A Week of Garfield

A Week of Garfield (ガーフィールドの一週間 Gāfirudo no Isshukan) is a 1989 Famicom video game based on the American Garfield comics by Jim Davis. The game was developed by Mars Corp, and published by Towa Chiki. The game was only released in Japan, apparently due to issues with using the Garfield license in North America and Europe (despite Garfield being a Western comic).

Plot
Garfield must rescue Odie by the end of the week.

Why It Dosen't Challenge

 * 1) Ugly graphics, even by NES/Famicom standards. Garfield's sprite itself looks particularly awful, and it is also much bigger than Odie's, even though they are roughly the same size in the comics and on the box art itself.
 * 2) *His palette is also off: it's salmon instead of the typical orange.
 * 3) Poor music and sound effects. An example would be the song that plays on the Wednesday and Thursday stages.
 * 4) The animations are awful. For example, Garfield's attack looks more like his sprite moves forward than an actual kick.
 * 5) Garfield doesn't have a kicking animation when jumping, which doesn't give you any indication that you are actually kicking other than a sound effect.
 * 6) The enemies are just generic and forgettable.
 * 7) You have no mercy invincibility when you get hit, meaning a moving enemy can deplete your entire energy meter!
 * 8) Inexplicable, knife-throwing bosses in the second half of the game.
 * 9) All the items are invisible until you walk or jump past them.
 * 10) At times, the gameplay suddenly grinds to a halt and you're left jumping around the screen looking for a key to open the giant door in front of you.
 * 11) Wonky collision detection. If you try attacking an enemy as it moves toward you, you'll end up getting damaged instead.
 * 12) Jon talks to Garfield in between stages. The things he says to Garfield, such as "WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?", "MAY I HELP YOU?", and "LET'S CHALLENGE", are often meaningless, as he never actually helps you or gives you any challenges, making him useless. Therefore, the dialogue is really laughable.
 * 13) Later stages have a strict time limit, and if you let it hit the max timer, it's game over.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) You have infinite continues, so if you get game over, you start at the beginning of the stage you were last in, instead of having to go all the way back to the beginning of the game like in most other NES games (except Level 1).
 * 2) The game has a "so bad it's good" element to it if you like laughing at crappy games with your friends, due to its absurd elements and items added in that have never appeared in the Garfield comics. This includes Garfield's weird faces, his off-model sprite, and the fact that he walks on four legs. Jon's nondescript, pointless, and sometimes surreal dialogue can also add to the humor.

Trivia
The game's sprites have been used in several Square Root of Minus Garfield webcomics.

Videos
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