Sally's Cats

Look, I'm sorry about the perfunctory headline, but I spent ages trying to think of a pun for the title, and eventually had to accept that every possible word-gag about cats has already been made, three hundred and over thousand agonisingly unfunny times over. I can't imagine how torturous things must be for the loyal staff of Your Cat magazine. Month after month, "purr-fect" again and again. I bet those guys loathe cats by now.

I, however, could never detest cats, which is why I inevitably found myself clicking on the link to this browser-based snack from Indiecade finalists Cats In The Sky. It's not really about cats, however. It's a game about a witch with a piece of magic string.

Collect all the cats to escape the level: as classic a videogame mechanic as they come. Except you have only indirect control of the titular, bug-eyed witch. She can move left and right across the top of the screen, dangle the aforementioned magic string, and that's it. That's all she has to extricate a particularly slovenly bunch of moggies from a treetrop world filled with threats. Including birds, even though they're the last thing a cat would be worried by.

Sleepy and one-note, it's not in the business of taxing you too much, but the dangling and shaking-based controls are pleasantly unusual. Seems ripe for a mobie port, to be honest. Yeah, the concept could do with some more fleshing out, but frankly cats redeem anything. The persistent, lackadaisical miaows do get a bit unnerving after a while, mind. Especially the ones they make when you accidentally set 'em on fire.