Tom and Jerry Tales

Download Tom and Jerry Tales and join the iconic duo in their timeless game of cat and mouse! Play through zany levels, outwit each other with clever traps, and enjoy the classic hijinks of your favorite cartoon characters. Play now for endless fun!
a game by Sensory Sweep Studios
Genre: Action
Platform: GBA
Editor Rating: 5/10, based on 1 review
User Rating: 6.8/10 - 5 votes
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See also: Top GBA Games, Tom & Jerry Games
Tom and Jerry Tales
Tom and Jerry Tales
Tom and Jerry Tales

Released late into the Game Boy Advance’s lifespan, Tom and Jerry Tales is a disappointing minigame collection that fails to capture the charm of the original cartoon and will be disappointing even for the youngest players. Think WarioWare meets Crazy Castle, without any fun involved.

Minigames and platforms

Gameplay in Tom and Jerry Tales is divided into two major modes: minigames and 2D platforming. While the platforming segments follow Jerry as he collects cheese wedges and jumps over gaps, the minigames see the mouse facing off against Tom.

Sadly, the game never manages to find an area to excel at: minigames are sluggish and repetitive, while the platforming levels feature messy maps and frustratingly unresponsive controls.

3D or 2D: Pick your poison

Tom and Jerry Tales was also released as an early title for the Nintendo DS. The dual-screen console version boasts fully rendered 3D models, while the GBA game uses 2D sprites. At first glance, it might look like the NDS is the superior version, visually speaking, but appearances can be deceiving.

If there’s one redeeming quality about this game that is its visuals – at least during cutscenes and the minigames. The sprites used for Tom and Jerry look just like their cartoon counterparts, and they actually manage to look better than how they look in the NDS version.

The same can’t be said of the platforming sections, though: the ugly and drab platforming levels stick out like a sore thumb and detract from the overall experience. The GBA might not be a graphics powerhouse, but with games like Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga having been released on the console three years before this game, it’s simply unbelievable how displeasing this game manages to look.

Repetitive and simple

We mentioned before how this game feels like a more boring WarioWare, and it seems like that comparison is an important one. Minigames, by definition, should be simple distractions that don’t require a lot of input from the player. Developers Sensory Sweep seem to understand this necessity, but there’s one key element of these games that sadly goes unnoticed: minigames should be short.

WarioWare is as successful as it is because it condenses many simple games in a very short time. Tom and Jerry Tales would have benefitted from a similar approach to their minigames. As they are, these “minigames” make up most of the game, and they not only involve doing the same thing over and over again, they’re also unbearably slow.

Even kids with short attention spans would surely get bored by the repetitiveness of Tom and Jerry Tales. To make things worse, the game has no way to save your progress without using passwords – that means that every time that you wish to start playing again, and if you happen to lose your password, you’ll have to do it all the way from the beginning. If you can put up with that chore, that is.

Tom and Jerry is a cartoon where a cat and a mouse torture each other in every episode. This time, however, Sensory Sweep decided that it was time for the cat and mouse to get payback and torture the audience instead. That seems to be the only plausible explanation for how a game as terrible as Tom and Jerry Tales could hit the market.

5

If you’re looking for a game to keep the young ones entertained, then look elsewhere in the GBA’s superb library. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a way to teach your kids about the horrors of bad game design, then definitely get a copy of Tom and Jerry Tales. The sprites look good, though.

Pros

  • Charming 2D sprites
  • The music isn’t that bad, considering the GBA’s limited sound chip

Cons

  • Repetitive and shallow gameplay
  • Archaic password system instead of save slots
  • Confusing platforming levels

Download Tom and Jerry Tales

GBA

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Snapshots and Media

GBA Screenshots