I don't know what draws me to games like this. Something about small games made by small, often no-name developers that never get that popular draws me to them. And oddly enough, this is the second time a game like that has been cat-based, after Cat Quest (another small game I heavily recommend).
I found this game looking around a website for downloading Switch games, looking for games that also had a PC version; you'd be shocked how many small but fun games I find by doing that. Astro Aqua Kitty was developed by Tikipod, a game developer I'd never heard of prior but from whom I've bought almost their entire library. I'll likely end up reviewing their other games on their own terms, but that's for another time. Tikipod has been around for quite a while as well, though has never been very well-known, sadly.
Now for the game itself! The story is very basic, but it doesn't need to be anything complex. After the events of the prior game, Aqua Kitty (oh yeah, it had a prequel by the way), cats have gone interstellar, and search for milk on other planets! Why is there milk on other planets? Shut up. Oh - also dogs are helping them? I guess? Sure, why not, more cute character designs.
The gameplay, while taken from the prior game in many ways, is still very distinct. You control a submarine controlled much like the game Defender, and you need to shoot enemies and complete quests to progress to the next area. There's save stations littered about that let you save and get your health/energy back, as well as allow you to buy, sell and equip different weapons and equipment (many of which are level locked). A very good basis for a game, and one that's very enjoyable! At first. This leads me to the issue that almost made me give
this game a negative review.
I'm not gonna sugarcoat this, I think the game's difficulty curve is absolutely abominable. Among the worst I've seen in a video game, maybe just barely beaten by Freedom Planet. This seems to be a trend I've noticed among all of Tikipod's games as well, which sucks because it's basically the only flaw they have, but it's so, unbelievably intrusive that it cannot be ignored. The games start off easy, but get incredibly - not hard, but tedious. Enemies will have ridiculous quantities of health and will damn near be able to obliterate you in one hit, meanwhile you're stuck with your pants down, slowly gaining trivial upgrades that pail in comparison to the enemies you face. Single, non-boss enemies can take over a minute to beat, more if they have armor as well, and often come in groups, requiring you to use your special abilities to take them out within the next 20 years - which isn't always a good move since there's always the chance another group is just around the corner.
Later into the game, it gets [b]A-G-O-N-I-Z-I-N-G[/b] because of this difficulty. Only on the third level, I can barely convince myself to keep playing because it feels like the game's just wasting my time sometimes. It's like trench warfare or something, slowly taking out enemies one by one, hoping not to get hit because health regenerates so slowly it might as well not be regenerating at all. That thing about saves healing you? Yeah - that's your only consistent way to get health. Enemies can drops health pickups sometimes, but they rarely do, maybe a couple times per playthrough. It just feels very poorly thought-out and makes the experience of playing an otherwise great game so very frustrating.
Visually, the game rocks. I love it. The pixel art has this specific shaded style Tikipod has been using for some time now, and it works. The character portraits especially are fan-ta-stic, so much artistic charm oozing from them! Whoever drew them should seriously feel good about their work.
I wasn't expecting much out of the music but WOW this soundtrack rocks. Like, it is REALLY good. And lucky for music nerds like me, the game files store them as standard audio files, so loading them onto an MP3 player or something like that is easy as can be, no special software or anything necessary. Nice! Sargasso especially has a suuuuper good song to go with it. Made the experience so much more bearable. I wanna see whoever made this soundtrack on future games as well, they're extremely talented.
Concluding statement, I love a lot about this game, but its flaws are undeniable. This game can be really, needlessly tedious and frustrating, and it impacts the experience severely. If that kind of stuff gets to you easily I'd recommend against buying but...damn it man, this game just feels like so much passion was put into something that really didn't get the attention it deserved. This game has a soul that you don't always see, a spirit of a team just wanting to make something fun for themselves. I've criticized the game harshly, but I really do love it for what it represents if nothing else. Maybe that doesn't matter to you (and by all means it shouldn't since it really doesn't change how the game itself is), but it matters to me, and I hope that it makes some sort of impact on whether you purchase the game or not. And to the developers, since I know you read feedback; thanks. Sorry if my words hurt at any point. I'll be sure to check back on you guys regularly to see what you're doing, I'm already a big fan of your stuff.
For future games if I may make recommendations; just tone down the difficulty curve, or give the player some way to improve themselves alongside the enemies. The player's actual skill at the game should be expected to improve as well of course, but the harshness with how the player's expected to improve in this game is just too much. Really if that was done...go wild, I guess. Seriously, that's my only real issue with the game. Maybe add invincibility frames? Or don't and make the characters more tanky? I dunno, your choice, not mine. Outside of that, I think the rest of what's here should remain unless the artistic vision demands otherwise. This game setup, when it works, works REALLY WELL, and I cannot stress enough that I think you're on to something really good here. Also...keep the aqua kitty brand I think it cute and I likes it :))
