(marked completed, but I only finished 2 of the 16-stage loops. I'm not masochistic enough to get to 256 stages)

On the recommendation of a friend, this is one of the first games I'm playing that's older than me if only by a smidge. Despite its age, the unorthodox movement and attack methods make the gameplay feel surprisingly fresh. The game is great at communicating its rules to the player, and the end result is a game that's easy to pick up and learn, difficult to master, and varied enough that it doesn't feel as limiting as other classic games (Pac-Man for example). Also the theme song slaps.

To be perfectly honest, a lot of this game's design choices are really questionable. Mappy's ability to sneak drugs into the cars of his enemies of his enemies and use that to arrest them is really broken. Also, his military grade weaponry power up is somehow even more broken, to the point where it feels like overkill. Not only that but this game's gold economy is really poorly balanced. The mechanic where Mappy gets money from politicans is way too strong and because of said mechanic, he has more money than he would ever reasonably need.
All in all, future Mappy games should phase out the punishment-focused gameplay and start focusing on the rehabilitation mechanics which even I can admit are pretty good.

Mappy for the Nintendo Family Computer is an arcade port of the Namco classic of the same name, as a result it basically plays the same, I've played a bit of the arcade original and this happens to be hands down one of the best translations from arcade to home console that exists.
The basics are this, you're Mappy, an anthropomorphic mouse cop that is retrieving stolen goods from this organized cat burglar gang. Think the cat police scene from Rat Movie but vice versa, and as an arcade game derivative of Pac-Man. As I said, the game plays not to dissimilar to Pac-Man, however the maze is laid out in a multilevel house, and you go up levels through these trampolines, and have doors in your way to make things a bit complicated.
All through the level you have several small cats, and one boss cat chasing you around, using what must be the same basic AI and pathing the ghosts and enemies in other namco games. As a result you have to keep yourself from getting trapped somewhere, and also time things just right so as to not get caught and get a lot of points. The way to disable these enemies varies, you can open a normal door in their face knocking them over for a few seconds while you pass by or you can open one of the flashing doors to make airwaves push them clear off the screen for a nice bonus. the score getting incrementally higher the more you manage to trap at once. If you get the boss he doubles the score.
To progress through the stages you have to collect all the stolen goods in the stage and then you get to move on. If you grab a stolen object while the boss it hiding behind it you get an additional 1000 points, and sometimes the objects flash to indicate a score multiplier for that object. It forces the player to pay close attention to everything going on on screen, making for a genuinely fun experience with plenty of opportunities to fail, or score big.
I'm probably biased cause not only is this the first game I ever bought for the Famicom, but its one of the video games I remember playing the earliest back when me and my siblings would peruse through my brother's extensive retro game collection. I love this game, and it actually puts a smile on my face whenever I play it, all it leaves me wanting is a switch port or something, because it simply just too much fun to put down. I give this one a hella recommend.

A game where you play as a cop mouse going into a building to arrest some cat burglars... heh.

It's another Pac-Man esque game which involves more running from enemies than fighting them, but in this case with the added complexity of one way doors placed throughout the levels. You can open them onto enemies to knock them over, but watch out if you're on the wrong side -- the door will smack you straight back into any enemies behind you.

With good music and pretty fun gameplay, Mappy is a good example of an above-mediocre game from its time period. I definitely think it's worth a play, if you are just interested in playing 80s games to begin with. Otherwise, it's hard to say that it's such a big deal, now.

My favorite part is definitely the music.

3.5 - Good: Good but still lacking something that propels it to greatness

~ Juegos que Hay que Jugar Antes de Morir ~
Parte 2 — Los 80: Caída y Resurgir

Juego 43: Mappy (1983)

Infancia pura estilo Bubble Bobble. Sencillo y fácil de jugar, pero pide del jugador cuando tiene que hacerlo. Gran juego. Espero que este no sea el nuevo juego a copiar, no quiero quemarlo.