A Character-Switching Game That Should Lean into its Puzzles
As super-powers go, it’s an oddball. In 1 Catline, the main character is able to command a long, floating cat. That cat is big and sturdy enough that they can surf on the back of the cat. Can’t reach a kite up a tree? Command the cat to become a staircase. About to hit a pothole? Span the cat across it. It may be odd, but it’s a super-power that we’d love to see in the next Avengers movie.
What the superpower does give you, of course, is a cracking premise for a puzzle-platformer. You control two characters in 1 Catline. One is the amazing long-cat, flying around the level like the Snake on a Nokia 3310. The other is a girl, who – let’s face it – is nowhere near as exciting as the supercat. In fact, most of the levels would be a cinch if you solely had control of the cat. Unfortunately, however, the girl is the one who needs to reach the crystal at the end of the level, so we need to get her there too.
Solving Puzzles with Nyan Cat
To be fair to the girl main character, there are things that she can do that the cat can’t. She can push blocks along the floor. The girl can step on switches, too, opening gates that allow the cat through. The cat can dangle a tail over different flavours of switch, allowing the girl through. You’re probably sensing how the two characters have a form of symbiosis. You will need both to complete each level.
1 Catline opens without the cat in sight. The first few levels get you used to the platforming controls (spoiler – they are extremely simple) before the cat gets introduced. It’s here that things start to get more complicated. You are tapping X to move into cat mode, positioning the cat where you want it, then tapping X again to become the girl. A quick leap onto the cat’s back and you can span chasms and climb platforms.
Oh, if I had £1 for each time that I accidentally moved the cat instead of the girl. Or £1 every time I overshot and had to loop the cat back round for another attempt at creating a staircase. I’d have quite a few £1s, I can tell you. It’s not an immediately intuitive thing to grasp and takes some time. Thankfully, the difficulty doesn’t hike for many levels. You get some time to master the whole cat-girl switcheroo.
Building Bridges is Not Where the Fun’s At
Something surprised me, and didn’t stop surprising me for the rest of the game. I didn’t expect that the puzzles would require as much character-switching as they do. In almost every level, you have to cross huge expanses. Your cat isn’t all that long, so crossing an expanse means shuffling up or forward a few squares with the cat, switching to the girl, squatting on the cat’s head, and then inching a few squares forward with the cat, over and over. You can’t just ride the cat, you see: you are locked in place, and need to constantly nudge each one forward.
This kind of sucks. I never found the constant repositioning fun. I know why it’s there – the puzzles would be trivial otherwise – but it doesn’t make the interaction satisfying. I got pretty good at forming a spiral staircase with the cat, but it was a catty cocktail of overshooting, awkward repositioning, character-switching, and making mistakes. I wished that 1 Catline was about the puzzles, not making stairs.
Because the puzzles are so good! I find myself walking over and gesturing towards them: this is what I wanted to be doing! It’s so rare to find an indie puzzle-platformer that finds a new idea and does something interesting with it, and there’s no doubt that 1 Catline does. It just lets other stuff get in the way.
Levels try a host of different things. There are levels that keep the cat and girl apart, opening gates for each other. There are mazes of switches, testing your ability to work out which one needs to be pressed in which order. Other levels are box-pushing brainbusters. Since the girl can only push a box across the floor (and onto a flat cat), you need to be thinking horizontally to solve each puzzle.
Wishing for a Different Emphasis
This is the 1 Catline that I enjoyed. Even when I felt bruised from trying to get a girl up a cat-elevator, I knew that there would be something else in the level I loved. It was worth it. And the puzzles hit the sweet-spot of challenge. Half the problem was working out what 1 Catline wanted from me, and the other half was pulling it off.
Things aren’t perfect. There’s a weird shift in the camera perspective when you move to the cat, and that shift makes it hard to line up the cat. Switches act oddly, with some staying down forever, others temporarily, and some requiring two switches to be pressed before they do anything. They all look the same, though, which blew our puzzly mind. It’s clear that Nerd Games has a pioneering idea, but doesn’t quite know how it should function.
New, Fresh, but Still a Struggle
I’m struggling with a score for 1 Catline. It’s so new and refreshing that I want to slap a 3.5 or 4 on the box. I keep crying out for innovative games in my reviews and this, most clearly, is one. But I spent so much of my time cursing it, wishing it moved its focus over to the puzzles rather than balancing on the back of a cat.
It hurts to say it, but I do think 1 Catline is a 3. Too often, we’d be cuddling up to its fresh take on puzzle-platforming, only for it to unsheath its claws and dig into our thigh. 1 Catline is a fun idea that seems reluctant to embrace that fun.
Important Links
Stretch Your Thinking With 1 CatLine – https://www.thexboxhub.com/stretch-your-thinking-with-1-catline/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/1-catline/9mz4c0120w15
