Mappy

Mappy (マッピー, Mappī) is an arcade game by Namco. First introduced in 1983, it was distributed in the United States by Bally/Midway. Mappy is a side-scrolling platform game that features cartoon-like animals, primarily cats and mice. The game's main character itself is a mouse. Mappy runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware, modified to support horizontal scrolling. The name "Mappy" is likely derived from mappo, a Japanese (slightly pejorative) slang term for a policeman.

Gameplay

Screenshot of Mappy (arcade version)

The player guides Mappy the police mouse through the mansion of the cats called the Meowkies (Mewkies in Japan) to retrieve stolen goods. The player uses a left-right joystick to move Mappy and a single button to operate doors. The mansion has six floors, four or five in some other versions, of hallways in which the stolen items are stashed. Mappy and the cats move between floors by bouncing on trampolines at various places in the house. Both Mappy and the cats can land on a floor on the way up, but not on the way down. When they pass in the air, Mappy is unharmed by the cats, but if Mappy runs into a cat anywhere else, he will lose a life. The trampolines will break if Mappy bounces on them four times in a row. The trampolines change color depending on how many times Mappy has used them without a rest. In addition to the Meowkies, the boss cat Goro (Nyamco in Japanese) also roams around. He is faster, but less aggressive than the Meowkies. Throughout the levels, Goro hides behind the different recoverable objects. If Mappy recovers an item which Goro is hiding behind, the player receives 1000 points.

A round is completed when all the loot is retrieved. If Mappy tarries too long, a "Hurry" message appears after which the music and the cats speed up, and more Meowkies are added (two will appear ready to drop as the Meowkies normally do immediately following the "hurry" message, and more Meowkies can arrive later on). If the player waits too long after this, the "Gosenzo" coin (a green disk shape with Goro's face on it) will drop onto the top-middle platform and chase Mappy in a manner similar to the Meowkies, but more effectively. The "Gosenzo" coin can kill Mappy even if he is in the air. The third round and every fourth round after that is a bonus round. Mappy, unbothered by the cats, must bounce across a series of trampolines, popping fifteen different suspended red balloons, with a "Goro" along the way. A bonus is awarded if all the balloons are popped before the music ends. After every bonus round, a new feature is added to the gameplay, such as bells that freeze cats. The "Hurry" message will also appear sooner. There are 256 levels.

Cartoon Mappy: The Beat

In 2012, ShiftyLook announced the release of an animated retelling of the series, which places Mappy as a security cop for Goro's company NYAMCO (a portmanteau of nyan, the Japanese onomatopoeia for a cat's meow, and NAMCO's name, as well as Goro's name from the Japanese version of the game). This comedic take on classic NAMCO characters was handled in the irreverent style of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. It featured several other NAMCO characters like Dig-Dug, Sky Kid and the Prince from Katamari. The series was co-produced by Scott Kurtz (PvP) and Kris Straub (Broodhollow), who also voiced the characters. The show premiered in the summer of 2013, alongside ShiftyLook's sister series Bravoman: Super Unequaled Hero of Excellence! The series ran for 13 episodes.

Ports and sequels

A Japan-only port of the game was initially released for the Famicom (Japanese version of the NES) and MSX in 1984, followed by a later port to the Sega Game Gear in 1991. This was followed by a video game console-only sequel called Mappy-Land in 1986 (released in the United States by Taxan). In 1998, it was re-released as part of Microsoft Revenge of Arcade for the PC. Mappy also had several Japan-only sequels, including Hopping Mappy in 1986 for the arcades and Mappy Kids in 1989 for the Famicom. There is also a version called Mappy Arrangement which was released in 1995 as part of Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 in 1995 for the arcades. The Famicom version of the original Mappy was re-released in Japan as part of the Famicom Mini Series in 2004. Mappy is included on the Ms. Pac-Man collection manufactured by Jakks Pacific. It is also featured in the 1996 Game Boy compilation Namco Gallery Vol. 1 and on the later Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection, released on the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube, PC, and PlayStation 2 in 2005 (it did not appear in the Game Boy Advance version), and also appears on Namco Museum DS. Mappy was also re-released as part of the Pac-Man's Arcade Party arcade machine in 2010. Mappy is playable in the PlayStation Portable version of Namco Museum Battle Collection, and there is a Mappy game for the Palm OS by NI. Mappy was included as a Dot-S set. It is also one of the first arcade titles to have been released on the Virtual Console. In 2002, it was released in Japan as a pachinko under the title of Mappy Park. In 2003, two mobile games were released in Japan with the titles Teku-Teku Mappy (テクテクマッピー) and Mappy De Puzzle (マッピーDEパズル),^[1] in 2009 titled MAPPY trampoline puzzle (MAPPYトランポリンパズル), the September 2011, the new mobile game titled Mappy World (マッピーワールド),^[2] and Bandai Namco Games was bringing back to series titled Mappī taiketsu! Neonyāmuko-dan (マッピー 対決！ネオニャームコ団, Mappy showdown! Neonyamuko Orchestra) for iOS on 2015 in Japan.

External links

• Mappy at the Killer List of Videogames

References