Official Score
Overall - 50%
50%
Karate Cat is simplistic by design, but this also takes away from the overall package. Its incredibly cheap price point reflects this, but it does not offer enough to encourage players to pursue it for the long term.
A number of furry felines show off their fighting prowess with Take Toad’s Karate Cat. A clicker game at its core, does its hunt for a high score provide enough incentive to make it worth your while?
Karate Cat Review
This casual game lays everything out from the get-go, providing an easy-to-grasp concept anybody can get. Boards are played in front of the cat of your choice, and it is up to players to break as many without screwing up and succumbing to tears. Successfully line up the moving cursor with the proper spot, press the space bar, and the board is broken. This is then replaced with another one, and the cycle begins anew. Repeat as long as you can, and try to get that score nice and high, but be warned – the cursor quickly moves up and down and can be tricky to nail down.
It’s a simple game at its core, which can be a blessing or a curse when based on your perspective. There’s four different locations to choose from, each packing different tunes, but the objective remains the same throughout. There’s also a combo system that offers encouragement to those that are on a roll, but it is far from the deepest thing around. Rather, players will see everything this game has to offer within an hour of play at the absolute most.
To encourage players to come back, a number of coins can be collected along the way that can be used to unlock additional characters. Though they are only cosmetically different, the addition of characters like “Katerina” and “Hiro” is a welcome one. The prices are not the highest in the world, meaning that players will unlock everything the title has to offer sooner rather than later. Though it proves to be underdeveloped, it is still appreciated nonetheless.
The same goes with its achievement list. Those that achieve a high enough combo or break enough boards in a row will be able to unlock all of the achievements sooner rather than later. It is a welcome addition, but the inclusion of more difficult goals or anything else to give it some legs would have been most welcome.
Rounding things out is a visual package that uses sprite work to tell its tale. It can be cute to see kitties wearing karate attire and bawling their eyes out, but the development team did not do anything out of the ordinary with its presentation. Those hoping to see some graphical flourishes, or additional stages or songs outside of the core amount, will be somewhat disappointed.
Karate Cat is simplistic by design, but this also takes away from the overall package. Its incredibly cheap price point reflects this, but it does not offer enough to encourage players to pursue it for the long term.
