It's time to
expose another dirty little secret, dear fellow gamers: I'm extremely fond of
Shoot'em ups. Despite the fact that I didn't even play enough of these games
throughout my gaming career to count them on the fingers of one hand, every
single one I've played enthralled me and pretty much remained engraved in my
memory for all eternity. So when I found Aqua Kitty on a PSN sale a
couple of months ago, I simply had to purchase it. Because it's a
Shoot'em up, and because cats. And I've been playing it lately not
because I needed a fix of frantic shooting or cute felines, but rather because
Limited Run Games are about to release a physical version of the game and I
wanted to assess if it was worth the purchase.
I had good hopes for that game, mind you. Not only is the premise of having
kittens foraging for milk unbearably cute, but Aqua Kitty emulates one
of my favourite and seldom-used shooting subgenres, i.e. horizontal aquatic
shooting. I still have exhilarating memories of wreaking havoc on the marine
fauna in level 2-3 in Super Mario Land on the Game Boy, and I fully
expected to feel the same kind of giddy delight again in Aqua Kitty's
cut-throat waters. I had also heard that the soundtrack was absolutely
glorious, pure chiptune ear-candy; and I was more than ready to blast every
swimming creature in sight while gorging on 8-bit aural goodness until my head
swam.
However, my actual gameplay experience with Aqua Kitty was nowhere near as frantic and elating as I had fantasized. My trip through the game's hazardous waters was a bit of a trudge, and this was solely due to questionable game design. Take the level design, for instance: instead of featuring an automatic scrolling, zones loop and can be navigated indifferently from left to right or right to left. While this gives the player a bit of leeway by letting them choosing their direction and speed, it also removes the stimulating feeling of urgency generated by an automatic scrolling. I found myself looping through the zones and meeting the same waves of pesky enemies over and over again until I got sick of them. And talking about enemies, they are the meat and potatoes of the game, since you can only exit a zone once you've been scouring it of all the resident pest. No rushing towards the end of the stage and dodging half of the aerial obstructions in heroic dashes in Aqua Kitty: you're basically a marine janitor, and you won't go anywhere until you've cleared all the trash floating around. I don't know about you, but I find that gameplay premise a tad anticlimactic.
Aqua Kitty also suffers from the "Seen Level One, Seen Them All" syndrome. The entirety of the gameplay is concentrated in the first set of levels: you get your two types of ammunition from the get-go (weak unlimited ammo and strong limited ammo) as well as a briefing regarding gameplay objectives; then you polish off a couple of levels, fight a boss, and that's it. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game, only with more waves of pesky enemies as the game goes on. Sure, these new foes boast fresh moving and shooting patterns; but at its core, the gameplay remains desperately unaltered. When you've played the first set of levels, you're pretty much played them all; the rest is just flourish and extra enemies by the truckload. It doesn't help that said first set of levels is graced with what I deem the best track of the whole game (i.e. the wonderfully giddy and bouncy "Buttermilk Bay"), making these opening levels feel like a monument of perfection that the game never manages to top in its latter stages.
And since I mentioned the music, does it deserve its stellar reputation? Oh yes, it does. It's highly reminiscent of the Ecco the Dolphin soundtrack, and it's bound to elicit tidal waves of nostalgia just by sheer virtue of its lush chiptunes that sound like a love affair between a Game Gear/Master System soundchip and a Megadrive one. It's not the game's only highlight, mind you: the controls are as tight, sharp and responsive as they can possibly be, without a shred of lag or delayed response to be found. And it would take a heart of stone not to melt when hearing the adorable "mreow" sound uttered by the feline miners when you rescue them from abducting jellyfishes.
This leads us back to the original question: is Aqua Kitty worth a physical purchase, with shipping and toll fees involved? To put it simply, no. Sure, it has one of the most adorable premises ever created since the dawn of gaming and the best OST of the last two decades; but take away these two elements and Aqua Kitty loses fifty percent of its appeal. The gameplay is too shallow to offer any replay value beyond the challenge of clearing the game in the insanely hard Normal and Arcade modes, which I certainly won't do. Although this little aquatic feline odyssey was definitely fun to play, I can't really imagine myself picking up that game ever again now that I've cleared it. And so will Aqua Kitty forever remain a digital entry in my precious collection. On the other hand, I've purchased the OST, because it's freakin' awesome and it's stuck so deeply in my head that I simply had no other choice. Heck, I'm even listening to it as I'm wrapping up this post. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
6 comments:
I love what Limited Run does, but
sometimes the price of the game dictates that you must _really LOVE_ the game.
I've only bought three of their releases so far, and I wasn't a huge fan of two
of them (Thomas Was Alone and One Way Heroics).
I was actually curious about this Kitty DX game, so thanks for taking the time
to write this up. You helped me make a decision :) Currently I'm deciding
whether Curses n' Chaos is something that I'd be into...
Isleif26 January 2017 at 13:51
You're welcome! I'm glad this post
was helpful to you. ^___^
Unless you're a die-hard collector who's set on purchasing every single thing
ever released by Limited Run, their games are very much hit-or-miss affairs.
Given that they solely focus on indie games, their library of releases is as
likely to contain turds as hidden gems, depending on each and every gamer's
taste.
I own three games from them, all RPGs: Rainbow Moon, Dragon Fantasy-The Black
Tome of Ice and One Way Heroics. Rainbow Moon was one of my favourite games of
2016, and I have good hopes for the other two. Only time and upcoming releases
will dictate if I'll purchase more games from them, and I sure hope that they
release a couple more RPGs in the months to come.
The thing is, most of these games
regularly go on sale for $5-8, so dropping $30 when you include shipping is
extremely high. You really need to love the game enough to drop that kind of
coin. I'm a lot more particular after feeling a little burned with Thomas Was
Alone (beat it in 2 hours, far too easy), and One Way Heroics (good game, just
not into rogue-likes).
Speaking of Limited Run, it just so happens that my Play-Asia exclusive copy of
Soldner X-2 arrived yesterday. I missed the LRG boat when they first started up
and this game fetches quite a pretty penny on eBay - but $25 and 3 weeks from
PlayAsia. Absolutely awesome game. Played it last night for hours until my eyes
felt like they were about to bleed.
Isleif26 January 2017 at 16:37
"You really need to love the
game enough to drop that kind of coin": I wholeheartedly agree, and that's
exactly why I tested Aqua Kitty before pondering a purchase. I would have
jumped on it without thinking two years ago, but I've been burnt enough by
mediocre games that cost a fortune to be a bit more cautious with my money now.
Funny that you should mention Soldner X-2, because I've been on the fence about
that game for quite some time now. A part of me wants to purchase it, and
another part of me is just sick and tired of bloody custom fees. I guess I'll
wait for your review before making my final decision about that game!
Well, the game does sound cute but
the overall sprite design doesn't invoke much cuteness. But, admittedly, the
sprite art looks pretty decent. Maybe I'll bite the bullet and buy it
(digitally).
"instead of featuring an automatic scrolling, zones loop and can be
navigated indifferently from left to right or right to left."
Interesting. It's the first time I've seen someone copying Fantasy Zone.
Isleif27 January 2017 at 17:24
If I have to be totally honest, I
think the sprites should have been considerably more pixelated. If you want to
go retro, you might as well go for it full force like Shovel Knight did.
Aqua Kitty seems to be a pretty derivative shooter overall. I was aware of the
"Defender" influence already, but I didn't know it channeled Fantasy
Zone as well. Maybe it also packs other gameplay elements from other Shoot'em
all, for all I know. But hey, mobile games never had the ambition to
revolutionize gaming, after all.
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