Summer Paws

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Hidden Paws Bundle, along with Hidden Paws and Hidden Paws Mystery.)

Summer Paws is a hidden object-style Puzzle game released on PC in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2021. In this game, players are taken to various island locations, where they must find and wake all sleeping cats, as well as collecting all seashells. Not sure why you’re looking for those two specific things, but you are.

Bear in mind, you’re only looking for sleeping cats – those who are already awake don’t need to be found, and the farther you go in the game, the more numerous they’ll be, making for a sorta’ “Where’s Waldo”-style situation where you’re trying to spot the sleeping cat among a whole island full of cats. In addition, as you progress through the game, you’ll need to interact with the environment to find these cats – some are hiding behind shut window shutters, other in lidded boxes, and some require you to find and press large buttons to unlock doors.

All of this is done using 3D visuals in a simple art style that is nevertheless appealing due to its soft look and environments increasingly filled with activity. This is backed by a soft soundtrack that does a good job of emphasizing the cozy feel of the game.

The main problem I’ll point to here is the controls. Players use the left analog stick to move the camera and the right stick to move a cursor, and spinning the view around requires holding down ZL or ZR and moving a stick, which feels really unnatural. And while the game does support touchscreen controls, these aren’t any better, and controls for spinning seem to be the same there.

In addition, while the game does let you zoom in and out, the zoom doesn’t seem to let you get close enough to get a good look at the detail of the environments and better spot cats. Yet it will let you zoom out to a ridiculously far distance, to a degree that is not practical in any way.

I wanted to like Summer Paws more than I did. It has all the right ingredients to be a great hidden object-style Puzzle game, with a cozy presentation and interactive environments that invite players to try to fiddle with everything. Unfortunately, the poor controls and frustratingly limited zoom function are far too annoying to deal with, making for a game that’s too aggravating to be relaxing the way it wants to be. It’s a pity – this is a real missed opportunity.

tl;dr – Summer Paws is a hidden object-style Puzzle game where players are searching 3D islands for sleeping cats and seashells in among a growing population of cats. The presentation here is nice, and the amount of interactivity is wonderful, but the controls are absolutely terrible, and the zoom function is inadequate. The result is a game that’s far too frustrating to hit the “cozy” target it aims for.

Grade: C

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