Well it’s officially confirmed folks, spinach is a hallucinatory drug. Spinach might appear like one of the healthiest leafy greens you’ll ever eat, but as you will discover in this new Garfield platforming adventure, Spinach is every bit as bad as mushrooms for witnessing dreamy illusions. Yes, this crazy new platformer starring the beloved orange cat has a unique premise, but can this parlay into a fabulous platformer, or is it nothing but processed slop?
Garfield: Escape From Monday Review (PS5)-Curious Catnip
As we know, Garfield cannot get enough of beef lasagne, and it’s his favourite comfort food in the history of the planet. However, one day he opens a fridge and discovers his favourite Italian dish has been tainted by spinach. Turns out a chef called Chef Monday (nothing to do with the day that begins the working week) is responsible for the alteration because he wants Garfield to take on a healthier diet. Upon eating this new lasagne, Garfield faints and ends up in a dream land where Chef Monday is the master of ceremonies, who forbids junk food, so Garfield needs to conquer forty platform levels to escape Monday-hence the title.
Escape From Monday’s premise is whacky, welcomingly straightforward and enjoyable, just like the animated show itself. Garfield’s subconscious dosing is not as far out there as Tanner’s coma from Driver: San Francisco, but the absurdity of it is amusing and it keeps you wanting to progress through each of the game’s platforming levels so you can ultimately escape Garfield’s nightmare and turn back Chef Monday’s healthy diet crusade.
A Vegetable Nightmare Scenario
Escape From Monday’s platforming genre format is arguably breezier than the arguably pawful (sorry, couldn’t resist) kart racing games. A large reason for this is that Garfield’s greed has turned beyond Lasagne because he’s been indulging in hunks of Super Mario 3D platforming. Whether it’s the three-hit health system, the Lasagne collectibles, the dreamy levels full of obstacles like mouse traps and rotating spike logs, or the power ups like the turkey outfit, Escape From Monday has certainly got Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber’s platforming foibles down to a science.
Things start out with a fluffy yarn ball-peppered tutorial, where you get to grips with the basics such as running, jumping, bashing tomatoes bounding between walls to reach platforms, and learning swift moves such as a dash to help you cover ground, and a ground pound to activate floor switches.
Most of these basics work well enough, but the wall-to-wall jumping can be tricky as Garfield may stick to one side but the game fails to register successive wall jumps. It’s a bit slow mechanically in this regard, and that can sap the momentum of the usually buttery gameplay. Why Garfield can’t scurry up walls and ascend quicker is puzzling, but pussyfooting antics aren’t his concern as much as feasting on traditional beef lasagne.
After the tutorial, you are flung into the stage overview menu, where you can select and dive into levels with ease and monitor how many lasagne collectibles you’ve snatched up in each level. Once again, Escape From Monday veers close to 3D Mario platformer design philosophy, but if you’re going to pinch from a platformer you may as well pinch from the legendary like a cat trying to hook some kibble from a bowl.
A Mario’d Up Cat Adventure
The levels themselves are par for the course for platforming games, but it’s the food theming that stands out. Tomato and corn on the cob enemies do their best to deter you, but giving them a whack will make them go splat. Jump pads and breezy ventilation objects can propel Garfield into the air with grace no matter how much Lasagna he’s consumed.
Levels are primarily food-themed, but there are levels that act like a TV show where Garfield is meant to follow a script, but alas he will not because his quest to be free of healthy eating will not stop under any circumstances. Stages with confectionery and fried food theming will at once be fascinating to look at, as well as stomach rumbling and tempting you to satiate your hunger.
At times you’ll undergo 2D platforming challenges, and these are fine, even though they lack the vibrancy of the 3D levels. Garfield is better when he’s exploring with free reign rather than funnelled down a 2D path. The requirement for pinpoint platforming to avoid traps works fine, but they may trigger trial and error as you need to be careful about how high Garfield ascends into the air and lands. Not very fun but nothing horrendous either.
A Feline Frenzy
Garfield’s main ability early on is a turkey suit, which allows him to flutter to greater heights to reach platforms, and is wonderfully adept at preventing you from plummeting into abysses. Later on Garfield has access to a surfboard he can utilize anytime he needs to travel across watery surfaces, and he can even grind on straw-like rails and bound off of it to reach the tops of trees and otherwise unreachable platforms. It’s a shame his unique abilities are sparse because the ones he does have are pleasant and do a good job of catering to Garfield’s particular brand of quirky coolness.
Boss battles are on the lean side with only four of them throughout the entire game. However, they adhere with the spirit of the platforming experience. An early encounter where you battle a melee-mouthed mouse who turns into a giant mech called Mechasqueak is inspired. Nerval shows up too to be an unwanted hair in Garfield’s lasagne. Of course more bosses would’ve been nice, though with the lack of power-ups at your disposal, maybe less is more.
Where Garfield definitely does differentiate itself from other similar platformers is with its delectable sense of humour and whimsy. The banter between Garfield and Chef Monday is ripe with cheekiness and some tidy pun-foolery that might leave you with split sides. You may see the humour in Escape From Monday as overly childish, but adults will likely get a chuckle from the puns and the laid back aura of it all.
If you enjoy the Garfield animated TV show or this Lasagna-loving feline’s forays into videogames, then Escape From Monday should be a breezy and entertaining platforming pleasure. Yes, Escape From Monday does crib from other established platformers, and it is short and overly simple with controls that can be a tad irksome at times, but with the humour on display and a bonkers premise, Escape From Monday avoids a cat-astrophe and you’ll be suitably paw-leased with this one.
Garfield: Escape From Monday is out now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch and PC.
The review copy was generously provided by the publisher.