Arthur’s Pet Chase is a cartoon-style side-scrolling platform game starring
characters from a popular children’s book series by author Marc Brown, also
made into a PBS television series. Arthur is a young aardvark entrepreneur –
he has started up a pet-sitting business in his home, and as the game opens,
he signs in his 30th customer. All seems to be going well, although his mother
and sister DW plant doubts about his ability to care for so many animals. As
Arthur goes to sleep, he falls into a nightmarish dream – all of the animals
have gotten loose and are running around the city, and Arthur has to chase
them down one by one.

The player guides Arthur through 30 levels in 5 different areas:

* Arthur’s Neighborhood
* DW’s Room
* The Sugar Bowl
* The Library
* The Haunted House

There are different monsters and different power-ups in each area – the weapon
of choice is a water balloon, which stuns opponents long enough to get past
them. The player begins the game with water balloons as well as X-Ray Vision
Eyeglasses, which make the pet’s paw prints visible. As he progresses through
the levels, the player can pick up the Bionic Bunny Super-Strength Cape,
allowing him to move large objects out of his path, and DW’s Safety Scissors,
for cutting ropes that block his way. Arthur can climb, run, crouch, and jump
over spaces and objects using the keyboard controls, collecting power bars and
moon boots and avoiding gum, which slows him down. Milk cartons denote
checkpoints, which Arthur is returned to if he falls or runs into an enemy.
Enemies vary from flying books and witches to evil troll dolls and malignant
hamburgers.

Pressing P (for Pause) brings up the level selection screen, where the player
can view how many power bars were collected and whether or not a pet was found
on a level, and elect to return to any level already played.

Arthur’s Pet Chase