Kattish Evaluate | 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 a particularly 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 have got available (on paw?) is a limp little leap. 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 best way to degree ten, solely 5 minutes later. Cue loads of ‘1000G in 5 Minutes!’ achievement movies on Youtube. That can most likely internet Kattish loads of £4.19s. 

It’s solely on degree eleven that Kattish reveals what its gimmick is. Abruptly, dotted strains seem throughout the map. Leap into the dotted line, and gravity will get reversed. In case you have been to leap by way of a dotted line after which go away the pad alone, you’ll preserve switching gravity, again and again, falling forwards and backwards by way of that line. It’s sufficient to provide 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 obtained 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, accumulating 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 route of  puzzling, then it coulda been a contender. Navigating a map the place you may method a given platform from any given angle sounds good to us, and we might have loved taking part in it. However Kattish goes some other place.

As an alternative, it goals for some twitchy action-platforming. It desires you to slingshot from one finish of an enviornment 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 may have over a slingshotted leap. You’re on the whims of Isaac Newton, and that places a dampener on the enjoyable. Usually it could possibly 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 incorrect place and you must do it another time.

In consequence, we discovered Kattish extra painful than enjoyable. We knew precisely what wanted to be accomplished, however getting it accomplished wasn’t all the time gratifying. We hoped that Kattish would discover its puzzle facet, but it surely stored back-sliding again into motion.

It’s not unhealthy by any stretch of the creativeness. Positive, we’re accomplished with cats in puzzle video games (we are able to’t inform you what number of we’ve performed lately), however that is not less than a finely crafted one. The pixel artwork is properly introduced, 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’d like 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 all the time the mandatory evil to finishing a degree.

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 best way 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 purchase Kattish from the Xbox Retailer