First up: there's a translation patch out for this. It's not necessary by any means, but if you want dad jokes and bad puns, then step right up. Personally, I didn't use it. I know Samurai Pizza Cats from when I was a kid. Knew it, hated it. It was loud, obnoxious, and I had aged well out of its demographic by the time it made its way over to the west. Thankfully, none of that matters here. There's no critical dialogue, hints, anything of that sort. You can ignore the window dressing as much as you like.

Here's what you get: a simple, easygoing platformer. Pick your main cat each level, swap to the supplementary ones to overcome specific obstacles. The mechanics are straightforward, easy to guess if you have any literacy from this genre and era. Stages are colorful and branching, bosses are easy, music is actually pretty good.

Easy, though, is the keyword here. You can comfortably make it to the final stage without dying, although the final boss is likely to take a life or two off you due to an unintuitive mechanic. Worth noting this game suffers the usual licensed platformer issue of running out of gas toward the end. Shorter stages, fewer paths, recycled (although reskinned) enemies. Still: fun, worthwhile, easily crushed in a single sitting.