Kattish Overview | TheXboxHub

Kattish does one thing that’s notably odd. It doesn’t really reveal what sort of recreation it’s till after you get 1000G. It’s fully potential for achievement hunters to get their 100% Gamerscore and depart Kattish with out realising what sort of recreation it’s. 

For the primary ten ranges, Kattish is an especially generic platformer. You’re a cat, and also you solely have eyes for the exit on the finish of the extent. In-between are some platforms and enemies, and the one weapon you’ve gotten available (on paw?) is a limp little soar. So, you’re leaping from platform to platform, dodging the spikes and slugs, and attending to the interdimensional cat flap on the finish of the extent. 

Degree one, 100G. Degree two, 100G. And so it goes all the way in which to stage ten, solely 5 minutes later. Cue loads of ‘1000G in 5 Minutes!’ achievement movies on Youtube. That may most likely web Kattish loads of £4.19s. 

It’s solely on stage eleven that Kattish reveals what its gimmick is. All of a sudden, dotted strains seem throughout the map. Bounce into the dotted line, and gravity will get reversed. In the event you have been to leap by a dotted line after which go away the pad alone, you’ll preserve switching gravity, time and again, falling forwards and backwards by that line. It’s sufficient to present you movement illness. 

It’s an ‘aha’ second that brings Kattish into focus. Now, that’s what it’s making an attempt to do. We had been prepping a 2.5/5 rating, and smug feedback of ‘good for achievements, paw for gameplay’, as we readied our our bodies for a generic platformer. That acquired tossed within the bin.

The Xbox Retailer web page for Kattish presents it as a recreation the place “every part has totally different mechanics from one another”, which might be over-selling it a bit. The gravity defying is the dominant mechanic, whereas the others are extra tacked on. Pushing bins, amassing keys and hiding in shadows aren’t precisely game-changers, so the gravity fiddling is what Kattish hangs on.

Alas, we are able to think about a model of Kattish the place the gravity stuff works. If it moved extra into the path of  puzzling, then it coulda been a contender. Navigating a map the place you’ll be able to method a given platform from any given angle sounds good to us, and we might have loved enjoying it. However Kattish goes some other place.

As a substitute, it goals for some twitchy action-platforming. It desires you to slingshot from one finish of an area to a different, fastidiously pulling off a trajectory that doesn’t have you ever ending up as shish kebab. It desires you to tug off a sequence of gravity loops, dodging enemies as you go. The emphasis turns into ability and timing, and it’s nowhere close to as enjoyable.

There’s solely a lot management you’ll be able to have over a slingshotted leap. You’re on the whims of Isaac Newton, and that places a dampener on the enjoyable. Typically it may really feel too random. And pulling off figures of eight and others, all whereas dodging the patrol routes of enemies is extremely fiddly. One pixel within the flawed place and it’s a must to do it another time.

Because of this, we discovered Kattish extra painful than enjoyable. We knew precisely what wanted to be performed, however getting it performed wasn’t at all times gratifying. We hoped that Kattish would discover its puzzle aspect, nevertheless it stored back-sliding again into motion.

It’s not dangerous by any stretch of the creativeness. Certain, we’re performed with cats in puzzle video games (we are able to’t let you know what number of we’ve performed just lately), however that is a minimum of a finely crafted one. The pixel artwork is properly offered, the cat adorably cute, and the degrees are effectively designed, give or take some fiddly bits. And hey, there’s 5 minutes of 1000G if you need it.

However the over-reliance on navigating a cat mid-air makes for a cumbersome tackle motion. It by no means fairly turned one thing we wished to do: it was at all times the mandatory evil to finishing a stage.

Possibly we are going to retrieve that smug quip from our bin in any case: Kattish is, certainly, good for achievements and paw for gameplay. It’s simply not poor in the way in which we anticipated. The opening ranges make it appear painfully generic, however when the gravity gameplay kicks in, it turns into painfully fiddly. Kattish trades one itchy furball for one more.

You should buy Kattish from the Xbox Retailer