Frantic Antics Sega Online

Your 'enemies' are nothing like we used to see in any Tom and Jerry cartoon before (and after). These are some weird rats in funny hats riding in unicycles around. If not driven over, you might get shot by a shotgun or simply fall into an abyss which occasionally pops up splitting two platforms. The bottom of the screen, as usual, displays your current life status as well as the number of fish you have collected so far. There's a certain minimum you must collect to be able to proceed to a next level. Also there's a ticking down timer which makes your 'mission' time limited.

Regarding the life status, little hearts from the bottom are actually showing your remaining lives, not counting the current life you've been using, which means that you will be able to play even though the heart monitor displays zero. Another thing is that you don't get killed instantly if driven over by a bike, but you do get killed if fallen into the hole, when Tom turns into an angel and you go back to the checkpoint.

The game is quite hard because Tom is positioned at the center of the screen so he must react really quickly to the enemies coming from your right side. It would be much easier to play if he was placed more towards the left side of the screen. On the other hand, enemies are playing by certain pattern which you can learn in several attempts.

Speaking of weird characters, at some point you will stumble upon granny from Loney Toones who walks around spitting her teeth at you. Couldn't get weirder than that, right? In the end, why the game is called 'frantic antics' - well, I have no clue, and I don't care. It's a good game.

One more thing that I became aware of a little too late. You may also pick up rugby balls. With these you can shoot at rats. The first ball you will see at the rooftop. Pick it up and save it for later. I would use it on the rat with a shotgun. As mentioned before, to shoot, you should press "C" key on your keyboard.