Wake the Cat Review
PROS
- Small little levels with fun physics.
- Un-intrusive IAP.
CONS
- The physics engine can act quite randomly.
VERDICT
Despite its cutesy exterior, Wake the Cat is a small scale physics playground that features some head scratchers, which may or may not be attributed to the engine itself.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
See the cat. See the cat dream of yarn. Let's make the cat's dreams come true! See the yarn? Roll the yarn. Roll the yarn towards the cat. Don't let those hyper-dimensional portal slippers or gravitational fields get in the way. Let's make the cat's dreams come true!
If our intro hasn't given it away, Wake the Cat is both a simple concept and a perplexing one. Each level consists of a small overhead view of a portion of the house, and of course the object is to roll the yarn towards the cat. What follows is sort of a physics playground. There are trains. The blue ones can be interacted with and moved, the red ones cannot be (and this color coding holds true for other objects in the game world). These trains either need to be out of the way, or in some instances they are used to push the yarn forward. There are portal slippers, where rolling the yarn into one slipper will cause it to roll out of another. There are fans to push the yarn along, pipes to roll the yarn through, and gravitational fields that both attract and deflect anything in their range.
The term playground is apt not only due to the combination of these objects to create puzzles but how sometimes the physics engine can lead the yarn astray unexpectedly, especially where the gravitational fields are concerned. Most of the levels are tightly designed enough so that this isn't a problem (or it is just a freak occurrence), but if you're stuck on some of the more devious puzzles, it becomes more apparent. Luckily there are hints available (either for purchase or a free one per hour) and along with the ability to pay to unlock all the levels, the In-App Purchases are not intrusive whatsoever.
And the cat and its world have this cute hyper real look to them. Everything looks like its real life counterpart, but has a more playful visual edge to it. Of course the visuals are more likely to appeal to those that fawn over the cute kitty, but anyone who enjoys a physics puzzle game should feel at home here. It kind of is like a less abstract, more reigned in version of The Incredible Machine... and yes, hyper-dimensional portal slippers can be considered less abstract, but only in this case.
Screenshots
$2.99
