To this reviewer, the Tom & Jerry franchise's most attractive quality is the unstable rivalry and friendship between the two namesake characters. One scenario would have Tom persistently trying to trap (and devour) Jerry, the next would have them working together against a common foe, or even frolicking under the sun on the beach or a meadow.
Therefore, this reviewer had expected this quality of the franchise to be present in this game. Unfortunately, it is not; Jerry the mouse is the only protagonist in this game, and Tom is the antagonist through-and-through (despite the playful-looking cover for the cartridge box).
The game is very light on story; every level has Jerry traversing through a new house towards an exit located within said house (usually represented by a mouse hole), all the while impeded by Tom, other enemies and inanimate obstacles in the game.
The designs of some levels can be a little weird at times, such as a gigantic bathtub that would have seemed like a swimming pool even to the largest human. There are also placements of stairs that do not make any sense. While these nonsensical level design does make for some challenging platforming, the impression that a player would get from playing these levels is that the titular duo are playing out their perennial rivalry in homes that had been designed to be anything but habitable.
Jerry is not completely defenseless in his quest to traverse through houses (however odd his quest is). He can collect what seems to be pebbles and launch them across hearty distances (in an arc trajectory), even across chasms to hit something not within the screen. He can also jump quite high to reach higher platforms.
Speaking of things off-screen, the game does a very good job of having the level completely loaded into the memory of the GameBoy. Enemies and obstacles that have been disposed of within a level stay disposed, making it easier for the player to backtrack in order to retrieve the collectibles in the game, of which there are a few types.
Collectibles include wine glasses, several of which are located within the level and can all be collected to grant an extra life at the end of the level. There are also the aforementioned pebbles to arm Jerry with (though these are limited, so the player will have to make sure that they hit something when thrown). Heart icons can be retrieved to refill Jerry's health, though these are few.
Fortunately, a deft player won't need to seek them out too many times as the controls for Jerry are quite responsive; the player can also easily add a lot of after-touch to Jerry's jumps, making it very easy to make sure Jerry lands on the correct platform, just a limb's reach away from harm. Jerry also has next-to-no downtime for his jumping; as soon as he hits land, the player can have him launching into the air the moment after. All these expedient controls are handy when evading the many hazards in the game, which often involve slight faulty household appliances and utilities (placed haphazardly all over).
The same can't be said for controls for other things that are not Jerry, however. The game, for some reason, cannot be paused without the screen becoming obscured - which is quite a pity as the screen shows quite a lot of the surroundings despite the size of the levels and the respite provided by an unobstructed screen would have been welcomed in planning the next move. That said, the player will have to patiently wait and sacrifice a bit more time to study the locations of enemies, and more to learn their patterns.
As for enemies in the game, most of them have the AI of patrol sentries and fixed-firing-pattern turrets seen in 8-bit games of yore. They can be easily avoided, or better yet, eliminated, as there can be a bit of backtracking in this game if the player intends to collect all collectibles. The clear graphical contrast between enemies and the background makes this even easier. However, this reviewer would have to say that Tom being nothing more than a model that pops out from behind the wall to deliver some swishing of the air happens to be quite disappointing.
Typically, for a platformer game, there is a timer that limits the time that the player can spend in the level. Getting a higher score also means a better performance rating for each level (as do retaining more health when the exit is reached), often at the expense of running around retrieving collectibles. However, there isn't really any incentive to finish levels earlier, as there is no scoring system that grants anything when a threshold is reached, only a ranking system that the GameBoy would forget as soon as the cartridge is removed.
Conversely, getting more lives isn't any more lucrative either. Having Jerry incapacitated in a level simply restarts it, with the added expense of a life. The game's continue system does pretty much the same thing, which somewhat make the system of lives redundant.
Overall, while this game may lack the iconic slapstick comedy of the Tom & Jerry franchise and does not appear to have any remarkable game designs, it is still a worthwhile platforming game.