Piping Hot and Fresh – The Samurai Pizza Cats Game

Many people have those cartoons that stick with them forever. Myself, I am a long time (but not exclusively) fan of toy commercials like She-Ra, G.I.JOE, Transformers, The Real Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The list goes on. I don’t care how silly and at times shameless these cartoons were I didn’t care because they were also very entertaining. So enter Samurai Pizza Cats, which defined after school programming for me for a number of years. Touted on YTV as sort of a tongue-in-cheek TMNT I had to give it a look.

And brother, I fell in love. And not just with Polly Esther ;). This show captured my heart and my attention. It was irreverent and silly done right, a self-deprecating vaudevillian display of set pieces and characters.

Of course, Samurai Pizza cats didn’t have a marketing frenzy over here but I had always longed for a game. Hell, even Bucky O’Hare had an NES game of his own, and a very good one at that. But I always longed for something tangible to own with respect to the Samurai Pizza Cats. I was very excited (yet nervous) to discover that there was a Famicom release! It was great news, as long as it didn’t turn out like the Transformers with Convoy no Nazo!

Now, I had played this briefly years ago so I knew it was a solid game. It was, however, one of those games I wanted to save until I had my own copy. Samurai Pizza Cats demands similar prices as to Holy Diver and Crisis Force which are among the upper crust of Famicom quality. SPC is a quality game, but I’m still set on finding the most decent price possible. I’m just thrilled to finally own one to play at my leisure!

Booting up the game you are greeted with a lovely rendition of the main theme to Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, the Japanese original. The title screen is very Spartan, but the actual game is pretty gorgeous. Characters are expressive sprites are bright and colourful. The music stays catchy and never irradiating, bosses are often large and detailed. There are cut scenes interspersed throughout the game Ninja Gaiden style (hey, it’s TECMO after all) and these are well drawn with a range of expressions. This is one of the prettiest Famicom exclusive games, honestly. While it doesn’t touch the technical superiority of the likes of Crisis Force, it more than adequately creates a feeling of the original animation. It FEELS like Samurai Pizza Cats, and that is why it’s lovely.

Now, licensed games on this platform have a really raw reputation. This is understandable as the NES has its fair share of lemons, but we can’t forget that it has its winners too – Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers and Ducktales for instance. Samurai Pizza Cats plays with much more standard gameplay than either of those two, but I would personally rank it among them.

Samurai Pizza Cats is a platforming action game. You can run, jump, attack and use special abilities to make your way throughout the levels. At the outset of each level you can choose whichever Pizza Cat you would like to play the level with. They are all capable of clearing these levels, but it doesn’t feel completely cosmetic. for instance, I think Polly has a longer attack compared to Guido’s quicker umbrella. However, it ultimately comes down to which kitty you favour. And that to me is a huge boon, there’s no reason not to just play how you want to.

Each Cat has three levels of Ninpo. Ninpo is your special attack, used in typical Famicom fashion by holding Up and pressing Attack. You can collect pick-ups to change the Ninpo you are currently holding. Unfortunately, you can’t switch on the fly but must maintain whichever Ninpo the items have currently dictated. Each level is more potent and costly than the previous. Unfortunately I found Ninpo best upgraded to level 3 then saved for the stage boss. Very few in-game situations warrant the use of Ninpo, usually only when you see a Ninpo meter recovering item on the screen.

By the way, a little trick regarding the items: When you leave a screen and return to it, any items will have respawned. The quickest way to get full health or a specific tier of Ninpo is just to enter and exit a Stage until you have what you want. A bit cheesy, but it’s there if you want.

It may sound like gameplay is limited, but there are a few situations that require the use of the Rescue Team. These are the guys that the Pizza Cats would call using their neck bells when the situation got a little hot to handle. You can switch between these cats and your Pizza Cat on the fly. They each have special abilities to help our fine pizza bros. General Catton can break rocks with his fist, Bat Cat can fly, Meowzma can drill through certain brown soils, and Spritz can swim much more freely in water than any other Cat. So why not just use a Rescue Team member as your primary character? Well, they are inferior in combat to the Pizza Cats and their special abilities use up your HELP meter. The HELP meter is restored over time when the Rescue Team is not being used, or through the use of the Bell item. So they act like abilities to get through certain obstacles. I just wish they were required more often or in more dangerous scenarios.

The game is fairly short. It’s 11 Rounds long with the order of two sets of these Rounds left up to the player. Each Round ends with a boss fight, and the Rounds themselves are fairly straightforward and short. The whole game should be completed pretty quickly on your first play, and it only gets tough towards the end. But not every game needs the raw difficulty of Holy Diver. Samurai Pizza Cats is such a playable game that I have no doubts I will be returning to it. It’s easy, but not insultingly so. It’s just a joy to play.

So if you are concerned about importing this game only to find out that it is inaccessible – don’t be. It’s very playable and there’s nothing in here that requires knowledge of the language. The cut scenes are all in Japanese, of course, but that’s no big deal. It’s fairly obvious what is happening in each one. In fact you could just dub them yourselves, as if you were dubbing an episode of Samurai Pizza Cats ;). I believe there is also a translated dump of this game floating around out there if you really must know what they are saying.

By the way, the cut scenes can be a little long winded but you can skip any of them with the select button. Now that’s forward thinking!

What we ultimately get with Samurai Pizza Cats is a fun Famicom exclusive action platformer. I’m surprised this one never made its way over here, though I suppose if the show was a TMNT level sensation it may as well have. This is the first bit of SPC merch I own, and apparently Discotek Media acquired the rights to the series a few months ago so this is a rather serendipitous time for me to feel the urge to track this one down.

If you’re a fan of the Samurai Pizza Cats – play it. If you’re a Famicom enthusiast – get it. It’s a little on the easy side, but its fun and engaging and certainly one of the better imports for the Famicom. After all the Pizza Cats are Samurai, and I’d like to note: Their antics take your breath away, like furballs in your throat. ‘Nuff said.