Cat Quest III (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, £15.99)
Verdict: Good feline
Yo ho ho and a bottle of… milk! Yes, milk that’s right. Because the pirates in the third Cat Quest game are, as the title suggests, feline in build. After previous quests in fantasy realms, our whiskered friends are now setting sail for the high seas to discover the legendary treasure of the North Star before a group of evil rodents do.
As with previous Cat Quests, the gameplay is very simple. Almost too simple. Your cat goes from island to island, solving simple puzzles and defeating steroid-fueled rats with a machete, flintlock rifle and cannon.
As you progress, you’ll get better and better equipment, preparing you for more difficult challenges. There’s nothing revolutionary here.
As with previous Cat Quests, the gameplay is very simple. Almost too simple. Your cat goes from island to island, solving simple puzzles and defeating steroid-fueled rats with a machete, flintlock rifle and cannon.
What is here, however, is a ton of improvements. Cat Quest III’s cartoonish Caribbean world looks and feels amazing. The gameplay is so fluid that you won’t want to stop searching.
Oh, and there’s plenty of charm, too. There’s hardly a cat- or pirate-related pun that hasn’t been exploited. It’s very real. And that childlike exuberance extends to its characters and quests – you can’t help but smile when a dog asks you to exchange letters between two lovelorn starfish.
What makes it even better is how easily you can switch between single-player and two-player adventures. I played it with my three-year-old (one of his first gaming experiences) and now he can’t stop talking about pirate cats and evil mice.
I’m sure that when he falls asleep he also dreams of one day finding the treasure of the North Star.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £24.99)
Verdict: Take off!
Wow, this isn’t your grandpa’s Space Invaders game. It certainly shares some of its component parts: a top-down view of a spaceship taking on waves of alien invaders. But where the retro classic was simple in look and design, Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a riot of colour and complexity. Explosions! Speed! Literally thousands of belligerent aliens!
It’s also incredibly cinematic, and not just because there are beautifully animated interstitial sequences that tell the story of the main character, a fleet pilot named Ava, as she determinedly fights against seemingly insurmountable odds.
All Guns Blazing is a riot of color and complexity. Explosions! Speed! Literally thousands of warring aliens!
Cygni’s beautiful cosmic war zones are enough on their own to draw you back, but fighting to the finish is even more satisfying. It’s one ship against thousands. ET, go home.
The levels themselves are packed with detail and invention, with soldiers advancing across the ground beneath you and terrifying megalithic monsters rising to block your path.
If this makes Cygni seem like a game of style over substance… well, yes and no. It’s certainly extremely stylish, but its gameplay is also very tactical. As you move around the screen, you’ll make a dozen microdecisions a second: about whether to power up your weapons or your shields; about whether to shoot at the ground or at the sky; and so on.
And you’ll have to make those decisions correctly. While it’s easy enough to get into Cygni (with a limited set of moves, all explained clearly in a tutorial section that references Space Invaders), it gets pretty difficult when the laser beams start flying. These are levels you’ll have to try again and again.
Fortunately, though, you’ll want to. Cygni’s gorgeous cosmic war zones are enough on their own to draw you back in, but fighting to the end of them is even more satisfying. It’s one ship against thousands. ET, go home.