Developer : Spoonful of Wonder
Publisher : Neverland Entertainment
Price : £12.79
A poignant narrative-driven game about rejection, belonging and the meaning of home. It follows the story of a newly adopted shelter cat whose space in the home is taken by a copycat. Bring the tissues.
The opening sequence of Copy Cat sees an elderly women walking through the corridors of a cat rehoming shelter, after a few words are exchanged between the elderly lady and the worker at the shelter, you the player are left with a choice to make which cat do we rehome. As we go through the cats that are available to rehome the shelter worker explains a bit about each cat and what they like, this initial opening create a bond between the player and the cat as you feel like you chose which one to rehome and we believe it a very cleaver development choice from Spoonful of Wonder.
Upon arriving home there are a few interaction between the old lady and the newly adopted cat which play in the form of button press events (a bit like a quick time event except there is no time frame on any of the inputs). As these interactions end the elderly lady decides she will name the cat Dawn after a cat that she had but recently went missing.
now while we would love to continue talking story on the game we have decided not to because the game is relatively short and we want to keep this as spoiler free as possible so you the viewer can enjoy the game in its entirety, so we will continue on by talking about art direction and gameplay mechanics.
The graphics within the game are actually very well done they are not realistic by any standards however my dog would tell you otherwise as she barked at the tv the entire time I was playing, heaven forbid the cat came through the screen and chased her. The art style fits the game perfectly and the game has one art style for when the cats awake and a more polygon looking art direction for when the cats asleep and these two style blend wonderfully together.
The story from the cats point of view or should we say what the cat is thinking is told by text around the house so there is some reading involved within the game, other story elements are in the form of the elderly lady talking and a narrator that wants to be David Attenborough which adds a light hearted tone to a game with a deep underlying subject. Copy Cat has an amazing storyline, twists and it will even tug at your heartstrings, the games runtime is not to long but that does not make this game less appealing.
Recap / Overall thoughts on the game. We absolutely loved out time with Copy Cat is rich story narrative and ability to touch upon issues that in reality don’t get covered enough in gaming just made this game so appealing. It has some amazing character and the graphical choice for the game are absolutely spot on. The game also has an ability to make you fall in love with character really fast which is beneficial for its story. The controls are responsive and the gameplay stays fun throughout, we also experienced zero bugs and that what we like to see in a video game.
Youtube Trailer:
