Rat Attack!

Rat Attack!
Developer(s)	Pure
Publisher(s)	Mindscape
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, PlayStation
Release date(s)	PlayStation NA August 31, 1999 EU October, 1999 Nintendo 64 NA September 12, 2000 EU April 21, 2000
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E)

Rat Attack! is a puzzle game for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, it was released in 1999 on PlayStation, 2000 on Nintendo 64.

Story

The Cat Genius Professor Rex Julius presented his theories to the public of the threat that the ever expanding rat population would bring chaos to the world. However, his workings were laughed at by his colleagues, ignoring his research. He was so certain of his fears, however, that he continued to work in secret, developing the eraticator, a rat capturing device, and the destructor, where rats in the eraticator's storage tanks can finally be destroyed (through vaporisation). He also formed and trained an elite team of rat-catching cats, the Scratch Cats.

Soon, Rex's greatest fears were to be realised. A pair of rats, Washington and Jefferson were sent into space aboard a rocket in an experiment. However, after some incident in space, the rats had been mutated and gained super-intelligence. Over 40 years have passed, They returned to earth and immediately commenced with plans for world domination, amassing a huge army of rats with instructions to destroy everything in sight and to destroy any interfering agents. To this end they created the duplicator, to rapidly increase their army. For extra protection and assistance the pair created easily mutatable genetic blueprint rats, and created the mutator, capable of transforming these into a range of vicious mutant rats.

Washington and Jefferson also made plans to re-awaken the mighty King Scarab, captor of the mythical cat, Banubis, from his slumber in the Egyption wing of a museum.

Professor Rex Julius sent his special agent Pearl to investigate, but Washington and Jefferson managed to capture her, imprisoning her within a laser cage in their factory stronghold, guarded by giant robotic dogs. This spurred the other cats into action, so they went out to rescue Pearl and defeat Washington and Jefferson, and free Banubis from King Scarab's clutches along the way.

At the end of the game, with all the areas saved from the ravaging rat army, the Scratch Cats manage to defeat Washington and Jefferson in a showdown in their space base. However, the duo manage to escape after their defeat, Julius afterwards revealing that they also took King Scarab with them (who had been shrunk after his defeat; it is unknown whether he has returned to full size or not).

Gameplay

The object of the game was to clear each level of a certain total of rats, without getting hit enough times to lose a life, or ensuring the room wasn't destroyed, which would also kill you. Each level had a set number of rats to destroy, and once you had met the target, a gate would appear that you had to go through to get to the next level. If you didn't get to it in ten seconds, you'll lost a life. Rats are destroyed by eraticating them (basically trapping them within a circle.) Once the rats were trapped within the tanks, walking over a pad on the floor with a rats face on it (a destructor) would destroy them. At the end of each level you will receive bonuses reflecting how well you had done. You received "Damage Bonuses" for how much the room got damaged (the less damage, the higher points), time bonuses (the less time taken, the higher the bonus), and perfect bonuses (if none of the room got destroyed, you obtained these points.)

Power-ups

Throughout the game, you would come across power-ups. They were as follows:

• EXTRA rats - These are regular rats, just with a letter from the word EXTRA above their heads. If you destructed these rats so that you had an "E", an "X", a "T", an "R", and an "A", you would obtain an extra life.
• Room Repair - Represent a spanner, this item will repair the items in the room.
• Rat Freeze - Represent a ice lolly, collecting one of these will freeze all the rats in the arena for a few seconds.
• Cheese - Dropping a cheese would attract all the rats in the arena. This could often be done in very strategical places.
• Eraticator Boost - Collecting the multicoloured eraticator squares will increase the power of the cats' eraticator.
• Catatonic - Collecting a first aid kit will heal your cat, or count toward a one up.
• Bonus Scratch Coin - Shaped like a gold cat head, these coins can be used to perform special moves.
• Cat Nip - Collecting a lightning bolt will enable your cat to run much faster than usual for a few seconds.
• Shield of Invincibility - Collecting a shield would make your cat invincible for a few seconds.
• Big Cat - Collecting a potion would make your cat turn huge, and able to squish all rats without the eraticator. Crushed rats gave you double points. On multiplayer, when you were big, you can flatten the other players by jumping on them.
• Blue Cheese - Only available on multiplayer, this powerup attracted the other players rats.
• Cat Nap - Only available on multiplayer, collecting a blue square with zzzs on it will make other players' cats fall asleep for a few seconds.
• Random - Only available on multiplayer, collecting a ? square will receive a random power-up.

Stats

Each cat had different stats. They were the following:

• Strength - This stat affected how long rats would stay stunned for after being swiped.
• Speed - This stat affected how fast the cat is, and how far they could jump.
• Eraticator Power - This stat affected how strong your eraticator was.
• Number of Coins - This stat affected how many coins required to perform the special move.

Enemy Power-ups

There were some objects that made the rats better. They were:

• The Duplicator - Illustrated by a purple pad with two rat faces on it, this device can turn one rat into two, doubling your trouble.
• The Mutator - Shown by a rat face in front of a black and yellow background, if a white rat walked over this, they can mutate into other, more powerful creatures.

Useful Cat Devices

Throughout the game, there were other helpful devices:

• Treasure Chests - These chests came in three varieties. Firstly, bronze chests could be opened once, and once you had eraticated a certain number of rats, they would open. They had a power-up inside. Silver chests could only be opened once as well, but you had to eraticate the exact number of rats printed above them for them to open up and give you a power-up. Gold chests were the same as silver, but could be opened more than once.
• Scratch Pads - These are paw-pad buttons on the floor. Pressing one of these made something happen in the arena which can help you out.
• Scratch Teleporters - These are swirly blue cat face pad on the floor that can warp your cat to another part of the arena. These are helpful for avoiding Bennett, or reaching the destructor.
• Scratch Destructor - These are red rat pads on the floor. Walking on it will destroy eraticated rats.

Power-Downs

Power-Downs were located in rat crates. These could be destroyed by the rats, or if you eraticated the exact number of rats printed on them, they would open. Power-downs or mutant rats emerged from them. Power-downs were little skull and crossbones that would chase you about the arena until they hit you or disappeared. They were the following:

• Slow Down - If hit by this, your cat will be very slow for a few sections.
• Cat Nap - If hit by this, your cat will fall asleep for a few seconds.
• Reverse Controls - If hit by this, your cat will have reverse controls for a few seconds.
• Rat Scat - If hit by this, your eraticator will keep losing rats from its tanks. This lasted for a few seconds.

Zones and Levels

The game was divided into different zones, each consisting of four or five levels and a boss level. They were as follows:

ZONE 1: HOUSE

• Level 1: Leisure Lounge
• Level 2: Bathtime
• Level 3: Bedroom Bonanza
• Level 4: Play Away
• Level 5: Kitchen Kapers
• Boss Level: Yippy Yappy

ZONE 2: GARDEN

• Level 1: Back Porch
• Level 2: Sundial Showdown
• Level 3: Fountain of Fun
• Level 4: Compost Corner
• Boss Level: Beefy Bennett

ZONE 3: FUN HOUSE

• Level 1: Bouncy Castle
• Level 2: Rifle Range
• Level 3: Bumper Cats
• Level 4: Pinball Machine
• Level 5: Poker Face
• Boss Level: Rat Clown

ZONE 4: HAUNTED HOUSE

• Level 1: Ghostly Gatehouse
• Level 2: Creepy Chapel
• Level 3: Haunted Hall
• Level 4: The Pit
• Level 5: Ghostly Graveyard
• Boss Level: Ghostly Ghoulies

ZONE 5: MUSEUM

• Level 1: Dead Old Stuff
• Level 2: Fossil Frolics
• Level 3: Catlantis
• Level 4: I Want My Mummy
• Level 5: Dino Drama
• Boss Level: Scarab's Palace

ZONE 6: ART GALLERY

• Level 1: Pop Art
• Level 2: Renaissance Nuisance
• Level 3: Artful Dodgings
• Level 4: Art Attack
• Boss Level: Yippy Litter

ZONE 7: TEMPLE

• Level 1: Control Room
• Level 2: Frying Tonite
• Level 3: Carry on Conveyor
• Level 4: Best Little Warehouse
• Level 5: Conveyor Crisis
• Boss Level: Rescue

ZONE 8: SPACE

• Level 1: Teleporter Room
• Level 2: Laser Locomotion
• Level 3: Mutator Creator
• Level 4: Livid Lasers
• Boss Level: Space Showdown

Characters

The Scratch Cats were made up of the following members:

• Professor Rex Julius - The genius behind it all, who organised the society, and provided the agents with the gadgets. He's brown, and looked a bit like Albert Einstein with a lab coat and moustache.

• Newton - Newton is Rex Julius's trusty robotic cat sidekick, who is used to deliver Rex Julius's mission briefings throughout the game. He's small and yellow (looking a bit like a cat potato head.)

• Hi-Jinx - A Siamese Cat raised by Japanese monks. He wears a Ying-Yang symbol on his head, a belt around his body and wields twin Katanas (although only used them for his special,) he likes making origamis. His stats are fairly balanced between speed, strength and eraticator power. His special attack requires four coins to execute. His move, he'll summon lighting bolts, frazzling any rats in the vicinity.

• Sparky - Sparky is a young, English magician cat, who had been reincarnated many times. He is a bit of a mystery, and enjoyed activities like Tarot Cards and fortune telling. He's dark blue with lighter blue ears, and a crescent moon shaped pendant. His stats are very different - he has a weak eraticator, fairly low strength but with very good speed. His special requires four coins to execute. With this move, he uses his magic powers to turn all surrounding rats into harmless rabbits and frogs.

• Manx - Manx is a stripy yellow and orange Manx cat, who has grown up in the Bronx. He's impatient and aggressive, with scars on his left eye and wears an earring on his right ear. His favourite food is rat. His stats are excellent strength and eraticator power, but with very low speed. His special move (which requires two coins to use), he tears about viciously with his claws, meaning any rats caught in this raking frenzy would be disposed of.

• Muffy DuPont - Muffy is a French cat, who is white with a black mask and tummy. She also has a heart shaped pendant. Her owner is a burglar, and she had committed some robberies herself. Lobster is her favourite food. Her stats are fairly similar to Sparky's, with good speed, but fairly poor eraticator and strength. Her special (which requires five coins to use) turned all surrounding rats into love hearts.

• Bob Cat - Bob Cat is an English Boxing cat, who enjoys metalworking. He's grey, wears red shorts and wears bandages wrapped around his paws. his stats are similar to Manx's, as he has low speed but good strength, and fairly good eraticator. His special is cheap, it only requires one coin, in which Bob Cat sends any nearby foes flying into the destructor.

• Smokey - Smokey is a Swiss cat, who is grey and wears goggles and a crazy suit, as she was a scientist. Her favourite food is cheese fondue. She hates mess, which is why she is fond of her laser gun. Her stats are fairly balanced between speed, eraticator power and strength. Her special requires three coins, in which she uses her satellite to destroy any nearby rats.

• Banubis - Banubis is an Ancient Egyptian cat, who is orange with a Pharaoh headdress. His stats are like Bob Cat's but he has the maximum strength of any character. His special only requires one token, and in it forms a pyramid, that turns any trapped rats into sand. He is an unlockable character, and can be obtained on normal or hard mode after defeating King Scarab at the Museum.

• Pearl - Pearl is the kidnapped special agent, a cat raised by Whippets, who is blue with a yellow top and wears roller skates, making her the fastest character. She also has good strength and eraticator power, making her overall the best character. Her special requires two coins, in which she'll race around the rats, and set them on fire. She is an unlockable character, and can be obtained on normal or hard mode after defeating the Rescue boss at the Factory.

Enemies

The enemies in levels mainly consisted on rats, which came in different colours. As each colour progressed, the rats became more intelligent, meaning they couldn't be caught easily, and better at smashing stuff.

• Grey rats - These are the bog standard, stupid rats. They appeared in the House and Garden stages.

• Blue rats - These rats are slightly better than the greys, and appeared in the Fun House and the Haunted House stages.

• Green rats - Better still, these rats appeared in the Museum and the Art Gallery.

• Red Rats - The best rats, this kind appeared in the Factory and Space.

There was another kind of rat that appeared in all the stages. A white (or genetic Blueprint) rat. When one of these creatures walked over a mutator, they transformed into a more powerful beast. They were one of the following:

• Mouth Rats - Giant, red rats that looked a bit like dogs, with gnashing, mincing teeth. They appeared in two levels, "Play Away" in the House, and "Compost Corner" in the Garden.

• Jelly Rats - These rats are made of lime and pineapple jelly (well, they are green and yellow) and are very deadly and superb at destroying the room, and can chase down your Scratch Cats very quickly. If eraticated, they would just split to two more jelly rats. They could only be destroyed by jumping on them twice in quick succession. Because of this, they were probably the best mutant rats, and you can only face one in the entire game. They appeared in the "Pinball Machine" in the Fun House.

• Vampire Rats - These rats wear black cloaks, and laugh manically, and take the form of a bat rat, which can blast fireballs at your cat. They can only be eraticated when they landed. They appeared in the level "Ghostly Graveyard" in the Haunted House.

• Mummy Rats - These rats are moaning mummys, and can incessantly chase you down. They required to be eraticated twice to be captured, making them one of the harder mutant rats. They appeared in "Fossil Frolics" and "Catlantis" in the Museum stage.

• Genius Rats - These rats are normal, just with a colossal brain on the top of their head. Although they would not pose any threat to a Scratch Cat physically, they can use telekinetic powers to destroy objects in the room. It was very upsetting to watch helplessly as they destroyed the final item in the room. They appeared in "Pop Art" in the Art Gallery, and "Best Little Warehouse" in the Factory.

• Devil Rats - As the name suggests, these rats are red with horns and wings. They were basically Vampire rats that didn't spend as long on the ground, making them very dangerous. They can also spit fire while grounded, unlike the Vampire Rats. They appeared in "Control Room", "Carry On Conveyor" and "Conveyor Crisis" in the Factory.

• Martian Rats - These rats are red and yellow, which flies around and has a laser blaster for an arm. As with Devil and vampire rats, they can only be destroyed when they landed. They appeared in "Teleporter Room", "Laser Locomotion" and "Mutator Creator" in the Space stage.

Another hazard in a few levels was Bennett the dog. He is a bulldog, who would be asleep, but rats can wake him up, meaning he can chase you for a little while, then fall asleep. He appeared in three levels- "Back Porch" in the Garden, "Ghostly Gatehouse" in the Haunted House, and "Art Attack" in the Art Gallery.

Bosses

At the end of each stage, there would be a big, bad boss character.

• YIPPY YAPPY - He is a small, blue dog that you fought at the end of the House stage. He will chase you around, and after a while would stop, and prepare to charge (you could tell by the dust stream coming from behind him as he pawed the ground.) You had to stand in front of the painted targets on the four corners of the room, and get him to charge at you. At the last moment, you had to get out of the way, causing him to smash into the wall. After you had depleted his health bar, he wil charge through a garage door, and the level will end.

• BEEFY BENNETT - Beefy Bennett is the same Bulldog that appeared in the levels, just this time he was bipedal, and wielded a club. This bout was at the end of the Garden stage. At the centre of the arena is a bin. You had to stand on this, and wait for Bennett to attack. If you jumped out of the way in time, Bennett would hit the bin, causing a loud noise. This noise annoys the next door neighbours who will throw amusing items at him (including anvils, cans, newspapers, bricks and boots.) If Bennett was hit by these items, he will get hurt. As the boss progressed, he would get faster, and be able to make more shockwaves to hurt you when he attacked. When the boss's defeated, the now furious neighbours would drop a one ton weight on him, allowing you to escape triumphant.

• RAT CLOWN - The Rat Clown is a giant white rat, floating with balloons, and wearing clown clothing. You battled him at the end of the Funhouse stage. He attacks by firing magic walking shoes at you from his trumpet. This is the easiest boss in the game, as the shoes were fairly slow, and you only had to walk on the pawpads on the floor to fire darts at his balloons. If you aimed correctly, a balloon will pop, hurting him. At the end, with all balloons destroyed, he will deflate and circle wildly about the top of the arena, like a deflating balloon. His shoes would walk out of the arena.

• GHOSTLY GHOULIES - The boss is a headless ghost, with a sword, and wearing an Elizabethian ruff. He was battled at the end of the Haunted House. He will chase you, blinding slashing about with his sword, and some other smaller ghosts would also try and kill you. You hurt him by walking on the paw pads on the floor, which caused the cannons to fire a cannonball. After a certain time limit, they would explode, and if the ghost is caught in the blast, he is injured. Once he's defeated, he'll disintegrated.

• SCARAB'S PALACE - At the end of the Museum Stage, you'll battled King Scarab, a giant blue scarab beetle. This boss is different, you use your eraticator and a destructor. He will attack by using his laser eye beams, hitting you with his flailing front claws, and also summoned mini scarab beetles. You had to eraticate the scarab beetles, and then destruct them, which caused the energy to zap King Scarab. After you repeated this process many times, he would shrink very small, hissing in annoyance. You could also hear him hissing as you walked through the gate.

• YIPPY LITTER - This boss is in the Art Gallery. You battled three of Yippy Yappy's puppies, a blue one, a pink one and a yellow one. They would all chase you, then, like Yippy Yappy, they would stop and prepare to charge. You had to get them to charge into the display cases, which then falls on them and crush them.

• RESCUE - This boss is at the end of the Factory. It consisted of a laser cage with Pearl inside, being guarded by four robotic dogs. The method was to push the four barrels into the corners of the cage to shut off the lasers. However, it was quite tricky, as you had to avoid the robot dogs, and they can also shunt the barrels out of the way.

• SPACE SHOWDOWN - The final boss is in Space, and obviously was Washington and Jefferson. They are in their hoverships, which had a laser turret on. To start with, they cloaked themselves, making them invincible. You had to slash down the four posts. As you destroyed one, this will cloak the other posts and de-cloak Washington and Jefferson. You have to then get them to zap each other with their lasers, hurting them. After you hurt them, they would cloak themselves and de-cloak the posts, meaning you had to repeat the process three more times. For the final time, a twenty second countdown would start, and if you couldn't get them to zap each other in that time, multiple lasers would zap down from the roof, removing all of the player's lives. If they did hit each other this last time, they would fly into space, and you will be able to escape. Rex Julius states afterward that the two baddies had escaped with King Scarab, which left the question open as to what had happened to them.

External links

• Game info at Epions.com
• Rat Attack! at Gamespot
• Rat Attack! Game Review at IGN
• Rat Attack! Game Review & Product detail at Dealtime.com
• Rat Attack! Nintendo 64 Review, FAQ & Information at Video Game Faq