When I first downloaded Box Cat and saw the app icon I thought this is what a cat in Minecraft might look like. It has a blocky, retro look with GIANT pixels. Already I liked this game.
Then it started… that music. Annoying, twittery beat was just… neugh (neugh doesn’t mean anything it’s just the sound I make when I hear it). You have to listen to it to know what I mean, and you WILL know what I mean!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea4MHUaS4Nk
The gameplay however is fun, and once you’re playing the music does change a bit and it’s not so bad.
You are Box Cat and your job is to knock over cars. Yes you read that right. There are a variety of control methods at your disposal here.
I felt the button method would have been better if the button to move right had been on the right side of the screen rather than right next to the button to go left (both buttons on the bottom left of the screen). It just wasn’t as responsive as I’d have liked and on the iPad I ended up using both index fingers, one for each direction. This meant my right hand/arm was covering most of the bottom half of the screen. Perhaps it was intended that I use my left thumb to press the left and right buttons but I never felt it was accurate or fast enough. Lastly we have the tilt method. This method had 3 levels of sensitivity and I found that the only good option was high sensitivity. With medium and low it was just too slow to catch the cars.
The touch method worked best for me; that’s just touching anywhere on the right side of the cat to make it go right and ditto for the left. I’m not really sure why there was a button method as well as this touch method was the obvious and best choice.
So you dash left and right across the screen knocking down as many cars as you can within your time limit. You also have other objectives to complete within your time limit, such as reaching the 3rd street, collecting a coloured coin and picking up a certain powerup (want to be a GIANT cat? Now’s your chance) somewhere along the road. Once you smash into a specified number or cars you travel to the next road. At the end of each there is a “boss”, although all you have to do is make sure that you dash into that vehicle rather than just run into it.
In completing your endeavours you are rewarded with unlockable cats; “Hat Cat” for example. I won’t spoil the rest for you.
If you were crap at frogger then this is the game for you since you don’t need to dodge anything. Just the opposite in fact! It’s a really easy game, there is no real challenge to it, just a bit of harmless kitty fun. If you somehow enjoy the ear melting music, or can be bothered to turn it off, it’s a nifty little game.
6 insane, rampaging moggies out of 10