Myviewing

User Score
7.9

Presentation - 7.0
Gameplay - 8.0
Value - 7.5

If you're an American, be you North or Southern, you've undoubtedly heard of Garfield the cat at least once in your life. That lazy anthropomorphic orange cat who hates Mondays, enjoys eating lasagna, and makes for funny comic strips in your daily newspaper. He's been a comic icon since 1978, and has since starred in many forms of media, a cartoon, books, spin-offs, an underrated live-action movie, and also video games. There was Garfield: A Week of Garfield for the Famicom, which thankfully stayed in Japan, Garfield: Caught in the Act which was an overall good game, and many other titles that simply flew under the radar due to a lack of coverage. Joining the ranks of the unnoticed Garfield games is Garfield's Nightmare for the Nintendo DS. Some games are better left undiscovered because they could be one of the worst titles you'll ever encounter. Does Garfield's Nightmare join those ranks?

The game does not elaborate very much on story. The story is a simple one about how Garfield has recently come up with an idea to shorten his lunchtime by creating a giant sandwich and gulp it down in one sitting so he doesn't have to waste any more time awake and go straight to bed. The result is that Garfield ends up getting stomach pains and gets trapped in his nightmares. If you're looking for a deep plot, you'll have better luck reading the comic strips for one, as the plot is simply there to provide players with something to do.

The first thing you'll most likely notice when you start playing Garfield's Nightmare is how well done the graphics and the art style is. The art style matches with the Garfield theme of paws, cats chase mice, and his obsession with food. Where things truly shine though, is the graphics, as the 3D graphics are lushly detailed and fluid, showing a great deal more effort than the typical 3rd party title. The animations cause absolutely no slow down and the number of character models in enemies with just as much effort show the DS is capable of very well done graphics. Despite the well done character models, the 2D backgrounds are quite plain. This doesn't serve as an issue most of the time, since the backgrounds usually only peek in through windows and at the edges of the screen.

So much effort has been put into the graphics, but does the rest of the game fare as well? The sound is one that could have used some work, but is overall serviceable for the setting. The tunes in each stage are wonderfully done compared to the often used midi compositions many DS games are plagued with. The sound effects are average at best simply being the “ching” when collecting coins, the “poof” when jumping on enemies, etc…
Though it is quite odd to hear Garfield give out a "REOW!" when he gets hit by the environment or enemies (something like the deep voiced version of “OW!” that many know would have been better). Nothing else is noteworthy, the sound factor simply gets the job done and allows players to get the feeling of playing Garfield.

So now that the presentation factors succeed for the game, does the gameplay work just as well? This is the point where some people may be turned off to hear that Garfield's Nightmare is not a Nightmare to play, but it's not the next great dream they might be hoping for great gaming. The game features all of the essential platforming moves and the elements of classic gaming. Garfield can jump, butt stomp, duck and crawl, hit switches, and move crates around while enemies hover or swing in predictable patterns that allow the player to take them out without too much effort by simply jumping on them.

Despite the simplicity, there's a slightly more difficult game hidden in here as well. To get from point A to B takes all the skill of a young player, but along the way there are hidden detours, full of toenail jumps and strict timing for those who want to get more out of their playtime.

Besides the platforming, there are some cool minigames to find where Garfield finds a door, wakes up for a minute and has to run around a confined area of John Arbuckle's house, perform a task before time runs out. The average gamer that picks up this game may play through the entire thing never seeing any of these levels, which is a good thing because it offers something to do for explorers.

There are minigames accessible from the title screen later on, but instead of unlocking the minigames from the levels, the player unlocks a series of touchscreen-specific games after finishing each of the four worlds. They don't quite match the fun of the level minigames, but they can still be fun time killers. Some might not get much enjoyment out of them though since they feel like they were tossed into the game at the last minute in an effort to get more touchscreen gameplay in there.

So as it stands, is Garfield's Nightmare the incarnation of fear to play, or is it a dream to play? It depends on what you're looking for. If you're a Garfield fan, you'll definitely find a lot to like about this game since it's one of the better Garfield games to come out in a while. If you have a younger sibling or know someone who isn't quite that good at gaming, this would make for a good beginning point since it's simple, but works for those who just want to have fun. If you're an older player, you may or may not enjoy this game because of the ease this game has, experienced players can beat this game in a matter of hours. Despite all these factors, Garfield's Nightmare is a better choice you can pick if you're looking for something different from New Super Mario Bros. than other namable titles, and you can certainly do worse with the cheap price tag this game is selling for now.