Scram Kitty and His Buddy On Rails

Genre: Top-Down Arcade / Platformer / Two-Stick Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

Scram Kitty is a challenging Top-Down Arcade-style game with Platformer and Two-Stick Shooter elements released on Wii U in 2014 and ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2015. This game puts players in the role of a man using a gravity-defying vehicle to work his way through various odd levels to find stranded cats.

The presentation here is simple but appealing, using simple cartoony 2D characters and simple 3D backgrounds that give the game’s 2D levels a feeling of depth. This is backed by a decent synthesized soundtrack and cute little sounds for the cats and enemy mice. It’s nothing special, but it works well enough for the game.

The gameplay has players navigating around levels in a round vehicle that’s always pulled to the last solid spot on the level it touched, tethered either by gravity of magnetism or something like that. Using this, players need to try to figure out how to make various difficult jumps and maneuvers utilizing this mechanic, all while rescuing the cats hidden in each level – players get one for completing a level, but others must be rescued by fighting a series of enemies, collecting all coins (or whatever they are) in a level, or completing a timed series of platforming tasks.

Unfortunately, this game is extremely difficult, and gates progress in a way that forces players to tackle the otherwise optional level tasks to progress. If just completing a level is an ordeal, then trying to get the extra cats by completing the bonus tasks is going to be a nightmare.

I don’t doubt that some will find Scram Kitty’s unique gameplay and high challenge level to be delightful, but I just ended up feeling frustrated. Unless you are a fan of high-challenge games, you’ll want to skip this one.

tl;dr – Scram Kitty is a Top-Down Arcade game that has players using the game’s gravity-bending mechanics to try to work their way through the game’s levels, collecting lost kitties and reaching the exit. This game has some interesting mechanics at work, but the challenge level is far too high for most players, and the way the game gates progress behind otherwise optional level goals creates additional frustration. Only players wanting a painfully tough game should bother with this one.

Grade: C

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