Moving around as a little cat in a big world is unique and its densely packed environments are often quite vertical. While wildly different in most instances, it’s almost like swinging around as Spider-Man in the most recent Spider-Man games where it immediately fulfills the power fantasy of being the character by eliminating the potential for introductory stumbles. Flopping around and missing ledges wouldn’t be the most immersive way to explore as a cat and cutting that room for failure out means it can focus on just getting around. Jumps are automated with the push of a button, but that doesn’t make them any less rewarding since it’s not about pixel-perfect platforming and is more of a means to explore space in a way a cat would. Stray’s environments are built to take advantage of a cat’s natural dexterity. But instead of leaning on one joke for five hours, Stray is an engaging experience that thrives on its unconventional main character and wonderfully realized dystopian city.īeing a cat opens up new gameplay opportunities not seen with games starring bipedal (or even other quadrupedal) protagonists. So it was unclear if BlueTwelve Studio’s cat-led platformer Stray would suffer the same fate and be more fun to joke about than to play. Skatebird was a decent pun that should have stayed just a pun. Untitled Goose Game had charm, but was often frustrating and got increasingly more tedious as it dragged on. It’s often hard to tell if a game starring an animal will be more than shallow bait for memes.

Skatebird collectibles