Adorable Visuals, Hollow Gameplay –
Held sideways open book style, Cat Frenzy is a match-3 puzzler that mixes gameplay elements from Wario’s Woods, Bejeweled, and Meteos but puts the focus constantly on cuddly cute cat heads and touch screen sliding mechanics.
The goal is to line up three of the same kitty faces on a grid to make them disappear. Cat Frenzy’s difference is that the player is free to move any cat as far as desired. Unlike the piece swapping in Meteos, moving a mewmew will also push away all the other cat pieces in that same direction. Needless to say, this creates new types of puzzles and requires different strategies as pieces that move off the edge of the screen are gone forever. At its heart, it is a simple gameplay mechanic that works just fine but will require some getting used to. Then there are other special cat puzzle pieces that get in the way or clear entire rows at once – typical puzzle game stuff.
Want to make a cute game? Just add kitties.
Mission mode is a compilation of a few dozen stages that only has one solution and usually involves moving a single piece one tile over to clear the entire board with one long chain reaction. The built-in hint system is helpful for players that get stuck but the difficulty swings are little off putting. For the most part, the gradual degree of difficulty holds the player’s hand just enough to get by but occasionally some stages require much more trial-and-error than anything before it. The second mode, Endless Mode, is score based instead of objective based but the slow pace and unlimited time limit is carefree and unfulfilling. However, new comers and casual gamers will enjoy it more than Tetris or Puyo Puyo fanatics.
Many puzzles are solved with one move
But since each piece is a kitten, Cat Frenzy is probably one of the more adorable games on the 3DS/DSi eShop. Each purr, cute animation, and soft pastel colors make this game easy to look at even though the gameplay isn’t exactly the most addictive puzzle game available; the way pieces fall, animate and disappear is a lot like modern slot machines in any casino. It is true that lefties will experience some discomfort playing this game open book style and the gameplay will only keep you entertained for half an hour, but for a 200 Point ($2) download it isn’t all bad.
Not As Good As: Meteos: Disney Magic
On Par With: Polarium Advance
Also Try: Zoo Keeper DS
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com