Chris InglisCatie in MeowmeowLand is the latest game from Australian publisher Blowfish Studios and developers ARTillery out of Slovakia. The game is a beautiful, artistic, and quirky point-and-click adventure game set in a world of cats and many wondrous creatures. For me it is more along the lines of a hidden object puzzle game as opposed to a story-based adventure game like Nine Witches. However, this is exactly the kind of game to help us escape from the troubles of the real world at present and is reminiscent of the story of Alice in Wonderland. Only this time, it’s all about Catie and cats.
We start in Catie’s room, filled with all sorts of cute and interesting looking toys, chalk writing on the walls, a half-eaten cake, and other playful things you’d find in a little girl’s room. She is startled awake by a crashing sound outside of her house. A cat walked past her bedroom window holding a clock, ‘tick tock’ and Catie calls after it. “Meowmeow!” “Tick tock, tick tock,” and then the cat jumps into a hole in the ground. Catie runs over and calls after it, “Meowmeow”, but behind her this hairy leg pops up out of hole and kicks her, and down the rabbit… err, cat hole she goes!
Sounding familiar? It is very reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, to the point later there is a scene with food and drink that will make things grow or shrink. However, Catie in MeowmeowLand has all its own hand-drawn 2D environment art drawn, the mouse pointer is a cat paw when hovering over an interactive element, and all characters have weird, wonderful, and quirky voices as they squeak, squeal, and make all sorts of noises. There’s no voiced dialogue other than the funny sounds, and occasionally you will get a speech bubble with sketches of things that might indicate what to do next, or what could be used together. I loved some of the subtle references, like The Rock.
In each of the 24 areas in Catie in MeowmeowLand, you will see a range of items, characters, and elements to explore at your own pace. In the early stages, a little bird will give you some hints as to how to interact with the items, such as placing a set of sunglasses onto a character hanging from a vine. Using the mouse to hover over everything you think could be interacted with, then clicking them to see what happens will eventually reveal something new. You will start to unravel the incredibly well-designed elements of each scene as you solve the mystery of each scene. There are hints available if you cannot solve something but the fun of this game for me was working out all the intricate links and seeing how the elements worked together. I did struggle on some puzzle areas, but taking a break and coming back fresh usually helped me find the solution.
The music sets an inquisitive and relaxing mood as you explore these environments with no urgency or prompting to hurry up, as you test what can be played with or moved and watching how objects can be used together. Sometimes one action will cause a chain reaction within the scene, giving you more options to try, or a new object to test. Ultimately your aim is to get Catie back to her home, and I found myself enjoying the challenge of combining objects that I never thought would have worked together. After completing several scenes and getting to the end of a play session, it was hard not to keep playing the game as I just wanted to keep exploring them to see what came next.
Overall, Catie in MeowmeowLand is a wonderful puzzle game with beautiful hand-drawn art and a quirky and humourous tale. Playing the game gives you all the warm, fuzzy and furry feels you need after a long day at work and can be played at your own pace.
This review utilised a Steam key provided by Blowfish Studios and Catie in MeowmeowLand is available from March 31 on PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
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Johnny
