"Why is Jon Arbuckle racing his cat?" was my first thought while playing Garfield Kart. The game provided no explanation. Kids today love to make fun of Garfield, but in the 90s we loved Garfield unironically. That said, this game could interchangably be any generic kart racer and lacks a defining personality. While I doubt Bill Murray would lend his voice talents (He voiced Garfield in the live action movie) some nasally middle aged man could have voiced Garfield to imitate Lorenzo Music (That is the real name of the man who voiced Garfield in the cartoon).
That said, at least the playable characters are from the cartoon and strip. I only played as Garfield once because he's just awful. Odie is almost instantly accessible and better in every conceivable way. You need Harry (a stray cat from the cartoon) to win the time trial challenges which are truthfully the only thing that keeps this game from being casual. Getting a platinum medal in the time trials is super hard and really requires you to figure out all the tricks necessary in timing the drifts and taking the correct routes.
The normal game is so easy it basically plays itself. You get items like in Mario Kart, but it seems skewed to force everyone together because you get the most powerful items when you're in the back and the game insists on knocking you back when you're doing really well. There are coins scattered around, but they offer so little that you're better off ignoring them and just completing the time trials for cash (Or trade in the hat you win every time you get 1st place).
Some of the levels are fun to play, but they're very generic and not very Garfieldy. I assume the farm level is a reference to "U.S. Acres" a completely different cartoon that was stapled into the Garfield cartoon show. But some of these other stages... I mean I don't know. One level is called "Play Misty for Me." Who is Misty? Nobody, actually it's named after a 1971 Clint Eastwood film about a psychotic woman who tries to murder a DJ with a knife. Why? No explanation.
Another level is called "Pastacosi Factory." What is Pastacosi? I can't tell you, from Googling there is only one result, and it's this game. We know Garfield likes lasagna, though Jim Davis chose his favorite food as lasagna basically at random and there is no backstory behind it. Another level is called "Caskou Park?" Remember that, from the cartoon and comic strip? No, you don't, because it never existed until this game made it up. There are several Egyptian-themed levels, I guess because cats are from Egypt, but I don't think that's very Garfieldy. I mean I could think of some more creative level designs. What about the aliens using a shrink ray and forcing Garfield and Friends to drive through a giant version of his home, since it's the most ubiquitous part of the show/strip? Or what about a prehistoric cat-themed level that could contain the original drawing of Garfield (who literally looks prehistoric) as an Easter egg? Or what about the junkyard, or some creative rendition of Planet Parma, the home of the aliens from the show? I can think of countless creative stage designs and I think most people would probably prefer trippier and weirder designs than the generic offerings on display here.
There are puzzle pieces that unlock an image, but the image is boring and generic. It would've been cooler if they unlocked comic strips. Honestly, this game is just too vanilla for a character like Garfield. As I said earlier people love to mock Davis' bad comics but there is some genuinely funny cynical humor there as well. And this game is totally geared toward kids even though every playthrough I found of it online had an adult playing. There is no "coffee" item, presumably because this game is for "kids", and kids don't drink coffee? And what of Garfield's hatred of Mondays?
There is at least some nuance to the game play. You can throw items forward and back. Throwing them back can intercept items thrown at you. You can also speed up to outrun items that are homing in to get you. The "spiked shell" equivalent in this game is three UFOs and one of the three lets you pass, though it's a gamble. Alternatively, you can sometimes hop around the area around the road and avoid the UFOs altogether. Stuff like this makes it a notch above your average kart racer, even though it's really not a very good adaptation of Garfield. I just assume this game is about Jon Arbuckle going insane. Seeing him throwing pies at his cat in a go kart while wearing a Viking Helmet alongside his veterinarian is just plain concerning, and a funny, more self aware game could play on the humor and be faithful to the comic and show instead of just being a generic game with Garfield sprites pasted in.
