Tom vs Jerry: The Chase is On!

Tom vs Jerry: The Chase is On! is an unreleased game by Hi Tech Entertainment. Two prototypes of this game exist. Thanks to drx and Hidden Palace for making the prototypes available. This article made use of the Video Game History Foundation Digital Archive. By: Evan_G Last updated: July 6, 2026

Tom vs Jerry: The Chase is On! is an unreleased game that was to be published by Hi Tech Entertainment. Many Hi Tech Entertainment games like Bobby's World, Mickey's Playtown Adventure: A Day Of Discovery were cancelled. Hi Tech Entertainment was originally called Hi Tech Expressions, but in 1994, they changed the name of the company. According to the August 1994 issue of Electronic Games, CEO Henry Kaplan said they changed the name because it "better reflects the nature of the business". In reality, it must have been a desperation move of a company on the verge of shutting down, because a year later the company was defunct. I could find no source on what happened to the company in its last year, but they ended up only publishing a couple of PC games with the rebranding.

This page originally only had a scan from Nintendo Fun Vision (a German magazine). It showed a game that had impressively large Tom sprites that looked like the cartoon! Indeed, when the prototype of the game was first revealed, it showed that the developers has ambitions to make a game that looked like a real Tom & Jerry cartoon. The Hidden Palace release for the game said it was in development by prolific SNES development studio Software Creations, though I could not find a primary source for this claim.

There are two prototypes of this game, both released by Hidden Palace from a lot of prototypes that came from a German source. The prototypes were sent to me by drx as part of this lot for release as part of the 15th anniversary of SNES Central, but were both released on Hidden Palace already in 2019. Both prototypes seem pretty incomplete, though the later one definitely is a lot closer to completion. The build date is within the binary, so it provides a timing for the development of this game. For in depth analysis, I suggest going to the pages on Hidden Palace, but I provide an overview here.

July 11, 1994 prototype

This prototype is very incomplete, and only has a couple of levels that are accessible, the last which is basically not playable. It is very clear that the developers at a very early point really wanted to replicate the style of the cartoon. It is very impressive. The title screen allows you scroll through Tom's animations. The framework of a cat-and-mouse chase game is there, but it is still in a very limited state. The title screen simply calls the game Tom & Jerry. You can check out the Hidden Palace page on this game here.

Title screen	You can go through all of Tom's animations on the title screen

Tom catching Jerry	Spike catching Tom

July 11, 1994 prototype PCB board.

April 28, 1995 prototype

The April 1995 prototype is a much closer to final product, though only 3 levels are directly accessible. It has a more proper title, "Tom vs Jerry: the Chase is On!". Jerry can attack Tom with various powerups taken straight from the cartoon. Jerry can pick up cheese collectibles as he runs, which lends itself to memorizing the course to efficiently get them all. The chase mechanics is perhaps not the most engaging gameplay, but it is definitely a visually stunning game. You can check out the Hidden Palace page on this game here.

Title screen.	Getting some air.

Caught by Tom.	Game Over.

April 28, 1995 prototype PCB board.

Media coverage

In late 1994, an advertisement for the game, including box art, came out in a catalogue for Captron G&G Stores. The advertisement has some interesting details, including saying that there was a possibility to play as both Tom and Jerry. The screenshot in the advertisement was from the Genesis game, so it was probably still at the planning stage at that point.

Advertisement of the game in a catalogue for Captron G&G Stores, which was included as a supplement to the December 1994 issue of EGM. It includes the box art, and a screenshot which is almost certainly from Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics! for the Genesis.

According to the August 1994 issue of Super Play, the game was shown by Hi Tech Entertainment at the 1995 E3, along with some other ultimately unreleased games (Barbie Vacation Adventure and NFL Team Heroes).

Mention in issue 34 of Super Play (August 1995).

The October 1995 issue of Super Play mentions the game in their Japanese game previews. They mention the publishing would be by Altron, which also did not come to fruition. Clearly whoever wrote this article did not know that it was going to be released by Hi Tech Entertainment.

Mention in Issue 36 of Super Play (October 1995).

This preview in the German magazine Nintendo Fun Vision calls the game "Tom and Jerry 2", though there is no evidence that this was going to be the real title. Based on this preview, it would have been distributed by the German company Allan in Germany.

Preview from Nintendo Fun Vision (issue 16, June 1995)

Scans

• Preview from Nintendo Fun Vision (issue 16)