In Namco’s 1983 arcade game Mappy, the player character Mappy is a mouse.
Mappy is an anthropomorphic police mouse who enters a mansion to recover stolen goods. The thieves are the cat-like Meowkies, led by the larger cat Goro. Players guide Mappy through the building’s floors and use doors to stun or repel the pursuing enemies.
The animal identities are central to the game’s visual joke: Mappy is a policeman mouse trying to reclaim property from cats. Because the character is drawn as a small uniformed figure rather than as a realistic animal, some players remember him simply as a cartoon police officer.
Namco released Mappy in Japanese arcades in 1983. The game’s doors are its key mechanic: opening them can reveal stolen items, while special doors can create gusts that push enemies away. Mappy’s compact rules and distinctive chase patterns helped it become one of Namco’s recognizable character-based arcade titles.