- After millennia of planning, the orb lies within my reach. Soon, my warship will be complete and I shall storm the Temple of Themescrya, taking the Orb and crushing the Wild C.A.T.S.I shall lead my Daemonites and once again rule the universe!Helspont
Wild C.A.T.S (full title: Jim Lee's Wild C.A.T.S: Covert Action Teams) is a 1995 Beat 'em Up game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, based on the cartoon of the same name.
Following the plot of the cartoon and comic, the game have players in control of the Wild C.A.T.S as they set off to uncover the superweapons being developed by their arch-nemesis, Helspont and his army of Daemonites, meant for world destruction.
Players will, for the entire game, switch around between three heroes:
- Spartan a.k.a Hadrian 7, The Hero and the well-balanced Jack of All Stats, and the leader of the team;
- Warblade a.k.a Reno Bryce, The Lancer and the Fragile Speedster with his ninja-like moves, specializing in covert operations and infiltration missions, and
- Maul a.k.a Jeremy Stone, The Big Guy and muscleman powerhouse.
Wild C.A.T.S, move out!
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: The first boss, Attica, ambushed Spartan with a forklift after Spartan had defeated his mooks, gloating that he's the only one who knows the disc's whereabouts and he'll never spill the beans as he tries ramming the hero. After the boss battle, Attica pleads for his life and quickly tells Spartan the address to Helspont's factory.
- Amazon Brigade: The all-female "Coda" enemies who serves Helspont, armed with gigantic spears for roughing you up.
- Badass Bookworm: Downplayed, the technicians in Helspont's laboratory are unarmed and prefers fleeing from battle (leaving you to the armed mooks), but they can also attack by throwing knives, boomerangs, and various projectiles. One of the tech even serves as a "Get Back Here!" Boss (fought by Maul, the slowest of the trio) who spends most of the battle running, and then flinging her attacks before running some more, and you'll need to pursue her for much of the battle.
- Balance, Speed, Strength Trio: Spartan the easy-to-use hero of the team, Warblade with his quick, ninja-like attacks, and Maul the powerful muscleman, in that order.
- Battle in the Rain: Spartan's first stage is around a warehouse where he's fighting Helspont's human mooks. As he steps out, it starts raining, and cue Spartan pummeling enemies in the middle of downpour with occasional Dramatic Thunder.
- Big Bad: Helspont, the Daemonite warlord plotting to take over earth, and the Final Boss.
- Chain Pain: The biker mooks early on uses chains as weapons. Sometimes their dropped chains can be picked up by the players as well.
- Forklift Fu: Attica, the first boss, will try ramming Spartan with a forklift.
- The Ground Is Lava: Spartan and Warblade both have missions where they must cross electrified panels on hovering platforms, while being attacked by Daemonite mooks which, thanks to their alien biology, are immune to electricity. Plenty of jumping is required just to complete those stages, and thankfully none of them involves Maul as a playable character since he's the least adapt in jumping moves.
- Hand Blast: As Spartan, players can fire powerful ruby-coloured bolts of energy at enemies, causing massive damage. They can even hold on punch before releasing, resulting in a Charged Attack that does plenty of damage on bosses. Helspont in the final stage can pull a similar move.
- Lizard Folk: The Daemonites are a race of reptilian aliens working for Helspont, and a recurring mook for the players to defeat. There's also gigantic Red Daemonites as Helspont's personal guards in a few levels and baby Daemonites as Mini-Me mooks.
- Mecha-Mooks: Robot guards and drones are all over Helspont's factory in the infiltration stage.
- Mirror Match: "Bio", a Daemonite bio-weapon who's a clone of Spartan, shows up as one of the bosses. Said clone can even replicate Spartan's Hand Blast, though he fires green crescent waves instead
- The Quisling: There are human mooks serving Helspont and the Daemonites, willingly assisting the invaders in conquering the world. These enemies appear only in the first few stages though.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Helspont, the Final Boss, delivers a really epic one before the fight."Your nine lives are over, Wild C.A.T.S - prepare to lose your final battle."
- Sphere of Destruction: The Final Boss, Helspont, can instantly summon an energy sphere around him in the middle of battle, dealing quite a bit of damage on the players. Keep your distance, punch hard and fast, and try using ranged attacks before Helspont can activate his sphere.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: One of Warblade's segments have him infiltrating Helspont's factory, until he reached an electronically locked door. The game switches POV back to Spartan, but when it goes back to Warblade, it turns out in order to shut down the lock, the lights in the following area must be turned off too. Warblade takes it quite well:"Fighting in the dark? No problem. I'm a member of C.A.T, remember?" [cue Warblade fighting off hordes of mooks in total darkness the next stage]
- Switching P.O.V.: For the entire game, players are alternating between the three Wild C.A.T.S operatives, Spartan, Maul and Warblade, each of them taking up a segment of a stage before being switched over. The final stage however does allow the player to choose one of the trio to play as, right up to battling Helspont.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: The final stage ends with Helspont's defeat, but then the temple of the orb had started collapsing. The player beats a hasty retreat, and in the final scene, Helspont's revealed to be still alive and at large.
- Wall Crawl: Warblade can climb on walls thanks to his ninja skills and clawed gauntlets. Most of the stages with him as the playable hero have him infiltrating hard-to-reach areas by crawling alongside walls while avoiding hovering drone enemies.
- Wolverine Claws: Warblade's fists are attached with claws allowing him to slice up enemies like no tomorrow. By jumping and performing a downward slash, he can also turn his claws into a Blade Below the Shoulder that deals extra damage.
- Would Hit a Girl: The mooks aren't limited to male members, with the spear-wielding "Coda" enemies and Helspont's technicians, all of them being women. Which the trio of heroes beats into a pulp regularly.
