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"Your Typical Movie-Based Game Without The Awesome Music of the Movie"

It is perhaps likely that you have not heard of An American Tale, much less the sequel in the series Fievel Goes West. This may because animation was way before your time or instead when this movie came out you were in line to go see Disney's Beauty and the Beast. If you are familiar with this series then you know how awesome the songs in these movies are as well as how heart string pulling these movies are. These films were actually the work of Steven Spielberg and produced by Universal Studios so believe it or not, there were some really good animated movies to come out in that age that were not Disney movies.

Anyway I have to say that while the movie Fievel Goes West is definitely a must-see, I think you will be obligated to stay away from the videogame. An American Tale: Fievel Goes West is a simple 2-D platformer that is aimed directly at people under the age of thirteen. It is a repetitive and relatively easy game to beat and serves no purpose to the movie beyond having all of the main characters in the movie fitted into the game in some way.

Story

Fievel Goes West was definitely intended to be a game that you would want to buy after seeing the movie so unless you get this game with the box and instructions (which I do not have) and you have not seen the movie (or since I was a little kid) then you will not have much idea at all on what the story is about in this game. You have to know what the movie is about to understand what is going in the game because you receive no introduction or clue as to what the story is about. All you get in the introduction is a picture that is zoomed in on to signify where you are at. When you complete a level all you get is a score tally along with Wyatt Burp giving you a text box saying "Ya done real good son".

Game Play

Fievel Goes West is your typical 2-D platformer in which Fievel packs a little red gun that takes care of your enemies. There are plenty of enemies with fish and bats and cats along with the bosses who are the main villain characters in the movie. Fievel takes a lot from Mario in that you collect coins to gain lives and hit boxes to open up some bonus items like stars for invincibility and hearts for health. You can collect different types of ammo for your gun to put out fires with water among. Of course there are plenty of pitfalls and spikes and your unexpected boulders to come crashing down on you. While all of this can be frustrating the game is still relatively easy to get through. The downside of it all is that there are no passwords or anything like that to save your progress so you have to play and complete the game in the span of three continues if you want to beat the game. The bosses are not hard at all to take care of either. Once you figure out the attack pattern of the boss you are fighting you can easily take care of the boss in just a few hits.

Sound/Graphics

I have a lot issues with the graphics of the game although the graphics are very good in the game. However, there are some things that do not make much sense. Fievel is the first eye catcher. In duty of trying to be the cutest creature in animated filming Fievel keeps a grin throughout the entire game. Even when Fievel goes into the animated death sequence you can still see him grinning. What is up with that? The game also has some size issues. Everything in this game is not to scale so Fievel and all of the enemies are much smaller than what they should be and the backgrounds indicate that everything in the world has shrunk. Then there is Wyatt Burp who is belching out these blue bubbles at the end of each level you complete. The backgrounds are somewhat suspect as once you get to the Western part of the game you can still see a city background as you did in the first level of the game. The music is relative to the soundtrack of the movie, but of course you do not have all of the great sing along songs from the movie.

Replay Value

There is not much to be gained from the replay value of Fievel Goes West. It is relatively short and easy to get through and especially since most of the levels in a stage repeat the same type of game play.

Final Recommendation 6/10

Unfortunately I think we have us another case of a videogame trying to have as much success as the movie it is from. You do not get much value for that in Fievel Goes West as there are only a few things from the movie that actually make the game somewhat associated with the movie. So skip the game and go find this movie. If you need something to satisfy your lady friend and Disney movies are not cutting it, then here you go. Actually get the first movie because you will need to know what is going on for when Fievel Goes West. Otherwise I do not recommend Fievel Goes West the videogame unless you are just a fanatic. It was meant to be a kid's game and that is what it is.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/13/08

Game Release: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (US, August 1994)