Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos is a 1995 licenced Looney Tunes Platform Game for the Super Nintendo. Starring the fastest mouse in all of Mexico, Speedy Gonzales.
In a small Mexican village the mice are all holding a fiesta, until the party is spoiled by the nefarious cat gang Los Gatos Bandidos, who capture them. Slowpoke Rodriguez escapes and calls for the help of his cousin Speedy. Speedy, being the friendly hero guy he is, sets off on a rescue mission across the country to free the captured mice and put a stop to Los Gatos Bandidos.
The game is a simple 2D platformer. You naturally play as Speedy Gonzales as he fights enemies and other hazards in the quest to rescue the mice. Speedy also has access to a short ranged kick to defend himself. Within each level there are certain amount of mice to rescue, which is as easy as finding their cage and freeing them.
Not to be confused with Cheese Cat-Astrophe Starring Speedy Gonzales for Sega Mega Drive, Master System, and Game Gear, Speedy Gonzales for Game Boy, or Speedy Gonzales: Aztec Adventure for Game Boy Color.
This adventure contains examples of:
- Big Bad: Sylvester, though you never fight him.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Ancient Keep is a spooky castle, and the fourth stage of the game.
- Cats Are Mean: The titular Los Gatos Bandidos are the villains of this game.
- Collapsing Ceiling Boss: The boss of Surely Wood causes acorns to rain down from the trees.
- Construction Zone Calamity: Fiesta City, the third level takes place in a construction site with the usual obstacles and traps.
- Continue Countdown: If the player runs out of lives but still have at least one continue, they have 10 seconds to decide whether to continue ("Sure, amigo") or not ("I give up!"). To pressure the player into making a decision, the countdown plays over the shadow of a cat slowly approaching a mouse hanging helplessly off a cage. Considering the Last Note Nightmare when the count hits 0, and the mournful game over screen with Speedy sadly holding his sombrero in front of him in a darkened room (underscored by a sad minor key version of Cielito Lindo for good measure), it doesn't take a genius to figure out what grim fate awaits the mice Speedy couldn't save...
- Fire-Breathing Diner: Speedy can obtain a flame attack if he drinks hot sauce. This is necessary in the Ancient Keep in order to light the firewood so the cauldron can emit clouds of smoke he can ride on like platforms.
- Game-Over Man: A sad Speedy holding his sombrero appears on the Game Over screen as a spotlight shines over him.
- Gangplank Galleon: Ye Old Bounty, which serves as the seventh and final level of the game. The final boss is a pirate cat.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: The Imprisoned Mice that litter each stage.
- Green Hill Zone: Sleepy Rock is the first level. Its also a tutorial stage to let players get used to Speedy's controls and the mechanics of the game.
- Hearts Are Health: Speedy starts out with three hearts in his health bar, and can expand it up to five by finding special power-ups. His health bar resets back to three hearts if he loses a life.
- 100% Completion: If you do manage to rescue every single captured mouse in the game, you get the Golden Ending, wherein Speedy's friends invite him to a celebratory fiesta. Speedy declines and chooses to chase after Sylvester.
- Logo Joke: When you start up the game, Speedy runs past the Sunsoft logo (with Aero the Acro-Bat standing behind it) from the right side of the screen to the left.
- Law of 100: For every one hundred pieces of cheese Speedy collects when he completes a level, he earns an extra life. The catch? That's collected in that particular round. Once Speedy goes to the next round, the count resets to zero.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Speedy's main method of attack is a short-ranged kick to beat enemies.
- The Lost Woods: Surely Wood is the second level.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The second half of the background music in the Ancient Keep has a snippet-remix of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor". In addition, the game over music is an ominous minor-key rendition of the Mexican folk song Cielito Lindo.
- Simple Rescue Mechanic: When Speedy comes across a caged mouse, he rescues it, who says "Gracias!". These caged mice serve as checkpoints, meaning that when Speedy loses a life, he continues from the last mouse he rescued.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Snow Cabins, which serves as the fifth level in the game. Enemies include snow cats and walruses with squirt guns. There are also polar bears whose only real purpose is to lie on the snow and provide Speedy with their bellies to bounce on.
- Space Zone: Galactical Galaxies, which serves as the sixth level of the game.
- Springs, Springs Everywhere: Sleepy Rock has mousetraps, which you'd expect to be harmful but aren't, and later stages have mushrooms and polar bear bellies.
- Sprint Shoes: The Sneaker Power Up lets the fleet-footed Speedy move even faster.
- Timed Mission: Speedy has a limited amout of time to rescue his friends and reach the end of the stage. Collecting clock power-ups adds more time to the counter.
- The Unfought: While Speedy fights the other members of Los Gatos Bandidos, he never fights Sylvester, their leader, at all in the game. When you beat the game, a cutscene is shown wherein Sylvester runs away, and Speedy chases after him.
