Mappy: The Beat Review – Amazingly, Mappy Has His Own Animated Series! Is It Any Good?

There’s a lot of different video game series that have a ton of content made for them. Some that immediately come to mind are Street Fighter, The Legend of Zelda, and Castlevania. But then there are others that tend to be overlooked. Many early third-party games have to deal with this. Yet, sometimes a company has new media released for a series that one wouldn’t expect. For example, Mappy had an officially licensed animated web series that was released on YouTube in 2013 and 2014. It was 13 episodes in length, with each being about 7-8 minutes in duration. Once I learned of it, I wanted to check it out since I recently reviewed the Famicom port of the original game.

The Show in General

The show is called, “Mappy: The Beat,” and features Goro the cat, Sky Kid the bird, Dig Dug, and Mappy himself as major characters. It was produced by ShiftyLook and Toonhound Studios, the former of which was a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings (Wikipedia). It’s a comedy through and through, with Goro hiring Mappy as Head of Security in the first episode. They work at Nyamco, which is obviously a play on the spelling of “Namco,” and remarkably the Japanese name for Goro as well.

Along the way, Goro tries to irritate Mappy at any chance he can. This happens in almost every scene that they’re in together, which is a lot. In most episodes there’s also some small issue that needs resolving. Such as the office being too messy, Mappy being fat and having to work out, what to do when the boss isn’t at work, and the building being infested with ninjas.

Nearly all of these have moments of Goro laughing at absurd times, Sky Kid making positive statements that have been paid for by the Nyamco Recruiting Department, and Dig Dug talking about drilling and how he loves to do that all time. The show never takes itself seriously, and after a few episodes, I became used to its silly fun and the ridiculous banter between the characters. Most of this is between Mappy and Dig Dug, or with Goro.

Art Style and Namco References

What helps make all this work is the simplistic art style that has just a couple frames per second of animation at a time. While at first glance that makes the show appear cheap, but it was an intentional design decision. I didn’t have a problem with it at all. It made me laugh out loud as I watched Mappy bounce around the screen as he called up Dig Dug. He needed his help to get out of his office. The reason? There was so much garbage on the other side of his door that he couldn’t open it! Normally I wouldn’t expect placing a phone call to be funny, but with Mappy: The Beat’s silly nature, routine actions are handled in absurd ways that make them comedy gold.

Much of the character of the show is also indicated by the way Mappy moves his eyes around as he thinks about what someone else is saying. Usually this is in response to Goro and his insulting remarks. All the regular characters have different ways of moving their heads that’s fun to watch as well, especially Dig Dug.

I grew to really like this style, and seeing the silliness of how the characters moved around. Goro is almost always smiling and laughing, and even minor characters can be very funny. One regular example is Albatross from Rolling Thunder. He has a terrible disguise that fools nobody, but he acts like it actually works. Plus, he answers in evasive ways, or doesn’t do what he is asked, which makes him seem especially fishy. Some may be irritated that he doesn’t behave like one would expect of a heroic espionage agent. Instead, he is just really silly and can’t be trusted.

Yet, his character highlights one of the best things about the series. It routinely pokes fun at classic Namco games and characters. Even side characters get to shine at times. Because of this, I recommend not looking at Wiki articles so that you’re surprised when certain people show up. Oh, and just so I can say it here, my favorite joke in the show is related to a minor character.

Only once did I feel like a guest character was wasted. Sadly, that person was one I was really excited to see. At least almost everyone else does a great job!

Music and Sound Effects

Concerning the music, they fit the tone of the web series. That is, they sound homemade and cheap. This is especially noticeable with the music, with much of it just being people making sounds with their mouths. Now, I know that sounds bad, but oddly enough, it works! Especially at a point where the music style is used to make a joke. I think it lands better because of how the other music in the series is composed.

For the sound effects, I think they are enjoyable and fit the show well. In contrast to 1980’s video games that I regularly play, they are much more diverse and sound a lot better than what I am used to hearing. Like the music, some of the sound effects are also used effectively for jokes, which is impressive.

Beyond those two aspects, what really matters about the show in the sound department is the voice acting. I think it’s only done by two or three people, and they do a great job! All the major players are funny, with appropriate nuances to their delivery that makes the dialog fun to listen to. Other than the couple of minor characters I didn’t really enjoy, everyone added a good deal to the show and contributed toward me watching it to its conclusion.

More About the Jokes

As I’ve already said, much of show’s jokes stem from banter between the characters and the delivery between them. Usually, Mappy will notice a logical fallacy when he is being insulted, or how Goro’s plans don’t make any stinking sense. After a few episodes I became used to it, and enjoyed the idiosyncrasies of each character.

Overall, it just comes off as a goofball comedy where people do stupid stuff that somehow makes sense in the context of the show. Smashing through walls, drilling through the floor to get somewhere, and wearing stupid disguises are all absurd, but it’s fun to see what shenanigans will happen next.

Moreover, Mappy: The Beat does a great job of being a celebration of 1980’s – early 2000’s Namco. There’re routinely additional characters who show up and contribute to the episode’s storyline. They typically have a good deal of dialog, and drive a lot of the comedy while they are present.

To me, this is one of the best things about the program. A ton of the dialog is funny, and if you are OK with the characters not being serious or accurate to their game personae, then it’s great! And honestly, I’d recommend watching it just for the banter between Mappy, Dig Dug, and Goro. Everything else is just gravy!

The only real issues I have with the show include,

• Some of the dialog can be a bit crude, with occasional cussing.
• I wish there were more references to Mappy’s games, but there are a few big ones.
• Occasionally, the dialog seems to push specific talking points on the viewer.

Despite those aspects, I grew to enjoy Mappy: The Beat a great deal. So much so that when I would watch highlight reels of the best jokes, it would just make me want to watch it all over again!

Final Thoughts

Not that doing so would be very difficult. The whole show can be watched from start to finish in less than 2 hours across its 13 episodes. I think gamers in their teens would especially gravitate toward it.

Although it’s not too smart, and more like dumb fun. Nor is the animation impressive. Yet, it is often very funny, and that’s what matters the most for this kind of show! It’s designed to be entertaining, and in that regard, it successes very well.

Although the official ShiftyLook YouTube channel was deleted over a decade ago, the full show is still easily found on YouTube today. I’ve linked to a couple of places where it can be watched for free down below.

I hope you enjoy it!

Title: Mappy: The Beat (Playlist of all 13 episodes in order)
Genre: Animated Web Series
Year Released: 2013 and 2014
Developer: ShiftyLook, Toonhound Studios, and NAMCO BANDAI Games
Available On: Although no longer officially available, a playlist of all 13 episodes can be found here, and another with those same episodes and also bonus videos is located here. Both lists are on YouTube.
Price Paid: Free!

Remember, we can have different opinions about the games we play. If you like something more (or less) than I do, both of our perspectives are valid. Please see my Review Rating Scale to know more of how I rate games.