Naturally, you take control of Garfield, that inefficiently lethargic orange feline, who, in the midst of punishing Odie for causing him to drop his chocolate cake, hears of a worldwide treasure hunt in search of a key to a lasagna factory and the chance to earn a lifetime's supply of the delicious noodle dish in question. (Beverley swears Garfield pronounces "treasure" as "TRAY-sure", but I'm not hearing it anymore.) So off he goes, somehow traveling to exotic locales in Egypt, Mexico, and Italy (it is not explained exactly HOW he gets there -- I doubt Garfield can afford plane fare), filled with typical stereotypes of those regions, with the goal of seeking new clues to the whereabouts of the golden key. A pretty lame storyline by modern standards, but considering that the Garfield universe has generally rotated around having little or no major plots since his inception into the world back in 1978, the best I can do is shrug my shoulders, huff a sexy sigh, and keep on playing. But the absence of any other characters from the Garfield comic strip throughout the game is shameful. Not even Jon appears! C'mon! I can see why Irma the waitress or the long-dead Lyman haven't reared their relatively unimportant heads, but Jon Arbuckle is a staple of the series. Maybe this is after his untimely demise...

I suppose this would be a good time to first talk about Garfield in this game. To me, he will only have one natural speaking voice, and that belongs to the one and only Lorenzo Music. He provided the voice of the feisty feline in all of the old TV specials, as well as in the cartoon series, "Garfield & Friends", a show which I enjoyed immensely (except for the non-Garfield shorts). Mr. Music had the perfect tone and was the only voice I can actually believe could possibly represent the innermost psyche of Garfield the cat. However, Lorenzo Music passed away in 1995, and since then, many replacements have tried to capture his essence, including Bill Murray in the disgraceful recent film adaptations. But whoever covered the voice here clearly missed the mark, showing barely any sign of classic Garfield emotion... or interest of being hired as a voice actor at all. Garfield, therefore, is less of a charming sarcasm machine and more of an indifferent slug. Of course, this is contrary to his actions in game, where he's a lively, flighty character who can hop around to his heart's (and big fuzzy belly's) content, despite his alleged girth.

Yet beyond these qualms lies a game that isn't all that horrible. Garfield: Lasagna World Tour doesn't provide the most complex of excursions, but for what it was meant to be, it's a briefly entertaining adventure. It's pretty obvious that LWT was meant for a younger audience; however, the game is difficult enough that little kids will NOT be able to finish it. Some puzzles are far too difficult and require some good precision to complete -- precision that isn't always readily available, thanks to some questionable coding. Perhaps this explains the gracious abundance of extra lives, provided by collecting 10 Pookie bears, which children will need to survive. I think it's cute that Garfield starts out with 9 lives. It's also interesting to see Garfield's face on the life meter gradually get more and more annoyed as you sustain more injury.

Boy, does he look thrilled to be there.

Garfield has all the actions expected of a generic platforming character at his disposal. He can walk around, jump (though not very high), grip onto ledges (sometimes -- the detection here was poor), and use a furry kick to shoo away enemies (though the game's tutorial-style info boxes state that he punches with his paws... geez, didn't anybody pay attention to this one?). Also, laying around at extremely convenient times are different costumes that Garfield can don to gain additional powers. Snagging a turban makes him a fakir, capable of floating across longer gaps. The soccer player's uniform lets Garfield give Odie a punt, typically over a wall or other obstacle unassailable by the feline alone. Chugging a bottle of hot sauce not only provides him with the ability to use fire breath for a short period, but it also makes for one of the greatest animations in the game. And a cowboy outfit will help Garfield shoot down a few things using a nice aiming feature. There's a gag for that last one where Garfield refers to himself as "Catlamity Jane", a play on the classic Western character, Calamity Jane. However, the voice actor actually reads it as "Calamity Jane", thereby voiding the speech of its prime humour. Lastly, there will be the occasional times where you get in scuffles with dogs and have to press a certain sequence of buttons a few times to pass. It shakes things up a little, but there's no challenge to it. And let's not forget that Odie also tags along, though he's prone to just standing still or getting stuck on obstacles. Luckily, you can whistle for him to pop up, and no matter where you are, he'll be there! Odie may be stupid sometimes, but he can definitely get you out of more than a few jams...

Throughout this puzzling platformer, I did notice a few other things that made me stop and wonder. You can tell this is a budget title because the actual number of enemies is staggeringly small. Somehow, dogs are in every region, just with different hats. Snakes are also abundant (along with spiders in later levels), but although I understand having asps in Egypt, why are they in Mexico? The designers just slapped maracas to their tails and called it a day. But even more proposterous in the Mexico level was that there were (far too often) bugs crawling around on the ground! How subtle. Are the designers trying to reinforce the stereotype that Mexico is just an infested country? I hope the Mexican Tourism Board takes notice of this. As well, why do the snakes and the spiders die immediately, but the dogs only get knocked unconscious for a short while? I hate enemies that never die! I whacked the living snot out of you, so remain subdued!

I must admit, the music was pretty cheerful all around. Though not far derived from the soundtrack of your local skyscraper elevator, the soundtrack added to the game's lighthearted feel. As for other audio, well... I've already shared my opinion about Garfield's voice acting (which is, sadly, the only voice acting in the entire game). It's bad. They raided a retirement home to find this guy. In the comatose ward. There were also certain points where the speech in the subsequent bubble of text often continued for a bit before fading out. The sound effects that remain are few and far between, though you have to wonder why the snakes sound like headcrabs from Half-Life. The graphics aren't all that spectacular, but they do effectively illustrate the cartoony world in which Garfield resides in its natural simplicity. Everything is fairly well-animated, though Garfield is WAY too animated to be realistic. My cat never moves even close to that level of boisterousness.

No matter how you look at it, you have to remember that this is a budget title, not a full-fledged, high-budget production. As a result, it's important to forgive a few bugs here and there (though not the ones that crawling around the Mexican terrain here). Though it's a relatively short game, you can still get a good weekend out of it. And although complexity may not be its strong suit, Garfield: Lasagna World Tour has SOME entertainment value, and it ranks wayyyy ahead of many other games I've played. Take that into consideration.