually prefer. I'm not feeling well, something inflamed on the right side of my face, so I need to get some rest. But I'm excited for this one. Praying the controls are reasonable (looks like it's joystick-able, yay), hoping I didn't overhype it heh.

Look: 8/10 Nothing particularly special, but cutesy, fits the theme, and functional. For a home game, it's quite impressive, looks and plays like an arcade game from the era. (I falsely bumped this just for being impressive for a home game, and for the cat/ninja?/mouse sprites... heh and really just ton boost it to a 5 star, I shouldn't do that...)

Sound: 6?7?/10 Well, not that I'm actually playing it, the sound isn't so annoying. I like the "shoot"/attack sound effect, reminds me of a lot of upcoming games that I'm excited for.

Play: 9/10 Steady, consistent mechanics, both jump and shoot (thank goodness there was so cool-down, ammo, energy, etc factor, just good old shooting/boomeranging/etc in a platformer! That feeling when you mash it real fast and barely kill the enemy before it gets to you!). Cool to see a sort of "HP" for enemies (some take a few hits, and seem to change colors as they get lower HP). Kinda felt like Zelda and Castlevania when repeatedly whacking an enemy heh, I loved that feel. As far as I can tell, there are a couple enemies that cannot be defeated, which I don't really care for but at least it's consistent with which ones can't be. Unless maybe there's a Zelda-esque trick where I had to hit it on the back or something ha. Mostly super solid controls and collision mechanics, with a little clunkiness here and there and the usual frustrations with the ladder aspects (never was a fan of the platform n ladders type platformers, as I usually say heh). I just wish I knew if there were a set ending! Seems like repeating levels, basically, but a bit hard to discern hmm. (I later found out it repeats after Level 9). I am proud to say I found it odd there are so many accessible cheats for this game, maybe it's just cuz it's a Sega game and those are popular online in retro communities. I struggled to find cheats for a lot of the games I struggled with, and tho I started using savestates when I was down to my last life about Level 8, that's either really good for me--or it's a really doable game (within the level range I played heh). Maybe it's just cuz it's consistent, reasonable controls! Gasp ha. Imagine that: a concept I like actually well-executed means I can play it without cheats or abusing savestates, heh..

Pro-tip: Watch out for those sudden cat pounces, indeed!

Feel: 9/10 Well, I definitely didn't overhype this, I was correct: it's for a system (SG-1000) that I find enjoyable to emulate/play, there are tight controls, and you can attack despite being a platformer. Yay! It was fun to shoot and kill enemies I didn't even have to, because the shoot mechanic was reliable and it had a nice "explore" action-adventure feel to it despite being a single-screen platformer... Hard to explain.

Another pro-tip: As many have said, jump instead of just move, especially once you've eaten a lot. Eating slows you down, which in a way reminded me of some of the PLATO and other early RPGs/dungeon crawlers where the more gold you try to collect, the more dangerous and/or slow you go. Cute touch that was executed in a surprisingly not frustrating way.

Attachment: 8/10 As many positive things as I have to say, there was some inevitable clunkiness, as to be expected for this era of microcomputers, and by Level 5 it was feeling quite repetitive (that's a thing with these single-screen platformers). Oh and it does have that annoying early microcomputer platformer tendency to have overly precise requirements for ladder collision masks heh. But as far as early single-screen platformers go, especially for microcomputers, this stands out no question! Oh shoot! Perfect! I found a FAQ and it confirmed that the levels repeat at Level 9 when it comes to look/colors and basically design as well, just faster/etc like an arcade game. Perfect--I had a set goal. I already was thinking Level 13 because that was the furthest any video I could find got, but Level 10 is perfect--Level 13 is optional, and if I go for that, a sign of a truly good game cuz I didn't stop when I allowed myself heh.

Welp, as repetitive as this technically got, and as annoying as the sound technically is (tho I admit I kinda got into it in spurts), I pushed past level 10.. even past level 13. And had to tell myself to stop after Level 14 since I knew it was just repeating lol. Definitely have to add this to the lovely list of addictive early platformers where you wanna push through, and lucky for this one (tho it'd be best with a set ending), it had tight controls and a worthy concept/feel to make it not feel like I was a fool for pushing through it heh (which has been an issue lately indeed). I'm really loving the SG-1000 so far, I look forward to more games on it! It's right up there with MSX. Clearly these Japanese microcomputers/consoles are rocking '84, tho I have learned to love the Speccy and C64.

Completion: Through Level 14. Score: 78, 400 Playtime: ~2 hours