Cats... not boots?
But still, cats. Not boots, though. But cats.
I got fixated on a cat game - and then, after I came down from that, another cat game came on my path. I felt like the universe was telling me, “play cat games this week!” so that’s what I did. I found four cat games to play, got fixated on a fifth that I really want to play but found too expensive to buy, and then two more cat games released a demo. So now I have for you… six and a half cat games. Meow!
Chonkers
I don’t know what to think about Chonkers.
One thing I’m sure of, it’s that it’s a gorgeous and addictive game that I can’t put down, which is a good thing. I just also feel a tad frustrated with the pacing and balancing of the game, which makes it a difficult hyperfixation.
The premise is simple, like most terrarium games: buy a pack of kittens, give them food and attention, watch them grow into adult cats - or if you’re lucky, into really fat chonkers - and sell them for profit. Buy more kittens, etc.
But the pacing is a little off. Slow start, picks up in the 2nd to 3rd tier of kittens, then slows back down, having me stuck raising the same kittens of a tier I have already completed just to grind the money to advance.
I was genuinely looking forward to the different backdrops, decoration items and cat breeds, but it’d take far too much effort to get there, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
Cats Are Money
We’re continuing the kitten mill theme with Cats Are Money, which is roughly the same premise as Chonkers: buy kittens, raise them, sell them - but introducing a couple of refreshing new mechanics that make this game rather interesting.
Most terrarium games have one “spam button” method of raising your critters, usually food. In Cats Are Money, your cats need both food and love, keeping you on your toes in regards of what you’re spamming and filling your screen with cute little fish and cute little hearts.
The cats drop wool (weird, right, but just run with it) that you can quickly convert to money, or you can deliver them to specific villages putting up a specific amount of wool they need in exchange for a certain amount of coin.
Reminiscent of Time Is Honey, you can decorate your cats with little accessories you can unlock in packs as well, taking the game to a whole other level of cute.
I’ve played a lot of similar games and most of them lack something, but not all the things. This game, if I’m frank, doesn’t have any of the user-friendly options that I crave in such games: no toggle for holding feeding/loving buttons, no “sell all adults” button but only a sell ALL cats without filters, no way of 🔒-ing the cats you don’t want to sell, a lot of screenshakes in dialogue windows…
I don’t want to immediately dismiss the game exactly because it shows so much promise in terms of the things that are there, but it needs some more time in the oven and some improvements before I’d consider it a great game.
Captain Whiskers: Incremental Seas
From the name and promo imagery, I had expected there to be more cats in Captain Whiskers: Incremental Seas. But ehh, it ties back to last week’s theme, so there’s that? And I’m guessing the cat captains do wear boots.
This game is a pure no-nonsense idle incremental fishing game. There is “story” in terms of the intro going, “hey, I’m a cat captain, let’s go fishing!” but after that it’s a pure one-track loop of casting your net, catching fish and hopefully treasure, unlocked upgrades, rinse repeat. Unlock more fish, locations and cat captains as you go.
There is nothing more to it. Literally. This thing doesn’t even have a pause button. It doesn’t even count how many fishy iterations you’ve gone on. It’s just catching fish, unlocking things, catching fish again, unlocking things again. And I love it.
Mewnbase
Mewnbase is the gem I wish I had discovered earlier, meowly shit.
You’re a cat in a space suit (with space boots!) and have to survive on the Mewn. You collect resources, craft tools, build your base, research artifacts and… survive.
Survivalcraft in its purrrr-est, cutest form. I haven’t yet managed to actually survive the entire run, but I’ll get there.
CatLands
CatLands is a puzzle game where you put together tiles of land in a sliding puzzle to complete the level and unlock land tiles that you can take home to your own village to customise it.
The game combines puzzle with town builder, which I appreciate. The building of your village is nice, although the controls may take some getting used to.
What keeps me from fully enjoying this game, is that the village space is very limited. I understand that there has to be a limit that can be expanded through playing the game and solving the puzzles, but as it stands, the ratio between tiles you can place and tiles you unlocks is massively unbalanced. I get excited about unlocking a couple more pond tiles, but don’t have space to put them without sacrificing my field or forest, for example.
If you enjoy a cosy sliding puzzle game, this will absolutely be your thing. If you enjoy building a big town, however, you’ll probably be disappointed.
Cat Isle
Cat Isle is gorgeous! Your goal is to build restaurants for cats. Each day, a bunch of cats visit your train platform, eat at your establishments, and go fishing. You can even help them fish! They’ll let you know what kind of food they want and don’t want, and it’s up to you to balance it out perfectly so all your feline overlords customers are satisfied. With a cute little gacha machine, you unlock decorations to make your platform super cosy and make the cats happy. Make the cats happy.
In gameplay terms, it reminds of Minami Lane, which admittedly didn’t hold my attention for very long when I played it two years ago. So I’d say Cat Isle, in my humble opinion, is in the same league as a game that has overwhelmingly positive reviews. Finished the demo, instantly wishlisted.
And last but not least… the cat game I didn’t play.
Mewgenics is wildly popular right now, and slightly controversial.
In this game, you breed the ultimate cat warrior through eugenics, send them into roguelike battle and see them come to their end in the most cruel ways. The cute graphics style and the way these deaths are treated lightheartedly adds to the absurdity of it all.
It is one of those dark humour games that divides people into those who absolutely love it, and those who abhor it. If you played and enjoyed The Binding of Isaac (also made by Mewgenics’ dev), this will be your kind of thing. I’ve played and loved other ‘dark humour gone absurd’ games like Cult of the Lamb, so I’m assuming I would love Mewgenics.
It certainly has had my interest for the past week, but at €30, I find it a tad expensive for my taste (and wallet). So I’ll be patiently waiting for a demo, a sale or a winning lottery ticket.
