Retro Game Review: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

Players: 1

Co-op: No

Genre: Action, Adventure

Release Date: 08/30/1994

ESRB Rating: E

Developer: Hudson Entertainment, Inc.

Publisher: Hudson Entertainment, Inc.

Platform Reviewed On: PC (RetroArch Core: SNES9x_2010)

Additional Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Initial Thoughts: Funny story about why I decided to review this game. My wife had turned on the movie An American Tail for my daughter a few months back. And it made me wonder. There was probably a video game for this. Because just about everything in the late 1980’s going into the 90’s had a video game come out for it after the movie. Especially kids movies. So I did some digging. I found a title that came in out in 2007 for the PS2. So I decided to go a little further. This was the oldest game I could find. But it was the sequel An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. Not exactly what I was looking for but I’ll take it. I had no high expectations for this game but this is the perfect example of don’t judge a game by it’s cover. I feel that this is a hidden gem of the SNES folks. Let’s dive in deeper.

Description: So you play as Fievel. The game is a side scorlling game which is a combination of a shooter, and a platformer. It’s pretty unique how they put it all together. You jump on platforms going from left to right to get to the end of the level. As your weapon you have a pop gun which shoots out fire at your enemies. Sometimes water if you come across a water power up. You don’t have to worry about refilling your ammo or anything like that because that is all infinite. You never run out. However you cannot jump on your enemies. No Fievel isn’t Mario or Donkey Kong. As for your life you are given three hearts. Anytime you are hit you lose one. But you can gain it back as you go through the level. You can even get a heart increase so you can have four hearts as you go through a level. You start out with 3 extra lives. You gain more lives for every 100 coins you get. Each world has two to three levels before you face that world’s boss. The bosses aren’t too hard. It’s not a walk in the park but not extremely hard either. I can safely say for a video game made in 1994 it’s fair. Getting through the levels can be a bit tricky however. The game isn’t too long. You can’t save so after your third continue you pretty much have to start from the beginning just like most games during that time. I would definitely recommend playing this on an emulator so you can save or suspend your progress.

Music: Here’s a link to the soundtrack of this game. The music isn’t too bad. I would recommend “Back Alleyways of New York City” and the boss music “A Deadly Game of Cat and Mouse”.

Final Thoughts: I’m not going to lie to you. I haven’t watched An American Tail film in years. So I’ll be very honest with you with the exception of Fievel I don’t know any of the characters names. LOL! I didn’t watch these movies religiously growing up. I think I saw this movie in the theaters but skipped it every time it was on TV. I did like this one better than the first one from what I remember. So you can make fun of me for not knowing any of the characters names. This was a great game. And if anyone was a fan of this movie growing up you would’ve loved this game. I personally thought this game was going to suck but man I was proven wrong. The only thing I think the developers could’ve done better was let you keep your fourth heart slot even after you died. You would go back down to three if you died and when starting the next world. That I think could’ve been done a bit better. Otherwise for time and for what you were getting the game was great. Even if you weren’t a fan of this franchise.

My Score: 8/10. I don’t think this game had a ton of people running out and buying it on day one back in the day. But even if you weren’t a fan of this franchise but love side scrolling platformers you’ll have no trouble jumping right into this game. Even if you don’t know all the characters names. LOL!

Video Gameplay Footage: Ok folks. Finally some video footage below. I plan on updating some of my other game reviews with video footage so stay tuned for that. Enjoy my playing skills folks.