Review: Cat Run - Why Did The Cat Cross The Road?
by Staff Writer
July 28, 2010
Overview
Cat Run combines the classic gameplay of Frogger with the path drawing genre. Your goal is to guide cats from one side of the street to the other by simply drawing their path. You will need to deal with traffic, cat fights, skunks, oil slicks, and tentacles from the sewer as you direct your kitties to safety.
Features
There are four streets total with Cat District, Gardens, Space, and Aquarium with the last two unlockable. Every map is composed of the same seven levels which introduces the new obstacles including cat fights, skunks, and cop cars. There are four types of cats with different speeds, and there are online high scores and achievements.The Good
Cat Run is a great refresh of Frogger as it’s combined with the ever popular path drawing genre. It’s tons of fun as you manage cats running across the street from both sides. The game is all about timing, and you need to be quick on deciding if you’re sending a cat or not to be sure to avoid the constantly oncoming traffic.
Simply playing the first map will provide an engaging experience because the game is set up with levels where each new point threshold introduces more challenges. If simply getting the cats to the other side of the street while dodging traffic wasn’t tough enough you’ll soon need to keep your eye on many more things. There will be cat fights indicated by a red exclamation point, then skunks which act as stink bombs, oil slicks to slow the cats down, and even a tentacle looking to grab cats running across the street.
The traffic also picks up the pace as you go along, and you’ll need all your path drawing skill to keep the cats alive. Luckily you can stop cats mid-run so you can pause in the middle of the street for traffic, and then draw a new path to safety. To make things even tougher there are four types of cats which vary in speed with some able to dart across the street while other go very slow, and you will almost always have to pause mid-run.
There isn’t only one map with this hecticness, though that would be fine, but four in total with the last two being unlockable to give you something to shoot for. The game is extremely hectic and difficult so reaching the point plateaus to unlock new levels is an extreme challenge bordering on extreme frustration. The good thing is that the game takes awhile to get used to, but once you do you’ll be able to reach those thresholds, but at points it will feel like you have no chance.
The game features a nice intrinsic replay factor, but also includes many deluxe achievements to strive for as well as online high scores. The game is oozing with quality as seen in outstanding artwork of every item in the game with the background maps, cats, and cars. When you barely miss cars there are sayings printed on screen including “oohh how cute,” “run cat run,” and “Shoot missed it.” There is a nice upbeat urban type soundtrack combined with some car honks and cat meows.
The Bad
The biggest problem with Cat Run is that you can get stuck unable to unlock the later streets. There are very high standards to reach to be able to unlock the next street, and there are multiple ways to lose. It would be great to see checkpoints to be able to start at a certain level rather than playing the same initial levels over and over. It’s really frustrating when you make it close to the threshold only to lose one cat, and then you have to start over. Only one life to lose is also a problem with multiple hazards, and one mistake has you right back at the beginning. Unlike the typical line drawing game this one gives you levels, multiple obstacles, and unlockable levels based on one run points so one life doesn’t work as well.
Most games have total score across games played count towards unlockables. Another problem is that this game is very similar to Frogger, and in Frogger you at least have lives to allow for some mistakes. There are cat idols to collect which give you an extra life, but they are few and far between, and it would be nice to begin with one. The frustration takes away from the fun, and makes you want to just delete the game off your device.
The controls aren’t as smooth as you would like either, especially with some line drawing games giving you silky smooth controls. The game is based on timing, but your timing can be thrown off as you try to drag a cat across the street, but sometimes the game doesn’t recognize until you do a second drag which costs valuable seconds. Overall drawing a line to the other side requires more effort than similar games costing more time, and can leave cats short of the other side of the street.
Again the game is set up similar to Frogger, but at least in Frogger you can stop at intervals across the street. You can stop your cat in the middle of the street, but not at a specific level so you can get hit by the car behind or in front of you as there is no precision in stopping your cat. On the later maps you will need to pause in the middle of the street, and it takes awhile to get used to.
