So I was reading Kotaku and I saw a post of an interview with the game director, and he might have given away a little plot information about JPC!  When asked about possible locales in the game he had this to say:

"Well nothing is set in stone, and this is totally up in the air, but I can say with 100% confidence that there will DEFINITELY be a level in which Jetpack Cat is riding a tiger.  I mean, we were sitting around a dev meeting and thinking: 'What's cooler than a flying cat?'  And the answer was obvious: 'A flying cat that's riding another, larger cat.'  The tiger obviously has to fly as well, so he actually has an M16 jet strapped to his underside.  The tiger's name is Mr. Higgins, and in the plot we actually find out that he and JPC share a bit of a sordid past.  This may or may not have been romantic, it's up to the player to find that out.  It also may or may not have ended with a bizarre double homicide, but this is, again, up to the player to find out.  The level with Mr Higgins is actually another story, because we wanted to combine all the fun of a water level with all the fun of an elevator level, so there's actually a giant aquarium on an elevator going up the side of a volcano!  Things get a little crazy and the boss of the level may or may not be a sandwich.  Again, this is up to the player to find out."

I'll have you know that, as game director, that interview did not take place at all, and this is errant fraud on the part of Kotaku.

Also, after extensive focus grouping, we decided to change Mr. Higgins' name to Totally Awesome Tiger in an attempt to rope in the younger demographic.

The developers already talked about this at Tokyo Games Show two years ago, when they dropped hints about such a large cat. Though it's nice to finally get more details, I'm wondering how Totally Awesome Tiger is going to impact the whole stealth mechanic of the game.

I could have sworn I saw an interview with the devs talking about this, so I dug through all my old Game Informers and found the article!  The combat designer says:

Obviously, an enormous tiger would be problematic to use in our rhythm-based stealth minigame, so Mr. Higgins [name change hadn't been implemented yet, I see :D] is actually invisible.  Well, invisible is probably not the correct word to use, but basically I mean that you can't see him at all.  You can still hear him, of course, except he's usually very quiet.  Every once and while he will let out a deafening roar though, which will alert enemies to your presence.  We felt this would give the stealth gameplay some much needed urgency.  Also, Mr. Higgins is a big sleepy tiger, and sometimes he will decide to take a nap.  At this point you can either have JPC carry Higgins, lowering your speed but allowing you to use his weight to solve pressure-plate puzzles and so forth.  Or, and this is kind of a little secret, but if you leave the game on for 18 hours the tiger will wake up on its own, ready for another few hours of hard adventuring!

These threads are too funny not to lol at.

The game, similar to Too Human and Dark Sector before it, has undergone countless revisions during its 10 year development cycle.  Thus, you can safely disregard any comments we may have made in old interviews, as the elements discussed are likely not present in the current version.

It was originally titled "Bald Space Marine Fishing Simulator" and was going to be similar to The Deadliest Catch game but with a Gears of War visual theme, but the fees to license Unreal Engine 3 were too large for such a small development studio.  We then decided to turn it into an anime-themed 2d fighting game entitled "Wrestle Me or Die, Pretty Misty Action Girl Love", but at the last minute our partnerships with SNK & Capcom ended due to one of our testers, during an interview with IGN, using the phrase "Stupid Gay Japanophile Animu Bullshit" when questioned on his thoughts on the popularity of series like Death Note and games like Persona 3 in America.

We changed the name to "Jetpack Cat" and gave it the visual style it has today.  It was originally intended to be a Wiiware release, but unfortunately, given that the game renders natively in 1280 x 800, the Wii didn't have the capabilities to output it, and we didn't want to sacrifice our artistic integrity to downgrade the visual fidelity.  Also, the title screen alone took up so much space that Reggie himself told us no amount of fridge cleaning would allow it to be downloaded, and that a mail order college mini-fridge would have to be shipped to the houses of everyone who downloaded the game.

We took the game to Microsoft for an XBLA release, and things were going smoothly.  Unfortunately, we hit a major snag in the control department.  Jetpack Cat is controlled with digital movement for the cat, and using the 360's D-pad caused the player to instantly move in the wrong direction and die, even if there were no deadly obstacles on screen.

Eventually we went with a PC release.  Gabe Newell himself was a big fan of our prior output on the PC, with our 1992 smash hit "Adventure Game Where You Lose If You Didn't Grab That One Item 8 Hours Ago".  Unfortunately, right as the contracts were being signed for it to be placed on Steam, we received a cease & desist letter from Icanhascheezburger.com stating "IM IN UR LEGAL SYSTEM, CALLIN OUT UR COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT".  So, we finally decided that a completely free PC release was the right avenue to go to drum up interest for our development studio, and the other games that follow.

There is a rumor that is a direct sequel to the 1998 Playstation game "Apocalypse: Starring Bruce Willis."  It is even rumored that Willis lends his voice to both Jetpack Cat and all enemy characters, as well as performing motion capture for all of the vehicles in the game.  On a scale of 1 to 10, how true is this?  Also, will this be a prequel or sequel to the previous game?  Or is it perhaps a side story, or "gaiden?"

There's only a bit of truth to this, I'd say around a 2 out of 10.  What we did was license the sound files from Apocalypse and used all 5 of Bruce Willis' one liners as the sound effects every time you fire a shot in the game.  We think it really captures the hallucinatory chaos of the battlefield in an incredibly immersive way.

So I was sifting through an issue of Publisher's Weekly and found a writeup about the forthcoming Jetpack Cat trade paperback.  I'm so excited, I didn't know about this until now!  This was the little writeup blurb they're using to market the novel:

Think you know everything about Jetpack Cat?  Think again!  Set in the universe created by the game "Jetpack Cat," the novel, entitled "Jetpack Cat: Delta Pancake Initiative" reintroduces you to all your favorite characters in an exciting new setting.  Jetpack Cat is an ambitious new recruit of the J.P.P.F.F.F.C.A.C. (The Jetpack Police Force For Fighting Criminals and Crime), determined to prove his worth.  With the guidance of the enigmatic captain Wall Russ, Jetpack Cat must penetrate a nationwide network of crime.  But when things go wrong, the galaxy, maybe even the entire world, willbe in danger!

And they had a little interview with the author as well, where they shared a few juicy tidbits:

Q: We all know some adapting is necessary, but how faithful are you being to the game?

A: My goal was to really capture the experience of the games, and I really went out of my way to make it as true to the source material as possible.  For example, in the novel, characters are eating cheeseburgers almost non-stop, because of course they couldn't fly anywhere without them.  Characters frequently die and come back to life immediately.  These are the realities the game-world has dictated for the universe, and I'm honoring that.  However, some minor changes were necessary to make the story work as a novel.  For example, in the book, Jetpack Cat is a robot.  In fact, all the characters are robots.  In addition, most people's names were changed to Kenneth, and nobody really flies in the book, preferring mostly to use skateboards.  Also, in the novel, Jetpack Cat is 2.5 inches shorter.

Q: Could you tell us what we can expect to see in "Jetpack Cat: Delta Pancake Iniative"

A: Well, expect to see a dramatic shootout inside an Arby's.  Actually, you could safely expect to see five dramatic shootouts, all taking place inside an Arby's.  Not the same Arby's, obviously.  Different Arby's.  You should expect to see a sexy new love interest for JPC in the form of Raven Sharklam, a sexy old flame who has come back into his life, only this time she's a dolphin.  Familiar locations from the game make an appearance such as the J.P.P.F.F.F.C.A.C. headquarters, the Achilles Space Station, and Jetpack Cat's therapist.  Also, true to the game, most locations will have spinning saw-blades moving about the room.  And finally, expect Jetpack Cat's father to have a heart attack and die on page 297.

My questions for the devs is, is this all considered canon?  Does it take place before, after, or during the events of the game?  Also, will there be more books?

It is all considered canon.  The Delta Pancake Initiative was intended to flesh out the backstory of the cyborg ninja character and his fiance.  We sent our lead codec conversation scriptwriter over to DC to make sure that everything adhered to the story bible.  I recommend that gamers acquire the visual novel if they want to catch the clever, subtle hints about their sordid past and find out why exactly he unknowingly married a hologram created by an AI construct that's governing the world.

lol