The Cat Games

I hate to be that guy, but I don’t think The Cat Games is that great. In fact, I am very disappointed. I don’t mind minigame collections, but what is on offer here is pretty weak. I found none of the 3 main offerings appealing, I was able to complete everything achievement-wise within less than 50 minutes, and then just ended up leaving the game on to get the Steam cards out of the deal. The indoor racing feels weird to control and the object randomisation feels unfair. The swim challenge just gave me anxiety because of everything that was going on, and then I figured out that you can just keep your cat up permanently if you just keep your mouse on them which means that the only thing stopping you from getting the highest score ever is your patience. And the cat breed billiards controls are weird especially if you have a second screen because it will let you hit the edge and then will force your mouse back in a way that makes the movement go all wonky, which is made even worse by the odd physics. Getting the birds seemed off as well, the visuals and the counting for it felt off and the same goes for catching the bugs. Honestly, I have nothing good to say about any of these minigames, I just found them at best to be boring after 2 minutes and at worst just unfun to play through and through. What I can say is it is all very cute; the little things you have to do for achievements stand out as cute little explorations that remind me of the activity center games of the 90s. I was very disappointed overall, though maybe it is internal??? It just seemed like everything either controlled sluggishly or uncomfortably, and so maybe it is just me, but I feel like it is more than that. The sound design is also fairly weak. The cat noises and other sounds aren’t bad; however, I did not like the music. They are MIDI remakes of famous classical pieces, including two of my favorites, and it just doesn’t work for me; I felt like they took perfectly good music and gave it unfitting instruments. I turned off the sound pretty much immediately, to say the least. Artistically I do like the game though. Simplicity can be bliss, and the simple art makes things very clear, creates a strong contrast, allows for the vibrant and fun color palette the game has, and gives the game a cute charm that I appreciate. The animations are limited but perfectly reasonable for a project of this caliber as well. Overall, I think that the art is where this game does the best. You could do a lot worse than The Cat Games, but you can do a lot better. I would never buy this at full price, but if you want to support a cute game and are willing to take a bet that you will have fun with it, then be my guest. But I honestly don’t understand why this game is rated so high. It is cute, but those minigames sucked pretty bad. However, those badges and emoticons are pretty cute, so despite everything, I will be grabbing those; silver linings I guess.