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Get Down With The Cat
Addit- 06/23/2014 11:42 PM
- 3264 views
A Game Made By: halcy
Created Using: RPG Maker 2003
It's A: PUZZLE Game
That Roughly Takes Around: 1 - 2 Hours To Complete
And It's A... COMPLETED GAME!!!
So we can all pretty much say for certain here that last year went to the dogs (*cough* Pom *cough), so it’s pretty much in the grand scheme of things that next year was going to belong to the other side of the household pets: the loveable, but equally as lazy, the cat!
I would have probably gone with a goldfish – but this will do!
Anywhoooo, when it comes to our four legged friends with the terrible cat breath and constant yearning to be petted on the back, I, for one, am not much of a fan; I’m more of a dog sort of person than a cat person. But there was once a time that I used to own a cat; his name was “Ernie.” He was orange, incredibly cuddly – and he liked to sleep by other people’s window cells so he could catch a glimpse of people bathing in their showers. He was a man’s-man cat. He was a prowler before I even knew what the term prowler meant.
It’s too bad that he ran away from home that one day; probably moved in with one of the many human mistresses, that guy was so suave.
Anyways, enough about Ernie - he’s gone now. What isn’t gone is losing sight of what I’m doing here today, and that’s about playing a game about cats.
(Yeah…it’s a slow month, whaddya gonna do...)
I’m expecting a lot of cat references in this game – so brace yourself! Here’s halcy’s and amitie feline masterpiece for good ol’ rm2k3, Cat Game:
The Story
*gasp* HELLO KITTY LAND!!! :D
Cat Game begins pretty much right off the bat once you first start up the game; no killer backstory, no high-res cinematic sequences with zooming pictures and an unrecognized font; and no evil scheming villain behind the scenes waiting to wage war on all human kind – no! This game just plops you right off into the thick of it for no just reason. Cool…???
But after soon going downstairs, then you find your motive and purpose to this story.
You play as a young, silent protagonist girl simply named “Mika.” She’s got long black hair and a green shirt with a big M on it, probably once being a fan of the old Dallas Mavericks of the NBA (I mean, there is a basketball court near the outskirts of town).
While going downstairs to probably grab herself a light snack, Mika’s mother suddenly burst in from the front door from seemingly out of nowhere with a sense of panic written all over her face. Apparently your bestest buddy in the whole wide world, your cat “Toby,” has ran away from home and your mother can’t seem to find her. Like the good silent protagonist that Mika is, she decides to not put to blame on her mother for losing her precious cat in the first place and goes out to find Toby all by herself. Good girl.
After undergoing a series of small fetch quests for the townspeople (don’t you just love that), Mika finally manages to find her cat in the middle of a lush forest. In what seemed like what could have been the end of the game suddenly turns all topsy-turvy as Toby runs away from Mika leading her to a strange part of the forest which suddenly transports her into an unknown dimension between her world and a strange new one…
When I originally started playing this game, I seriously was under the impression that after finding Toby in the forest that, that was pretty much the end of the game, or at least leading into another chase scene or another fetch quest you had to do, or something. What really put me into the “WTF” moment was what happened next. Holy crap, that whole alternate dimension thing I was not really expecting at all. That whole twist pretty much drove my curiosity level up like a…cat, and made me want to play through it some more. And you know what, I did play it some more and I did like it. The second half of the game had this whole “Alice In Wonderland” sort of vibe which I thought was a nice touch. This game could have easily taken the more predictable route and just wrapped up where it did, but it had to go one step beyond crazy and it worked.
What I really appreciated, well, besides all the different cat characters in this game, was the whole intrigue behind this whole world you end up exploring and going to. I really like the reasoning behind why this world was constructed in the first place and why some of the cats hate all humans and why they chose to ran away from those former masters. That’s really cool. All of this wraps up puuuurfectly towards the end of the game once you’ve finished it.
A nice simple plot and goal with a wild, wild twist thrown in for good measure around halfway to keep things interesting. I like it.
The Gameplay
Geno…?
…Are you there, buddy…???
…Heeeeelp!!!
Cat Game, in the spirit of other rm2k3 collectathons with a story driven purpose, like Wither, is a game where you end up going around towns, collecting various items and helping various cats and townspeople out in order to progress through the game. There are no battles, or nothing of that sorts, just good ol’ exploring the world while examining every single crate, barrel, computer and box to find that one thing you need to move on. The objectives are simple, even if they are a little overwhelming at first. As long as you’re curious enough (and bring a notepad and pen with you), you should have no trouble with this game, especially since the author was rather kind enough to have a walkthrough present packaged with the game just in case you have any problems. I never really had much a problem with any of the objectives.
Well, expect for one: that stupid math puzzle that you have to solve.
Maybe it’s just because I hate math or haven’t done a ton of it in quite a while, but I really hated this puzzle. In fact, anything to do with math related questions in a game I instantly loathe, unless they’re brain dead easy. You see, everything for me was quite fine other than that one math puzzle you had to do. I solved it eventually, but it sure took a while…and my brain hurts in the process (thanks, guys).
Other than that, I really had no problems with the gameplay. Everything was easy to figure out what to do and where to go with a little bit of exploration and intrigue and that was just fine by me. I don’t know what else I would have done to make this game possibly better (perhaps maybe having a puzzle section where you need to use your cat to work together to solve various puzzles???) Either way, everything was just fine and enjoyable enough.
The Soundtrack
Mine’s set to “Google!”
The soundtrack for Cat Game is all custom made and really has that 8-Bit sort of vibe going for it in junction with the game’s overall style and graphical settings. Most of these songs are pretty good, and some of them you might even add to your mp3 player afterwards. Some of my favorites were “Find A Cat,” “Catty” and “Cat Mart.” All these tunes, other than the main title theme, “normalville,” are quite bouncy and are even quite catchy. They loop a bit too much at times but it’s not something that’s going to get annoying or ear-piercing as time goes on; these tracks are really, really good. Give my props to the DJ!
Sound effects are your basic RTP stuff, which is quite acceptable for something like this. I mean, it’s clear that the author wanted to focus more on a customizable soundtrack than worrying more about customizable sound effects, and that’s fine. I guess the only thing I’m a bit surprised about that, for a game that’s all about cats and stuff, that there was no actual meowing sound effect used for this game! Yeah, go figure. Anyways, I guess it’s not such a big deal, considering the custom soundtrack more than makes up for it.
The Aesthetics
Kitty Corn…Kitty Pasta…Kitty Gummi Bears…
Ooo boy…
Graphically speaking, the presentation of this game uses mostly black and white backgrounds and tilesets while characters and some objects are done in color, sort of like playing something on the Super Game Boy with its enhanced graphics port. Usually I don’t like playing a lot of games like this, but I was actually quite surprised that I did. The visuals may be on the basic side of things, but everything surprisingly looks pretty good and I really like the atmosphere presented in this game. Also, man – the cats! You can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy seeing all those different cats dressed up in different outfits and all that, did you? Either way, I have no problems with the presentation of the game; it was meant to be simple, harkening back to the good days of the original Game Boy.
The End Result
Aw…!
I was initially going into Cat Game expecting a light fluffy romp, collecting a few items here or there, helping some townspeople out while occasionally pushing the odd barrel and crate away for some light puzzle solving action and being treated to an innocent, but predictable ending and outcome. Well, to my surprise, this game actually delivered even farther than what I anticipated - and then some! That whole twist midway through in combination with the old school, 8 bit graphics and soundtrack is what did it in for me and made this a worthwhile play. Don’t let its cuteness fool you into thinking that isn’t something worth to check out. Hell, I’m macho as hell and I enjoyed this just as much as any chick here. Yeah, I guess this game could have done without the math question and had more variety with its puzzles, but the overall result is still respectfully done. Give it a try if you have the time. You won’t be disappointed.
OVERALL GRADE:
4 / 5 - B ~ Pretty Darn Good!!!
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Thanks, guys. And don’t worry about me; my cat ran away when I was around 5 years old, more than twenty years ago, so I’ve more than moved on.
And, hey, whaddya know? This review has bumped me up into the 3k makerscore club, at long last. TAKE THAT, LOFTY EXPECTATIONS!!!
And, hey, whaddya know? This review has bumped me up into the 3k makerscore club, at long last. TAKE THAT, LOFTY EXPECTATIONS!!!
halcy
539
Thanks for the nice review! Glad you enjoyed the game! And congrats on \THREE THOUSAND POINTS/!
(Also, haha, music by m0d?)
(Also, haha, music by m0d?)
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