As a kid I was such a fan of the Garfield comic strips that I wrote to Jim Davis, and a signed picture of the big orange lump came back in the post. It’s still on the wall in my spare bedroom, so it’s fair to say I came into Garfield: Escape From Monday with a soft spot for the cat. The game, from OSome Studio and publisher Microids, opens with the most Garfield crime imaginable: a spinach lasagna, served up by the villainous Chef Monday. One forkful of greenery and our orange hero is dumped into a vegetable-infested nightmare, and the only way out is to eat his way back to consciousness, one lasagna at a time. It’s a lasagna-hoovering-em-up (it’ll catch on), and as premises go, it’s about as on-brand as it gets.
The setup will be familiar to anyone who’s picked up a 3D platformer in the last thirty years. There are three food-themed worlds and more than 40 levels, moving from the vegetable nightmare to a sweets-and-candy world and a barbecue-soaked desert. Garfield can jump, cling to walls, curl into a ball, ground pound and kick his way through the vegetable henchmen, and three hits sends him back to the last checkpoint. Lasagnas are the main collectible, and gathering them unlocks furniture for Jon’s house, which acts as the hub between levels. Jon, Odie, Arlene and Pookie all turn up, while Nermal and Squeak play villains alongside Chef Monday.
The first thing that hits you, though, is the voices, and they’re not like any Garfield you’ve heard before. Whether you grew up with Lorenzo Music in Garfield and Friends, caught Bill Murray in the live-action films, or sat through Chris Pratt in The Garfield Movie, nothing quite prepares you for this. Fans of the TV shows or films will find the whole thing quite unsettling at first, a bit like hearing a mate’s voice come out of a stranger’s mouth. You do get used to it, eventually. Sort of.
There’s still a fair old dollop of charm here. The worlds are bright, colourful and clearly made by people who like the source material, and the costumes are the best ideas in the game. A turkey outfit gives Garfield extra hang time, a surfer outfit lets him ride across water, and a cowboy outfit hands him a lasso to swing about with. They’re daft, they suit the character perfectly, and I’d have happily taken more of them.
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It’s also easy, properly easy. You’ll rarely be in danger and almost never stuck, and the generous checkpoints mean a mistimed jump costs next to nothing. That’s hard to hold against it, though, when it’s so clearly aimed at a younger audience. For a kid taking their first steps into 3D platforming, it’s a friendly, low-stress place to start, and nobody’s going to throw a controller across the room.
It doesn’t help that the genre has had a strong few years. Astro Bot throws a new idea at you every couple of minutes, and Super Mario Odyssey remains the gold standard for packing a level with surprises. Next to those, Escape From Monday feels like it’s working from a checklist: wall jump, ground pound, collectible, boss, repeat. You’re rarely asked to do anything you didn’t already do a couple of levels earlier, and it never quite finds the moment that makes you lean in. You could argue that a game happy to coast is the most faithful Garfield adaptation possible, and I’d almost agree. Everything works, but very little made me sit up and take notice, and in this company competent isn’t quite enough.
None of it’s a dealbreaker, mind, just a game that plays it a little too safe. Time trials let you replay stages for speed, and the full run should take somewhere between six and nine hours depending on how thorough you are with the lasagna hunting.
Garfield: Escape From Monday is the best Garfield game in years (not the highest of bars, admittedly), with plenty of warmth, three cracking costume gimmicks and a world built with obvious affection. What it doesn’t have is the invention to sit alongside the genre’s heavy hitters. Seasoned platformer fans will find it a bit too comfortable, but if you’re a Garfield fan who can get past the new voices, or you’re after a gentle first platformer for the kids, there’s a pleasant enough lazy afternoon to be had. It won’t be knocking that signed picture off the spare bedroom wall any time soon, but the kid who wrote that letter is exactly who this game is for. Just don’t expect it to get you out of bed on a Monday.
Reviewed on PC & Switch 2
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