"Bad dream or good dream?"

Garfield's Nightmare stars our favorite cat Garfield in his latest adventure. So what's he up to this time? It seems Garfield has eaten too much before his afternoon rest, and now he's having some bad dreams. To wake up from this nightmare, he must find the four broken pieces of his alarm clock. Such is the premise.

You play as Garfield in his nightmare adventure, which consists of four worlds of pure 2D sidecrolling fun. It's basically a platformer for kids, but still surprisingly entertaining. You'll jump across platforms, avoid obstacles, push crates, hit switches, solve basic platform puzzles and more, through haunted castles, volcanic wastelands, cloudy skies and frozen lands. All of that wraps up in one very simplistic game. In fact, the game's main and only big flaw is that it's so short. Once all 16 levels are over, you're left on your hunger. The game could easily have spawned another whole four worlds. It doesn't help that Garfield's Nightmare is very easy as well, since it was designed for kids, mainly. None of the levels will stump you, or even challenge you, but all platforming elements are well put together, resulting in something that is enjoyable the whole way through, and it has that nostalgic feel of older games.

The game also suffers from a few minor shortcomings. Although there are some items to collect within levels, none of them fetch you more than a couple of extra lives, and the game doesn't keep track of what you have gathered. It makes it kind of pointless to look around for these items, even though it seems like the developers tried to hide them. Furthermore, once you've gone through a level, you can never revisit it, unless you start the whole game over. So much for hidden items. Mini-games are scattered through the game too, but there are only three different ones that get repetitive very quickly, and aren't that fun to begin with. The simple and straightforward platforming makes the game feel generic after a while, and playing too many levels in a row gets rather tedious. That could be due to Garfield only having one move up his arsenal: Jump.

Where the game really shines is graphically, with surprisingly solid 3D objects and a clean overall look. You won't see any sharp edge or pixel, everything is crisp. Garfield's character model looks phenomenal and the game almost looks as good as a PS2 title. It's really astonishing. The backgrounds could have used some more work, but overall the game looks impressive.

Garfield's Nightmare is on the whole a solid platformer that doesn't rival Mario, but is worth it for kids. With its four very easy bosses, the game is over way too quickly, although it's a good dream while it lasts. If anything, it's a fine example of what the DS is capable of in terms of visuals. Otherwise, Garfield's Nightmare is just too formulaic, but the intended audience will see a great game that is fun enough to replay more than once.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/04/08

Game Release: Garfield's Nightmare (US, 09/04/07)