First it was Bubsy, and now we’ve reached Garfield. With Garfield: Escape from Monday, the year 2026 has now given us two new games starring orange felines not exactly known for either charisma or a particularly stellar gaming catalogue. Both, by all intents and purposes, should have been terrible, yet somehow aren’t. Despite not being particularly innovative or groundbreaking, Escape from Monday is shocking simply because of how effortlessly decent it ended up being. It’s not trying to reinvent the 3D platformer, nor does it need to.

A well-put, well-designed, occasionally good-looking platformer. And still a Garfield game to top it off.

Garfield: Escape from Monday is a pretty straightforward 3D platformer clearly influcenced by games in the vein of Super Mario 3D World and Super Lucky’s Tale. The game is entirely set within Garfield’s subconscious; he falls into a deep slumber (or actually faints, I’m not 100% sure) after accidentally eating a healthy, vegetable-filled lasagna. His body has seemingly rejected this instant amount of nutrients, trapping him inside a food-themed nightmare, where he is constantly being harrassed by the worst kind of person one could ever meet: a TV who only knows how to cook healthy meals.

Every single level in Garfield: Escape from Monday follows the same premise. It’s your typical “go from point A to point B” schtick, but one which incentivizes you to further explore each level, as it rewards you with collectible macguffins hidden off the beaten path. In true Garfield fashion, the macguffin is a slice of lasagna. Upon completing a stage, you are also rewarded with extra lasagna slices depending on how much cheese you’ve collected in it. Not that it is difficult in any way, shape or form: this is one of the easiest, most trouble-free platformers I’ve played in a while. Oddly enough, without ever feeling overly condescending.

I just can’t defend its writing and voice acting. It just ain’t good, chief.

Escape from Monday isn’t a game that really tested my skills or reflexes. But, to my shock, I still had fun with its easygoing nature. Simply reaching the end of a usually well designed level was never much of an issue, but finding every hidden piece of lasagna proved surprisingly challenging, occasionally forcing me to replay a stage in order to earn its full completion reward. Enemies are incredibly easy to defeat, and the handful of encounters the game dares to call “boss battles” are complete pushovers. Then again, considering this is a Garfield-themed game of all things, it’s clearly aiming for a younger and more casual audience.

Controls are fluid, if somewhat uninventive. Escape from Monday shines a bit whenever it throws a special costume your way, granting Garfield a temporary additional ability until the end of the level. For instance, a turkey costume, for whatever reason, gives you a double jump. Even if this mechanic reminded me of Balan Wonderworld of all games, its implementation here actually feels quite fitting. The entire game takes place within a dream, after all, so it’s not like there’s supposed to be much logic or reasoning behind its levels in the first place.

Special costumes can provide you with some temporary abilities.

I also have to commend its visuals. Again, I wasn’t expecting a graphical masterpiece, but Escape from Monday looks quite pleasing, with colorful characters and environments complemented by decent lighting effects. Everything is tied together by some occasionally inventive level design and a consistently fluid framerate. Sure, I doubt this is pushing the boundaries of what the PS4’s 2013 hardware is capable of, but that’s hardly an issue. More importantly, I didn’t encounter any glitches, visual hiccups, or performance issues throughout my time with the game.

The only true flaw I was able to find in Escape from Monday was in its sound department. No, not the soundtrack per se, which is actually good. The problem is that, well, Garfield talks too much, spits out too many one-liners, but always utters them in the same monotone manner. The orange cat might be cute, but he isn’t, and has never been, a beacon of charisma. Hearing him attempting to break the fourth wall with a joke, or constantly muttering about not being in the mood for undergoing a platforming gauntlet got tiresome pretty fast. Side characters such as Jon or the antagonist weren’t much better, either.

I never thought I’d ever see Garfield fighting against a giant mech, but here we are.

I have played countless, much better platformers, but I have also played a crapton of vastly worse platformers. I have also played a lot of much worse Garfield games over the years. Perhaps the single most shocking aspect about Garfield: Escape from Monday is how effortlessly decent and trouble-free it is. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it isn’t a particularly memorable platforming experience, but there isn’t anything inherently wrong with it: you can play it without a care in the world, can complete it without too much trouble, and won’t ever find any big issue you’d call a dealbreaker.

Garfield: Escape from Monday is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Garfield: Escape from Monday was provided by the publisher.