Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
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.