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Onyanko Town

NES

NES

Players must play the role of a mother cat called Milky who lives in a dangerous metropolis full of dogs. The dogs want to kill Milky before she can rescue her son Michael who wandered out into the city on his own (and became lost). Players must catch the fish for temporary invincibility. However...

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Developer
Micronics

Released on
1985

Size
1–2 Players

Version
NES

Requirements
Nintendo Entertainment System

Downloads
Action

Publisher
Pony Canyon

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

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Description

Players must play the role of a mother cat called Milky who lives in a dangerous metropolis full of dogs. The dogs want to kill Milky before she can rescue her son Michael who wandered out into the city on his own (and became lost). Players must catch the fish for temporary invincibility. However, the other enemies can still kill the mother cat like the fish merchant (who is the only humanoid bad guy in the game), the automobiles on the road, along with the manholes and the pylons. The city is divided into roads for automobile traffic and sidewalks for roaming pedestrian dogs in overalls. The fish merchants completely replace the dogs after the 30th level; causing the invincibility icon (fish) to become redundant.

Unlike the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series of video games (especially the first NES release which would come out four years later in 1989), open manholes kill the player instead of helping her evade the roaming dogs. Sewer snakes also come out to kill the player with its poisonous venom. Triangle cones can momentarily block progress for the player. The game was targeted to a much younger audience than was considered to be “average” in the Nintendo Entertainment System community during that era. Using the classical music song Ballet des poussins dans leurs coques (composed by Modest Mussorgsky) as the background music, there is a common theme throughout the game of “dog catches cat; cat catches fish” – emulating the food chain.

Onyanko Town

Overview & History

Released by Pony Canyon in 1985 exclusively for the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan, Onyanko Town is a delightfully bizarre piece of video game history tied directly to the mid-80s Japanese pop culture phenomenon surrounding the all-female idol group Onyanko Club. Unlike standard licensed cash-grabs, this title drops players into the furry paws of a stray mother cat navigating a hostile, hazard-filled urban environment. The overarching storyline is deceptively simple yet frantic: you must guide the wandering feline through the bustling town to track down and rescue her mischievous, scattered kittens before a strict time limit expires. While it never received an official North American NES release, the game remains a fascinating cult classic of early Famicom software design, capturing a quirky slice of Showa-era nostalgia.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

Played from a top-down perspective, Onyanko Town combines maze navigation with frantic time-management elements. The mother cat traverses single-screen and scrolling urban grids filled with hazards ranging from speeding automobiles and aggressive pedestrians to roaming dogs. To succeed, the player must explore every corner of the grid, locate hidden kittens, and herd them safely back to a designated home base. Maneuvering the cat requires precision, as touching most hazards results in immediate life loss. Power-ups scattered across the pavement grant temporary invulnerability or speed boosts, essential for dodging the erratic AI of the town's human inhabitants. The difficulty ramps up sharply across stages, demanding memorization of pedestrian patterns and optimal routing to rescue every kitten under pressure.