Tom & Jerry in Fists of Furry

Tom and Jerry In Fists Of Furry is a Nintendo 64-exlcusive fighting game featuring characters from the Tom and Jerry shorts. Billed as the first fighting game for the whole family (although there were many fighting games that were kid-friendly before this, like Super Smash Bros.), this game is an arena fighter where you choose from ten character (although only two characters, Tom and Jerry, are playable from the start), you and the computer opponent or a friend duke it out in ten scenes taken from the shorts (with two being available from the start and requiring playing through single player mode to unlock the rest).

For the most part, the game is bare bones. The object of the game is to defeat the opponent in a set amount of matches. However, the gameplay is not good. The characters have a three-hit punch combo as well as the ability to pick up objects in the stages to throw or use as melee weapons, and that is about it. No character-specific special moves, no grappling or throwing, just punching you opponent and throwing stuff at him or using items like brooms or candy canes to beat them to a flattened pulp. Although there is a yellow question mark that falls in at times and when collected can grant a power-up like double damage or temporary invulnerability, or something crippling like a green cloud that will sap your health (but can be passed to the opponent).

Also, there are not many modes. There's Single Player, which is the game's tournament mode, and is played mostly to unlock new fighters and stages (as the game has no story whatsoever explaining why Tom, Jerry, and their friends are beating each other up in one-on-one fights), Versus Mode, which is where you fight a single match against the opponent or a friend, Teamplay, which is just the same, only with a team of characters (and requiring Single Player mode to be beat with all characters, making this a throwaway), and Options Mode, so the game does not offer much variety in terms of game modes. Also, during gameplay, the CPU jumps around way too much, making it too easy to target them with a thrown item, along with being annoying, as they will be doing endless mid-air jumps, especially over a certain object they plan to use. While this was a good idea for the iconic duo, the game could have been better, especially with more variety and match types.