Gamezebo Rating:

Having always been a true dog person at heart, I was surprised to find myself actually warming up to cats in more recent years. But if someone had told me how diligent and heroic that some cats can be when something they love is put on the line, then I might have been on board with those fierce little felines from the very beginning! One part matching game, and one part strategy via upgrades, Combat Cats may be a little too simple for some, but its retro-infused greatness and progressive challenge are still certain enough to give you all that they've got for the short time it lasts.

A mysterious "Catnipper" has stolen the world's supply of catnip, and to make matters worse, a legion of evil fish creatures have picked this exact moment to unleash their revenge, as your desperate cats take to the skies to retrieve the hot commodity that was taken from them. The story of the game is lighthearted and fun, and the means of single-screen storytelling is a wonderfully nostalgic callback to old NES adventures of yesteryear. The equally retro-inspired chiptune soundtrack is just as strong, and will get stuck in your head long after your cats slip into a catnip-induced catnap at the end of their journey.

The gameplay of Combat Cats is fairly straightforward. At the start of every level, you'll be presented with a large grid of different pixelated square icons: each one a different color and representative of a specific attack that your cat fighter will be able to pull off. Orange constitutes a flame attack, blue is a freeze ray, green is a cloud of poison, and purple is a flurry of rockets. You make moves by simply tapping on any single tile that you wish on the screen, which instantly replaces it with a separated placeholder tile that is always raring to go. Matching four or more like-tiles will execute that respective attack and move you one step closer towards reaching your goal.